#interaction 23

Since mid-December, I've been loosely involved in efforts to understand and deal with the current financial situation of my dearly beloved non-profit, professional organization: the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). You may recall hearing that the Interaction 24 conference, which was supposed to be held in Sydney the last week of February, was canceled. For many years now, that conference has been the primary source of funding for the organization. The Pandemic disrupted our business model, and the 2023 conference was not able to restore it.

Some amazing volunteers are working very hard right now to fully understand the situation and come up with solutions to mitigate the problems we are facing.

Tuesday was the day of workshops. I wasn’t attending a workshop, so my wife and I had booked another day trip with Best of Switzerland Tours. Having already spent a day in the Alps, we wanted to experience some of the history and culture of the country, so we decided to visit Lucerne and Engelberg.

The bus stopped in Lucerne for about an hour. We took a stroll across the Chapel Bridge and wandered through the streets.

The Water Tower was once used as a prison, but it is currently a whiskey shop.

The architecture of Lucerne was just gorgeous with ornately painted façades.

We returned to the bus and proceeded to Engelberg. As it happened, we were the only two people on the entire bus that were going to Engelberg. Everyone else was going up Mount Titlis. Apparently they were all smarter than we were.

The main guide explained to us that he would be going to Titlis, but that the guide-in-training would go with us to Engelberg. Of course, this was his first day on the job, and he didn’t know anything about Engelberg, so we would be left to our own devices. We were told that the Monastery had a visitor center and a restaurant where we could eat lunch.

Before I continue this story, let me share with you what we were told about Engelberg in the literature about the trip before we registered.

Enjoy your stay in Engelberg with the following activities:

Benedictine Monastery of Engelberg Take in a moment of silence in the beautiful baroque church of the Monastery, founded in 1120 AD. Walk across the monastery garden and browse through the flower shop run by monks. The village is defined by the monastery and the Collegiate Church. Switzerland’s largest church organ, the impressive Collegiate Library, the Valley Museum, a show dairy and a manor house are to be found here.

Engelberg Cheese experience While visiting the monastery, discover a selection of cheeses produced in the monastery. Order a cheese platter at the café for your personal tasting experience or buy local delicacies as a souvenir.

Tal Museum Engelberg Step into the museum and learn more about the local history of the Alpine valley, its dialect, traditional costumes and the relationship between the valley community and the monastery.

There were a number of other activities listed that we weren’t interested in, such as ice skating at the park and horse-drawn carriage rides.

The bus dropped us off in a parking lot across from the monastery, and we had three hours until it would be ready to depart. We walked over to the monastery to find some lunch.

Upon entering, we could go up the stairs to a locked gate or down the stairs to a dim hallway. In that hallway, we found a small flower shop. Back outside and down the path by the garden, we found the small cafe that sold cheese, but it didn’t have much else, so we walked into the village and found a restaurant.

After lunch, we walked over to the museum and discovered that it was closed on Tuesday. So, we walked back up to the church, which was open.

It was something to see, but there was no information about it, so it didn’t hold our attention for long. We saw the organ, and apparently it has a lot of pipes, but what could be seen of it wasn’t at all impressive. 

We decided we would try finding the visitor center in the monastery. Once again, we walked up to the still locked gate and were trying to translate the sign by the buzzer when our tour-guide-in-training came in and saw us. He could read German, and he buzzed the office. They let us in through the gate, and we walked down the hall to talk to them. I asked about tours, and the woman told me that they weren’t doing tours this week. We spent a few minutes walking up and down the hallways, but aside from a few paintings, there really wasn’t anything to see.

We left the monastery, and walked back down to the cheese shop. we bought a cheese platter and spent our last 45 minutes or so nibbling cheese and playing on our phones.

You’ll notice in all the photos that there was cloud cover all day, so I didn’t even have the opportunity to walk around photographing the mountains surrounding the town. It was a complete bust.

We got back to Zürich just as the conference’s opening party was starting.

Hosted at Kaufleuten, the music wasn’t too loud, and I spent the evening catching up with old friends. We unfortunately lost three conference “lifers” this year. Dave Malouf, Greg Petroff, and Rob Nero couldn’t make it. That just leaves two of us that have attended every Interaction conference.

I was up bright and early Monday. The Local Leader Retreat was being held at ZHdK Toni-Areal (Zürich University of the Arts) starting at 10:00, but I had promised to be there early to help. I volunteered to act as photographer for the event. When I arrived, I found the main entrance to the building, which put me on floor 3. First, I followed the conference signs up to the 4th floor, but soon realized those were for the Education Summit that took place over the weekend. I checked the room number, which indicated floor 2, so I found a stairwell and descended… to floor 1. I retraced my steps to floor 3 and found an elevator… with no button for floor 2. Confused, I asked someone who was making a delivery how to get to floor 2, and he told me to take “the other elevator”. I crossed to the other side of the main hall and found an elevator that took me to floor two, but let me out on a landing with stairs leading to floors 1 and 3 and a door exiting the building. Completely flummoxed, I walked outside, and there in front of me was a wall of windows looking in on a classroom and people I recognized.

