They're not even open for business yet, but the good folks at the School of Visual Arts' new MFA in Interaction Design department are taking this whole thing pretty seriously. They open their doors for their first class of students next Fall, but already they've assembled quite the faculty roster, including all-around amazing people, some of whom we've even had beers with (we're not naming names for fear that it would embarrass them). Now they've just announced their latest batch of hires and it's another group of pretty fantastic designers:

The new hires are: Steve Duenes, graphics director for The New York Times; frog design's Robert Fabricant, Josh Musick, and Clay Wiedemann; researcher Rob Faludi; OZOlab's Managing Director Tamara Giltsoff; interaction designer Phi-Hong D. Ha; and Rebekah Hodgson, designer at Etsy.

"Interaction designers must be fluent in diverse skills -- from user research to lightweight prototyping to designing interfaces to building a business strategy," says Liz Danzico, chair of the MFA Interaction Design Department at SVA. "What is common to all interaction designers, however, is an understanding of human behavior, and these new faculty members bring an awareness of the human-centered design process to the classroom."