First Year
- Fundamentals of Physical Computing
- Robert Faludi
-
This course explores the fundamentals of extending computation beyond the glowing screen and into the physical world. Using a programmed single-chip computer, students will learn how to connect sensors, actuators and indicators to create devices, installations and environments that move computational interaction “outside the box.” Our focus is on people rather than on devices. We will consider how the human mind is affected by physicality in all environments. By making a hands-on exploration of reactive, expressive, interactive and embodied behaviors, students learn to observe users, understand affordances and move seamlessly from digital processes to tangible actions. Course work is done individually in weekly technique labs and in groups for longer creative assignments. Note: No previous programming or electronics experience is required.
- Prototyping User Experiences
- Robert Fabricant – Joshua Musick – Jeff Hoefs
-
Interaction design concepts can be hard to describe. And the best way to both communicate and improve your design is to prototype it quickly and often. This course examines how to integrate lightweight prototyping activities, as well as some basic research and testing techniques, into every stage of the interaction design process. A range of methods will be covered, from paper prototyping to participatory design to bodystorming. Students will learn how to choose the appropriate method to suit different dimensions of a design problem at different stages in the process and the pitfalls of each approach. The course is highly collaborative with hands–on prototyping and testing. Working individually and in teams, students will create rapid exercises, with one prototype developed or iterated each week, with the goal of evolving toward more robust ways of expressing ideas in rich interactive form.
- Strategic Innovation in Product/Service Design
- John Zapolski
-
The design of interactive products and services differs from other forms of design in important ways. Developing the context for successful user experiences requires designers to think more holistically about the business models for the products they create: how the value proposition to customers and users unfolds over time; what’s being “sold” and where the costs of production and management occur; how to engage, complement, and benefit from other services that intersect with what is being offered. This course will help students in becoming more effective at understanding and describing the strategic decisions involved in the creation of interactive products and services, and to equip them with tools and methods for generating innovative options and making smart strategic choices.
- Design in Public Spaces (7 weeks)
- Jill Nussbaum
-
Interfaces are embedded in nearly every aspect of our daily lives—from grocery shopping to banking to reading books. How can we integrate technology with the physical world to create better interfaces and more useful, playful and meaningful experiences? This course explores how interaction design fundamentals apply to physical spaces by surveying branded environments, retail stores, museums, urban settings and corporate venues with specific user goals and design considerations in mind.
- Thesis I: Preparation (7 weeks)
- Liz Danzico
-
This course launches students in developing a course of action for a thesis area of investigation through a series of readings, discussions and probes. Students evaluate what comprises an appropriate thesis topic and its requisite components over the thesis year.
- Information Visualization
-
This course encourages students to examine problems across space, time, and location by understanding the methods needed to develop a range of complex data visualizations and information graphics. By the end of the course, students will have the skills to conduct a rigorous examination of the choice of models and their place in the applied practice of interaction design.
- Research Methods (7 weeks)
- Nate Bolt
-
A review of critical movements in design from the second half of the 20th century to the present is the focus of this course. We will consider how much of the craft that designers have valued historically is important for what we do today. Using insights grounded in history, students will evaluate what separates good design from “other” design in digital media, and review case studies of why certain products and companies have risen triumphant over others. Students will visit centers of design in the City and learn to use them as resources for research, exploration and experimentation.
- Introduction to Cybernetics and the Foundations of Systems Design
- Paul Pangaro, Ph.D.
-
This course presents frameworks for modeling interaction in terms of structure and context, augmenting traditional discussions of form and syntax. We will collaboratively address questions that are fundamental to design practice: What is a system, and what are the different types? How do we interact with systems, and what are the different types of interaction? Systems may act independently, interact with other systems, learn, and even converse. What do such systems have in common, and how can we describe them? How can we measure their limitations? The course explores the integral structures and coherent processes for the design of effective artifacts, communications, collaborations, and services. Students will apply frameworks for steering design processes and/or design outcomes based on their own interests, encompassing domains as broad as education, health and wellness, and sustainability.
- A History of Design (7 weeks)
- Alex Wright
-
A review of critical movements in design from the second half of the 20th century to the present is the focus of this course. We will consider how much of the craft that designers have valued historically is important for what we do today. Using insights grounded in history, students will evaluate what separates good design from “other” design in digital media, and review case studies of why certain products and companies have risen triumphant over others. Students will visit centers of design in the City and learn to use them as resources for research, exploration and experimentation.
