Category Archives: News

Class Recap

This week, class began with each group presenting their Calvino design fiction. Then Michael walked us through some examples of design deliverables and gave us a tour of ESI. Finally, each group shared and got feedback on their slide outlines.

Assignment

Each group completes a final iteration that represents the culmination of their idea and post documentation by Sunday. Please focus on the prototype this week, since the final presentation will not be due until the week after next. File your documentation under the Final project – final prototype category.

Class Recap

Michael showed us some mock ups he’s been working on covering a broad range of design process phases in public spaces. Aastha, Matt, Melody and Nga delivered tech presentations. Finally, each group give an update about their latest iteration and showed their user experience diagrams.

Announcements

• Next week’s class at ESI – here’s the address:
  • ESI Design
    111 5th Avenue 12th floor
    New York, NY 10003
• Shared Dropbox folder for tech reports – Want access to people’s tech report slides for thesis reference and/or further edification? Sneha had the lovely idea of creating a shared folder in Dropbox. Visit the tech reports folder and please add your slides to our growing library!
• Playtests next Saturday – The folks at ESI are showcasing their new gaming theater in a playable (but still private) ‘beta’ state through a series of 30 minute sessions. Sign up to participate in a session on Saturday, December 6, ongoing from 12–10 PM.

Assignments

1. Invisible Cities (due Sun, 11/30) – Each group re-craft their design for one of the worlds created in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities. Please post under the Final Project – Invisible Cities Category. As a reminder for how to add your post to a category, I’ve included a screenshot below.
2. Compile final presentation outline (due in class Mon, 12/1) – Print a draft of your final presentation slides for next class. While you don’t need to fill in the exact content just yet, you should include the core components of your presentation — things like title page, creation myth and user flow diagram. Be sure to have each component printed on a separate piece of paper so we can pin them up and reorder them.

Reminder – How to Post

When you create a new blog post, check the “Final Project – Invisible Cities” category on the right panel before you publish.

Class recap:

Michael shared some of the prototyping work he did the previous week, and recommended the Society for Experiential Graphic Design for anyone who might be interested in getting involved in a local community that’s focused on experiential, physical, and technical design in physical space. We also discussed our learnings from Pete’s lecture, listened to tech presentations, and did an in-class exercise to help each other brainstorm new ideas for our concepts.

Assignment:

• Iteration 3 – Get together and discuss input and ideas from in-class design swap. This is time to start doing a hard convergence. Choose a gem or something that has caught your interest most and start honing it. Find a day this week to go out and do your second to last iteration. Create clear goals to test against. Plan how you will be documenting your prototype. Please post your documentation to the Final project – week 5 category no later than Sunday.
• Tech reports – Matt, Aastha, Nga and Melody

Class recap:

• Michael announced that next week he’ll be away and we’ll have a guest lecturer who specializes in creating public gaming experiences.
• Mikey, Amy, Michie, Mini, Jeff and Hanna presented their tech reports.
• Michael had individual meetings with each group to review project status and create plans for completing projects.

Assignment:

This week you will do your second iteration based on what we talked about in class.

1. Write a series of goals that you want to understand through your testing. Go back to your original goals and parameters to make sure that they are aligned.
2. Take a photo or plan of the location that you are working in and highlight the spaces that you are activating.
3. First set up your second iteration at SVA IXD floor let it run for at least 24 hours, ideally 48.
4. Set it up at the actual location and document
5. Write an analysis of your findings

Please post documentation no later than Sunday, 11/9 and file it under the Final project – week 3 category.

Sam W., Sneha, and Sunnie are scheduled to present their tech research reports next week as well.

Class recap:

Effy, Sam. C and Dami gave their technology presentations, and we spent the remainder of the class discussing each group’s first prototype iteration.

Assignments: 

1. Continue developing your idea.  Next week, Michael will meet with each group to discuss the following items. Please document your thinking in a blog post, file it under Final project – week 2, and get it up by Sunday 11/2.
   • Test second prototype: If your group has already tested out in the field, try your next prototype in the studio. To allow enough time for interaction and analysis, prototypes should be installed by tomorrow (Thurs, 10/30).
   • Define your user
   • Write a creation myth
   • Define your intervention: as thing, base sense, content delivery (in other words, think of it as an object, something that makes light sound or you touch, and think about how it communicates information)
   • Propose two new interventions: Diverge based on your findings and and propose two new interventions
   • Start thinking about your 6-week development plan
2. Technology projects. Next week, we’ll here from Jeff, Mini, Hanna, Amy, Michie and Mike.

Class recap:
Hope everyone enjoyed our guest workshop! It provided a way to enrich our understanding of personas by embodying their attitudes, concerns, and interactions through improv.

