Thesis year milestones

Mentors teams

Dr. Joëlle Bitton / Luke Franzke
Dr. Björn Franke / Clemens Winkler
Dr. Antonio Scarponi / Verena Ziegler
Prof. Jürgen Späth / Mona Neubauer

Consulting mentors:
Nicole Foelsterl (Video + Ethnography)
Dr. Daniel Hug (Sound)
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Buurman (Theory)
Joël Gähwiler (Tech)

Attendance

Attendance to all presentations and workshops is mandatory for all BA-finals candidates, unless specified.
All monthly general presentations are open to all BA IAD students.
BA finals are open to ZHdK audience and friends.

Table of Content

• Deliveries and deadlines
• Monthly group presentations
• Thesis focus workshops
• Calendar Overview
• Fall 2017 Courses
• Presentation Guidelines
• Review and grading

Deliveries and deadlines

All document deliveries should be made on the IAD server. See screenshot.

12 December 2017, 17.00

• Statement & project disposition (2-page essay)
  Make a stand: what contribution do you want to make?

19 January 2018, 17.00 (BA Thesis Concept Seminar - final session)

• Development of intention (5-page essay)
• Initial project prototype
  
  

20 February 2018, 17.00 (Kick-off semester - progress session)

• Draft thesis structure
• Background/context research (literature review and related work, situating work in relation to theory & practice, field of contribution). 
• Advanced prototype
• Choice of mentoring team

23 March 2018, 17.00

• Written thesis - fully structured and almost completed
  
  

03 May 2018, 11.30 - 19.00, Room 4.T30

• Thesis Colloquium 
  Each student meets the theory mentors together for a 20-minutes session. The student explain briefly what their findings are (max. 5 min) and then we have a discussion (mentors ask questions) about the work and the process (15 min).
  
  

28 May 2018, 17.00

• Full BA thesis (part A and part B) delivered (including updates and rewrites, with final reflection on practice) as a digital copy on the IAD server by 17.00.
  
  

4 June 2018, 14.00 - 18.00

• Visit through Exhibition with mentors
• Please hand in two hard copies of your thesis to Karin Luginbühl, IAD office room 4C.01, until 14.00.

7 June 2018, 16.00 - 22.00

• Exhibition Vernissage 
  
  

11 June 2018, 10.00 -16.00 (in the exhibition space)

• Practice session for BA Finals
  
  

13 June 2018, 08.30 - 16.00, in exhibition space (afterwards discussion for mentors room 5T.07, 16.00 - 17.30)

• BA Finals 
• Mentors and Jury discussion 
  
  

14 June 2018: 10.00 - 16.00, room 4K.22.1

• Final mentors and jury discussion (10.00-12.00)
• Thesis Students feedback session (13.00-16.00)

Monthly group presentations

Presentation of advancement of project as well as theoretical research, together with all students and all mentors.
Presentation should all be 5 minutes long with 10 minutes for feedback and discussion.
Format is free - although slides are most useful to structure your presentation. See below for more oral presentation guidelines.

20 February 2018: Kick-off - Progress session 1 "Background and Related Work", 09.30 - 15:00, room 5K03

• Present status of your thesis concept
• Analysis of existing situation, experience or technology
• Present related work and how you situate your project in comparison
• Present advanced prototype

15 March 2018: Progress session 2, "Early Findings", 13.30 - 16.30, room Viaduktraum 2A.05

• Advanced research from user studies
• Present data and main findings 
• How will this inform your concept, problem or design opportunity? Based on your findings, inform or enhance your concept.

17 April 2018:  Progress session 3, "Prototypes in use", 09.00 - 15:00, room Viaduktraum 2A.05

• What kind of prototype is the most suitable for your project?
• What kind of prototype helped you find the main findings/observations?
• What do you hope to achieve with your prototype?

15 May 2018: Progress session 4, "Observations and Lessons learned", 09.30 - 15:00, room Viaduktraum 2A.05

• Present your final exhibition concept 
• Final Observations from user studies
• Present 3 main lessons learned from your process
• Present your contribution to the field

Thesis focus workshops

1 March 2018: Thesis structure review workshop, 09.30 - 12.30, room 4T33

20 March 2018: Sound mentoring, 9.00 - 17.00 (If your project has a sound component or if mentor Daniel Hug thinks that you might need a discussion on that aspect)

27 March 2018: Exhibition workshop, 09.30 - 12.30

11 April 2018: Refresh Video workshop, 09.30 - 12.30 (optional - only for those who will make videos), room 5T.04

11 April 2018: Refresh Sound for Video workshop, 13.00 - 16.00 (optional - only for those who will make videos), room 4K.22.1

7-9 May 2018: Video Production, photo studio room 3H.18, Details/Timetable directly distributed by Nicole Foelsterl (optional - only for those who will make videos)

24 May 2018: Video and Sound review with mentors, Timetable with Daniel Hug and Nicole Foelsterl (optional - only for those who will make videos), room 4K.22.1

Calendar Overview

Fall 2017 Courses

• Free Flow seminars
  21 Sept 'Urban Walk'
  10 Oct 'Nature Walk/Teaching exchange'
  22 Nov 'Train Ride'
  18 Dec 'Time travel' 
  
