I502 “Experience Design” Syllabus, Spring 2007
Jeffrey Bardzell, Ph.D.
Human-Computer Interaction Design
School of Informatics
Indiana University
In the Playstation 2 era, and everything that came before it, going all the way back to Atari VCS, the game console market has been almost exclusively defined by packaged media…. What PS3 starts is the era where the package is just the beginning of the relationship with the customer…. How do you allow your user base to influence your worlds as creators themselves?
—Phil Harrison, head of Sony Worldwide Studios
Course Description
The focus of HCI is moving beyond efficiency and productivity. Computers are a part of our everyday lives, and we use them to connect to friends and family, create and manage our personal music and photo libraries, explore fantastic new worlds with virtual friends, view mass and viral media, network professionally, and pursue our hobbies. Computer interfaces are no longer tools we use to accomplish tasks; they are the environments in which we work, play, relax, love, and kill time. As a result, designers are increasingly focusing on creating experiences, rather than interfaces. This shift in focus implies a corresponding shift in the conceptualization, methodologies, and practice of HCI.
In this course, students will be introduced to anthropological and philosophical conceptualizations of human experience and then, guided by recent HCI literature, apply that understanding to interaction design. In a highly participatory environment, students will examine design artifacts, from Japanese punk fashion to Chicago skyscrapers, using theories from visual culture, simultaneously critiquing these designs and sketching new ones based on them. As a final project, students will develop a series of experience prototypes before designing a universally accessible educational museum exhibit.
Course Objectives
- Develop a critical and creative sensibility with regard to “experience”
- Improve your ability to design experiences for users unlike you or kinds of experiences with which you are unfamiliar
- Complete portfolio-worthy work
- Practice and improve your oral presentation skills
- Practice and improve your visual literacy/visual communications skills
Textbooks
There is one required textbook, and the rest of the readings will be made available through Oncourse, the ACM library, and possibly other mechanisms. As an IU student, you have free access to the entire ACM library, as long as you log into via the IU library page, at this URL (scroll down to "ACM Digital Library"): http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1044&mode=alpha&letter=A
The required textbook is as follows:
- McCarthy, J. & Wright, P. (2004). Technology as Experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Highly recommended, but not required (except for the assigned portions made available elsewhere), are the following:
- Barnard, M. (2001). Approaches to Understanding Visual Culture. New York: Palgrave.
- Moggridge, B. (2007). Designing Interactions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Assignments and Grading
Because this is an experience-oriented class, students will be asked to complete a high number of discrete assignments. These assignments are intended both to ensure that students are engaged and learning throughout the semester and also to spread out requirements to avoid crunch times.
Assignment |
Description |
% of Grade |
Attendance |
Most of the work done in this class will be done in teams, with a sizable proportion of the work being done in class. Failure to attend and participate hurts students, their teammates, and the class as a whole. |
20% |
Engagement |
Engagement means active class participation: participating in class discussions (asking questions, sharing ideas, etc.); obvious signs of leadership in groups / teamwork; participation in micro-assignments |
20% |
Short Assignment |
A design exercise grounded on experience, rather than interfaces or interactions |
10% |
Critical Paper Assignment |
A critical short paper in which students will compare a given object (e.g., vacuum cleaner) from two different eras, exploring the relationships between their visuality and user experience |
15% |
Experience Prototype |
A multimedia project in which you prototype an accessible interactive museum exhibit, using experience and paper to prototype design concepts before leading up to a final machinima or video prototype of the exhibit itself |
35% |
Policies
Classroom Behavior
I expect everyone to conduct themselves in a professional manner during class. That includes showing up to class on time; late arrivals distract everyone. It also means treating others with respect, even if you disagree with them.
Timeliness
Timeliness is critical in professional settings. Managers and clients don’t like to pay for work that’s turned in late, and they aren’t interested in hearing about why something is late. Start early and manage your projects so that you have plenty of time at the end to deal with unexpected surprises, failed disks, blackouts, cord-eating cats, misfiring romances, persistent coughs, appointments for a facial, PlayStation injuries, unstable roommates, flat tires, religious conversions, and jury duty. Please don’t be the source of the next excuse (pedestrian or bizarre) to add to the above list.
Your grade on the semester project will decline one full grade (10 points) for each day it is late, unless I explicitly approve the delay in advance.
Academic Misconduct
We are morally and procedurally bound by IU’s policies on academic misconduct, the details of which you can read about here: http://www.dsa.indiana.edu/Code/index1.html. If necessary, I will follow these policies to the letter.
