Kalender

The first meeting we will be next THURSDAY at 13-17.

Prepare yourself by reading the two texts below
1. The first chapter of the textbook:
http://www.designingforinteraction.com/designingforinteraction2_sample.pdf 

2. Jonas Löwgrens description on interaction-design.org:
http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/interaction_design.html

And answer the following questions (max 1 A4, print and bring to class):

1. What is interaction design? (your own definition, or favorite definition)

2. What is interaction design not? (include what you think might be common misunderstandings of what interaction design is about)

3. What are important skills for an interaction designer?

Prepare yourself by reading the two texts below
1. The first chapter of the textbook:
http://www.designingforinteraction.com/designingforinteraction2_sample.pdf 

2. Jonas Löwgrens description on interaction-design.org:
http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/interaction_design.html

And answer the following questions (max 1 A4, print and bring to class):

1. What is interaction design? (your own definition, or favorite definition)

2. What is interaction design not? (include what you think might be common misunderstandings of what interaction design is about)

3. What are important skills for an interaction designer?

(The class will end at 17)

Design brief 1:

Description:
The DEVICE design award is the first step in order to establish an international EU funded award of excellency in designing for vulnerable generations - children and elderly. Here, at the SIDER’13 conference, the award is targeted towards students in interaction design. Submissions relevant for the award are judged in terms of innovation, and human-centric approaches to design, along with the conference theme of empowering people through technology. 

The evaluation criteria for the award are:

• Focus on vulnerable generations: children and/or elderly
• Design methodology
• Societal relevance
• Design quality
• Empowerment

All papers, posters and demos submitted to SIDeR’13 focusing on the DEVICE user groups - children and/or elderly, can be considered for the award. Please state in your submission if you wish to take part or not. The winners of the award will be awarded with a diploma and a NEXUS 7 tablet for each contributing author. The award is sponsored by the EU funded DEVICE project, and the winners will be selected by a committee consisting of members from the project. See more about the DEVICE project here http://deviceproject.eu/.

For more info about the SIDeR conference:
http://sider2013.au.dk/

Suggested project plan (pdf)

1. Meet up with your group and discuss the design competition thoroughly
2. Decide which of the two target groups (children or elderly) you plan to address
3. Send a list of group members + your decision as a COMMENT to this schedule post before 12:00
4. Book a 15-30 min consultation session with teacher on Tuesday to discuss: selected target group, interview setup, first ideas. Book here: http://doodle.com/hk6g8z4mbu4cwbrh 
5. Make a quick plan for how to meet and divide work in next week.

For support and feedback Ylva will be available for drop-in supervision and discussion in the temporary studio (old studexp floor 2).

During this week you should:

• Think out a “hunt statement” for finding info needed for your project (see chapter 4 in the course book: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1389669) 
• Plan and set up (at least) two interviews with someone in the target user group, and/or relatives.
• Look up info online.
• Make a mood board of images to take inspiration from, and to show target users.
• Consider potentially problematic issues of designing for the target group.
• Remember to also meet with Ylva this day to discuss your first ideas: http://doodle.com/hk6g8z4mbu4cwbrh 

Same as above

Meet in the group to sketch out initial design ideas and concepts.

Based on the gathered information so far, think out the main design principles for your project (see chapter 6 in the course book: http://johnnyholland.org/2009/09/ideation-and-design-principles/ )

Also re-develop the mood board based on what you learnt in the interviews.

Generate 3 concepts within the group – and a few simple paper sketches for each one.

NOTE: You are free to sit wherever you please. Room L31 is booked for those group who cannot find another place, old studexp is also available (and where Ylva will be) all afternoon until 17. 

Bring all the material gathered so far for a progress crit and structured brainstorming session based on each of the generated design concepts.

Together you will, for each concept idea, list:

-        What does the main idea consist of? Is it anything in the concept that is unclear?
-        What are the main strengths with this concept? Why do we like it?
-        What are its potential problems, challenges?
-        What are potential variations that this concept could take? Do we know of any similar products? 

We will end with each group giving a 5 minute presentation summarizing the work of the week and status of project. Your presentation should contain:

• main learnings from interviews and other sources of information 
• what you plan to focus on in the project
• basic concept/user scenarios that you envision

This week each person should do a small individual project, working with a prototyping tool to make the ideas developed so far more concrete. This is both so that everyone gets to work hands on with the design parts, but also to get all the greatest ideas “out”.

Ground as much as possible on what you learnt from the interviews, other research, personal experience, discussions in last week.

