About This Course

This course is the next phase of the Interaction Design and Social Entrepreneurship Project. Students will begin to iteratively prototype and test designs related to a particular humanitarian and social problem space. Students will build physical and digital artifacts as necessary to describe their design solution, and will test that material in the actual context of the particular design problem.


Core Concepts and Ideas

This class emphasizes the following main ideas, themes, and concepts:

  • Criteria and insight definition, applied, in order to begin a comprehensive design effort
  • Rapid Ideation, applied, intended to explore multiple design solutions to a single problem, and to reframe problems from various new and interesting perspectives
  • Evaluation, applied, in order to understand how a given design solution is perceived by an intended audience
  • Development and Refinement, applied, in order to continue advancing the fidelity of a design solution and understand tradeoffs of various design changes
  • Client facilitation, applied, in order to keep a set of stakeholders informed, excited, and involved with a design direction

Outcomes and Competencies

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 illustrate, through prototypes, sketches, and presentation materials, a cohesive design idea to positively address a particular large-scale social and humanitarian problem
  • Be able to describe and rationalize the particular design decisions that have led to the development of a particular design solution

Course Schedule

Date Major Theme In Class Prior to Next Class

1/12

Ideation & Concept Design

Review Syllabus and expectations for IDSE 303. Students will refine and prioritize design pillars from their contextual research.

One-sentence design statement: “We are designing [blank] to help [blank] achieve [blank].”

Begin concepting and ideation.

Continue to refine design pillars & plan for any additional supplemental research.

Generate 20 – 30 design concepts for next class.

Reading: Bill Buxton – Sketching user experiences.

Reading: Designing in small batches.

1/19

Ideation & Concept Design

Discuss assigned readings and the application of ideas to concepts.

User testing expectations delivered.

Evaluate and down select concepts for testing.

Begin research planning & draft research plan.

Continue to iterate and down select concepts for testing.

Plan concept testing & begin scheduling research participants – deliver draft research plan by wed Jan 23rd (via email).

Refine testing plan based on feedback.

Starting with the hero flow or primary interaction, refine the selected concept to a low level of fidelity (digital wires or physical models).

Reading: SXSW lecture – MVP : Ash Maura

Reading: Kim Goodwin – Designing a unified experience

Blog posting on one of these readings.

1/26

Design Refinement & Test Prep

Students will continue to refine their design concepts and testing plan for Feb 1st or 2nd testing.

Introduction to prototyping – Flash, Clickable wireframes.

Submit refined research plan by 6pm on Jan 27 (via email).

Continue to refine concept for testing.

Refine testing plan based on feedback.

Generate testing assets.

Test concept with 2 to 3 users on Feb 1st or 2nd. All testing must be completed by Sunday Feb 3rd.

Reading: Steven D Pow – how prototyping practices affect design results.

2/3 – Sunday

Testing Review, Concept Refinement

Discuss initial research findings. Refine concept expectations and direction as needed.

Discuss readings and blog postings.

Begin research externalization and synthesis.

Synthesize research findings.

Continue to generate &/or refine concepts based on research finding.

Reading: TBD.

2/9

Detailed Design

Review refined concepts and new concepts or refined hero flows.

Discuss testing expectations.

Visual design guest lecture: Chad Fisher.

Create rough draft of testing plan and deliver by Wed Feb 13 (via email) – Begin contacting research participants.

Create 3 distinct visual styles for your concept. Apply 1 visual style to hero flow / concept.

Reading: TBD.

2/16

Detailed Design

Review refined concepts, visual styles and visual hero flows.

Review & refine testing plan for Feb 22nd or 23rd testing.

Visual design guest lecture: Becca Franks.

Refine testing plan as necessary.

Refine hero flow / archetype screens, based on selected visual style, to a medium level of fidelity.

Generate testing assets.

Test concept with 3 to 5 users on Feb 22st or 23nd. All testing must be completed by Sunday Feb 24rd.

Reading: TBD.

2/24 – Sunday

Testing Review, Concept Refinement

Discuss initial research findings. Refine concept expectations and direction as needed.

Discuss road map and planning.

Expectations for final presentation.

Refine design as necessary to show during final presentation.

Create roadmap for continued ideation, testing, and development for next quarter.

Create final presentation.

Final presentation must be submitted via email or dropbox 1 hour prior to presentation – LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

3/2

Presentation

Students will present their final concept & roadmap.