Brief and Syllabus

The course serves as an introduction to Interaction-Design for students without technical background, mostly coming from the fields of design and architecture.
By using open source environments, hands-on approach and physical computing, students will gain knowledge about the emerging field of Interaction-Design: the design of objects, applications and services enabled by information and modern technologies.
This will allow students to develop new approaches to their future work, and to expand their ability to innovate in the emerging field of Interaction-Design. Students will learn to design interactive products, services and experiences based on information and communication technology. Interaction-Design is a rapidly evolving set of activities at the intersection of design, technology, art and business. This course will expose students to elements of all four, which will synthesize together according to the discipline a student brings with him/her at the moment of entry to this four months course.
The outcome-oriented objectives for the course are that each student, upon successful completion, will be able to:

Communicate with users, conveying technological limits and understanding user needs and requirements
Communicate with system developers, conveying users’ design needs and understanding technological capabilities and constraints
Compare and contrast human aspects of Human-Computer Interaction (cognition, perception, attention, representation, memory and social aspects) and the technological aspects
Describe methods, techniques and activities that support development of effective Human-Computer Interaction

What is Interaction Design

This course approaches Interaction Design by positioning “man” at its focal point. Correlating real world environments and the human sensory perception, the course approaches both theory and application of interfacing. As technical innovation and design intersect, and merge into a symbiotic duality, the dichotomy disperses, by illustrating, in essence and practice, how these two terms are co-dependent. By planning and designing interactive object, the “learning by making” hands-on discipline is well implemented in the process of phasing together industrial production procedures and the language of design. Through a dialog between traditional crafts and cutting edge technological advancements, students gain the experience of developing and producing interactive projects, all while familiarizing themselves with digital programming and electronic prototyping. The key goal is grasping the connection that both the virtual and the physical worlds share, by understand the relationship between conceptual and actual. It is an introduction to basic proficiency in computer science and coding, as well as an encouraging journey to discover an independent style for creating interfaces.

Human computer interaction (HCI)

Usability has become a vital requirement of interactive computer applications. In response, human-computer interaction has grown into a serious field of research, development, and application. This course uses cross-disciplinary approach to bring together a broad variety of topics, in relation to the problem of developing quality user-interaction designs, so to provide an introduction to the field of HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). The course is different from a majority of IT courses, like Software Engineering, that take a system’s perspective, simply by focusing on the application (and less on theory) of user-centered design principles, guidelines, and evaluation.

Interface design and Magic

the modern world as our current surrounding is filled with artifacts, man made objects and environments. From door knobs to “aquatic” operating-systems, we are immersed in interfaces. A door handle provides a simple interface to operate a door, while a sophisticated array of menus and windows provides a complex interface to manage computer programs and files. Still, many interfaces are lacking usability or the intuitiveness of basic human interactions. Relaying on solving necessities, and creating a whole new experience, these fall in danger of denying the user from his or her natural intuitions, thus becoming less “user-friendly”. Not rushing the creation of new artifacts and new interfaces, it might be wise to rethink, redesign and improve on previous existing elements - taking in mind the user, and putting the user’s already inherent tendencies at the center of attention for this process. Shifting the paradigm may be achieved by mixing design, technology and cognitive-science, combined with studies and observations of user-experience and experiential usability.

The following course attempts to address the way designers and artists, engineers and technologists, work together, and to propose a unified “creation” unit, as we reevaluate design flaws, towards making products less a result of technical thinking, and more “humanized”, natural and intuitive;

There is a strong and ongoing inclination of the industry to turn the presence of technology in our surrounding to ubiquitous and transparent. Miniaturization of electronic devices, for one, has been going on for quite some time, and it enables us to hide them, or embed them in other, even seemingly unrelated products. The Internet and cellular communication, for another, allow for our personal information and virtual property to be practically everywhere, and accessible almost anytime. These and other trends bring about occurrences that might be revered to as magic. As been said - any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.[8] And this can be further divided into categories of illusions:
1. Conjure - rendering an object into existence, apparently from thin air.
2. Vanish - making an object disappear.
3. Teleportation - moving an object without physical contact.
4. Transformation - changing a shape of an object to be something else in terms of shape.
5. Restoration - recreate an object’s shape back into its original shape after distorting it.
6. Prediction- the ability to predict an action the user is about to perform.

We claim that to some extent, interfaces are actually doing the same. These are no witch-crafts, but rather just crafts of a professional, techniques that amount to mere illusions, but with just as much impact on the viewer or participant. Accordingly, it might be supposed that these different aspects of the general scheme, may all serve a purpose in the field of Interaction-Design.