Assignments:

1. First prototype – Time to put our first project iterations out into the wild! This can be a paper/rapid prototype with your choice of content, medium. Please post documentation by end of day Sunday 10/26 under the Final project – first prototype category.
2. Tech research – Next up are Jeff, Mini and Hana. Since we didn’t have time for Dami, Effy and Sam C. last week, we’ll try to squeeze in all 6 next week so please be prepared to present.

Class recap:

We gave our final 49ers presentations, and Leroy, Luke and Trent gave their tech research presentations. Michael made the following announcements:

• Office hours: While there aren’t official office hours, you should feel free to reach out to Michael & arrange a time during the day. Michael’s office is really close by.
• Guest lecture: Next week, we’ll have a guest lecture from a friend of Michael’s who works at IDEO and has a background in improv.
• Final assignment: We’re now beginning the final assignment! The goal is to come up with an idea for a public space, and find something to do in that space that you can test in rapid iterative design fashion. Groups are:
  • Leroy, Melody, Aastha, Michie
  • Nga, Dami, Sneha, Hana
  • Luke, Effy, Amy, Sunnie
  • Sarah, Mike, Matt, Trent
  • Sam C, Sam W, Jeff, Mini
• Tech research projects: If you haven’t sent Michael your topic already, please do ASAP. Technology is defined by a system that involves input > processing > output.

Assignments

Dami, Effy and Sam C. will present their tech research projects next class.

For our final assignment kickoff, please complete the following in our new groups of 4 (listed above):

1. Choose and document a third place. Go back to original third place or find a new one (if you are choosing a new one please email Michael by Wednesday to confirm). Document actions or review your previous documentation to find actions. Highlight moments of intervention opportunity, dream up some unexpected nuggets of delight (what if I saw…, what if I heard, what if I thought I was, what if I could…)
2. Plan and prepare for your first in situ prototype. In order to do that you must first develop goals and parameters, do preliminary market research, define users, and focus on one single element of a goal to rapid prototype around. Elevator pitch with prototype iteration 1 proposal to present in class. G&P, Users, Market research to be posted to the blog.

Class recap

We took a field trip to the LED Lab and 330 Hudson to see and discuss some of Michael’s work. Fun times!

Be sure to check out the partner links on the right side of the LED website. Interesting people. Here is the information for tonight’s event. It is free for students but you have to get a ticket.

Assignments

1. Technology research projects

• Step one: Email Michael to let him know which technology you want to do your project on by tomorrow, Wednesday 10/8 so that he can OK it or give you some suggestions.
• Deliverable:  Please put together a google presentation and email Michael the link before class.
• Schedule:

•  Calendar events: I’ve sent everyone a calendar event for your individual due date. You will also get an automatic reminder 1 day before your project is due. Please let me know if you don’t have the event!

2. 49ers final presentations

Everyone now needs to start shutting down their diamond and putting together a 10 minute presentation (strictly ten minutes or less). It should show a bit of the design arc (research, goals and parameters, creation mythology) and then present the idea from the perspective of the user experience. Please post this under the 49ers Final Presentation category.

Class recap

During class, each group discussed their creation myths and research, and we all dove into the technology that Levi’s Stadium is equipped with. We then shifted our focus on the platform vs. product spectrum, completing an in-class exercise to better understand where our own projects might ultimately fall along the spectrum.

Michael also made the following announcements in class:

• Class will be held offsite next week (keep reading for details).
• Going forward, we’ll have to post major part of our HW assignments by Sunday night.
• Flu shots are out! Get one 🙂
• Diamond process model, spotted in the wild – Michael noticed his colleagues felt better knowing where they were in the process.

Assignments

How do you get people to make choices with the lowest level of entry, can you leverage an existing action or give people an excuse to do something that they always wanted to or had never even thought of? How do you teach a new action that results in something that makes it worth it?

• Based on your preliminary research and creation myth, write goals and parameters and post them by Friday under “49ers – G&P” category
• Based on your Goals and Parameters come up with the first iteration of your idea. Represent it as a diagrammed user experience and post to the “49ers – User Diagram” category.
  Think about:
  • Ways to get people engaged and to educate them before they get to the stadium or before they “sign on.”
  • How people take the experience home with them?
  • What other technologies or platforms within Levi’s Stadium that can be leveraged in your experience?

Off-site class meeting next week – Oct. 6

Class will start promptly at 6pm, meeting at the LED Lab which is located at 475 Greenwich St. [corner of canal & watts in Tribeca]

At 7:30pm we will be at 330 Hudson St.  for a review of that site. We will be walking between the two (7 minutes) so bring necessary walking paraphernalia.