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IAT404,405-1a-2011.pdf
Credit Hours: 3
Instructors:
Lyn Bartram, Robert Woodbury, Andres Wanner
Location: SFU Surrey, Room 2600
Semester: Spring 2011
Course Description:
IAT 404 - Development and evaluation of a media, design or informatics project. The project is a continuation of the project started in IAT 402. The actual projects vary from year to year and relate to current social and technological issues in society as well as students' interests and affinities. Design methods used will vary with project type. Covers the spectrum of the production process from problem definition to prototype. Teams may be formed with students, concurrently, enrolled in IAT 405. Students may not, concurrently, enroll in IAT 404 and 405. Prerequisite: IAT 402.
IAT 405 - Development and evaluation of a media, design or informatics project. The project is a continuation of the project started in IAT 403. The actual projects vary from year to year and relate to current social and technological issues in society as well as students' interests and affinities. Design methods used will vary with project type. Covers the spectrum of the production process from problem definition to prototype. Teams may be formed with students, concurrently, enrolled in IAT 404. Students may not, concurrently, enroll in IAT 404 and 405. Prerequisite: IAT 403.
For both IAT 404 and IAT 405 - This course focuses on the design, implementation and communication of a human-centered technology product or experience and is the senior capstone project for SIAT students. It is the continuation of IAT 402-3 in the first semester of a two-semester long project. Projects focus on technology for people and are conceived and implemented by interdisciplinary student teams across the SIAT streams of design, media arts and informatics. Students can choose to work with cultural, research or industry mentors. Weekly events including lectures, presentations, readings, discussions, board critiques and design exercises support teams in conceiving and implementing their projects.
We emphasize product over process, prototypes over plans and engaging with people over imagining users. Our aim is that student teams conceive, design, prototype, evaluate, present and communicate an innovative and exciting project.
Major course milestones will reflect the “normal” arc of a design project and include concept, low-fidelity prototype, user studies, implementation, presentation and communication. We recognize that design iterates and will adjust (within limits) milestones for teams as need arises.
Course Objectives:
Project Foci - Teams develop their own project with the broad theme of technology for people. Example topics include:
- mobile devices
- wearable or tangible devices
- play: games and toys
- video games
- work: aids for people and their groups
- home: especially for family groups
- interactive art installation (includes performance art)
- understanding and achieving sustainability
- information visualization
- information appliances
Learning Outcomes:
Students who take this class should further develop their abilities and skills through the following:
- Use knowledge of design processes and teamwork to forge a productive team and design process.
- Design a project that is realistic, innovative and human centered.
- Implement the project through sketches and initial prototypes to produce a realistic final prototype.
- Evaluate the project through repeated user studies.
- Present the project in public.
- Develop a comprehensive and professional design presentation including text, online and other media.
- Prepare a succinct description of the project suitable for inclusion in a personal portfolio.
Delivery Method:
Lecture (LEC) and Studio Lab (STL)
Learning Activities + Evaluation:
Workshops:
In class time, we will conduct a series of workshops, with individual, not team attendance taken. Topics will be areas in which students need assistance: sketching, prototyping, writing, etc. Students will sign up for a specified number of these. There may be mark penalties for not attending.
Team Size & Composition:
Students will continue teams formed in IAT402-3. Exceptions must be approved by course faculty. Team size is either 4 or 5 - neither smaller, nor larger. This is non-negotiable and for good reasons.
Board Critiques:
Demonstrating and discussing work help its progress. In this course, we use board critiques (or board crits) to engage teams with their work. In a board crit, teams present their work in conversation with reviewers and a small audience (other teams - see below). The aim is to identify strengths on which to build, weaknesses to address, opportunities to engage and threats to counter. Board crits are the core of the design studio process. Attendance is required.
Team Pods:
Teams will be grouped into pods of 3 - 4 teams. All teams, in a pod, are expected to attend all board critiques for their pod. Pods will meet for the entire class time of 4 hours. One two-hour period will be devoted to design review, the other two-hour period to technical implementation review.
Evaluation:
We evaluate your project; not your design process. For very good reasons, SIAT teaches design and creative process as part of learning in media arts, design and informatics. In this course, we expect you to know and be able to use good teamwork and design process to produce your project. We, mostly, do not evaluate your process and, generally, do not want to hear about it when we work with you. Why? It is simple – this course models projects in the world outside of SIAT. In this world, your process is largely private; your clients care about what you have done, not how you did it.
