MAPD5300 Aesthetics of Materiality Course description

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.

No requirements over and above the admission requirements.

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

Knowledge

The student

• knows what user-centred development entails
• has knowledge of individual differences between people
• has knowledge of what characterises user-friendliness
• is familiar with design principles
• can explain the specific terminology used in the field
• has knowledge of research on user interfaces, including theories, empirical data and hypothesis testing

Skills

The student is capable of

• performing needs analyses
• explore the design space with sketches
• developing prototypes
• performing user testing
• measuring user interfaces by defining simple problems, designing simple experiments and analyse observations with simple statistical tools

General competence

The student

• is capable of developing user-friendly user interfaces
• is familiar with techniques used to evaluate interactive systems
• is capable of documenting and explaining design choices to clients and users
• is capable of interpreting simple research literature dealing with human-machine interaction

• Material properties in a specific context.;
• Design;methodology.;
• Product;communication;and;semantics.;
• Aesthetic principles of form and function in a specific context.;
• Experimental;material;practice.;

Lectures and practical work with prototyping, evaluations and product development. The students work individually and in groups (2-4 students).

Exam form: Portfolio assessment subject to the following requirements:

• Three individual assignments. Students are encouraged to collaborate in teams, but the documented work need to be authored individually in reports comprising 1000-1600 words, 1600-3000 words, and 1000-2000 words, respectively.

One overall grade is awarded for the portfolio. All parts of the portfolio must be awarded a grade E or better for a student to successfully pass the course.

The exam result can be appealed.

In the event of resit and rescheduled exams, another exam form may also be used or a new assignment given with a new deadline. If oral exams are used, the result cannot be appealed.

All.

Grade scale A-F.

One internal examiner. External examiners are used regularly.

Emnet er ekvivalent (overlapper 10 studiepoeng) med: ITPE2100

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