Interaction Design Process FS17

Spring 2017: March 28 - May 5.

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

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, 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

"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:

• 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
  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.

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: 

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.

Additional readings may be provided as the class progresses.

Calendar

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