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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, March 28 - May 5.
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

Topic ....

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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, 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 these stages of observation, creation, and evaluation, we will discuss and apply situated 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. 
Following a structured stages of observation, creation, and evaluation we will discuss and apply from situated and user-centered methods to creative design practice (eg. bodystorming, context analysis, video scenarios).

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?, is "how" 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 such sentence?

During the course the student will learn:

• how to design through personal exploration and in communication with others (participatory design)
• how to search for new possibilities/opportunites/alternatives for interactive products, rather than responding to a set of given requirements
• how to use a variety of methods and tools which can be existing design practices, can be borrowed from other disciplines and can be developed by designers themselves 

The student is expected to produce these final deliverables:

1. A working prototype, user-tested and evaluated
2. The presentation of this interaction design product, service and/or experience grounded on the understanding of the user and the context
3. The documentation of assignments and design process in a blog 

Course Outline

Your project development is structured in following steps:

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• Week 3: Play 
  Creating prototypes and confronting them to the 'real world'
  Methods: participatory methods with mockups, cartoon scenarios, acting out an experience  etc.Week 4: Stories and users
  How is your work being evaluated? 
  Methods: 
  Week 5: Production 1
  This reading week allows you to work on your production assignment
  Week 6: Production 2
  This week is to finalise your work.
  

During the course the student will learn:

• how to design through personal exploration and in communication with others (participatory design)
• how to search for new possibilities/opportunites/alternatives for interactive products, rather than responding to a set of given requirements
• how to use a variety of methods and tools which can be existing design practices, can be borrowed from other disciplines and can be developed by designers themselves 

Final Deliverables 

1. Documentation of assignments and your design process in a blog

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• experience, etc.

• 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
  Reading week: working on your production assignment 
  
  
• Week 6: Production 2
  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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The final outcome of the class is a project proposal in the form of a working prototype, user-tested and represented to an external audience in the form of a film and/or a medium of your choice (installation, website, demo, etc...). For this class, there will be an emphasis on the film narrative as a way to disseminate your proposal.

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The course IAD Design Methods provides the background literature for this class.
Readings are made available in the shared IAD server.

Additional readings are provided heremay be provided as the class progresses.

Calendar

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