Logistics

Important Links


Grading

This class will involve a fair amount of discussion and unstructured studio time, in addition to online lectures, in-class virtual activities, student presentations, and group critiques. Grades will reflect performance on assignments, team projects, and participation on assignments and in class.

Students are expected to attend online lectures and studios, participate in group activities and discussions, and be a good team member. As a show of respect to fellow students, please fully engage in the class zoom during lectures and sections--do not use your phone, or open other windows or applications.

Grading Breakdown:

  • 15% A2 Digital poster

  • 30% A3 User research

  • 35% A4 Mobile app design

  • 10% Reading reflections (Class/ Studio discussions)

  • 10% Participation

Assignment 2 will be performed individually. Assignments 3 and 4 will be done in teams and grades will be tuned based on team peer evaluations.

It is also strongly recommended that you complete the relevant readings before they are covered in class, for obvious reasons. If you are engaging with this course asynchronously, it is your responsibility to stay caught up with regard to course content and announcements by frequently checking Canvas and Slack.

Participation Grade:

The overall participation grade will take into account your contributions to classroom activities throughout the quarter (e.g., submitting work for crits, and commenting on others' work during crits). Instead of taking attendance, we will keep track of "participation points" for core design activities and students will be able to do these both during class time, but also outside of class. If you cannot attend lecture or your designated studio times, please let your TA or IA know and look for ways to make asynchronous contributions.

There will be 20 points worth of "core" participation for activities that are valuable for learning design:

  • (1 pt) Introduce yourself in Slack

  • (4 pt) A2 crit participation

  • (1 pt) A3 team formation survey

  • (1 pt) A3 stage 0 - team contract

  • (2 pt) A3 crit participation (feedback on A3 talks)

  • (1 pt) A3 Team peer evaluation

  • (1 pt) A4 give feedback on one other team's sketches and wire frames

  • (4 pt) A4 complete user testing on two other team's lo-fi prototypes

  • (1 pt) A4 give feedback on one team's mood boards and style guides

  • (3 pt) A4 feedback on hi-fi prototypes

  • (1 pt) A4 Team peer evaluation


Each opportunity offers one point for every ~10-20 min of commitment, so the goal of this is to motivate ~200 minutes of participation throughout the quarter. Grading will work as follows:

  • A: 18 or more participation points (90% or more of core points)

  • B: 16-17 participation points (80-89% of core points)

  • C: 14-15 participation points (70-79% of core points)

Time Allocation:

As a rough weekly time allocation, students should dedicate 1-2 hours for reading and reflections and 4-6 hours for assignments each week. You might need additional time for the final project work. While we will run a course online with as much rigor and excitement and expectation as we have in our physical classroom, we understand that these are exceptional circumstances for students, so please communicate with us if any urgent issues arise.

Late Assignments:

It is vitally important to keep up with course assignments and discussions in order to participate fully. For instance, if you are late doing a reading, it means that you’ll be unprepared for lecture and discussion in class. Late assignments will receive 10% deduction per day for the first 5 days. If you submit later than 5 days, you can earn a maximum of 50% on the assignment. This policy applies to both individual and group assignments.

References and Cheating:

We will uphold UCSD’s commitment to academic integrity and will enforce University rules regarding cheating, plagiarism, and any form of academic dishonesty. In all your work in this class, you should utilize and cite any sources of information you can: search results, news sources, scholarly papers, personal contacts, and outside faculty. Acknowledge them with specific footnotes or hyperlinks. Specify each source well enough that a reader can find it. We will reward you for using/citing sources and penalize you for using none. If you cut and paste content from elsewhere, use quotation marks and footnotes. Not acknowledging your citations is an ethical failure, but failing to seek help limits your effectiveness. Should any student be found guilty of cheating on an assignment, the University will be notified. Additionally, depending on the circumstances, and at the discretion of the instructor and the Department Head, a student could fail the course and may be expelled from the University. A student can appeal any faculty decision to the UC San Diego Academic Senate.

