Approval

The course was established 2008-04-17. This syllabus was approved 2008-05-09 by the Board of Studies at Faculty of Culture and Society. The syllabus is valid from 2008-09-01.

Purpose

The purpose of this course is to give an introduction to the epistemology of design and to develop an understanding and reflection of how design artefacts might constitute statements in a context of knowledge construction. The scope includes framing of how creation of design knowledge deviates from traditional epistemology in the sense that such knowledge includes dimensions that are hard to articulate in words since it is dependant on the specific design situation, dialogical interaction with design material, individual experience and tacit understanding. The course addresses the questions of the properties of design knowledge, how it can be articulated and transferred. A second purpose of the course is to relate general ideas of design knowledge to the students’ individual experiences of design. The course is the second of three epistemological courses supporting the development of knowledge contribution in the course “Thesis project”.

Stage

Mandatory course for the Master degree in Interaction Design.

Entry requirements

The course is a mandatory element in the programme Interaction design, 120 higher education credits. Entry requirements are completed coursework from the first year of the programme and completion of the course "Philosophy of Science" in the second year.

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding

After completing the course, the student should
• display knowledge in epistemology relevant for design from readings as well as own reflections


Skills and ability

After completing the course the student should
• display ability to reflect over how designed artifacts can be interpreted as statements in a context of knowledge construction


Critical skills and approach

After completing the course the student should
• display ability to exercise judgement accounting for societal and ethical aspects of the design process. In particular, the student should develop ability to assess design qualities related to perspectives on gender, migration, ethnicity and environment.
• display insight into how the design process can be viewed as a knowledge construction process and how reflection over ones own design work may improve this process (double loop learning)

Assessments

The course takes place as a series of seminars on different themes relating to Design as knowledge development. In relation to these themes students write and present individual essays. 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 results. Especially assessment will be based upon the abilities to analyze and reflect;
-on general issues of epistemology
-on issues of the specific character of design knowledge
-on general themes in the design process
-on relating individual experience of design to general issues of epistemology and the specific character of design knowledge

Course content

The course covers the following themes:
•The epistemological position of artifacts
•Design work and design knowledge
•Dialogical perspectives on knowledge construction
•Processes and material in interaction design

Learning activities

The pedagogical approach for the interaction design program takes as its starting point a fundamental assumption about learning as reflective practice. In this course this assumption is analyzed in a series of seminars where the core of the learning process is the combination of individual reflection on literature and personal design experience, articulating the reflection in writing or in multimedia formats and reflective discussions in class. The activities and assignments are related to a thorough reading of Donald Schön’s Educating the reflective practitioner in combination with individual reflection.

During the end of the course a specific idea about how knowledge for interaction design might be transferred and articulated in the form of inspirational patterns.

As students may choose to do part of their thesis project abroad within international exchange activities, the course is also offered as distance learning where assignments and discussion is digitally mediated.

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
MAIN READING

Löwgren, Jonas (2005),Inspirational patterns for embodied interaction, In proceedings of Nordic Design Research Conference (Nordes), Copenhagen 2005

Reddy, Michael J (1993), The conduit metaphor – A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In; Metaphor and thought / edited by Andrew Ortony, Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press, 1993

Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.


RECOMMENDED READING

Alexander, Christopher, Sara Ishikawa et al. (1977). A pattern language. Towns, buildings, construction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. (1994). Borderline Resources: Social and Material Aspects of Design. Human-Computer-Interaction 9(1): 3-36.

Bucciarelli, Louis L. (1995). Designing Engineers, Cambridge Mass: MIT Press

Dewey, John. (1980/1934). Art as Experience. New York NY: Berkeley Publishing Group.

Ehn, Pelle. 1988. Work-Oriented Design of Computer Artifacts. Arbetslivscentrum, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Fällman, Daniel. (2004). Design oriented-research versus Research-oriented Design, Workshop Paper, CHI 2004 Workshop on Design and HCI, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2004, April 24-29, Vienna, Austria.

Gibson, James, J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston Mass: Houghton Mifflin. (Currently published by Lawrence Eribaum, Hillsdale, NJ.)

Henderson, Kathryn. (1995). The Visual Culture of Engineers. In: Leigh Star, Susan, ed. The Cultures of Computing. Oxford: Blackwell, 196-218.

Ingold, Tim. (2000). The perception of the environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.

Krippendorf, Klaus. (2006). The Semantic Turn. A new foundation for design. Boca Raton FL: Taylor & Francis Group.

Course evaluation

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