Okay, so there could have been better wayfinding, but once I found the room, the hugging commenced. Seriously, these are very good friends from all over the world who I hadn’t seen in three years. There were many hugs.

After a short icebreaker, in which we invented secret handshakes, and opening remarks from Brenda Sanderson, our Executive Director, and Thomas Link, this year’s conference chair, we got down to business. IxDA Sydney told us about the podcast their group produces. Then IxDA Taiwan blew us all away with the variety of events they’ve been holding. For example, they designed an escape room during one. Following that, IxDA Berlin presented their Modern Work Models workshop.

During the break, we could help ourselves to the snacks that our Local Leaders brought from all around the globe.

While the presentations rom the local groups were inspiring, it was the session with our incoming president and vice president, Dean Broadly and Ana Domb, that I enjoyed the most. I admit I got a little teary-eyed listening to everyone’s responses to Dean’s question. He asked us what it is about IxDA that keeps us involved. The answers were emotional and heartfelt. More than anything else, it comes down to the people. There’s something about this organization and this conference that is unlike any other.

We ate lunch in the cafeteria, took the group photo, and then split up into two groups: one going on a walking tour of Old Town, and the other taking a boat cruise on Lake Zürich.

It was a bit chilly and windy to be out on the lake, so most of us ordered drinks and stayed comfortably inside the boat. Aside from some skinny-dippers jumping in the lake from a sauna boat, the trip was uneventful, but it was good company. Like I said, it’s about the people.

Sunday morning found us up bright and early to catch our bus. We had booked a day-trip to Jungfraujoch through Best of Switzerland Tours. Jungfraujoch translates as “maiden saddle,” and it is the glacier saddle connecting two peaks of the Bernese Alps: the Jungfrau and the Mönch. It’s 11,362 ft above sea level and referred to as “Top of Europe”.

I lost count of the number of tunnels we went through. Having lived my entire life in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, I’m no stranger to tunnels, but the Swiss have holes in their mountains like they do in their cheese. Our guide explained that they felt the work and expense of tunneling was worth it to maintain the beauty of their country’s landscape. I heartily agree.

The bus made a brief stop in Interlaken, a resort town built on a narrow stretch of valley between Lake Thun and Lake Brienz. We had enough time to walk through the town and purchase some chocolate to tide us over until lunch.

The cloud cover obscured the tops of the mountains. In clear weather, you would be able to see Jungfrau through the valley on the left, and that’s where the bus headed as we continued our journey.

As the bus moved through that pass, we started climbing on twisting roads. I was continually amazed at the way small villages were tucked away in the mountains, and small farms dotted the steep slopes. Our guide explained that there are a lot of small farms, each one having as few as 40 animals. In the winter, the farmers don’t have much farm work to do, so they supplement their income by taking jobs at ski resorts and restaurants.

Eventually, we reached Grindelwald where we boarded the Eiger Express aerial cableway—a gondola with seats for about 20 people. The 15-20 minute ride took us a fair way up the mountain to the Eiger Glacier, the longest glacier in the Alps. Then we switched to a cogwheel train that took us the rest of the way up through a tunnel that was excavated by 400 Italian men over 16 years.

When we reached the Top of Europe complex, a combination of tunnels and buildings, and the highest train station in Europe, our guide first directed us to the elevator that took us up to the Sphinx observatory. It’s one of the highest observatories in the world and houses the Global Atmosphere Watch’s research stations.

That’s Mönch behind us. The photos don’t do it justice.

It was literally freezing out there, so once we had our fill of photos, we went back inside and toured the ice palace that was carved out of the glacier.

Then we got to walk out onto the glacier itself.

This shot is looking back up at the Sphinx observatory with Mönch beyond it. The next shot is Jungfrau in the opposite direction.

We really needed to warm up, and we had seen just about everything, so we finally decided to have a very late lunch… with a view!

The trip back down to Grindelwald was by a series of cogwheel trains that provided fantastic views of the mountains, even if they were largely obscured by clouds.

I couldn’t do anything about the reflections in the window, nor could I refrain from trying to capture the landscape as we descended. The bus ride back continued to provide breathtaking views.

I heard a lot of complaints about the Motel One breakfast, and to be sure, it was a pittance compared to the feast provided by the NH Milano Touring, but speaking as an American used to the crap served in hotels in the U.S., our Saturday morning repast was most welcome. I’m already missing the croissants, cold-cuts, and cheese. We had our fill and struck out for the Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland’s largest art museum.