Critique Guidelines

Critiques are an essential part of the design process, and will be a part of nearly every class period. Verbalizing what you see helps you to learn. You are expected to be an active participant in all critiques. You should not expect to get personal feedback on your work every time. We will do our best to distribute feedback evenly across the quarter, and you can meet with us by appointment if you have specific questions. Critiques are not beauty contests. When giving criticism, always describe what you are seeing and experiencing, rather than your opinion as it relates to your personal taste. For example, rather than saying, “I don’t like this,” it is more constructive to say, “I’m not sure what you want me to look at first,” or, “I was drawn to this first, but then I got confused about where to go next,”, or, “this was hard for me to read – I had to squint my eyes.”

Do not take what is said about your work personally, no matter how difficult this seems. These assignments require you to take risks and try new things. Your effort and willingness to approach problems with originality is a greater reflection of your potential as a designer than whether your solution is aesthetically perfect. During a critique there may be conflicting thoughts and opinions expressed about your work. It is up to you to determine the best way to use the feedback you've received.

Tools for online learning:

Zoom Guidelines:

This a studio-based design course with team project. Although we do not require students to have their cameras turned on for the duration of lectures and studios, we highly encourage cameras on in order to get the most out of the class experiences, including discussions, critique sessions, team building, and small group activities. In cases where low internet bandwidth hinders audio communication, you should turn off video to prioritize audio.

Slack for Communication:

This class uses Slack as a key mode of communication between instructors and teams. Please read over the course website before posting any questions on Slack. Try to ask questions within the class or studio-specific channels so that other students can benefit from the answer. If you have any personal matters or questions, feel free to direct message the instructors.

  • Link to Download Slack on your device

    • https://slack.com/downloads/

    • We encourage you to download slack on both your desktop and mobile device.

    • Be sure to customize your settings for your profile and notifications (Channel Settings > Notification Preferences)

  • How to Join a Slack Channel

  • Channel Usage:

    • #su21-whole-class for general course questions, logistics, scheduling, and lecture related materials. This is the main course channel.

    • #summer2021-Rill-[team XX] for communicating with team members and asking questions/feedback from your IA and TA

    • #general. Avoid this one. This include hundreds of people, mostly students who took this course before. We don't want to flood everyone with messages.

Teams

Teamwork is complicated! We appreciate that part of the challenge in this class is figuring out how to work with people with different workstyles, time zones, backgrounds and experiences. Keep in mind these points as you develop a relationship with your team on A3 and A4.

  • Collaboration is about working with differences. Some people may be better at ideating and leading, others may be more quiet workers. Try to work with people’s skills and proclivities, and allocate work accordingly.

  • Team reporting. At the end of the project, each of you will submit a report sharing an analysis of your own contribution and the work of your team members. Your overall grade on the project will be adjusted based on your individual contributions.

  • Team obligations. Everyone on the team is responsible for knowing and being on top of the steps of the assignment.

  • Teams take time to develop. Give your team a chance to grow and learn together. It’s normal to disagree at times, but listen to each other and move on from those disagreements so that you can learn how to perform together.

  • Team leaders. Your job is to help corral your team to take the next steps. Communicate regularly with your peers. We appreciate that this is extra work. If you have a busy week, turn over leadership to someone else on your team to step in for you.

Special Needs

If you will be missing class for religious reasons, let us know during the first week of class and it will not be penalized. If you have a disability and wish to request an accommodation, please contact the Office for Students with Disabilities. Contact the OSD for further information: 858-534-4382 or osd@ucsd.edu. We will be happy to work with you to support your success in the class.

CAPS Support

This is a complex time for students as they work from home, and/or may be called upon to care for family and friends, near and far. Some students might be dealing with grief or loss, depression or feelings of being overwhelmed. UCSD Wellness offers services to help with issues that might arise in these uncertain times. We recommend that you look into CAPS for support, guidance, or advice in navigating these unprecedented times. Students should call CAPS (858) 534-3755, 24/7, for assistance.