Lots of aesthetic ideals and ideas have been presented in the realm of interaction design, e.g. pragmatism (engaging all senses in designing an experience for someone, based on the works by John Dewey) or a more experimental and provocative stance as in the works of Dunne and Raby, or the functionalist ideals of usability experts like Jakob Nielsen and his peers. But regardless which aesthetic ideal you have there is one over-arching value to cling to: consistency to that ideal, i.e. to consequently, and in every design decision, consider the aesthetic ideal, letting it permeate design.
Normally, and especially in the world of HCI and GUI design this is referred to as just consistency or coherency. Others, like Hallnäs and Redström refer to this as expression logic; that an artifact in all of its expressions (how it looks, sounds, behaves etc.) must communicate what it is and does. Another similar notion is that of the Gesamtkunstwerk (introduced by composer Richard Wagner in the middle of the 19th century). The word means “total artwork” or “integrated artwork” and describes how different disciplines cooperate in creating a design that is a united whole, incorporating and aligning all demands into one united whole. Wagner himself referred to opera as the ultimate Gesamtkunstwerk since it combined the disciplines of writing and playing music, acting, singing, costume design, stage design etc. into one artwork. It has also often been applied to design of houses and everything in them, e.g. product designer Peter Behrens' house in the jugend-colony Matildenhöhe in Darmstadt , built in 1901. Behrens designed everything, from the outer structure (architecture) and down to the smallest detail, like the tableware (product design), all in a consistent style.
Now, every interaction design project involves more than one discipline which makes it the subject for a possible Gesamtkunstwerk. Therefore, your aim in this course - regardless of what you design, for whom, and with which aesthetic ideal - must be to strive for this conjoined whole that a Gesamtkunstwerk is. Your aesthetic ideal will then serve as a guiding priciple when making design decisions, and in this it will help you to achieve a coherent design.
But don't worry... you will get a more fleshed-out introduction during the first week of the course, also discussing interaction design specific aspects of this intriguing subject!
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