Course CIU281 is cancelled because of illness. It will be given next time in autumn 2019.
More information can be found on the Message board.

Course Overview

This course will give an introduction to a selection of emerging trends and critical topics in the field of interaction design with a common theme the design for good life of all. It is structured along three related main critical topics which are relevant to academia as well as to industry and society:

• Inclusive design (Sara) - Critical Topic 1 - CT1
• Creativity, Music interaction (Palle) - Critical Topic 2 - CT2
• Value-based design & Emergent technologies (Gordana) - Critical Topic 3 - CT3

In each of the three topics, we will discuss and explore, through hands-on design activities, different related trends and questions, and how they provide opportunities and present challenges to interaction designers, researchers, and other stakeholders.

This year, the three critical topics will deal with the role of interaction design in promoting a better society, and improving quality of life for all, from  the different levels of analysis:

• The first critical topic, Inclusive design, will focus primarily on the way how diversity and individual differences may affect how people experience designed solutions, and look at different perspectives and methods concerning inclusive design. Inclusive design is a critical topic for interaction design and society in general. It is an approach that concerns a greater perspective of usability - by creating design solutions that can be used by a larger population, to the greatest extent possible. Overall it is related to universal design, design for all, accessibility and usability. In the course we will focus on how diversity and individual differences may affect how people experience design solutions. We will read about different perspectives and methods for inclusive design in literature and we will develop resonant design concepts to learn and reflect about the challenges and possibilities with this design approach. 
  
  
• The second critical topic is the Creativity and music interaction that cognitively presents one of the core values of good life. Music is of all forms of communication and expression closest to the feeling of happiness and harmony. This part of the course will explore the nature of creativity and the ways design can support it, with special focus on music and arts.
  
  
• The third critical topic, Value-based design & emerging technologies, will focus on how interaction designers can address values for a good life of all, through emerging technologies of AI (artificial/artifactual intelligence), cognitive computing, cyber-physical systems (including robotics) and Internet of things. Our focus will be on the new, emerging technologies in the service of humanity. But what is good and for whom? We will critically address various facets of new technologies and how they are taking form through design, where decisions are made all the time based on values. How do we form and maintain our value systems? What values are we going to promote in the future, when technology will permeate our everyday lives with intelligent everything, big data and internet of things among others. We will study challenges in academia, environmental sustainability and technology design, involving groups of people, systems and structures in society, and look at topics such as “sustainable HCI”, future of transportation systems. Our basic reference framework will be Value-based Design Ethics.
  

Besides lectures that will introduce these topics and corresponding trends, you will engage in:

1. An individual Literature assignment, one per critical topic, which will enable framing the topic within the state-of-the-art literature.
2. Group Literature session, based on your literature assignments for a more in-depth reflection and discussion within your group.
   
3. Creating an individual Workbook that you will keep and work in throughout the course. Following each lecture, you will get a question/task to work with in your workbook. This could for instance involve doing some research "in the wild", design sketches, etc. Some tasks will be more open, and some will be more focused, depending on the topic of the lecture. The goal is to encourage you to explore and engage with the course material in a hands-on way, and build up your personal documentation of design ideas and thoughts connecting situated problem setting with practical design thinking and theoretical reflection.
4. Group work in Workbook consultation and crit sessions where you will meet in groups to present your latest workbook material, and get feedback from your peers and the teachers.
5. Final Mini-conference with individual short pitches and group posters presentation for the class. Short lightning talks will be reporting individual experiences drawing mainly on what you have explored in your workbook, and common summary of group project work reflections will be searching for commonalities and differences among individual approaches contributing to common conclusions.
   

Course representatives

These are the student representatives that have been selected for the course:

TBD