• Identify and compare the scope and utility of various methods in creative, innovation and design-oriented IT projects
• Reflect critically on the theoretical foundations of methods used within Interaction Design and user-centered design
• Perform user-centered field research in a setting relevant to the design project
• Apply user-centred design methods to build and evaluate a digital prototype of an IT product.
• Use a digital prototyping/design tool to devise, present and evaluate the value, functionality and information architecture of a digital product.

The course will feature practical design activities and visualization work as core disciplines for development of digital services and products, and it will equip students to think, visualize, critique, facilitate and present design concepts. It will further focus on a critical, reflective understanding of design methods and their judicious application. 

The course will focus on design-centric research methods drawing on an interaction design framework. This entails visualizing, sketching on paper, developing simple prototypes in software; conducting, analyzing and presenting quick-and-dirty design ethnographies; user-centered design, participatory design, personas and scenarios development and an overall philosophy of rapid, iterative design processes. 

The process of prototyping at early stages in the development process is emphasized in the course. Rapid iterations of lo-fidelity designs or mock-ups will be used extensively in the student design teams to “ask relevant questions” and glean knowledge from the users.

The literature will cover design methods derived from Human-Computer Interaction and Interaction Design methods as well as methodologies and theoretical readings in the humanities and social science. 

Design teams and project work

 
The outset for all of the coursework and the exam will be a student design project, and practical work is part of the in-class activities as well as workshops. Parts of the teaching will be as lab-based as possible, i.e. entailing engaged group work around the design of a product or service prototype. 

The students will be using a technical prototyping application for their project work (e.g. Axure RP, myBalsamiq or similar, depending on need). It is expected that the students will have gained some competence with the application before embarking on the design project. The typical product is a prototype produced and presented in a particular medium (e.g. on a computer, a device, paper, or video). 

All student design teams will perform a mandatory presentation of their ongoing work 3 times during the course, and prepare relevant questions to ask of their design (this is the “design crit” session, parts of which will be based on a design-space analysis/argumentation method). Doing their project, the students must work in 2-5 (3 or more being ideal) person design teams to be able to cover sufficient ground in the project in terms of data collection for the case context as well as to do timely design critique throughout the project. Interdisciplinary work and bringing different competences to bear is key for good projects. 

The project (product) is of the students own choosing, and can include work that involves design for (and with) public sector institutions, private enterprise, as well as more exploratory design projects to develop new interaction styles, explore the new and expanding context of computer use or other conceptual work that includes the design of a concrete IT prototype interface to explore viability or experience. 

Note that for any area chosen, the students must identify and use a minimum of 2 peer reviewed research papers, e.g. found using the ACM database (dl.acm.org) (note that you have to go through CBS Library or be on the CSB network to access the ACM database)

It is expected that a group is formed and a project or case is defined as early as possible in the course period, so that work on the product (the prototype) can commence early.

The literature can be changed before the semester starts. Students are advised to find the final literature on Canvas before they buy the books.

Research articles and perspective

Albrechtsen et al. (2001), Affordances in Activity Theory and Cognitive Systems Engineering, Risø National Laboratory, Technical report, Risø R-1287 (English)

available http:/​/​orbit.dtu.dk/​fedora/​objects/​orbit:88142/​datastreams/​file_7726876/​content

Bødker, S. (2000). Scenarios in user-centred design-setting the stage for reflection and action. Interacting with computers, 13(1), 61-75.

Brandt, E. (2007). How tangible mock-ups support design collaboration. Knowledge, Technology, and Policy, 20(3), 179-192.

Buchenau, M. & Fulton-Suri, J (2000). Experience Prototyping, in Proceedings of ACM DIS, 2000.

Buur, J., & Sitorus, L. (2007). Ethnography as Design Provocation. Proceedings from Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference, Keystone, CO, USA.

Buur, J., Binder, T., & Brandt, E. (2000). Taking Video Beyond “Hard Data” in User Centred Design. the Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference, New York, CPSR, December.

Erickson, T. (1995). Notes on Design Practice: Stories and Prototypes as Catalysts for Communication. In Scenario-based design: envisioning work and technology in system development (pp. 37–58). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, NY, USA.

Fallman, D. (2003). Design-oriented human-computer interaction. Proceedings from Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems.

Gaver, B., Dunne, T., & Pacenti, E. (1999). Cultural Probes. Interactions, Volume 6.

Hertzum, M. (2003). Making use of scenarios: a field study of conceptual design. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 58(2), 215-239.

Kaptelinen, V. (no date). Affordances (entry 44 in Interaction Design Encyclopedia): https:/​/​www.interaction-design.org/​literature/​book/​the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/​affordances#heading_Introduction:_Why_affordances?_html_pages_128643

Kimbell, L (2009). Beyond design thinking: Design-as-practice and designs-in-practice, paper presented at CRESC Conference, Manchester, September 2009.

Kolko, J (2010) Abductive Thinking
and Sensemaking:
The Drivers of Design Synthesis, Design Issues: Volume 26, Number 1 Winter 2010

Latour, Bruno: “Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts”, findes her:

Messeter, J. (2009). Place-specific computing: A place-centric perspective for digital designs. International Journal of Design, 3(1), 29-41.

Millen, D.R. 2000: Rapid ethnography: time deepening strategies for HCI field research, Proceedings of the 3rd conference on Designing interactive systems: processes, practices, methods, and techniques

Mogensen, P (1992): Towards a provotyping approach in systems development. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 4(1), 5.

Norman, D. A. (1999). Affordance, conventions, and design. Interactions, 6(3), 38-43.

Peyton, T. & Poole, E. 2014. The Videographic Requirements Gathering Method for Adolescent-Focused Interaction Design, Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal - IxD&A, N.20, 2014, pp. 57-69

Salvador, Bell, Anderson, 1999. Design Ethnography, Design Management Journal, Fall, 1999

Stolterman, E. & Janlert, P (2015). Faceless Interaction - A Conceptual Examination of the Notion of Interface: Past, Present, and Future.  Human-Computer Interaction, 30, 6.

Zimmerman, J, Forlizzi, J. and Evenson, J. 2007. Research through design as a method for interaction design research in HCI. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘07)

Liteature (non-research)

Buxton, Bill (2007) (BUXTON 1): “Sketching User Experiences - Getting the Design Right and the Right Design”, Morgan Kaufmann, 2007 (COURSE BOOK)

Greenberg, Carpendale, Marquardt, & Buxton 2012 (BUXTON2): Sketching User Experiences: The Workbook, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012 (COURSE BOOK)

Fraser, H. M. A. (2009). Designing Business: New Models for Success. Design Management Review, 20(2), 56-65, available at: http:/​/​www.dmi.org/​dmi/​html/​publications/​news/​viewpoints/​09202FRA56.pdf

Martin, R (2009): What is Design Thinking Anyway? Online article accessed Mar. 1, 2011, at http:/​/​observatory.designobserver.com/​entry.html?entry=11097

Nielsen, L. 2007 (ONLINE), 10 Steps to Personas, available at http:/​/​www.hceye.org/​HCInsight-Nielsen.htm