Approval

The course was established 2006-12-13. This syllabus was approved 2007-09-07 by the Education Committee at Arts and Communication. The syllabus is valid from 2007-08-31.

Purpose

The purpose is to develop skills and abilities for interaction design practice, and basic knowledge of information technology as design material.

Stage

Mandatory course for the Master degree in Interaction Design.

Entry requirements

Admitted to the study programme Interaction Design, 120 higher education credits.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student should:

Knowledge and understanding

• display broad knowledge of information technology as design material, its possibilities and limitations
• display substantial knowledge of design methods, in particular for large projects

Skills and abilities

• display skills in selecting and using relevant methods, techniques and tools for interaction design, including a broad repertoire of forms for representing interaction designs, software as well as hardware aspects

• display skills in expressing design ideas in ways that communicate relevant information and enable stakeholders to achieve a sufficient level of engagement in use to understand the qualities of a suggested design
• display basic understanding of corporate identity as an aspect of product design
• display a basic understanding of building elements in graphic design including color and typography
• demonstrate presentations skills, including selection and adaptation of presentation formats and techniques to communicate design concepts to a specified target group
• demonstrate basic skills in visual design for interactive systems
• demonstrate skills in expressing design concepts in visuals and text

Judgement and values

• demonstrate ability to, within interaction design as an area of knowledge development, exercise judgement accounting for relevant societal and ethical aspects. In particular, the ability to judge design qualities associated with gender, migration and ethnicity, and environmental issues should have been developed

Assessments

Student learning is assessed through assignments where students demonstrate achieved skills and abilities in practical design work. If an assignment handed in does not comply with the requirements of the course, the student is allowed to hand in additional material or an improved version of the original result.

Course content

The course content is divided into three parts: design methods and techniques; graphic design and corporate identity; and sketching and modelling.
• Design methods and techniques cover field studies, idea generation, concept development, composition, design representation and expression, and basic presentation skills.
• Graphic design and corporate identity cover typography, symbols and basic principles for layout; theories and principles for usingcolor and shape; basic principles in developing, communicating, and maintaining a corporate identity, including marketing strategies.
• Sketching and modelling cover basic skills in expressing ideas visually, in two dimensions on paper as well as in three dimensions through mock-ups or simple models.

Learning activities

The course is organized as a series of workshops. Each workshop consists of activities over a concentrated period of one days to one week that introduces the students to a specific method, technique or set of methods or techniques. By integrating the workshops in the studio course on Research themes, methods and techniques are directly applied in a design project of the Research themes course, after being introduced in the workshops of this course. The workshops consist of lectures, exercises and assigments. Exercises and assignments are carried out individually or in groups under supervision.

Grading system

Fail (U), Pass (G) or Pass with Distinction (VG).
ECTS grading system can be used on students demand.

Reading list

Entire course
Literature study year 2007/2008
Löwgren, J. & Stolterman, E. 2007. Thoughtful Interaction Design: A Design Perspective on Information Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Part of the activities in the workshops consists of the student surveying and selecting readings relevant for the chosen area of study, in dialogue with the supervisor.

Course evaluation

At the end of the course, a written course evaluation will be carried out.