The goal for each team, this semester, is to produce its final project. A successful project has the following features (with marks for each given):
- (35%) A working prototype, demonstrated in the final project review.
- (10%) An effective oral presentation supported by appropriate media. This presentation focuses on the project. Note: The process is irrelevant except where mention of it directly supports an aspect of the product. The presentation will be time-limited and presentations going overtime will be stopped.
- (15%) Well designed and prepared print communication (i.e. a poster and brochure).
- (10%) A clear, simple and communicative website describing the project and why people should be interested in it.
- (15%) A written and illustrated report of a user study done with the working prototype (approximately 10 pages).
- (15%) A written and illustrated project report (outline to be determined in team consultations with faculty - approximately 20 pages).
The print communication, website, user study and project report should use a common graphic architecture and identity. All material presented for evaluation should be at the highest standard achievable by the team producing it.
There will be two interim reviews. The first (in Week 6 or 7) will review all aspects of the design project from conception, implementation, user testing and communication. The second (in Week 10 or 11) will focus largely on implementation. Written feedback will be given for both but neither will result in any direct contribution to the final grade.
In addition, the following are course requirements. If needed, mark penalties may be assessed for non-attendance.
- All members of teams are expected to attend scheduled board crit with their pods.
- All members of teams are expected to attend scheduled meetings with technical faculty advisors.
- There will be technical workshops organized as needed. Teams asked to attend these must attend them.
Grading:
All material is due the day before the final project presentation. All marks will be based on the final material submitted. Showing drafts to course faculty will help teams ensure that they are on the right track.
We will evaluate to short rubrics which we will hand out at the start of the term. We reserve the right to modify these rubrics up to the start of Week 7. A rubric establishes the basis of discussion and helps make evaluation open and fair.
Working prototype: 35%
Oral presentation: 10%
Print communication: 15%
Project website: 10%
User study: 15%
Project report: 15%
The final prototype must receive a mark of, at least, 60% (21/35) to receive a passing grade in this course.
Mark penalties for non-attendance may be applied to the above.
Texts, Resources + Materials:
We encourage, indeed require, teams to read widely and to discover ideas and exemplars for their work. The aim is to build upon existing foundations whenever possible and to avoid “re-inventing wheels” others have already found. For a course such as this, with diverse teams each developing their own project, there can be no common canon, no master reading list. However, the following texts are useful, general sources.
Recommended Texts:
"Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction” (2007) by Helen Sharp, Yvonne Rogers, Jenny Preece; John Wiley and Sons; ISBN 9780470018668
"Designing Interactions" (2007) by Bill Moggridge; 1st Edition; MIT Press; ISBN 9780262134743
"Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design (Interactive Technologies)" (2007) by Bill Buxton; Morgan Kaufmann; ISBN 9780123740373
"About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design" (2007) by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, David Cronin; 3rd Edition; Wiley Publishing; ISBN 9780470084113
"Design Research: Methods and Perspectives" (2003) by Brenda Laurel, Peter Lunenfeld; MIT Press; ISBN 9780262122634
"The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm" (2001) by Tom Kelley, Jonathan Littman, Tom Peters; Doubleday Business; ISBN 9781861975836
"Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think" (1999) by Stuart K Card, Jock D. Mackinlay, Ben Shneiderman; 1st Edition; Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc.; ISBN 9781558605336
"The Design of Everyday Things" (2002) by Donald Norman; Basic Books, Perseus; ISBN 9780465067107
Prerequisites:
For SIAT Majors - completion of 63 credits including upper division writing course and SIAT BSc lower division requirements plus nine upper division IAT credits; for SIAT Joint Majors – 63 credits including upper division writing course and specific lower division requirements plus nine upper division IAT credits; for non-SIAT Majors – special permission of the instructor. Students with credit for IAT 400, INTD 401, INTD 402, INTD 403, INTD 404, INTD 405 or INTD 406 cannot take this course for further credit. Recommended: IAT 404-5 in the subsequent semester.
Last Updated: October 26, 2010
These course outlines are drafts and are subject to change.
