Experimental Interaction Design

This is a two-week extensive hands-on course in interaction design. The main goal of the course is to empower people to shape their digital environment thus providing a new level of digital literacy.

The course introduces core design and interaction design topics in a provocative stance, inviting participants to reflect upon ongoing shifts, connections, and re-framings in just about every area of interaction design, and inciting a rebellion against passivity. This is complemented with the development of skills in systematic evaluation of usability and user experience of interaction designs. The expectation is to see participants take ownership of the interaction design process.

The course consists of two weeks. During the first week, the students will work in the groups on a design of the low-fidelity prototypes for wearable devices that could be used for purpose of health and well-being improvement.

In the second week, students move to the hardware lab, where under the guidance of tutors they will implement their projects in forms of the high-fidelity prototypes using Arduino-based controllers Adafruit Flora, Gemma, different sensors, and actuators. The goal of the course is to create fully working wearable prototypes that can be used for evaluation.

During the course, the students will be supported by experts in Interaction Design, Physiology, Physiological Computing, Smart Textile, and Arduino programming engineers.

Upon completion of the course, students will have an understanding of what interaction design is and will grasp the full cycle of the design process including the stages of discovering, defining, developing and delivering concepts targeting areas of their interest. Students will also develop skills to design, deploy and evaluate prototypes of digital artifacts ranging from simple web-based services and small applications to wearable or physiological computing solutions, and installations.

Target group

This course targets all sorts of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) and non-ICT professionals and higher education students and provides interaction design understanding and skills to new but highly interested audiences. Examples include, but are not limited to, service providers, communicators, health professionals, educators, architects, designers, artists, and actors.

Course aim

The main goal of the course is to provide participants with basic knowledge in Interaction Design and IT fields, introduce them to the latest trends in the industry and get not only theoretical, but also practical experience by working on developing their own projects. Daily mini-lectures will cover among others interaction design practices, rapid prototyping, usability testing and graphic design.

Credits info

4 EC
Upon full participation and completion of course work students will be awarded 4 ECTS points and a diploma of completion.

Fee info

EUR 400: Early-Bird Course Fee until 31 March 2022. Accommodation, cultural programme and meals are not included in the price.
EUR 450: Regular Course Fee after 31 March 2022. Accommodation, cultural programme and meals are not included in the price.

Scholarships

Available