Digital Design and Interactive Technologies - Foundations (Autumn 2024)

Abstract

The course lays the theoretical and methodological foundation for the remaining studies in the Digital Design and Interactive Technologies programme. The main vehicle for learning is a design project carried out in groups, where skills and knowledge is applied in a live design case in collaboration with an external organisation.

Description

THIS COURSE IS ONLY OPEN FOR THOSE BDDIT STUDENTS WHO ARE YET TO PASS THIS MANDATORY COURSE

The course lays the theoretical and methodological foundation for the remaining studies in the Digital Design and Interactive Technologies programme. It addresses basics of how to design interactive technologies with a balance between human desirability, technological feasibility and business viability; how to study and observe user practice; and how to search, select and integrate academic knowledge in design work.

The students will gain a solid theoretical and methodological foundation for their studies in the Digital Design and Interactive Technologies programme. They will acquire a methodological foundation in digital design from carrying out a digital design project with a live brief, where field studies are combined with design methods and applied scientific knowledge to solve a design problem. They will further acquire a theoretical foundation through lectures, readings and reflective work, taking them beyond the practical aspects of the design problem, to provide a theoretical understanding of digital design and digital cultures.

The course covers three main subjects: fundamentals of digital design; fundamentals of digital cultures; and fundamentals of academic work

Formal prerequisites

This course is a mandatory course on the 1st semester on the BSc Digital Design and Interactive Technologies

Intended learning outcomes

After the course, the student should be able to:

• Contrast a research problem to a practical problem
• Integrate academic knowledge into design work
• Analyse and describe the quality of academic sources
• Describe the characteristics of an ill-structured (wicked) design problem
• Describe basic elements of design processes
• Compare and apply basic design methods
• Describe basic methods for studying user practice
• Describe and apply basic methods for observing user practice

Ordinary exam

Exam type:
D: Submission of written work with following oral, External (7-point scale)
Exam variation:
D2G: Submission for groups with following oral exam supplemented by the submission. Shared responsibility for the report.