The Interaction Design Association is a member-supported organization dedicated to the discipline of interaction design.
Board Shutdown Announcement June 2024
An Announcement from the Board Regarding the Future of IxDA
In August we will be dissolving the legal entity. This means that the non-profit side of IxDA will cease to exist (including the board), along with the operational, financial, and organizational capacity to run global events such as Interaction Week, the Interaction Design Education Summit, and the Student Design Charette. Â
The community, consisting of Local Groups around the world, will continue to exist. IxDA Oslo will take over ownership of the ixda.org domain, which will continue to be a resource for interaction designers and community organizers, including our extensive video library covering conference talks from the last 15 years.
For a while now, the conference business model has been unsustainable for us. The yearly Interaction conference was the primary way the organization made enough money to operate throughout the year. The money we did make went to paying our Executive Director, contractor fees, and operating costs for the organization. We have always been a primarily volunteer run organization operating on a slim budget and have never been wildly profitable, which has always seen us in a vulnerable position.
Reactions
Sad to see @IxDA winding down. Sounds like a highly stressful time for the org’s leadership. Thanks to everyone who’s cleaning up the mess and especially to Andrea Mignolo for the clarity of your communications.
Beyond the stress and suffering, I see this as a further data point re: the changing landscape for design. While it may be too early to tell whether the problems that led to this situation were inherent to the org or caused by the changing context (likely: both), the fact remains that the post-pandemic world looks different.
A key open question now: how do we build a community of practice in a world where in-person conferences are no longer a viable means for funding community orgs? Perhaps a more bottom-up, federated approach is in order? Other ideas?