  
• Academic Writing Workshop 
  29 Sept, 5-6 Oct, 13 Oct, 18 Dec
  
  
• IAD Theory Course : 'Positions & Rhetorics'
  28 Sept - 14 Dec
  
  
• BA Thesis Concept Seminar 
  8-19 January 2018

Presentation guidelines           

 
Oral Presentation style

• 5-minutes presentation time - unless specified, for monthly group presentations  / BA Finals: 10 minutes
• Present in English for monthly group presentations / BA Finals: English or German
• NO reading cards 
• Think of your presentation as a performance: try to not learn your text by heart, but rather practice enough that you can present with a natural conversational flow
• Slides are recommended - other formats are possible - please check with us beforehand
• If you do use slide, don’t read all the text that is present on the slides, summarize your thoughts
• Go to the point, be concise, cut the non-essential parts in your speech
• Don’t lose time describing what is presented on the screen (we can understand by looking at the slides)
• Respect the time - don’t be afraid by the “short” time - it’s plenty enough if you keep to the essence of your ideas.
  If you use these minutes well, you won’t have to rush through what you have to say. Don’t think that all you have to say matters, you can always be more concise.
  
  

Slides style

• The text should be readable (font minimum at 24 or 36 pt), in a readable colour over a readable background.
• Don’t crowd your slides with text - usually keep it to 1 strong idea = 1 slide.
• For every statistics, photo, reference, quote, statement (including your own), you need to state the complete source and date in a readable caption.
• Be careful of typos in your text
  
  

 Computer and demo ready

• Prior to the start of the class or during the break, test your computer on the room projector & sound if you need it
• 2 minutes before the current presenter is finishing, be ready to start. Any time that you’ll get your computer ready once it’s your turn, it will be discounted from your overall time. Have your slides ready on screen, do not search for them in a folder.
• Be sure your computer is charged, that a screensaver is not running, that apps such as Mail, Flux or other interruptors are not running in the background
• Have a backup of your slides on the server in case you get a computer crash
• If you present videos or sounds during the presentation, have them embedded in your presentation or make sure the external links are loaded. Limit your video excerpts to 30 seconds or 1 minute at most.
             

Structure and outline of the final presentation

Whether you're using slides or not, this is the narrative that we recommend for your BA final presentation:

• First slide should feature: Your Name, Project title, School, Department, Mentors, Date
• Second slide is stating in 1-2 short sentences: your project summary (what is it?) and why it’s ground-breaking
• Third slide: describe your project a bit further to explain how it is operating (from a technology perspective or other): what are the interactions within the project, how do users experience it? You can present here as well a very short demo of your project if relevant.
• Related work: in 1-2 slides, present works that are precedents or related.
  Related work can pertain to various categories: for instance, related work in technology you’re using, in the aesthetics, in the concept, in literature/science-fiction, in history, in art, in design, etc… It could be many categories, pick the ones that are most relevant to show on your slides and mention up to 1-2 important ones in your oral presentation. Mention how your project pushes the topic further.
• Decision-making process
  How did you make the decisions you made?
  Define the 2-3 key moments in your process.
• User-studies
  Who are your users, how did you involve them and how their input helped you make decisions for your project?
• Reflection
  Challenges and pitfalls: what you didn’t manage to do or what you could have done better
• Potential impact & future directions

Review and Grading

The official study guidelines of the BA in Design at ZHdK provides broad lines for the diploma evaluation (see § 15).
The BA thesis counts for 22 ECTS points and is graded between letters A-F.

The criteria for the final grade are :

• Project (50%)
  Generosity: How the research was conducted with ambition, commitment and responsibilty.
  Relevance: Relevance of the topic for the design community, society, design discourse.
  Execution: How diligently, creatively, precisely the outcome is showcased.
  Academic Position: Evaluating the maturity of the position within the research discourse.
  Transversality: Considering the different fields in which the project can have an impact. 
  
  
• Documentation and reflection (25%)
  Quality of the process and research
  Experimentations conducted
  Adequate design tools / Adequate evaluation 
  Plausibility of the result in regard to the initially formulated research question

• Final presentation (15%)
  Ability for Synthesis
  Range of Overview given
  Addressing questions asked
  
  
• Mediation via exhibition (10%)
  Quality
  Precision
  
  

The grade is decided after each mentoring team provides their assessment (the student mentors provide a consultory assessment) and a discussion leads to a consensus.
The two external guests provide their assessment for the project itself and for the mediation via exhibition.

Additional criteria:
Depending on the angle undertaken for the project, some aspects will be particularly relevant: ie. interface design for apps and platforms, methodology for field studies, evaluation for education services, etc..

Grading details:

A hervorragend (6) = ausgezeichnete, hervorragende Leistung
B sehr gut (5-6) = deutlich überdurchschnittliche Leistung
C gut (5) = insgesamt gute und solide Arbeit
D befriedigend (4-5) = mittelmäßige Arbeit
E ausreichend (4) = Leistungen entsprechen den Mindestanforderungen
FX nicht bestanden (3,5) = es sind Nachbesserungen erforderlich
F klar nicht bestanden (<3,5)
Abstufungen: 3 = ungenügend, 2 = schwach, 1 = sehr schwach bzw. keine Arbeit geleistet – die Arbeit ist zu wiederholen, in der Regel keine Nachbesserung möglich.