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Design

Give a little back

For the price of a cup of coffee you can help IxDA deliver our next-generation platform to serve the needs of the interaction design community. We can’t do it without your help […]

For the price of a cup of coffee you can help IxDA deliver our next-generation platform to serve the needs of the interaction design community. We can’t do it without your help.

Since its inception as a mailing list in 2003, IxDA now supports over 10,000 discussion list subscribers, 80 IxDA Local Groups from around the world, an annual conference (with a regional conference on the way in South America), several budding community initiatives and over 12,000 people affiliated via LinkedIn. Despite our ambitions, our current technology infrastructure is no longer able to support our needs, nor expand to meet our future ones.

You have the opportunity to expand IxDA’s capability to provide the next-generation website that will take us beyond the mailing list of today. We aim to develop a solid, extensible platform for our community of practice to meet and enrich one another and grow the discipline. IxDA has chosen Drupal as the technology framework for our new infrastructure. The Drupal framework will allow the IxDA community to grow and thrive with improved digital communications capabilities, easy sharing and searching of all types of content, local group sites, and member profiles. However, we can’t build the new website ourselves. This is where your financial support is crucial.

Without the generous contributions, participation and support of the interaction design community, IxDA wouldn’t be where it is today. IxDA is a member-supported organization, not a membership-supported organization, so we collect no dues. You are a member if you say you are. It’s that simple. Beyond the generous contribution of volunteer time, financially this means we rely heavily on revenue-generating events like our annual conference and on fundraising efforts such as this, which we haven’t held since 2007.

Our goal is to collect $30,000 over the next four days, until June 26th. Ambitious, I know, but not impossible. Consider this: If 10,000 subscribers contributed $3, a fancy cup of coffee in some parts, we’d be done. Or 1,000 contributed $30, often less than a good book these days. If you gain anything from IxDA, won’t you please give a little back? No amount is too big or small. As a thank you to all that contribute, we will hold a drawing each day and select one name to receive a complimentary registration to interaction’10, being held in Savannah, GA next February! (Note:  Each day starts at 12:01 am GMT. No IxDA Board Members are eligible for the drawing. All registrations are transferable but not eligible for cash exchange.)

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By Itamar Medeiros

Originally from Brazil, Itamar Medeiros currently lives in Germany, where he works as VP of Design Strategy at SAP, where he leads the design vision for the entire Human Capital Management product line, ensuring cohesive product narratives and establishing best practices.

Working in the Information Technology industry since 1998, Itamar has helped truly global companies in multiple continents create great user experience through advocating Design and Innovation principles. Itamar has also served as a juror for prestigious design competitions and lectured on design topics at universities worldwide.

During his 7 years in China, he promoted the User Experience Design discipline as User Experience Manager at Autodesk and Local Coordinator of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) in Shanghai.

Itamar holds a MA in Design Practice from Northumbria University (Newcastle, UK), for which he received a Distinction Award for his thesis Creating Innovative Design Software Solutions within Collaborative/Distributed Design Environments.

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