My journey from Architect to Interaction Designer
*being a non-native English speaker, this may have language mistakes*
It took me around seven years to get my architect degree, after this long period in a very challenging university I was very sure about something… I wanted to do experiences.
Architecture that impacts me most was the one where light, color or texture was really part of the concept of design; my top references were Toyo Ito, Jo Nagasaka, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Zumthor, etc. After I graduate, I wanted to create things that influence positively people no matter if those things that I create were art, installations, or buildings.
At that moment, I set up my studio design with two colleagues called INCURSIONES. We were able to do city experiments and public space experiences. But I still felt that something was missing (the technological part) so I decided to go utterly immersive into a program of Interaction Design.
The architecture was my combustible to reach the Interaction Design destination, so I don’t like to say that is a shift in the field. For me, it is an ultimate way to understand the space and to navigate from real to virtual in a very smooth way. AND I MUST SAY I LOVE IT!.
I want to list just 3 points where similarities can be complements between both the disciplines.
1. Architects are trained to design for users/inhabitants of a space. Each aspect of the design is based on needs, wants, likes, lifestyle, etc. Interaction designers, UX/UI, digital products must think in all these aspects as well in terms of digital spaces.
2. I have to admit my approach to architecture was already very trained in user research techniques, and always I have been focused on human experiences so, Yes, the underlying concepts analysis methodologies were very similar.
3. I believe that architects have big-picture skills, they are always thinking simultaneously in details and structures and designing for the digital world demands you to have a system design mindset and think I little bit like developers.
In the end, in terms of design process and approach, designing experiences for people is the ultimate goal. We have to try to design and build solutions for significant issues around the world and try to find a way to create an impact which could start from the digital world to the real world and vice-versa.
I think that is the main challenge of these following years.