List of possible tools can be found here:

• http://speckyboy.com/2011/02/23/10-completely-free-wireframing-and-mockup-tools/
• http://mashable.com/2012/06/07/mockup-tools/

Ylva will be available all scheduled hours for drop-in supervision.

Drop in for supervision in the old studexp room, any time during the day 10-12 and 13-17.

(same as above)

Set up a meeting with the group for the whole afternoon (13-17).

-        Bring the prototype/sketch, in the form you managed to produce so far (quality will vary depending on limitations of selected tool, your personal experience using similar tools, etc, so see this not as a proof of skill but as a learning experience).

-        Show and explain the main ideas that you tried to capture, and what parts that are not there but would be important in a final product.

-        Study each others design carefully and take note on ideas that are similar or that could be combined, what you like most in each design, etc.

-        Discuss how each of the designs could be improved, and which of them you like to show target users. It will be good to bring at least two variations to get feedback on in next week.

Make a 10 minutes presentation (e.g. prezi, google presentation, ppt), describing the main features of your design concept, with images, scenario of use, and prototype(s).

The critique session is for sharing ideas and getting feedback, so try and be as specific as you can about what you want feedback on.

During this week you should:
-        Conduct a quick feedback session with target user(s) on your latest design
-        Re-work latest design based on feedback
-        Prepare a draft 2 page paper, and get feedback on it.

Paper should include:

Title + Authors

Describe briefly the ideas behind your design, images, scenario of use, and prototype.

Summary of process, including:
1. Investigation: the current situation, problems, challenges + related work

2. Exploration: possible ways of addressing the problem(s)

3. Specification/Realisation: sketches, mockups, prototypes

4. Valuation/judgement: results from checks/tests with target users

Focus should be on how your design provide value and benefit for the target user group.

Remember that paper should be in the ACM submission format: http://www.sigchi.org/publications/chipubform/sigchi-papers-word-template/at_download/file

 Ylva will be available for drop-in feedback and help during all of the scheduled sessions.

Doodle to book a slot for 30 min supervision:http://doodle.com/ckx998i2gd64yuvh

Times are available from 13-17. 

Supervision drop in

Bring your 2-page draft paper in 6 copies. In class, you will be reading and giving feedback on papers from the other groups, and we will discuss together what makes a winning contribution.

During this week you will need to finalise your design, and also the 2 page paper to submit to sider.

Ylva will be available for supervision via email. 

Present your final design and hand in final version of the paper, and get comments for last minute adjustments. Prepare a 10 minute presentation.

Lecture: What is professional criticism? Why is it important to us?

Whatever you design, it will most likely be subject to some form of critique, either informally to your face, or as a written commentary in a public blog post somewhere, as ratings in the app store, or a detailed analysis by professional critics in e.g. a newspaper. As designers it can be useful to have a developed idea of how professional criticism actually work.

Reading: 

Bardzell, J. (2013) The “Intentional Fallacy” and the “Affective Fallacy” of Interaction Design? http://interactionculture.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/the-intentional-fallacy-and-the-affective-fallacy-of-interaction-design/

(Optional reading: Bardzell, J. Interaction criticism: An introduction to the practice. Interacting with Computers 23, 6 (2011), 604–621.)

Task of the week (individually):

Revisit the mockup tool(s) that you used in the first project of the course.

Your task is to write a 1-2 page (+ pictures) review of your experience of using the tool. 


As your help, note that a professional review is not just random opinions, but typically contain (according to Bardzell, 2011):

1. The work’s qualities - e.g., elements and materials, structure, content, etc. (facts)
2. The critic’s own direct sensual, emotional, and intellectual experience of with the work, including what was felt and learned as a result of it. (subjective)
3. Taking a position with regard to e.g. moral or ethical consequences of the work and possible interpretations/uses of it. (subjective)
4. Knowledge of related expert perspectives from others: what other critics, experts, and scholars have said about the work or those relevant to it in some way. (critical tradition)
5. Other known works that in some way are comparable to the work. (critical tradition)
6. An awareness of the work’s position in history and location, including how audiences, consumers, users, etc., reacted to the artifact. (critical tradition)
7. Relevant theories, be they methodological or specific to a type of work and its tradition(s). (critical tradition)

And usually focus on one of these perspectives:

- Creator. With focus on the design team, who are they? What were their intentions? How do they describe their design?

-  Artifact. With focus on the design itself, what is it? How does it look like, what can you do with it?

-  Consumer. With focus on the type of people using this product, who are they? What do they use this for, how many are they, what have they had to say about this product?

- Social context. With focus on issues such as the historical setting, class, ideology, gender, etc. What does this product say about our society at large? Design trends?