It was a cloudy day, but I still enjoyed the architecture and snapped a shot of Zürich Rathaus (Zürich’s Town Hall).

One of the two buildings was closed for renovations, but the other provided an extensive collection of Fauvist, Expressionist, and Cubist paintings by the likes of Picasso, van Gogh, Chagall, Monet, and Matisse. I saw works by Giacometti, Calder, Rothko, and many more. It was an illuminating morning, but my favorite work was a contemporary installation. In the back corner of one of the galleries was a narrow, cushioned hallway. We emerged into the “Pixel Forest” by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist. 3,000 LED lights encased in resin spheres suspended from the ceiling of an otherwise black room give you the feeling of an infinite space.

The changing lights and soundscape were mesmerizing. I love an artwork that I can lose myself in. This is true Experience Design.

We had to walk back through Old Town, so we stopped for lunch at Delish – La Pinseria where we had delicious pizzas.

We crossed the Limmat river on the Mühlesteg foot bridge, which is covered in thousands of “love locks”.

We spent the afternoon in the Museum für Gestaltung—Museum for Design. They have the largest poster collection in the world, but I particularly enjoyed the exhibit on the Swiss design pioneer Willy Guhl.

For decades, Guhl represented a holistic design approach that was oriented on people and their needs: durability, functionality and the reduction to essentials characterize his comfortable interiors and intelligent objects for daily use.

I watched a lecture he gave using a collection of watering cans as examples of good, and not so good, design. It reminded me of my own lecture in the first day of my product design class.

I was hoping to see the “Game Design Today” exhibit, but it turned out that was in the Toni-Areal location, rather than the main building at Ausstellungsstrasse.

After spending all day on our feet, we returned to our hotel for a short rest before dinner. We decided to try Zeughauskeller, a rustic Swiss restaurant in what used to be an armory. Full of oak beams and historic weaponry, the environment was as interesting as the cuisine. When we saw Bürgermeister Schwert (Mayor’s Sword) on the menu, we couldn’t say no.

400g of marinated baby-beef steaks, pounded thin, wrapped around the sword blade and grilled lean, served with a bowl of mixed salad, Rösti or French fries, served with a curry-garlic and barbecue sauce To share for 2 persons

It just so happened that Zürich’s carnival was going on that weekend, so we were even treated to a “Guggen” band’s performance during dinner. It was a fantastic finish to our second day in Zürich. Apple Strudel, anyone?

Given the conference location, my wife and I took the opportunity to front load my trip with a few extra days for sightseeing. Our flight left Thursday, February 23rd, and we arrived in Zurich Friday morning. Motel One was nice enough to let us check in early, so we napped for a couple hours, showered, and then walked over to Old Town.

You’re looking at Grossmünster, one of four major churches in the city, across the Limmat river, which flows north from Lake Zurich. A parade of people supporting Ukraine proceeded down beside the river and across the bridge. We wandered around the area, enjoying the architecture while exploring twisting, cobblestone alleyways.

In one such alley, we came upon Les Désaley, one of the highest-rated fondue restaurants in the city. It didn’t open until 6:00, so we hung out at Grossmünster with some of the demonstrators, watching the sun set behind Fraumünster, one of the other major churches.

We weren’t the first people standing outside of Les Désaley when they opened their doors as the bells of Grossmünster rang out.

What could be better for our first meal in Zurich than fondue for two?

It’s been three years since I’ve critiqued a conference badge. Let’s do this!

The badges for Interaction 23 solve the most prevalent conference badge problem: flipping. Rather than having a single eyelet, this badge has two holes, one in each top corner. The badge is wide enough that the lanyard keeps it from flipping. As such, the badge doesn’t have to convey the same information on both sides.

The front of the badge is fairly sparse. First and last names are large with good contrast against the background, so the primary purpose of the badge is well-served. Company name was selected as the secondary information. I’m partial to providing a job title, but I guess you have to leave something to ask a person during introductions. “So, what do you do at Boeing?” The color of the badge indicates that I’m a regular attendee, rather than a speaker or volunteer.

The backside presents times for the key events the badge provides access to. I suppose that’s useful, though I never referred to it. A unique feature of the badge is the inclusion of a public transportation ticket good for the days of the conference. It was really thoughtful for the organizers to provide this to all conference attendees, and adding it to the badge was brilliant.

This will be the last post for a little over a week, as I’m flying out tomorrow for Interaction 23 in Zurich. There are so may people I’m looking forward to seeing, but I know there there are also many people that can’t make it. In fact, we’re losing three of our “lifers.” There will only be two of us left who have attended every Interaction conference.