MAPD4300 Design for Experience Emneplan

This course aims to introduce the students to the complexity and conception of an experience. As such it is the series of complex interactions between humans and their technological, social, and natural environments that people interpret into a general impression. This course tackles this complexity by introducing multifaceted approaches to designing for experience of products and/or services.

The candidates will be therefore invited to explore social and interface interaction, phenomenology of experience, as well as theoretical approaches for engaging users in a practical context. These explorations will include applied experiments, and design iterations through testing and scenario building. To create more meaningful experiences the issues of mastery, resilience, motivation and wellbeing will be revisited and discussed.

Admission to the Masters program

On successful completion of this course the students are expected to have these learning outcomes acquired:

Knowledge:

The candidate can

• discuss and describe an experience through phenomenological as well as behavioral theoretical concepts
• choose relevant methods for exploration of design for experience

;

Skills:

The candidate can:

• plan and organize design process using phenomenological, and behavioral methods.
• implement experiments, user testing and probing in a lab and in the field.
• design product features and service components that consider experience as a key factor.
• critically assess their designs, product features, and service components and the implication of the design intervention for the experience.

General competence:

The candidate can:

• critically assess wider societal perspective on experience of products and services.
• practice evaluation of ethical issues and cultural relevance when conceptualizing and developing design for experience.

The most important teaching and learning methods for this course are workshops, lectures, group work, studio courses and tutoring.

In our world of things and artefacts materiality is shaping both culture and cognition. Humans depend on things and things depend on humans, but by active consideration we can discover the way materials direct and define us. This course takes creative engagement with the designer´s sensory modalities as a starting point for explorative design-processes and materials driven design, where subjective methods and personal experience become ways for handling complexity and relating to user experience.

The course is centred around practice-based research and we will focus on working directly with materials, spatial interaction, developing model-studies and examining process. Exploration is emphasized throughout the course and the student is expected to generate a comprehensive series of model output and to develop aesthetic, reflexive skills in design.

Admission to the Master's programme.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence: 

Knowledge 

The student 

• has developed advanced abilities in visual- and material articulation and aesthetic application.
• has gained advanced knowledge of material engagement and how the world of things, artifacts, and material signs can be embodied through practical exploration.
• has gained advanced knowledge about interplay between material-aesthetics and object-semantics.
• has gained knowledge about aesthetic strategies, methods and theory within a practical design research project.

Skills 

The student is capable of:

• independently running a discovery-led process and stating a relevant research question.
• developing and recognizing relevant practical working methods.
• developing concept- and material model studies within a specific context.
• analyzing and reflecting on form and material application using relevant terminology.
• dissecting and refining design models systematically.
• analyzing and synthesizing experience from observations and various perceptions.
• exhibiting and presenting their research using relevant terminology and tools.

General competence 

The student:

• is familiar with the theoretical basis of a practice based-research.
• understands the need for and use of practical exploration.
• is familiar with the terminology and language of practice-based research

The most important teaching and learning methods for this course are discussions, group work, lectures, studio courses and tutoring.

Two internal. External examiner is used periodically.