Bring your 1-2 page review in 4 copies.

Reading seminar

Preparations: read Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg, Personal Dynamic Media (1977):
http://www.newmediareader.com/book_samples/nmr-26-kay.pdf 

(please shout if you already read this and like another text to read instead!)

Read the text and think out three issues or questions based on the text that you would like to discuss with your peers. It could concern aspects or terminology that you do not understand, how it misses important aspects of current design problems, or anything else. This is one of the classic texts on interaction design, that has been influential to our field in many ways. But what can you, as an interaction designer in year 2013 possibly learn from a text published in 1977?  

Task of the week (individually or in pairs):

• What will interactive technology be like in 36 years from now (i.e. in year 2049)?
• Is it different or similar to e.g. science fiction? (please refer to specific books or movies if you like!)
• How would you like to affect the development, as an interaction designer?
• Bring up hopes, wishes, fears and fantasies, but try and be as realistic as you can! 
• As an alternative - you could formulate it as a letter to yourself at a later stage of your career, about the state of the art now

Bring your fantasies/texts and present in smaller groups. Try and reach consensus of what you think are the main things to expect of the future of interaction technologies, and share with the rest of the group. Do we end up with "science fiction" solutions, or something completely different, do you think?

Prepare by reading: Neustaedter, C. and Sengers, P. Autobiographical design - what you can learn from designing for yourself. interactions 19, 6 (2012), 28.
http://dl.acm.org.focus.lib.kth.se/citation.cfm?id=2377783.2377791 

This is a fairly recent text from the Interactions Magazine, discussing the issue of designing for and trying out ones own design oneself. Read the text and think out three issues or questions that you would like to discuss with your peers. How does the text relate to what you have read in other courses? How does it relate to e.g. your ideas about what the life as an interaction designer might consists of?

Task of the next two weeks (individual):

In these two weeks you will conduct a really small interaction design project for yourself, making something that you personally would find interesting to test out.

Examples could include (but are not limited to):

• Your own personal cloud service script, e.g. using ifttt:
  https://ifttt.com/wtf
• Following an instructable at instructables.com, for instance to hack an old mp3 player: http://www.instructables.com/id/Super-IPod-1/?ALLSTEPS
• Make a simplistic social application that runs inside Facebook: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/canvas/
• An animated game using e.g. Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu/
• Develop a really simple personal mobile app:
  http://gigaom.com/2012/03/05/with-this-tool-even-you-can-write-android-apps/
  http://www.raywenderlich.com/1797/how-to-create-a-simple-iphone-app-tutorial-part-1
  http://blog.blprnt.com/blog/blprnt/processing-android-mobile-app-development-made-very-easy
  http://www.androidhive.info/2012/03/android-building-audio-player-tutorial/

• Borrow a kit from Ylva - arduino, makey makey, pico cricket (first come first served) to make something physical. E.g. a toy for your cat...?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKJK082Cn3A

The design can be really tiny and simplistic, the important thing is that you manage to get it to a stage that you can test out for yourself -- and that you have fun in the process.

This is a meeting to discuss how to arrange attendance to present the SIDER projects. This will not be a compulsory meeting, but it would be good if at least one member per group could attend. Please comment below if this is not a suitable time, and if so I will look up other time slots!

Presentation of your project to your peers (in small groups). Prepare a 10 minute “show and tell” presentation, were you explain what you are working on, your main idea, how far you have gotten, and if there is anything in particular that you like feedback on or help with.

In the room on 2nd floor, next to delfi.

Make your own two-page description of your project (with your own choice of layout, including pictures) and upload to Bilda as pdf by Thursday night. The description should contain

• Your name
• A name of your project
• What the main idea was
• What you ended up making
• How it was to actually use it
• What you would like to improve if you could (if anything)

Bring your written presentation of your project, as well as the project itself, and show it to your friends and share experiences.

This seminar is for those of you who have exam and therefore cannot come in the morning.

Bring your written presentation of your project, as well as the project itself, and show it to your friends and share experiences.

*** In room D32 ***

For the rest of the course, you will conduct a concrete design project in groups of 2-3 students, grounded in latest trends in interaction design (commercial and/or research).

Weekly crits on Thursdays 13-15 and 15-17 (half class).

During the project you will:

• Read up on latest trends in one area within interaction design
• Design and build a working prototype/interface that can be tested with people
• Test and give feedback on the designs of your peers
• Illustrate the design and scenario in an attractive way using video
• Present your project in a public exhibition

** room 1535 in E building **

In this crit focus will be on getting started on the formal aspects of your projects, and to define a plan for how to structure the rest of the project.

