| Quarter 1 (8 weeks) | Quarter 2 (8 weeks) | Quarter 3 (8 weeks) | Quarter 4 (8 weeks) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Methods | IDSE101 Interaction Design Research and Synthesis |
IDSE201 Rapid Ideation and Creative Problem Solving |
IDSE301 Evaluation of Interaction Design Solutions |
IDSE401 Entrepreneurial Practice |
| Theory | IDSE102 Design, Society and the Public Sector |
IDSE202 Service Design |
IDSE302 Theory of Interaction Design and Social Entrepreneurship |
|
| Application | IDSE103 Studio: Foundation |
IDSE203 Studio: Research and Synthesis |
IDSE303 Studio: Ideation and Development |
IDSE403 Studio: Pilot Launch and Completion |

This course teaches methods of creative problem solving and ideation, including sketching, drawing, diagramming, and the underlying approaches of abductive thinking and divergent thinking. Students learn how to quickly visualize ideas, iterating through variations, and allowing an idea to evolve quickly and effectively.

This class emphasizes the following main ideas, themes, and concepts:
- Drawing and sketching as a public activity, in order to foster and facilitate collaborative discussion
- Diagramming as a method of understanding and synthesizing complicated data, and as a collaborative decision making tool
- Whiteboarding and group facilitation, for strategic group work and for fostering collaboration across disciplines
- Rapid Ideation of interaction design solutions, using wireframes and other mid-level fidelity tools

The following outcome statements articulate the competencies, abilities, and skills a student will have as a result of completing this class. Students will...
- Be able to quickly visualize ideas through various tools, including analog and digital sketching, rapid physical prototyping, whiteboarding and diagramming
- Be able to model complicated systems and services through the use of diagrams, and use these diagrams to provoke facilitation and design discussion and rationalization
- Understand how to communicate through sketching, both in a formal capacity as well as in a real-time, facilitation style

| Class | In Class | Out of Class | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue, 11/1 | Lecture: Introduction to Rapid Ideation and Creative Problem Solving | Assignment 1: Creating Use Cases |
| 2 | Thu, 11/3 | Lecture: Telling the Story – Writing Scenarios | Assignment 2: Creating Scenarios
Refine Use Cases, Begin Scenarios |
| 3 | Tue, 11/8 | Assignment 1 due
Guest Lecture: Jennifer Sukis |
Refine Scenarios |
| 4 | Thu, 11/10 | Assignment 2 due
Lecture: Telling the full Story – Using Narrative to Create Diagrams and Storyboards Software Demo: Using Photoshop and Illustrator for diagrams |
Assignment 3: Creating Storyboards |
| 5 | Tue, 11/15 | Drawing for storyboards
Guest Lecture: Pat Marsh
|
Refine Storyboards |
| 6 | Thu, 11/17 | Assignment 3 Due | Assignment 4: Creating Process Flows |
| 7 | Tue, 11/22 | Lecture: Wireframing & Paper Prototyping | Refine process flows |
| 8 | Thu, 11/24 | No Class: Thanksgiving Holiday | Refine process flows |
| 9 | Tue, 11/29 | Assignment 4 Due
Lecture: Building Software |
Assignment 5: Wireframing & Prototyping |
| 10 | Thu, 12/1 | Lecture: Putting it all together – Research, Synthesis, Scenarios, Diagrams & Wireframes | Begin sketching initial high level software designs, scenarios, and flows |
| 11 | Tue, 12/6 | Heuristics, Conventions, and Affordances. | Refine initial high level software designs, scenarios, and flows |
| 12 | Thu, 12/8 | Lecture: Lecture: Clickable Prototypes | Articulate complete flows, scenarios, and designs |
| 13 | Tue, 12/13 | Lecture: Cross-platform prototyping: Introduction to Arduino (Matt Franks)
Interim Critique & Work in Class |
Refine materials to better communicate detailed UI elements |
| 14 | Thu, 12/15 | Lecture: Methods for creative facilitation and presentation | Begin developing digital representations of wires and interactive simulation |
| 15 | Tue, 12/20 | Interim Critique & Work in Class | Continue refining wires and interactive simulation |
| 16 | Thu, 12/22 | Assignment 5 Due
Final presentation and critique |
Sleep |

