Lecturers

Dr. Joëlle Bitton
Prof. Jürgen Späth

Guest lecturer

Nicole Foelsterl

Assistant

Marcial Koch

Office hours by appointment

Overview and Objectives

Students will develop a conceptual and practical exploration for their final BA thesis and present the experience they aim to create in the form of a 3-page project description, a blog documenting the 2-weeks progress, a prototype/mock-up showing the core aspects of the interactive experience they are aiming to create and a video showcasing the prototype in use.

The concept seminar addresses notions in preparation for their final thesis work:

• what does it mean to make a statement and a contribution to the field of interaction design?
  
• how to identify the design, social and experiential opportunities within the topic of interest?
  
• how to define a space of potential design explorations?
  
• how to narrow down the topic following own personal positioning, approach and interests?
  
• how to present the desired embodied experience that the BA thesis should engender?

Course Outline

The 2 weeks are divided into two parts: an investigative week with quick exercises and iterations, and a second week where students can advance their prototype, engage in field or test study and summarise their BA idea and related experience in a video.

See below for a detailed calendar.

Attendance

In the contact hours a minimum attendance of 80% is required to pass the course. Contact hours: kick-off, input session, workshops, mentorings, presentations.

Expectations and Grading

Grades will be based on class participation, documentation (journal) and final work. 
Contributing to constructive group feedback is an essential aspect of class participation. 
Regular attendance is required. Two or more unexcused absences will affect the final grade. Arriving late on more than one occasion will also affect the grade.

Storytelling (video) 30% 

Mock up  20%

Project Description 20% 

Exercises & Class participation 20% 

Journal Documentation 10% 

Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.  

Deliverables

• Storytelling

The experience you want to create should be presented in a video format. 

• Prototype/Mock-up

The mock up is the manifestation of your ideas into a service, a product, a method, a user's experience, etc.

• Project Description 

This 3-page text should answer the following questions :

• what is the context, topic, problem?
• who is your audience / participants?
• who will be touched by your design (which people/animals/plants, which locations, which systems, which ecologies)?
• what do you want to create and how it should work? 
• what values and potential do you want to address / generate? 

The essay expands the thesis disposition with observations and conclusions drawn from the two weeks BA concept seminar. 
You may use a diversity of sources and bibliography (classified by genre: book, book chapter, journal article, conference article, academic thesis, newspaper article, web article, etc). 

• Journal/Blog

A separate 'Journal' is developed by each student that reflects on learnings from the seminar. It should be in the form of an online blog (ie. WordPress, Tumblr or other):

• The journal should be structured in a generally comprehensible manner (in the first week the structure will be provided by the course through the exercises)
• The lecture notes, including annotations, are stored
• Notes, sketches for each lesson should be included as well.

Final Presentation

• Single Projects - 10 minutes: 5 min presentation + 5 min feedback
  
• Tandem Projects - 12 minutes: 7 min presentation + 5 min feedback
  

Please start by showing the video. The duration will be included in the presentation time.

Mentor Teams

Prof. Jürgen Späth / Florian Bruggisser
Prof. Dr. Karmen Franinovic / Luke Franzke
Dr. Joëlle Bitton / Stella Speziali
Dr. Roman Kirschner / Mona Neubauer

Exercise 1: 20 ways of description

Write down and/or sketch out twenty ways to define your topics on post its and later sort them into categories we found fitting. Define two or three most important statements.

Exercise 2: Topic Area

Define the all the qualities, parameters and values that are important for the topic and your ambition as a designer. Find the most relevant existing projects that match your criteria (it could be a particular aspect of a project). Use sketches, photos or collages to present projects on your topic area. 

Exercise 3: Design Area

Identify the two or three most important dimensions of your topic area. This will be your design area. Sketch quickly 50 ideas to populate your design area. Place them on your design area in relation to criteria and parameters (sketches, photos or collages).

Exercise 4: 10 ways of manifestation

Select 10 ways of executing your ideas and exhibiting them.