 Preparations:

• Form project group and discuss interests
• Define three in your opinion hot and currently relevant/interesting topics in interaction design, which you would like to explore in a project
• Setup project blog or simplistic webspace for your project, where your project will be documented and stored for future reference
• Make a first post with a rough project plan for your project. The plan should fit with the course schedule and your other activities. You do not yet have to decide exactly what to work on, but a higher level plan is useful to deliver in time.
• Submit link to project blog on KTH social here

** room 1535 in E building **

In this crit focus will be on getting started on the formal aspects of your projects, and to define a plan for how to structure the rest of the project.

 Preparations:

• Form project group and discuss interests
• Define three in your opinion hot and currently relevant/interesting topics in interaction design, which you would like to explore in a project
• Setup project blog or simplistic webspace for your project, where your project will be documented and stored for future reference
• Make a first post with a rough project plan for your project. The plan should fit with the course schedule and your other activities. You do not yet have to decide exactly what to work on, but a higher level plan is useful to deliver in time.
• Submit link to project blog on KTH social here

*** Room 1535 E-building 5th floor ***

Preparations:

Look up related work on the theme or topic that you want to explore, both commercial products, blog posts, guides and instructables, as well as academic research. Collect this as a separate blog post or as links in some other way in your project website.

In particular you should look up a research project related to your selected topic of interest within the field of Interaction Design. The project should be ongoing or at least fairly recent (not older than 2010).

Make a blog post/entry in your web space, that gives an overview of the related work that you find most interesting, including the research paper:

• Describe the related work as richly as possible (include video if you can find that)
• Regarding the research paper: How may this project inspire new designs?

How to find research projects:
Search ACM’s digital library www.acm.org/dl (access from eduroam/kth networks)

Or http://scholar.google.se/

Search for “interaction design”, plus words that are more specific to the project theme you want to look into (e.g. sports, children, textiles, mobile haptics, citizen dialogue, responsive web, navigation… you name it). Sort the results by date to find the most recent and relevant ones.

*** Room 1535 E-building 5th floor ***

Preparations:

Look up related work on the theme or topic that you want to explore, both commercial products, blog posts, guides and instructables, as well as academic research. Collect this as a separate blog post or as links in some other way in your project website.

In particular you should look up a research project related to your selected topic of interest within the field of Interaction Design. The project should be ongoing or at least fairly recent (not older than 2010).

Make a blog post/entry in your web space, that gives an overview of the related work that you find most interesting, including the research paper:

• Describe the related work as richly as possible (include video if you can find that)
• Regarding the research paper: How may this project inspire new designs?

How to find research projects:
Search ACM’s digital library www.acm.org/dl (access from eduroam/kth networks)

Or http://scholar.google.se/

Search for “interaction design”, plus words that are more specific to the project theme you want to look into (e.g. sports, children, textiles, mobile haptics, citizen dialogue, responsive web, navigation… you name it). Sort the results by date to find the most recent and relevant ones.

* We will meet at the seminar room next to "torget", Lindstedtvägen 5 (D-house), 6th floor. *

Preparations:

Finding alternatives. No matter if your design challenge is large or small, there are always many ways that it could be addressed. It could be alternatives on overall conceptual level, or details on aspects of the visual appearances of the interface. Identify some different alternative solutions for your particular design task, and present them online and in class. E.g. different alternatives for icons in an interface, or different business model solutions for a commercial app. The scale depends on your choice of challenge.

End with the alternative that you plan to go for and motivate your choice. Take help from users, litterature, material explorations and peers to motivate your choice.

Room: D34

Those who have been on the study trip to Denmark make an informal summary of the trip to those of us who couldnt go. Those who stayed in town give a quick summary of what they missed.

The last 60 minutes will be a workshop with Vygansas (Vegas) Simbelis, about storyboarding video presentations for interaction design scenarios.

Bring scissors if you can!

In the afternoon 15.00-15.45 in D2, I will give a docent lecture: "introduction to tangible interaction", it is an open thing so you are all very welcome to attend that if you like! :)

* in our new standard classroom on floor 6, house D. *

Bring your latest scenarios, sketches, and other visualizations that you have made during the process so far, and present it to the group. Focus on the things you like feedback on from the group.

Bring your group's storyboard and prepare presentation of individual and in peers work. Present individual old stories and new story of the group. Prepare to tell us about the process from the first storyboard till the final version, present what difference was between first and second attempt of storyboarding and what income was working in peers and mixing frames within a group. Upload storyboards online at KTH Social.

