Design for Meaning of Digital Futures Interaction
The laboratory provides students with the skills to manage a design project of a highly innovative phygital product/system. FINAL DESIGN STUDIO is driven by a sprint-based project management system with the goal of delivering the highest value to stakeholders. The final outcome is premised on the possibility of defining a new meaning and value for the potential users. The process involves the adoption of the "Agile Methodology" approach focussing on iterative design cycles, human centred design, multiple context research, technical implementation and creativity. The laboratory integrates the use of data, design ethnography, co-creation and sustainability for the purpose of designing artefacts based on new meanings which emerge from the interconnection of evolving patterns of digital technology, experience, personal identity, societal identity, value assignation and consumption. Moreover, the course provides the tools for the correct presentation of the results of the design process in all its phases, applying the themes of storytelling and storyboarding and experimenting with new and creative modes of expression, narrative and interaction. The laboratory integrates simultaneously three modules:
“Design of complex products/systems”: this first module supports students in the understanding of the use of the design process tools to design and develop solutions to technical, contextual and experiential challenges including production of models and prototypes of products, systems or services. It provides the skills to manage a design project and its timing from its proposal, idea generation, prototyping and delivery.
“Technologies for connected products and systems”: this second module supports students with the knowledge of the technical requirements and implementation of the electronic components needed to design and build an interactive prototype which could simulated the desired design intention. Focus is on the programming of those tools that will allow the design of small to medium complex user-products/systems interactions.
“Envisioning of of complex interactive scenarios and contexts”: this third module provides the skills to conceptualise and design interactive narratives including storytelling structures for writing concepts and content for narrative interactive/generative (audiovisual) medial work. It will foster creative thinking to support the communication and visualisation of the interactive prototypes for the user.
Learning Outcomes
Demonstrate knowledge dealing with the fundamental principles of design with technical, contextual, co-design, strategic research and user experience factors to identify design opportunities and requirements for product or service design.
Use of design process tools and skills to design and develop solutions to technical, contextual, experiential and sustainable challenges including production of models and prototypes of products or services.
Ability to produce effective externalisation of original designs for evaluation, communication and implementation through: prototypes, interactive models, virtual simulations, information graphics and technical specifications.
Demonstrate knowledge of of interactive narrative-driven communication, its concepts, vocabulary and production as applied in media and how to use it in one’s own design and artistic work;
Understand of the technical constraints of the hardware elements to design an interactive prototype.
Creatively construct a proof-principle prototype (PPP) by integrating the physical hardware / software components n eeded to its functioning in order to demonstrate the intended interaction.
Course Format and Learning Modes
The course is composed of lecture sessions, including frontal lectures, discussion and critique sessions, and of design studio sessions spent on working on design exercises and project review. The course is articulated in weekly review sessions to be performed in presence.
Learning modes consist of articles reading, lecture presentations, seminars, discussions, existing work analysis, own design exercise, own work presentations, demos and their review.
2026-27_FDS_1_webinar_intro_light.pdf
Bibliografy
“Design of complex products/systems”
Archer, B. (1995). The Nature of Research. Co-Design, interdisciplinary journal of design, January: pp 6-13.
Begleiter M.(2010), From Word to Image-2nd edition: Storyboarding and the Filmmaking Process, Michael Wiese Productions.
Blomberg, J., Giacomi, J., Mosher, A. and Swenton-Wall, P. (1993). Ethnographic Field Methods and Their Relation to Design, in Shuler, D. and Namioka, A. (eds), Participatory design. Principles and practices, LEA Publishers, Hillsdale.
Buchenau, M. and J. F. Suri (2000). Experience Prototyping, DIS ’00, Brooklyn, New York.
Buxton B. (2007), Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, Morgan Kaufmann.
Ehn, P. (1993). Scandinavian Design: On Participation and Skill, in Shuler, D. e Namioka, A. (Eds.), Participatory design. Principles and practices, LEA Publishers, Hillsdale.
Frankel, L. and Racine, M. (2010). The Complex Field of Research: for Design, through Design, and about Design, Design Research Society conference: Design and Complexity, Montreal, 7-9 July.
Gaver, B., Dunne, T. and Pacenti, E. (1999). Cultural Probes, Interactions, January-February: 21-29.
Gkatzidou, V., Giacomin, J. and Skrypchuk, L. (2021). Automotive Human Centred Design Methods. De Gruyter https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110677515
Giacomin, J. (2023). Humans and Autonomous Vehicles. Routledge. ISBN 9781032334646. https://www.routledge.com/Humans-and-Autonomous-Vehicles/Giacomin/p/book/9781032334646
Gray, D. E. (2009) Doing research in the real world, London: Sage Publications.
Greenberg S. (2011), Sketching User Experiences: The Workbook, Morgan Kaufmann.
Houde, S., Hill, C. (1997), What do prototypes prototype? in Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction (2nd Ed.), Helander M., Landauer T., Prabhu P. (eds.). Elsevier Science B. V. Amsterdam.
Koskinen, I., Zimmerman, J., Binder, T., Redström, J., and Wensveen, S., (2011) Design research through practice: From the lab, field and showroom. Waltham, MA: Elsevier.
Rosson, M.B. and Carroll, J. (2002). Scenario Based Design. In J. Jacko & A. Sears (Eds.), The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 1032-1050.
Sanders, E., Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co-creation and the new landscapes of design. CoDesign, Vol. 4, No. 1, March 2008, 5–18.
Sanders, E. (2000). Generative tools for co-designing, in Scrivener et al. (Eds) Collaborative Design, Sprigler-Verlag, London Limited.
Spradley, J. P. (1979), The Ethnographic Interview. United States, Wadsworth Group/Thomas Learning
“Envisioning of complex interactive scenarios and contexts”
Gray, D. E. (2009) Doing research in the real world, London: Sage Publications.
Rosson, M.B. and Carroll, J. (2002). Scenario Based Design. In J. Jacko & A. Sears (Eds.), The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 1032-1050.
Houde, S., Hill, C. (1997), What do prototypes prototype? in Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction (2nd Ed.), Helander M., Landauer T., Prabhu P. (eds.). Elsevier Science B. V. Amsterdam.
“Technologies for connected products and systems”
Igoe, T. Making things talk. (O’Reilly, 2011).
Margolis, M. Arduino Cookbook, 2nd Edition. (O’Reilly Media, 2011).
Monk, S. Programming Arduino Getting Started with Sketches. (McGraw-Hill Education TAB, 2011).
Schwartz, M. Internet of things with Arduino cookbook. (Packt, 2016).
Lee, S. (2005). Jenny Preece, Yvonne Rogers, and Helen Sharp (Eds.). Information Design Journal, 13(3), 264-266.
Kurniawan, S. (2004). Interaction design: Beyond human–computer interaction by Preece, Sharp and Rogers (2001), ISBN 0471492787.
Rowland, C., Goodman, E., Charlier, M., Light, A., & Lui, A. (2015). Designing connected products: UX for the consumer Internet of Things. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".
Slama, D., Puhlmann, F., Morrish, J., & Bhatnagar, R. M. (2015). Enterprise IoT: Strategies and Best practices for connected products and services. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".