{"id":15050,"date":"2016-11-08T13:27:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T21:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/?p=15050"},"modified":"2020-04-22T06:36:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T13:36:04","slug":"review-interaction-design-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/review-interaction-design-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Review of the Interaction Design Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a UXPin education partner, the Interaction Design Foundation provides one of the most robust collections of online courses and free encyclopedias. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since the UXPin audience <\/span>gets 25% off their first year of membership<\/span><\/a>, we decided to take a look inside some of their courses and materials. For full transparency, we don\u2019t earn any affiliate revenue from the discount <\/span>\u2013<\/span> we just wanted to share a useful resource for working designers.   <\/span><\/p>\n

Who is the IDF? <\/span><\/h2>\n

Founded in 2002, the Interaction Design Foundation is a nonprofit educational institution based based in Denmark. Their founders are Mads Soegaard and Rikke Friis Dam, who both hail from an education background. <\/span><\/p>\n

Their executive board features well-known design leaders like Don Norman, Bill Buxton, and Irene Au (one of our advisors as well). Individual designers also manage chapters of the IDF by continent and country. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Their goal is to democratize UX education with open-source academic courses taught by experienced practitioners and university professors. <\/span><\/p>\n

In short, they\u2019re both an online community of designers and an online course provider. <\/span><\/p>\n

What do they offer?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The IDF hosts 4 full-length encyclopedias and 30+ self-paced courses. The encyclopedias are free for everyone. Paying members ($112.50 for first year for UXPin audience) can take as many courses as they\u2019d like. <\/span><\/p>\n

Encyclopedias<\/span><\/h3>\n

Given their length and academic feel, it\u2019d be inaccurate to call these ebooks or even guides. The 4 encyclopedias offered by the IDF are true full-length publications. The encyclopedias also feature video interviews (in some cases, they\u2019ve flown out on location to meet the experts). <\/span><\/p>\n

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As someone who\u2019s worked on quite a few 150+ page ebooks at UXPin, even I was impressed by the depth of the material and author expertise. Their <\/span>Encyclopedia of Interaction Design<\/span><\/a> (2nd edition) clocks in at over 4,000+ pages with 100+ designer authors. <\/span><\/p>\n

The best part is that they\u2019re available for free online or in PDF format. <\/span><\/p>\n

Given that many successful designers are self-taught, I can see these open-source textbooks as a great resource for staying updated. They are a bit theoretical, but it certainly doesn\u2019t hurt to supplement mileage with knowledge. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s all 4 of their free encyclopedias: <\/span><\/p>\n