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Spring 2017: March 28 - May 5.

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Nicole Foelsterl
nicole.foelsterl@zhdk.ch

Office hours by appointment 

The module takes place from March 28 - May 5, over 6 weeks, including a reading week (5), from Tuesday to Friday each week, 9.30-17.00.
Class sessions include lectures, discussions, mentoring sessions, in-class exercises, home assignments and independent study blocks.
Projects are conducted in groups of 4 students. 

Overview and Objectives

This course puts the students in the context of realising an interaction design outcome from initial idea to final proposal, with a particular emphasis on field research and user-experience.
In this interaction design process, different methods are applied in students work through the several stages of project development: Context/User Inquiry, Concept Generation, Idea Testing, Prototype Development, Evaluation and Concept Iteration. 

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Following

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these stages of observation, creation, and evaluation, we will discuss and apply situated

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and user-centered methods (eg. bodystorming, context analysis, video scenarios, etc).

This course is project-based and will allow students to have a hands-on experience.
Organised in groups, students will develop innovative design concept for a product, a service or an experience. 

Topic

"How do you want to change the world?"
This year, the topic for this class takes a typical design question that starts many project premises, especially in education environments that encourage students to have an impact in the world. The sentence has become a form of "pep talk" statement, where individuals should embrace forms of agency (see discourses from MIT Media Lab, Ted Talks, design thinking courses, various pitches competitions, etc).
In this class, we take that sentence upside down and within it question the role of the designer itself: what does "the world" mean?, what does "change" mean?, what does is "how" mean meant for a designer to think with?, how does that addresses the question of a designer's agency? and finally, what's the underlying expectation of of such sentence?

During the course the student will learn:

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• Week 4: Stories and users
  How is your work being evaluated? 
  Methods:  forms of evaluation, from user-testing to narratives enacting scenarios
  
  
• Week 5: Production 1
  This reading week allows you to work Reading week: working on your production assignmentassignment 
  
  
• Week 6: Production 2
  This week is to finalise your work.Finalising the project 
  
  

Expectations and Grading

Grades will be based on group presentations, class participation, home assignments, documentation (journal) and final work. All work should be produced in English.
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.

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JB: Dr. Joëlle Bitton, NF: Nicole Foesterl, GB: Prof. Dr. Gerhard M. Buurman