Digitalt materiale og interaktive artefakter (Spring 2021)

Abstract

The main outcome of the course is that the student is equipped with theoretical understanding and construction-oriented abilities to explore solutions to interaction design problems in early stages of the design process. In particular, the students become able to construct and use interactive software and hardware sketches as a means to drive a design process.

Description

In digital design, whether as field of research or design practice, it is imperative to be able to express design ideas in forms that can be explored, discussed and evaluated together with other people in a design team, and/or validated together with stakeholders in realistic settings, as way of driving a design process forward. The course provides the students with theoretical understanding and constructive abilities to accomplish this. In a larger context, this course prepares the students for being part of multidisciplinary design teams in digital design, where understanding digital materials, and the ability to prototype design ideas becomes an essential part of communicating with other specialist areas (e.g. programmers, engineers, product designers, marketing and business professionals) in a design process, as well as with users and other stakeholders. 

In this course, the incoming students’ programming ability from the course ‘Introduction to Programming’ is combined with their understanding of the interaction design process from the course ‘Digital Design and Interactive Technologies – foundations’, and their repertoire of genre-specific examples from the course ‘Interaction Design – genres and contexts’. Building on these three courses, the course ‘Digital Materials and Interactive Artefacts’ holds a central role in the programme, enabling the student to gain the theoretical understanding and constructive abilities needed to produce interactive artefacts in digital design, as a means for driving a digital design process.

The course introduces the use of JavaScript and node.js for the programming of standard devices (e.g.  laptops, smartphones) as well as customized networked microcontrollers respectively. Further, the course introduces, makes use of, and discusses basic sensor, actuator and networked microcontroller technologies as core digital materials available to the sketching process. Finally, as the basis for the course project work, interaction design towards the internet-of-things and smart connected products using cloud based computing platforms is introduced. The course revolves around a series of hands-on investigations using laptops / smartphones / tablets / microcontrollers as platforms for the construction of interactive software and hardware sketches.  The course is an immediate extension of the course BIDG ("Interaction Design: Genre and contexts") and the ‘Introduction to programming’.

Formal prerequisites

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Intended learning outcomes

Efter kurset skal den studerende være i stand til:

• Diskutere rollen af Interaktive hardware/software sketches som del af eksplorative interaktionsdesign processer
• Sammenligne og diskutere de respektive kvaliteter af storyboards, enactments og interaktive sketches som design artefakter
• Anvende JavaScript til at programmere standard hardwareenheder (e.g laptops, SmartPhones, Tablets) i konstruktionen af interaktive sketches
• Konstruere interaktive sketches ved hjælp af små netværks kapable JavaScript/node.js programmerbare mikroprocessorer (e.g. Raspberry Pi) i kombination med en række analoge og digitale sensorer/aktuatorer
• Forklar de grundlæggende principper bag Internet-of-Things (IoT) ,Smart-connected-Products, og cloud computing samt de åbninger for interaktionsdesign der disse peger på
• Anvende storyboards, scenarios, enactments, og interaktive sketches som kompletterende design artefakter i en interaktionsdesign process.
• Diskuterer hvorledes kernebegreber i forståelsen af design for menneskelig interaktion med digital teknologi (e.g kontekst, mobilitet, og forbundethed) kan guide de tidlige faser af eksplorative interaktionsdesign processer.
• Redegør for de grundlæggende principper bag, og forskelle på, analoge og digitale sensorer/aktuatorer samt de åbninger for interaktionsdesign disse enheder peger på

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.