Prof. Axel Roesler / Division of Design / UW School of Art, roesler@u.washington.edu
Georg Petschnigg / Microsoft Pioneer Studios, georgp@microsoft.com
Tuesdays + Thursdays 2:30-5:20, Art Building Room 236
This class is open to all UW HCI related majors, graduate and advanced undergraduate.
Context
Microsoft is providing a forum around the theme “The Future of Work” to showcase exceptional design process and ideas. As part of a quarter long course, students are asked to design a user experience prototype, from which a selected project will be featured in a presentation at the 2009 Microsoft Faculty Summit July 12-14, 2008 in Redmond, Washington. The Design Expo creates a forum for encouraging “out of the box” thinking, by exploring students’ visions for the future of computing. Participating design programs this year are: Art Center, Product Design, Pasadena, CA; Carnegie Mellon, School of Design, Pittsburgh, PA; Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing, China; Dundee, Innovative Product Design & Interactive Media Design, UK; Universidad Iberoameriana, Mexico City, Mexico; New York University, Interactive Telecommunications Program; and University of Washington, Division of Design.
Design Topic
The 2009 design challenge explores new ways of working. Today, fewer and fewer people have jobs that involve going to an office, working fulltime, for five or more years in the same company, with a team that also works in their hallway; yet many of our productivity tools and processes were designed when this was not yet the norm. How can our tools and services support new ways of working? This includes: many different economic and cultural contexts, mobile and migrant workers, and part-time, micro-financed work. This design challenge can help with many aspects of “getting stuff done” from finding collaborators, to achieving results, building reputation, and helping others.
Although new ways of working is a broad, universal topic, projects will be designed for the needs of a particular user group in a particular situation or culture. Users groups may include: youth, elderly, office workers, different economic situations, a particular type of job (health, education, social services, computer industry, etc.) different roles (employer, worker, customer, collaborator, student), etc.
Process
Students will develop and communicate their design by first studying the situation / context and describing the local culture and work environment. This will lead to an exploration of possible design responses (through scenarios, concepts, illustrations, and interface simulations/prototypes), and thinking beyond traditional software, to such solutions like lightweight user interfaces for inputting (entering) and outputting (disseminating information) which integrate with everyday life.
Students will work on the theme in small interdisciplinary teams (2-6) during the spring 2009 quarter. Students will research a design problem, define a scenario, ideate design solutions, select one idea to prototype, and study the impact on real users.
Previous Design Expo projects can be viewed here:
Design Expo 2007:
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/events/fs2007/presentations/14707/lecture.htm
Design Expo Presentations 2008 (scroll down to the Design Expo in the agenda)
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/events/fs2008/agenda_tue.aspx
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