Interaction Design Process FS19

Spring 2019: March 26 - May 3.

Instructors:
Dr Joëlle Bitton
joelle.bitton@zhdk.ch 

Nicole Foelsterl
nicole.foelsterl@zhdk.ch

Guest Lecturer:
Dr Jean-Baptiste Labrune

Project Partner:
Psychiatrie St.Gallen Nord, Ateliers-Living Museum, Zürcherstrasse 30 CH-9501 Wil (SG)
with Rose Ehemann and Nicole Ottiger

Office hours by appointment 

The module takes place from March 26 - May 3, over 6 weeks, including a production week (5), from Tuesday to Friday each week, 9.30-17.00, see detailed hours in calendar below.
Room is 4K15 for most of the module, except during production week (access to photo studio 3.F18) and final week (4.E08). Exceptions made be added in the calendar.
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, students work through the several stages of project development: Context/User Inquiry, Concept Generation, Idea Testing, Prototype Development, Evaluation and Concept Iteration. 

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. 

Topic

"With People, For the People, By the People"

The topic for this class addresses the typical design premice of people-centered design at the core of interaction design studies and human-computer interaction research. What does this premice actually mean? What are the limitations, frustrations, realities of designing on the ground? Is participatory design an actual possibility or is it a fallacy where designers end-up imposing their views unto "users". This class will challenge the assumption that interaction designers design for people as a mantra perpetuated in diverse institutions and corporations, and uncover the contradictions of a designer's agency. In particular, we'll work within the boundary of designing for/with people on the margins, with special needs, or that don't always fit the mainstream types of users.

This course will take place in partnership with patients from the Ateliers-Living Museum of Psychiatrie St.Gallen Nord, in Wil.

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 

• how to apply ethical guidelines in co-design 

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:

• Week 1: Into the Wild!
  User, context and/or technology inquiry
  Methods: direct and participatory observation, video ethnography, interviews, questionnaires, cultural probes, etc.

• Week 2: Idea Transfers
  Enacting and testing ideas
  Methods: sketching, bodystorming, brainstorming, participatory methods, extreme characters, etc

• 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: forms of evaluation, from user-testing to narratives enacting scenarios
  
  

• Week 5: Production 1
  Independent study 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.

Group presentations 20% 

Final work 30%

Class participation 10% 

Journal Documentation 20%

Assignments 20%

Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.  

Deliverables

• Group presentations

Interval group presentations each week present the advancement of the group's project and highlight the specific requirements of that week.
Each presentation are structured so that each group member will introduce an aspect of the project. On average, the presentation should be 10 minutes.
The format is open: 

• Week 2 Presentation requirements:
  Name of group/project
  Knowledge Inquiry
  5 related works
  Lessons learned from the field / probes
  Where do you want to go
  How do you get there (identify roles, needs, actions)
   

• Final Work

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.

• 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):

Throughout the module, various short home assignments will be given to practice concepts discussed in class.

Course Materials

The course IAD Design Methods provides the background literature for this class.
Readings are made available in the shared IAD server, under 19FS > Sem2_IAD_PROCESS.

Additional readings can be provided as the class progresses.

Teams projects

• Shafira, Sonjoi, Sophie, Yami

• Andreas, Andy, Roman, Zoe

• Andreas, Charlotte, Danu, Tim

• Damaris, Fabian, Paméla, Tamara

Calendar

JB: Dr. Joëlle Bitton, NF: Nicole Foesterl, JBL: Jean-Baptiste Labrune