IFN692 Interaction Design for Emerging Technologies

Unit Outline: Semester 2 2024, Gardens Point, Internal

Overview

In IFN692 you will learn how to use Interaction Design to imagine, prototype, evaluate, and critique future and emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Social Robotics. Interaction Design and User Centred methods allow to look beyond the new technologies, to the new experiences, business practices, and forms of social interactions that these technologies will make possible, which is key to leading design innovation. IFN692 builds on the methods and principles encountered in IFN591 – Understanding the User Experience - and will add tools, methods, knowledge and critical skills that you will apply in the context of a design project, from exploring the social and cultural context of the design intervention, to envisioning possible futures for, with, and by users, up to prototyping and testing the interaction with emerging technologies in a realistic setting.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Apply design thinking and interaction design methods to imagine, prototype, evaluate, and critique emerging technologies
2. Analyse the social, cultural, and political context of an interaction design project
3. Create a variety of low - high fidelity prototypes of an emerging technology to address a problem or opportunity.
4. Evaluate use of created prototypes to address the problem or opportunity.
5. Present your design project to an audience of peers to scaffold a critical conversation about the proposed technology.
6. Write an illustrated report to communicate your design and findings to a professional audience.

Content

Learning Approaches

In this unit you will learn by engaging with lecture material and workshop activities, as well as hands on activities aimed at exploring, imagining, building and testing in use prototypes of emerging technologies.

The lecture material will provide the necessary theoretical background to enable thinking critically about the possibilities and challenges offered by emerging technologies.

The workshops will allow to practice the tools and methods of interaction design in the context of a design project.

The unit staff will further be providing expert advice on the practical aspects of prototyping interactive technologies

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

You will gain feedback in this unit through discussing your design project with peers and academics in class. You will receive written feedback on your assessment submissions, and will be able to have private consultations with the teaching staff at any point during the semester to discuss your progress (arrange an appointment).

Assessment

Overview

The assessment in this unit is design to provide you with an understanding of how the theory and practice of interaction design interplay to imagine new technologies, create prototypes that users can test, and to critique the future experiences that these technologies enable.

The assessment is based on an individual design project. After the initial introductory lectures you will be asked to choose one emerging  technology that captures your interest (e.g. Internet of Things, Virtual Reality) and to explore possible future uses of this technology in an assigned context. You will decide on one of the following approaches: whether you want to prototype a new tool, to envision new futures enabled by emerging technologies, to evaluate a particular existing design with users, or to use a design as a critical tool, to challenge taken for granted ideas. 

During the project you will maintain a (paper based) design journal (assessment item 1) to capture all your ideas and reflections. The journal will be your sketchpad for in class discussions and other practical activities. You are encouraged to show it to peers, and even to invite fellow students to sketch or add their feedback to your journal. You will show your journal to the teaching team at least 2 times during the semester, for feedback and marking.

You will submit a proposal (assessment item 2) that discusses your design ideas and you will decide on what approach (envisioning, prototyping, evaluating, critiquing) you want to adopt for the rest of the semester. The proposal reflects the phase of convergence of any design project, in which the many design ideas generated are narrowed down to one approach, that will guide the rest of the project. The proposal will be marked based on the soundness of the reflections and rationale presented.

Finally, you will present your final project to the class and teaching team. Depending on the approach chosen this may be a demonstration of a functioning prototype, or a formal presentation of the ideas, findings, or critique (assessment item 3). Your presentation will end in a short discussion and question time in which you will receive feedback from fellow students and teaching team.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Design Journal

You will keep a paper journal of your design ideas, notes, graphs, mind maps, sketches, 2D and 3D hand drawn models, minutes of meetings and notes from interviews, observations, or other activities.

Your journal will document and inform your critique and design, as well as guide and document the evolution of you prototype and its evaluation. You are expected to fill up with notes and sketches an A5-sized (20x15cm) 200-pages journal. You must provide evidence of constant contributions to the journal throughout semester.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Design Proposal

You will present your proposal in a written report due halfway through the semester. The proposal summarises the design context, main stakeholders, goals, and main ideas, and elects a plan for either implementing a prototype, testing an existing technology, or developing a design critique. The proposal will include enough literature, background, and references to the design journal (Assessment 1) to support a critical reflection on the social, cultural, and political factors that are at play in the design of the proposed technology.

This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.

Assessment: Final Presentation

You will present your final project to an audience of peers. Depending of the approach you decided to adopt this may be a short demonstration of how your design works/is supposed to work, or a presentation of your findings, ideas, or reflections. Your presentation will cover on the main aspect that inspired the design, its context of use (social and cultural), the main critical issue emerged during the design or its evaluation, and the methods and techniques used to create and evaluate the prototype.

Preparing the assessment is expected to require 4 weeks. Presentations will happen in the context of a 2 hour session. Participating in the whole session and question time is mandatory. 

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Requirements to Study

Requirements

Recommended: induction and access to SEF Launchpad

Costs

Paper sketchbook for the Design Journal (recommended: A5 size, 200 pages)

Resources

Risk Assessment Statement

Some activities in this unit involve ethical issues that are covered in a unit-wide ethics application. Students are required to understand the ethical implications and submit a research plan (not assessed, but due for approval by the unit coordinator) before starting any form of data collection, including passive observations in public spaces. Ethical aspects are discussed explicitly in a lecture early in the semester as part of the unit-wide ethics application requirements. 

There are health and safety consideration for accessing lab spaces such as SEF Launchpad. These are considered in the context of the induction to the spaces (general lab induction and SEF Launchpad induction).

There are no other identified risks involved in this unit.