Due: Before Wednesday, Feb 25 @ 10AM
Format: Group submission

Objective

You have worked together to research an object. Now it is your task to work together and tell us what it means.

This activity should prepare you to:

  • transform research into a coherent story about design
  • clarify the logic of the object you’ve been redesigning
  • align it as a group before presenting it publicly

Part 1: The Object in One Slide

Create a single slide that explains your research object clearly and economically.

It must include:

  • object’s name
  • 1-2 sentence description (what is it? what does it do?)
  • a strong image
  • 3 keywords that define its design logic (example: “portable”, “durable”, “modular”)

Constraint:
No more than 40 total words on the slide.

If you can’t explain your object clearly in one slide, you don’t understand it.

(And the process of learning to explain your object clearly in one slide will help you understand it!)

Deliverable: Build as a slide in the program of your choice. (PowerPoint, Google Slides, PDF, et cetera)

Part 2: Design Logic Breakdown

In your shared document, answer the following in 250-300 words total:

  • What problem did this object originally solve?
  • What constraint shaped its form most strongly?
  • What tradeoffs did the designer accept?
  • What assumption about users is built into this object?
  • What would break if one core feature were removed?

This is where you make a leap from your original sources to your own original analysis.

It should be less about the biography of who and when, and more about design reasoning.

Part 3: Beyond the Object

Design objects do not come from nothing. They exist within (and constitute) human systems.

To understand the object, you have to understand the system it participates in.

Answer the following in short form (notes, bulletpoints, no need for formal paragraphs):

1. What makes this object possible? (Upstream)

  • What materials does it rely on?
  • What technologies enable it?
  • What infrastructures support it?
  • What industries produce it?

2. What does it change? (Downstream)

  • What behaviors does it alter?
  • What habits does it create?
  • What problems does it solve?
  • What new problems does it introduce?

3. Culture and Human Values

  • Who benefits from its existence?
  • What assumptions about users are embedded in it?
  • Who are excluded from its use, or disadvantaged by its existence?

4. Pragmatics

If the object disappeared from existence tomorrow:

  • What would break?
  • What would return?

Keep it concise.

Part 4: Presentation Architecture

Before you begin building your slides, outline your research presentation:

  1. Title
  2. Object Overview
  3. Origin Story
  4. Materials & Technology
  5. Impact
  6. Evolution
  7. Tension / Problem
  8. Ambiguous Brief Setup

Assign areas of responsibility to group members; assign a speaker to each section.

Include time estimates per slide (10-12 minutes, total).

Deliverable: bullet-pointed outline