Interaction Designers are the shapers of behavior. Interaction Designers - whether practicing as Usability Engineers, Visual Interface Designers, or Information Architects - all attempt to understand and shape the way people behave. The importance of this profession in business, government, healthcare and society has never been greater, as technological complexity has permeated nearly every aspect of our culture.

Thoughts on Interaction Design gives individuals engaged in this profession the dialogue to begin to justify their work to other stakeholders. It provides a framework upon which to build intellectual discourse, and it substantiates the rigorous and unique nature of Interaction Design work. Ultimately, the text exists to better define the professional and theoretical nature of Interaction Design: to provide a definition that encompasses the intellectual facets of the field, the conceptual underpinnings of Interaction Design as a legitimate human-centered field, and the particular methods used by practitioners in their day to day experiences.

The words design and innovation are increasingly used interchangeably to describe a method for conceiving of artifacts, services, and systems. While those terms, and their related tools and techniques, have a strong relationship to one another, they are not synonymous. This paper presents the case for an acknowledgement of the unique nature of Design and Design thinking, larger than and inclusive of the professional manifestation of Design in a business context.

This paper investigates the elements of Design Synthesis that are common to both Information Architecture and Design Strategy.

This paper provides an overview of established Information Architecture modeling techniques, and discusses how they can be applied to the industrial design process during the synthesis phase of design. The text reflects on the nature of this messy and critical period in the design process, and offers methods of quickly making information and even knowledge out of data. Finally, the text briefly describes the changing nature of professional demands on students entering industry, indicating that Information Architect may be a lucrative alternative job title for students graduating from Industrial Design programs.

This paper will present a case for the increased presence of "traditional communication" techniques in industrial design education: specifically, writing and the ability to structure a sound textual argument for a specific product design. As more design work is done on different continents, the ability to communicate in a physically disconnected fashion gains importance. As the threat of commoditization of industrial design grows more and more real, the ability to write a structured and well thought out design rationale becomes a key distinguishing factor that will remain valuable to Industrial Design firms located in the United States and help identify them from their overseas counterparts.

The paper discusses three new techniques utilized in educating Industrial Design students, with a focus on collaboration, complex problem solving and user-centered contextual design.

A paper published in Interactions Magazine in the summer of 2004; the paper discusses how students at the Savannah College of Art and Design are preparing for the challenges of designing complicated software, hardware, and systems by merging Industrial Design and Interaction Design. With the lines between physical and digital products constantly shrinking, designers who can comfortably create in both the tangible and the conceptual worlds are the ideal professionals for new product development firms.

A paper published in the AIGA journal Tweak, in the last quarter of 2003; the paper discusses how brand is intertwined with technology, and thus with user-centered design and usability. Written with Ashley Menger.