Religious Observation
In accordance with the Office of the Dean of Faculties, any student who wishes to receive an excused absence from class must submit a request form available from the Dean of Faculties for each day to be absent. This form must be presented to the course professor by the end of the second week of the semester. A separate form must be submitted for each day. The form must be signed by the instructor, a copy retained by instructor, and original returned to the student.
Information about the policy on religious observation can be found at the following web site: http://www.indiana.edu/~deanfac/holidays.html#reco.
Schedule
Date |
Topic |
Readings |
Assignments |
Jan 9 |
Introduction |
-- |
|
Jan 11 |
|
Susanne Bødker, “When Second W *-+. 0.ave HCI Meets Third Wave Challenges” (1-8) |
|
Conceptualizing Experience |
|||
Jan 16 |
Understanding experience 1: Philosophy and Anthropology |
John Dewey, “Having an Experience” (36-59) |
|
Jan 18 |
|
Edward Bruner, “Experience and its Expressions” (3-32) |
ASSIGNED: A short experience design exercise |
Jan 23 |
Understanding experience 2: Technology |
McCarthy & Wright, “A Pragmatist Approach to Technology as Experience” in Technology as Experience (49-78) |
|
Jan 25 |
|
McCarthy & Wright, “The Threads of Experience” in Technology as Experience (79-104) |
DUE: A short experience design exercise |
Interpreting Design Experiences |
|||
Jan 30 |
Introduction to visual culture and cultural studies |
Malcolm Barnard, “Explanation and Understanding: Visual Culture and Social Science” in Approaches to Understanding Visual Culture (19-40) |
|
Feb 1 |
The “literary” experience |
Maxine Hong Kingston, “No Name Woman” from The Woman Warrior (1-16) |
|
Feb 6 |
Benjamin: Aura, design, and place |
Walter Benjamin, “Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” |
|
Feb 8 |
Visual Literacy Exercise #2 (color palettes) |
-- |
|
Feb 13 |
Overview of Rapid Interaction Design I: User research and task analysis |
Handout: “A Rapid Prototyping Design Process” |
2-day micro-assignment: Rapid contextual inquiry |
Feb 15 |
Visual Literacy Exercise #3 (Framing/boundaries) |
-- |
|
Feb 20 |
Overview of Rapid Interaction Design II: IA, storyboards, wireframes, and UI widgets; |
Susan Wodtke, “Making It All Up, Writing it Down” in Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web |
2-day micro-assignment: Design directions |
Feb 22 |
Studio time |
-- |
|
Feb 27 |
Phenomenological approaches to design criticism |
Malcolm Barnard, “Interpretation and the Individual” in Approaches to Understanding Visual Culture (41-63) |
ASSIGNED: Design critique short paper |
Mar 1 |
Toys as designs |
Roland Barthes, “Toys” in Mythologies (pp. 53-5) |
|
Mar 6 |
Remediation, intertextuality, networked authorship, and participatory culture |
Bolter & Grusin, “Networks of Remediation” in Remediation: Understanding New Media (64-87) |
|
Mar 8 |
The “Numa Numa” phenomenon |
-- |
|
Mar 13 |
Spring Break |
||
Mar 15 |
Spring Break |
||
Designing Experiences |
|||
Mar 20 |
Experience design as practice |
McCarthy & Wright, “Going on from Practice” in Technology as Experience (23-48) |
DUE: Design critique short paper |
Mar 22 |
Understanding Disability and Accessible Design: Visit from |
Reading TBD |
ASSIGNED: Museum/ experience prototype project |
Mar 27 |
Paper Prototyping |
Carolyn Snyder, “Thinking About Prototyping” and “Making a Paper Prototype” in Paper Prototyping (49-96) |
|
Mar 29 |
Studio time |
-- |
|
Apr 3 |
Experience Prototyping |
Buchenau & Suri, "Experience Prototyping." ACM |
2-Day Micro-Assignment: Experiencing Disability |
Apr 5 |
Studio time |
-- |
|
Apr 10 |
Designing with Metaphor |
Lakoff & Johnson, Chapters 1-6 in Metaphors We Live By (pages 3-32) |
2-Day Micro-Assignment: Metaphor Design |
Apr 12 |
Studio time |
-- |
|
Apr 17 |
Machinima Prototyping |
Bardzell, Bardzell, Briggs, Makice, Ryan, & Weldon, “Machinima Prototyping: An Approach to Evaluation.” ACM |
2-Day Micro-Assignment: Machinima Prototyping |
Apr 19 |
Studio time |
-- |
|
Apr 24 |
Guest lecture: Evaluating experience designs |
-- |
|
Apr 26 |
Studio time |
-- |
(Note: CHI runs from April 28-May 3) |
May 1 |
Exam Week |
-- |
|
May 3 |
Exam Week |
|
DUE: Museum/ experience prototype project |