Kevin Budelmann, co-founder and President of Peopledesign has recently been promoted to IxDA Global Vice President at its most recent gathering in Lyon, France. Budelmann has been actively involved in the IxDA Board of Directors for the past two years.
"IxDA fills a void in the world of design, focused on improving the human condition through experience design. The global community has caught on like wildfire," Budelmann commented. "Local groups have spawned everywhere."
IxDA was started in 2003 to address the needs of the then-emergent field of interaction design. Over the past 15 years, the group has grown worldwide, encompassing more than 200 groups on six contents and representing more than 100,000 professionals in diverse locations from Sao Paulo to Dublin, Seattle to Cape Town. Multinational events held in North America, Europe and Latin America draw thousands of attendees from around the world. IxDA also features specialized programming including the Interaction Awards, Student Design Challenge and Interaction Design Education Summit. Collectively, these events are known as Interaction Week.
Unlike many industry associations, IxDA does not require formal membership or membership fees. "The group is based more on community than infrastructure," explained Budelmann, crediting this model for their high participation rates. IxDA also works from the bottom up, instead of the top down, encouraging member participation and learning. Today, the board no longer contains any of the original members, with its founders encouraging new talent and leadership to guide the future direction of the association.
In his new role as Global Vice President, Budelmann hopes to help build a strategic foundation based on IxDA's core purpose while continuing to unite interaction designers around the globe.