BA Thesis Concept Seminar 2020

BA concept seminar structure:

Instructors:

Dr. Joëlle Bitton
Prof. Jürgen Späth

Guest instructor:

Nicole Foelsterl

Office hours by appointment

The module takes place over 2 weeks, from 06.01.18 to 17.01.18, from Monday to Friday, 9.30-17.00 in various rooms - see intranet for details.
Class sessions include lectures, discussions, mentoring sessions, in-class exercises, assignments and independent study blocks.
Projects are conducted individually or with team of two students at most.

(1) Overview and Objectives

Students will develop a conceptual and practical exploration for their final BA thesis and present the experience they aim to create in the form of a 3-page project description, a blog documenting the 2-weeks progress, a prototype/mock-up showing the core aspects of the interactive experience they are aiming to create and a video showcasing the prototype in use.

The concept seminar addresses notions in preparation for their final thesis work:

- what does it mean to make a statement and a contribution to the field of interaction design?

- how to identify the design, social and experiential opportunities within the topic of interest?

- how to define a space of potential design explorations?

- how to narrow down the topic following own personal positioning, approach and interests?

- how to present the desired embodied experience that the BA thesis should engender?

(2) Course Outline

The 2 weeks are divided into two parts: an investigative week with quick exercises and iterations, and a second week where students can advance their prototype, engage in field or test study and summarise their BA idea and related experience in a video.

See below for a detailed calendar.

(3) Expectations and Grading

Grades will be based on class participation, documentation (journal) and final work.
Contributing to constructive group feedback is an essential aspect of class participation.
Regular attendance is required. Two or more unexcused absences will affect the final grade. Arriving late on more than one occasion will also affect the grade.

Storytelling (video) 30%

Prototype 20%

Project Description 20%

Journal Documentation 20%

Class participation 10%

Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.

(5) Deliverables

Storytelling

The experience you want to create should be presented in a video format.

Prototype/Mock-up

The prototype is the manifestation of your ideas into a service, a product, a method, a user's experience, etc.

Project Description

This 3-page text should answer the following questions :

what is the context, topic, problem?
who is your audience / participants?
who will be touched by your design (which people/animals/plants, which locations, which systems, which ecologies)?
what do you want to create and how it should work?
what values and potential do you want to address / generate?

The essay expands the thesis disposition with observations and conclusions drawn from the two weeks BA concept seminar.
You may use a diversity of sources and bibliography (classified by genre: book, book chapter, journal article, conference article, academic thesis, newspaper article, web article, etc).

Journal/Blog

A separate 'Journal' is developed by each student that reflects on learnings from the seminar. It should be in the form of an online blog (ie. WordPress, Tumblr or other):

The journal should be structured in a generally comprehensible manner (in the first week the structure will be provided by the course through the exercises)
The lecture notes, including annotations, are stored
Notes, sketches for each lesson should be included as well.

Deliverables to be uploaded on the server by Monday 20.1 at 9.00.
Choice of mentor teams to be sent to Martin via email.

Calendar

Week 1	Monday 6.1	Tuesday 7.1	Wednesday 8.1	Thursday 9.1	Friday 10.1
Morning 9.30 - 12.00 (unless otherwise noted)	10.00 Brief Introduction about the module and quick keywords round Exercise 1: 20 ways of description (jb, js)	Independent Study	Exercise 3: Design Space (jb, js)	Individual Discussions (js, jb)	Input - storytelling (nf)
Afternoon 13.00 - 17.00	Exercise 2: Topic Space (jb, js)	Mentoring on request (js)	15,00 Presentation: topic and design space (js, jb)	Individual Discussions (jb, js)	Exercise 4: 10 ways of manifestation (jb)
Week 2	Monday 14.1	Tuesday 15.1	Wednesday 16.1	Thursday 17.1	Friday 18.1
Morning 9.30 - 12.00	Field / Practice Study on storytelling	Mentoring storytelling (jb, js, nf)	Field / Practice Study	Mentoring on request (js)	Final Presentations: video & prototype (jb, js)
Afternoon 13.00 - 17.00	Field / Practice Study on storytelling	Mentoring storytelling (jb, js, nf)	Mentoring on request (jb)	Field / Practice Study

Exercises

Exercise 1: 20 ways of description

Write down and/or sketch out twenty ways to define your topics on post its and later sort them into categories we found fitting. Define two or three most important statements.

Exercise 2: Topic Space

Matrix of existing ideas and projects across qualities, parameters and values that are important for the topic. Use sketches to present projects on your topic space.

Exercise 3: Design Space

Identify two or three most important dimensions of your topic space. This will be your design space. Sketch quickly 50 ideas to populate your design space. Place them on your design space (document/photograph).

Exercise 4: 10 ways of manifestation

Select 10 ways of executing your ideas and exhibiting them.