Foundation and critique are two core elements that separate design from other ways of thinking and practicing creation of ideas and solutions. Foundations are the core elements that we manipulate within our craft. Critique is the way we judge the results of that craft. For critique to be effective though it requires foundation. It is only through our understanding of what it is that makes up our craft, that we can bring consistency and consensus to design criticism.

While interaction designers have strong evaluation skills through quantitative research such as usability, IxD lacks the same types of aesthetic-based design criticism that graphic design, architecture and industrial design have. This 25min. presentation is meant to offer the beginnings of a discussion around what could are the foundations of interaction design, how do they impact aesthetics of interaction and how can they be used for design critique within an interaction design practice.

David Malouf is currently a Professor of Interaction Design in the Industrial Design Department of the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). Before taking this position, David was a Sr. Interaction Design for Motorola Enterprise Mobility where he designed software, webware, and hardware interactions and interfaces. Motorola was the last in a 15 year journey of practicing interaction design, information architecture, ui design, project management and other roles and positions working almsot exclusively with think client technologies.

David is also one of the primary founders and first Vice President of theInteraction Design Association (IxDA). David's passion for evangelizing and teaching interaction design, came to a climax in 2008 when he co-chaired the first Interactions conference, Interaction 08 | Savannah. The overwhelming success of this sold out event has catapulted interaction design and IxDA.

Besides writing for this blog, David has been published online and in print writing on topics related to interaction design. David also teaches workshops on design and is available for hire for these workshops as his schedule permits.

You can find David immersed in the social networking world on Facebook, Twitter,Flickr, del.icio.us, Dopplr, and YouTube. You can follow my escapades with my wife, Theresa, and boy, Caleb.