Yesterday I finished the first course "Introduction to multidisciplinary Interaction Design".  Three projects with two different teams in two months. Since at home this education system is not applied, I had to adapt quickly and it seems I did well. The first project aim was to learn how to do fieldwork, ethnographic research using different methods like: observations (different methods), interviews, questionnaires, in order to identify  a design problem and its design opportunities. The second was about video sketching and bodysorming, and how to use these methods to get creative when are you stuck, to analyze and understand better the interaction process behind an concept design. The last task focused on prototyping and how to validate a prototype. A protoype can be made of paper or other materials, a validation can be user testing or even better "fake it - Wizard of Oz".

During this course we had three tutoring sessions, after the projects presentation. It was a good idea, but personally I didn't find it very useful, because we talked mostly about my contribution to the group work. But each tutor has his own style, so this depends on people. 

After each project we had a wrap-up activity with another teacher where we discussed the group dynamics, how we worked as a process, which was our style, how we succeed to combine our varied work styles and personalities. This was one of the most useful and interesting activity which I loved at thos course. Maybe because the teacher was awesome too.

Regarding theory, the teachers gave us a few lectures in different steps of our projects for helping us move on with the projects when we were stuck. I may be tempted to say that their knowledge was presented to us too late, after we struggled with the projects or with our mistakes, and they could have helped us to avoid stress, conflicts, save time. But somehow I believed that we learn our lesson more quickly and profound by making the mistake first, and then having access to the right information.

All this time we had to read from all kind of sources and books, in order to understand deeply the design process. 

The books which were very useful for me were:

Designing for Interaction, Dan Saffer - for beginners, when you don't know how to start or to do in a design process

Sketching User Experiences, Bill Buxton - read together with the workbook

Also the Moggridge book "Designing Interactions" is a must, but mostly for understanding the evolution of Ixd and for inspiration, for learning from others people experiencess and success stories.