Our focus in Week One is to introduce you to the basic practices of interaction design and the human centered design process that includes research, concept generation, prototyping, testing, and refinement. You will also form working teams for the remainder of the session, develop group rapport, and begin to explore the problem space of your session-long project.

Week 1 Readings (to do before Wed class)

• • Lupton on Letter, Text, Grid (focus on Letter and Text)

  • Christensen on Critique at Facebook

Monday Jan 3

• Lecture: Course introduction

• Review course website and course logistics

• Course communication tools (Slack, Zoom, etc.)

• Lecture: Visual Organization

• Intro A2: Digital Poster

• ALL: Sketching practice

• GROUPS: Socializing (Meet your Peers)

Deliverables due by 11:59 pm Tuesday Jan 4th

• A2: Digital Poster Stage 1/2

  • submit stage 2 designs to slide deck (see assignment for link)

• Team formation survey (Google Froms)

  • https://forms.gle/WPC71K18bCGE2uRv7

Studio 1

• Discussion of readings

• Create A2 sketches to share / review

Wednesday Jan 5

• CRIT: Share A2 stage 2 iterations (black/white only)

• Lecture: Image and Color

• Intro A3: Mobile Information Systems (User Research)

  • Read design topics/briefs

  • Explore the problem space

• Research Sprint Intro

• TEAMS: Team Formation

  • Teams co-create social contract and choose tools/ times for collaboration

    • Team Contract

  • Start on secondary research

Week 1 Readings

• QuestionPro on Secondary Research

Deliverables due by 11:59pm on Sunday Aug 8th

• A2 final deliverables and report

  • submit stage 3 designs to slide deck (see assignment for link)

  • submit final PDF on Canvas

• Create team folders and add links to Class Dashboard

  • HERE

• Post team contract to team folder

Studio 2

• Create team folders

• Figure out how you are going to work together as a team

• Secondary research

Our focus in Week Two is learning research methods, conducting research, developing understanding and empathy for your users by developing user personas.

Monday Aug 9

• Discussion: Digital Poster highlights & lessons learned

• ALL: Review any open questions about A3

• Lecture: Qualitative Research & Analysis

  • Intro to QDA tools (Dovetail, Miro)

• Teams provided access to video data and begin analysis process

• TEAMS: meet in small groups to work on A3

  • Share secondary research

  • Setup free Dovetail account.

Deliverables (Due by 11:59 pm Aug 10)

• Secondary research resources & contacts list

Week 2 Readings (for Wednesday)

• • Theo Braden on Digital Ethnography in UX

  • Delve on The Essential Guide to Coding Qualitative Data

  • Rikke Dam and Teo Siang on Personas – A Simple Introduction

Studio 1

• Readings discussion

• Use Dovetail to analyze survey/ interviews

• Create insights

Wednesday Aug 11

• GROUPS:

  • Review of primary & secondary research

• Lectures: Personas

• TEAMS: meet in small groups to work on A3

  • share drafts of recruitment messages and do activities on Miro: personas, scenarios, ideas, and stories

Deliverables due by 11:59pm on Sunday Aug 15

• • Assumption Personas

  • Video analysis report/or Insights in Dovetail (exported as .pdf)

Studio 2

• TEAMS continue activities on Miro: personas, scenarios, ideas, and stories.

Our focus in Week Three is defining the product vision with storyboards and prototyping: this is how we communicate how the application will function for the user.

Week 3 Readings (for Monday)

• • Nick Babich on Storyboarding in UX Design

Monday Aug 16

• CRIT: Share personas

• Lecture: Storyboards and Interviews

• TEAMS to work on storyboards and interview guides

Deliverables due by 11:59pm on Tuesday Aug 17:

• Storyboard & Interview guides (draft)

Studio 1

• Practice interviews with someone in class

• TEAMS: Refine storyboards and interview guides

Wednesday Aug 18

• CRIT: Share Storyboards & Interview Guides

  • Within + Between team feedback

• Lecture: Prototyping

• Intro A4: Mobile Information Systems (Prototyping)

• Figma demo

Deliverables due by 11:59pm on Sunday Aug 22:

• Storyboard interviews detailed findings (a short report/ or insights in Dovetail exported as .pdf)

• A3 User Research presentation slides (submit PDF on Canvas)

• A3 team peer evaluation

Week 3 Readings

• • Will Fanguy on Wireframing vs. Prototyping

  • Nick Babich on The Magic of Paper Prototyping

Studio 2

• • Synthesize findings

  • Prepare for research presentation

  • Practice/ record (optional) your presentation

In Week Four teams will work together to build an interactive and innovative mobile information system to address user needs or desires. While A3 was all about getting to the right design (addressing a meaningful problem), A4 is about getting the design right (creating an elegant solution to the problems you identified in A3). At this stage, user testing and feedback is crucial to refining the details of your user interface and interactions.

Monday Aug 23

• CRIT: User Research presentations.

  • Present user research for peer feedback --> use to clarify product vision

• Lecture: Competitive analysis

• TEAMS: Prototyping work session

  • Draft sketches /wireframe core user flows

Deliverables due by 11:59pm on Tuesday Aug 24:

• Competitive Analysis

• Sketches and Wireframes

• Lo-Fi Prototype

Week 4 Readings (to do by Wednesday)

• • Nicole Saidy on How to streamline your UI/UX workflow with Figma

  • Karri Saarinen on Building a Visual Language

Studio 1

• ALL: Readings discussion

• TEAMS: work session

  • Work on lo-fi prototypes and prepare for testing

Wednesday Aug 25

• CRIT: Competitive analysis

• CRIT: Share lo-fi prototypes

  • BREAKOUTS: user testing on lo-fi prototypes

• Lecture: Design Systems & Mobile Screen Design

• TEAMS: Work session

  • Mood boards & style guides

  • Start screen designs

Deliverables due by 11:59pm on Sunday Aug 29:

• Mood boards and style guides

Studio 2

• Practice prototyping in Figma

• Work on Mood boards and style guides

In Week Five you will make final preparations for your final deliverable prototype (this is the last version of your project we will be grading!) as well as your presentations. The presentation serve as your “final exam” for the course.

Monday Aug 30

• CRIT: share moodboards and style guides

  • Within and between team feedback

• Lecture: Final Presentations

  • Examples of finished products

• TEAMS: work session

  • Finish moodboards and style guides

  • Create screen designs

  • Create hi-fi prototype

  • Prepare for online user testing

Deliverables (due by 11:59pm on Tuesday Aug 31)

• Hi-Fi Prototype

Studio 1

• • Refine prototypes and testing protocol

  • Practice testing

Wednesday Sept 1

• CRIT: Share hi-fi prototypes

  • Within and between team feedback

• TEAMS: Work Session

  • Collect/Analyze user testing results

  • Refine Hi-Fi Prototype

Deliverables (due by 11:59pm on Thursday Sept 2)

• User testing results

• Final Presentation Slides

Studio 2

• • Collect/analyze user testing results

  • Refine hi-fi prototype

  • Work on final presentation

Final Presentations

• Friday Sept 3rd from 11:30-2:30.

Deliverables (due by 11:59pm on Monday Sept 5th)

• A4 deliverables (submit PDF on Canvas)

• A4 final talks (prerecorded)

• A4 team peer evaluations (all members must complete)