I spent most of last week in Umeå listening to the design talks and seeing the student exhibition at the Umeå Institute of Design. The students presenting and showcasing their work were from four different programmes: Industrial Design (BA), Advanced Product Design (MA), Transportation Design (MA) and Interaction Design (MA). The invited speakers, Chris Bangle and Alex Padwa, were from the car world and not very interesting.
The Interaction Design students presenting were:
- Tae-yeol Lim with a tangible device and medical doll to help patients overcome the language barrier when communicating with doctors.
- Chao Wang with a system to help the local Red Cross group get its events publicised and encourage more volunteering.
- Linda Bresäter with an interactive tree to help large organisations share their ideas and gather feedback.
- Ruedee Sarawutpaiboon with a playful system to allow people to share their feelings and emotions anonymously.
- Sisirnath Sangireddy with a digital toolkit for teachers.
The Interaction Design students at UID also maintain a blog at interactiondesign.se.