- Lecture Series I
-
Design experts and visiting lecturers will discuss topics that support and inspire interaction design, including anthropology, cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction, game design and sustainability. Students will have the opportunity to ask questions in order to acquire an understanding of the role of interaction design across companies and organizations.
- Smart Objects (7 weeks)
- Carla Diana
-
The ubiquity of embedded computing has redefined the role of form in material culture, leading to the creation of artifacts that communicate well beyond their static physical presence to create ongoing dialogues with both people and each other. This course will explore the rich relationship among people, objects, and information through a combination of physical and digital design methods. Beginning with an examination of case studies, students will gain a sense of the breadth of product design practice as it applies to smart objects. Through a combination of lectures and hands-on studio exercises, students will investigate all aspects of smart object design including expressive behaviors (light, sound and movement), interaction systems, ergonomics, data networks and contexts of use. The course will culminate in a final project that considers all aspects of smart object design within the context of a larger theme.
- Slow Code
- Amit Pitaru
-
In Slow Code, students write homegrown code and share it with their local classmates. Like the Slow Food Movement, the class advocates the benefits of using locally grown produce (code) and skillfully judging the origins of globally produced food (code-libraries/snippets). Students are given time to learn the craft, exploring how it relates to their unique skillsets and interests. At minimum, they learn how to code as well as use other people’s code efficiently. At best, the craft will grow its roots into their perception of systems, processes, and ultimately enrich their creative processes.
- Framing User Experiences (7 weeks) : Jason Severs
-
Products are no longer simply products; they live within complex business and technological ecosystems. To fully understand the user experience, designers must be highly flexible communicators, facilitators, mediators and thinkers. Whether designing a dialysis machine, a mobile phone app, or a water filtration system for the developing world, design is as much about framing user experiences as it is about the creation of new artifacts. This course focuses on the relationships between objects and their contexts, how to identify human behaviors and needs, and how those behaviors and needs converge to create user experiences.
- Screen Design: a Holistic Approach
- Jeffrey Zeldman
-
A holistic approach to screen design from soup to nuts, with an emphasis on big ideas, and enough code to help students’ craft and confidence. The course is mostly ideas though, not code—ideas such as mobile first, responsive design, and orbital content on top of a solid foundation of web standards, design, and usability. The course will be structured around a book a week, reviewing the big ideas in the books in class, why they’re important, and how they led to other ideas in the digital design ecosystem. Students won’t just slavishly memorize the concepts behind these books, of course; they’ll have a chance to argue alternate points of view, and try out some of the concepts in their own work.
- Seminars and Workshops
-
To bring students into contact with a significant number of working professionals, a series of seminars and workshops are held during the first year of the study. Individual workshop descriptions follow.
- Planning Websites: A Visual Approach Workshop : Dan Brown
-
Despite the temptation to dive into designing screens for a new website, good designers know that a more deliberate, considered approach leads to better design. The more complex the system, the truer this is. Designers working on elaborate business applications have to deal with dozens of features, scenarios and business rules. A little planning goes a long way. Two diagrams essential to the planning process are flow charts and concept models. Flow charts help designers envision processes and tasks while concept models illustrate a site’s underlying structure. In this workshop, participants will learn how to create their own diagrams and use them in the planning process.
- Hopeful Monsters : Matt Jones, Jack Schulze
-
A week-long brief to explore the interesting territory of how products and services are now deeply “intertwingled”, but from a product, form and communication standpoint rather than a “service-design” or “problem-solving” viewpoint. Theworkshop emphasizes the generative–looking to create “hopeful monsters”– possible product constellations in universes next-door that we could take little leaps toward. It also emphasizes the politics and influence of craft and materials and how they interact with other demands of a design program. It will aim to
introduce techniques and “maneuvers” that can create surprising and inventive outcomes.
Recently
- Behind the Festival
- Vision for sustainable NYC
- On the Last Day
- Data Narratives: The Art and Craft of Information Visualization, a new two-week summer program
- Faculty member Carla Diana speaks at TEDxEmory
- MFA candidate Catherine Young invited to speak on happiness at TEDxNewHaven
- Thinking Thesis: David Bellona’s Coal Button Launch