Upload a synopsis of your group online to KTH Social.

Homework 

• Work individually on the storytelling
• Work on the visual part of the storyboard

• Start working with your group members
• Switch your frames around with your group members’ frames
• Create a new story within the group, using all frames (can skip a few or add more)

• Write a synopsis, short story and technical description (1-2 A4) with your group members. Upload on your KTH Social.

• Upload first version and second version of the story. Describe the process, what difference have you got on the first stage, how you moved forward, what have you changed and what income was gathered from different group members, what is a final result. Group work.

* in our new standard classroom on floor 6, house D. *

Bring your latest scenarios, sketches, and other visualizations that you have made during the process so far, and present it to the group. Focus on the things you like feedback on from the group.

Bring your group's storyboard and prepare presentation of individual and in peers work. Present individual old stories and new story of the group. Prepare to tell us about the process from the first storyboard till the final version, present what difference was between first and second attempt of storyboarding and what income was working in peers and mixing frames within a group. Upload storyboards online at KTH Social.

Upload a synopsis of your group online to KTH Social.

Homework 

• Work individually on the storytelling
• Work on the visual part of the storyboard

• Start working with your group members
• Switch your frames around with your group members’ frames
• Create a new story within the group, using all frames (can skip a few or add more)

• Write a synopsis, short story and technical description (1-2 A4) with your group members. Upload on your KTH Social.

• Upload first version and second version of the story. Describe the process, what difference have you got on the first stage, how you moved forward, what have you changed and what income was gathered from different group members, what is a final result. Group work.

Complete the required design research for the selected task. This activity should include some involvement of users (in the form of e.g. interviews, observations, questionnaires), but also from other sources.

Upload photographs, quotes from users, and other material collected that will be important input to your design.

Preparations:

Look through the online info about some of the ongoing research projects, and try and come up with a question for the researchers that you will meet: 

http://www.mobilelifecentre.org/research-current 

Directions:

We meet at 10.00 by the entrance of Mobile Life Centre, wich is on the 6th floor, lift B, in the "Electrum" building in Kista. Electrum is a grey striped building on Kistagången, the long street going between Kista galleria and Helenelund.

Public transport: Pendeltåg to Helenelund or T-bana to Kista, then about 10 minutes walk. 

View Map

Composition. Bring your latest scenarios, sketches, and other visualizations that you have made during the process so far, and present it as a 10 minute presentation (ppt/prezi or similar). The design should now be almost finalised. Focus on the things you like feedback on from the group.

Composition. Bring your latest scenarios, sketches, and other visualizations that you have made during the process so far, and present it as a 10 minute presentation (ppt/prezi or similar). The design should now be almost finalised. Focus on the things you like feedback on from the group.

Iterative prototyping with user evaluation. Present preliminary results from a user evaluation of your latest design. Present on blog: what did you learn and what would be a suitable way forward?

Present user study.

Present user study.

Work on final design/video.

Work on final design/video.

Overview of latest research presented at CHI this week, with focus on works that are of relevance to your ongoing projects.

http://chischedule.org/2013/ 

Note: video session moved to next week!

Present your latest work, and update your blog with all the latest work.

The idea is that your blogs will be useful for you as work samples for your portfolio after the course is finished, so start thinking about good ways of presenting the project so that also people outside will understand the best parts of it!

Note: video session moved to next week!

Present your latest work, and update your blog with all the latest work.

The idea is that your blogs will be useful for you as work samples for your portfolio after the course is finished, so start thinking about good ways of presenting the project so that also people outside will understand the best parts of it!

Preparations:

Make comment/review on another group's blog (instructions to be sent out by ylva).

Work on video presentation of project.

Present you latest design in the form of a short video. Discuss aspects that are unclear and could be clarified in the video.

Preparations:

Make comment/review on another group's blog (instructions to be sent out by ylva).

Work on video presentation of project.

Present you latest design in the form of a short video. Discuss aspects that are unclear and could be clarified in the video.

Invite your friends!

Deadline individual reflection on the course (+ rest assignments): Wednesday June 5.

Write max 2-3 pages, in Swedish or English, containing the following info:

• Your name, and whether you are master or bachelor student, and from which program
• Short description of all the projects you have been involved in during the course
• Which of your projects that you personally found most interesting, and why
• What part of the course you found most interesting, and why
• What parts of the course that you did not like, or did not learn so much from, and suggestions for how this could be improved
• A short reflection on interaction design as a subject, based on your experiences from this course

Send your reflection as an email to: fernaeus@kth.se 

Final feedback from teacher on passing the course: Friday June 14.