Having the advantage and benefit of being able to search for whatever you want and learn whatever you want is an unbelievable privilege in today’s world. To not use an interdisciplinary approach to everything we do, is pretty much impossible. Unless you’ve specifically chosen to remain disconnected.
This opinion piece was inspired by a post that David Chandross, PhD had placed on LinkedIn. His post was about looking at learning and game-based learning from a different angle, in this case from the angle of the field of physics (experimental, quantum, etc.). I have an interest in physics, and a long time ago I had wanted to study physics, but circumstances in life prevented this. The interest remains though, and the post from David ignited an idea in me about how having a healthy interest in a great many varied things can help with your professional life and more.
The interdisciplinary approach should be a starting point for any situation, problem, or ‘thing’ that you are dealing with. In all honesty, I wouldn’t know how else to approach something, due to the life I’ve had, the family I have, the friends I have, and the interests and education I have, my default approach is interdisciplinary. It also feels that it would be very boring if it wasn’t this way.
And when I consider how organisations engage their audiences, the boring experiences tend to be the ones that only have a single linear approach. If the outcome isn’t from an interdisciplinary start or a multidisciplinary team, then it tends to be lacking for the broader audience member’s experience.
This is why audience experience and engagement (AEX) design is at its core interdisciplinary. It incorporates gamification, business strategy, marketing, psychology, and storytelling; both visual and linguistic. And the majority of these are also interdisciplinary themselves.
My belief and experience are that using the interdisciplanary3 (cubed) approach when designing engaging experiences for audiences creates a more holistic outcome that speaks better and more to the varying individuals in any audience.