When considering interactions, these can just as well help to define functionalities and features. Here are some examples of interaction procedures, viewed from this frame of reference, and correlating to the specifications above:
1. Conjure - one of the most ancient sorceries of technology, from light “suddenly” glowing from a bulb, to a TV-set broadcasting “wonders”; from calculators displaying, without revealing how, the correct series of digits, to applications “popping-open” at a click of a button.
2. Vanish - as today we swiftly close, or “minimize”, computer programs at our will, once we marveled at glass-doors sliding before us, and concealed out of sight, as we approached them.
3. Teleportation - advancements and discoveries have made this more and more “unbelievable”, where once phone-calls ran through stretched-out wires, “miraculous” on its own - today, mountains of information “leap” invisibly in the air, from one place to another, even miles away.
4. Transformation - adjustable seats; sofa-beds; Swiss army-knives; LEDs’ colors; hand-held computers turning into mobile-phones; mobile-phones turning into audio-players; audio-players turning into disks-on-key.
5. Restoration - ponder on how rebooting our laptops does not erase our personal files, but more specifically on how our preferences are kept even as power is cut off of circuits; notice how after we turn the TV back on, the same channel we selected last time, and the level of volume, is still set exactly as it was; and now imagine a web TiVo, restoring our profiles even when visiting another country; not to mention the universal Undo execution, that saves one’s life far too many time.
6. Prediction - just as a camera’s auto-focus mechanism predicts the subject of our photo, “auto-complete” predicts the word that was just about to be written; just as a virtual tool-bar’s composition predicts which operations will be mostly chosen, a “hold” switch predicts accidental and unintentional button clicks when handling mobile-phones; just as the location of a camera’s shooting button predicts the way a user will hold it.
The process of perfecting a magic trick can be viewed as parallel to the process of developing an interactive object. This is also closely related to performance art, where audience feedback is vital. Once a concept for a trick is established, or say a joke in a stand-up comedy show is drafted, training commences. Whereas a magician practices his/her actions and checks his/her instruments, a comedian tests the manner of portraying the “bit”, to reach the best, and funnies, phrasing and timing. This is crucial for the success of each, and for improving on the initial model. Agile-usability-engineering use similar methodologies, such as “backtalk of a situation”, where challenges of the creative progress, themselves teach and educate, other than just present obstacles (hinting to a conclusion that the developer must also get better, not just the product).

Code and poetry

In most bookstore one could find books like “teach yourself programming in 7 days” alongside endless variations offering to teach electronics, Internet and so on, in just a few days or hours. The conclusion is that either people are in a big rush to learn about computers, or that computers are somehow fabulously easier to learn than anything else. In 7 days a normal person won’t have time to write several significant programs, and learn from his successes and failures with them. He won’t have time to work with an experienced programmer and understand what it is like to live and work in that environment. In short, he won’t have time to learn much. So such books or guides can only be talking about a superficial familiarity, not a deep understanding. As Alexander Pope said, a little learning is a dangerous thing.
There are no books on how to learn Beethoven, or Quantum Physics, or even Dog Grooming in a few days. Researchers (Hayes, Bloom) have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, painting, swimming, tennis, and research in neurophysiology and topology. There appear to be no real shortcuts: even Mozart, who was a musical prodigy at age 4, took 13 more years to begin to produce world-class music. In another genre, the Beatles seemed to burst onto the scene with a string of #1 hits and an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. But they had been playing small clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg since 1957, and while they had mass appeal early on, their first great critical success, Sgt. Peppers, was released in 1967. Samuel Johnson thought it took longer than ten years: “Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.”
In this specific course, students will learn to “hack” or “tinker” with exciting code, learn to analyze and change snippets of code as opposed to writing a full code section from scratch. Since this class doesn’t require any programming skills, students will learn to locate, modify and use code elements taken from external sources such as Programmer’s library. This way, students will learn the basic necessities of programming without the delusion of learning how to code in such short time. With that said, students will eventually have the tools and knowledge to understand and approach computer code, and to have an intelligent discussion with programmers that they may work with in the future.

Physical computing / InstantSOUP ™

Developed in 2006, InstantSOUP is a path into electronics using an approach of “learning by making”, introducing electronic prototyping in a playful, non-technical way. It was developed following the experience gained in teaching physical interaction design at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. InstantSOUP is intended for an audience of design students – Interaction-Design, Product-Design, and Architecture. It makes the first steps into the world of physical prototyping almost as easy as preparing Instant Soup. InstantSOUP is a way to connect the virtual with the physical world. It teaches how to make physical input devices for games, how to re-purpose electronic gadgets, how to activate physical objects from remote locations and even how to create little robots. When you start mixing the different soup ingredients, the possibilities are pretty vast.
[ InstantSOUP Website - Link ]

Website and real-time documentation

Online documentation is one of the most vital element in today’s digital media, by sharing the academic process, academic materials, and students’ work, the global internet public can peek, almost in real-time, at the process of such workshops. This breaks the old fashion academic approach, that only few are entitled to be in contact with learning materials, and that is forcing the academic process to be more on the “Ivory tower” opposing to popular wide-spread knowledge.
Using custom made content management systems, developed specifically for online academic use (sometimes refers to as E-learning), students, faculty members and eventually the general public, can enjoy the fruits of such workshops, simply by browsing to those specific web pages. Surely, a student participating in such workshops will gain much more physical and practical knowledge than one reading a website. Still, the value of such online documentation is pretty high. A student or a faculty member could refer to this work, share it with colleges and even base future workshops upon such system. The existence of such online materials can serve many other academic / personal tasks, long time after such a workshop has been conducted.
Using this specific online documentation system will also provide a higher visibility to the university, student and tutors alike, as it is designed to interface with popular search engines such as Google, and with that - empowering the work done by the people using it, simply by making it visible and accessible to all.
Instructors and students will update the course’s internet site during the entire semester so to continuously communicate with all students and other interested parties, providing immediate response to all participants, high visibility, real-time publication, and academic “branding”.

(The above system was developed by Yaniv Steiner, and was successfully applied in the last five years in Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Bezalel Academy of Art and Design – Jerusalem, and IUAV University of Architecture – Venice, to name a few.
The system follows the philosophy of open-source, and it is modular, dynamic and flexible. This makes the system adoptable for almost any other future academic use of such nature.)

By: Yaniv Steiner

Participants

References

Interaction design institute Ivrea / student’s guide
Wikipedia.com
Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years / Peter Norvig
Human Computer Interaction / Pardha S. Pyla
InstantSOUP

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