Category: Course Activities (Page 1 of 3)
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:
- Title
- Object Overview
- Origin Story
- Materials & Technology
- Impact
- Evolution
- Tension / Problem
- 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
Design for Someone Else
Find a partner.
Designate one of you to be ‘A’ and the other to be ‘B’.
Choose one digital task from the remaining four digital tasks that your partner wrote down on post-it notes.
Step One:
A interviews B about a specific digital task (informed by the earlier exercise).
Step Two:
B interviews A about a specific digital task (informed by the earlier exercise).
Interview Guide
Ask your partner to walk you through the activity, step by step.
- What’s the first thing you do when you start this task?
- What happens next? Walk me through each step.
- What do you expect to happen when you do each step?
- What parts of this process do you have problems with? What parts of this process could work better, or feel annoying, or confusing, or broken?
- What do you wish it did differently?
Instructions for Being Interviewed
Be honest.
Be specific.
Be generous; if you don’t give them anything to work with, you’re going to make this assignment (on step 4 and step 5) very difficult for them.
Don’t try to sound tech-savvy. Talk like you talk.
Due Date: December 22 (presentation in class; submit all files + documentation by December 23)
Submission: Research Folder; upload share link to Discord (#project04), and document in OpenLab portfolio.
Overview
This project is the capstone of our efforts this semester. We will synthesize all our work in design foundations – design-thinking, visual composition, sound design, interaction design – through worldbuilding.
You will imagine a diegetic object (a designed artifact that exists within a fictional world) and use it as a lens to construct a small, vivid fragment of that world. Through understanding that object, you’ll paint a picture of the world that makes use of it. What kind of world produces this kind of thing, and how does this kind of thing participate in producing this kind of world?
Your object might be a tool, a currency, a device, a symbol, or other artifact. It reveals how your imagined technoculture lives, communicates, designs, exists.
Working on our own, we will develop worlds and cultures; collectively, we’ll build a pool of open source worlds.
Then, each of us will take individual responsibility for picking a world and developing a distinct corner of that world, centered on a diegetic object, and expressed through one or more media:
- Option A: Lo-Fi Physical Prototype
- Option B: Visual Composition
- Option C: Soundscape
- Option D: Multi-Screen Interactive Prototype
- Option E: Hybrid approach integrating two or more media
Learning Objectives
- Construct a cohesive, imagined world focused through an object with the application of design-thinking.
- Demonstrate understanding of principles of visual composition and sound design.
- Practice collaborative ideation and iterative refinement.
- Present a final, well-documented capstone project that communicates process, intention, and design rationale.
Process
Week 12 (Dec 1-3): The Object / The World
- The Worldbuilding Process
- Sketch / Prototype
- Create a lo-fi representation (drawing, collage, or paper prototype)
- Collaborate and Expand
- Brainstorm the environment, culture, and world that would produce (and be produced by) such an object.
Deliverable:
Group brainstorming board (Figma/Figjam or other), and individual object sketches and/or photographic evidence of your lo-fi object (uploaded to Discord).
Week 13 (Dec 8-10): Proposal Development
Begin with a lo-fi object.
- Brainstorm the environment, culture, and world that would produce (and be produced by) such an object.
Each student drafts a project proposal (300-800 words) that includes:
- A description of the world you’re working with.
- The media form(s) you’ll use to
- A brief concept of what your final product will be.
- A timeline & resource plan.
Deliverable:
Written proposal and one visual element (storyboard, prototype, sketch, wireframe, flowchart).
Week 14 (December 15 – 17): Build and Iterate
Use class feedback sessions to refine your design:
- Test it out, see what works, see if people understand what you’re trying to do.
- Prototype interactions or compositions.
- Iterate through feedback from peers and instructor.
Deliverable:
- Midpoint prototype (image, sound file, or Figma link)
- 2-3 paragraph design rationale explaining your iteration choices.
Week 15 (December 22): Final Showcase
Each person presents their world and final product (5-7 minutes).
The presentation should:
- Introduce the world and its logic.
- Demonstrate the diegetic object (through visuals, audio, or interactive prototypes).
- Discuss how design choices communicate cultural or functional meaning.
Deliverables (individual):
- Final media file(s) export (png/wav/link to Figma prototype/photo documentation of prototype, et c.)
- Project process file(s) (Illustrator .ai /Photoshop .psd /Audition .sesx/link to Figma project, et c.)
- 150-250 word reflection on your process of design.
- Screenshots / documentation of process (sketches, wireframes, flowcharts)
In-person presentation (can be show-and-tell)(optional)- World description (250-400 words)
Reflection & Portfolio
By December 23, each student will:
- Document your project on OpenLab in your ePortfolio.
- Include brief reflections as part of the portfolio post, including but not limited to:
- What did you learn about worldbuilding?
- How did your object express the world you imagined?
- Which design principles and tools were most essential?
- Include brief reflections as part of the portfolio post, including but not limited to:
Part 1: Online Research Presentation (Lecture)
Format: 10-12 minute group presentation (shared slides + spoken presentation)
Goal: demonstrate that you understand the original object’s history, context, and design logic by building a research story that sets the stage for your redesign.
Each group should include the following sections:
- Title & Team Slide
- Object name
- Group member names
- Date
- Provide an evocative or interesting image for your title slide.
- Object Overview
- What’s the object’s origin story?
- What is it? What does it do? How does it work?
- Who designed it? When, and why?
- What need, constraint, or context led to its invention?
- What materials or technologies made it possible?
- Include at least one image per slide.
- What’s the object’s origin story?
- Impact and Evolution
- How did it change the world, and how did it evolve?
- Consider positive effects, negative effects, ambivalent effects
- How did it change the world, and how did it evolve?
- The Ambiguous Brief
- Reveal the new constraints / users you’re designing for
- Initial Redesign Sketches
- Walk us through your various iterations
- Emphasize visual documentation
- Your Process
- Show us some info about what you’ll show us on Wednesday
Deliverables
- Link to presentation posted in #project01-research
- Link to shared archive folder
- Each member should share in both the design and delivery of the presentation
Part 2 – In-Person Prototype Show-and-Tell
Goal: reveal how your redesign responds to ambiguous constraint through physical demonstration of your prototype; including some mention of your iterations & the story of your process
Each group will have 5-7 minutes + 2 minutes Q&A.
Be prepared to listen closely and ask questions of your peers.
Setup your object, demonstrate how it works / how it solves the new problem, briefly discuss the process of iterative prototyping, describe your process of creation.
Deliverables
- Physical prototype
Presentation Tips
- Avoid the ‘card of text’!
- Use visuals instead of text; use demonstrations instead of explanations
- Balance talking and showing.
- Treat the demo as a performance.
- Archive everything. Photos, videos, iteration notes.
