BA concept seminar structure:
Instructors:
Dr Joëlle Bitton
Prof. Dr Karmen Franinovic
Office hours by appointment
- The module takes place over 2 weeks, from 07.01.18 to 18.01.18, from Monday to Friday, 9.30-17.00 in room tba - see calendar below for detailed sessions.
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 2-page thesis project description, a blog documenting the 2-weeks progress and a pretotype showing the core aspects of the interactive experience they are aiming to create.
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 pretotype, engage in field or test study and summarise their BA idea and related experience in an appropriate narrative format (a video, a cartoon, a performance).
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.
Pretotype 25%
Interactive Experience 25%
Project Description 20%
Journal Documentation (exercises, findings) 20%
Class participation 10%
Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.
(5) Deliverables
- Pretotype
The pretotype is the manifestation of your ideas into a service, a product, a method, a user's experience, etc.
- Interactive Experience
The experience you want to create should be presented in a best suited format (a video, a cartoon, sketches, a performance). It should address both spatial and temporal aspects of the project.
- Project Description
This 2-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?
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
Calendar
| Week 1 | Monday 7.1 | Tuesday 8.1 | Wednesday 9.1 | Thursday 10.1 | Friday 11.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morning 9.30 - 12.00 | Brief Introduction about the module Exercise 1: 20 ways of description Exercise 2: Theme Space | Exercise 3: Design Space | Mentoring | Mentoring | Exercise 5: 10 ways of manifestation |
| Afternoon 13.30 - 17.00 | Mentoring | Mentoring | Exercise 4: 10 ways of investigation | Mentoring | Exercise 4: Situate |
| Week 2 | Monday 14.1 | Tuesday 15.1 | Wednesday 16.1 | Thursday 17.1 | Friday 18.1 |
| Morning 9.30 - 12.30 | Mid-Presentation: where are you now? what is your road map? | Field / Practice Study | Field / Practice Study | Field / Practice Study | Final Presentations: progress and 'pretotype' |
| Afternoon 13.30 - 17.00 | Field / Practice Study | Field / Practice Study | Mentoring (on request) | Field / Practice Study | 17.00 5-page essay deliveries |
Exercises
Exercise 1: 20 ways of description
Write down twenty ways to define our topics on post its and later sort them into categories we found fitting. Define two or three most important statements.
Exercise 2: Topic Space
Map existing ides and projects across qualities, parameters and values that are important for the topic. Use sketches to present projects on your topic space.
Exercise 3: Populating 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 of your ideas and develop in more detail.
Exercise 5: 10 ways of investigation
Exercise 6: Situate