FA19: MOBILE UI: PUBLIC

Overview

Mobile User Interface (UI) Design is an 8-week course focused on people-centered digital experience design for mobile devices. This course helps prepare visual communication design majors to work in the tech and or startup communities as User Interface Designers.

Content

This course provides students with an introduction on how to plan for and integrate digital media into experience design solutions. Topics include the use of visual design principles in digital interfaces, narrative construction as a design activity (storyboarding), digital prototyping methods, usability analysis methods, digital user persona development, and a discussion on how trends in emerging technology affect design. Outcomes are wide ranging and include prototypes of mobile or tablet software applications, websites, digital installations, dynamic environments through ubiquitous computing, or large-format screen-based interactions; the only commonality among the outcomes is the inclusion of digital technology.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Conduct user research with the intention of designing mobile interfaces
• Use digital experience and interaction design industry terminology knowledgeably
• Use a concept scenario as a tool to describe an interaction design concept
• Prototype solutions using industry-standard tools
• Conduct evaluative tests to evaluate the success of a design solution
• Leverage a Speculative Design approach to reflect on the future of mobile interactions
• Discuss the ethics and effects of personal data collection

Structure and Process

This class meets 5 hours each week. Monday/Wednesday class time will be structured around the following kinds of activities: lectures & in-class activities, discussion from assigned readings, studio work time, individual and group critiques, individual presentations, field research preparation & field research, and development of visual communication outcomes. You are expected to work a minimum of 7.5 hours outside of class per week to achieve the class goals.

Project Space

The amount of detail about our lives that gets captured and stored digitally is enormous and growing every day. Think about all the data that's collected about you now: your steps, your internet habits, your conversations, where you drive, your academic performance, your body (steps/exercise, vital signs, period tracking, sleep habits, etc), your behaviors (internet browsing, Starbucks purchasing, driving/walking patterns, etc.) and interactions (public and private communication, dating history, calendar history). It seems like only our personal thoughts are free from digital processing but even that isn't safe for long. As a society, we are in the process of surrounding ourselves with devices that listen all the time (Siri, Alexa, Google Home). Imagine what we can extract about your preferences or what your reaction to something will be when we can assess everything you say all the time.

Right now, our data is scattered all over the place. Corporations and the government collect it and then store and process it separately. It's easy to see this as a dystopia so let's take a different approach. Let's make something that returns the power of our information to us. In this project, I want you to imagine a future where every aspect of human life is digitally captured in some way. Once we achieve that reality, we will need to seriously consider how we manage all of that data. To frame our project, I am providing you with the following narrative:

It's February 2040. Last month, President Veronica Penn was sworn in as the first U.S. President from the Millennial Generation. A big part of why she won was her "Digital Dignity" platform that would return control of personal data to the individual. Congress quickly took up the issue and within weeks passed the Digital Dignity Act of 2040. The law is simple: it is illegal for another person or entity to own data about an individual without the express consent of that individual. In effect, this reconfigures how US citizens think about and interact with their data. Companies and governments can still track information about people, but that data must be released or sold back to the company. Additionally, but centralizing ALL data about an individual into one location, it empowers citizens to compare data about themselves in new ways, remember the past, and see a more complete picture of their habits. The user finally has complete control over their digital lives. Of course, this has created a brand new market. Citizens now have the data but they don't have a way to make sense of it visually. A flood of new startups have emerged that can import your data and visualize it in different ways via an app. You've just been hired by one of them to figure out how people want to take advantage of their newfound dignity.

Approach

There are a  few principles that should define our collective approach this semester.

Be present, not perfect

"Design, as a problem-solving activity can never, by definition, yield one right answer: it will always produce an infinite number of answers, some 'righter' and some 'wronger.' The 'rightness' of any design solution will depend on the meaning  which we invest the arrangement [of design elements]."

-Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World, 1971

Outside of a few issues (spelling, craft, promptness), We will never ask you to be perfect in this class. Your daily goal should be to make your best effort, learn from your mistakes, and continuously improve (even if by very small amounts). Rather than executing perfect solutions, focus on being present and attentive in class, during critique, and in discussions and we promise that you will be a much better designer by the end of the semester.

Be smart about your data

Losing your computer (either from a software crash, hardware failure, theft, or otherwise) is an inevitability. Embrace this and plan for it: have a plan to backup your computer. We recommend having a two-pronged backup strategy. You should have one hard backup on an external hard drive somewhere. If you use a Mac, make sure Time Machine is connected and use it regularly. The other backup should be remote. Aaron recommends using Backblaze for a reliable, seamless, and relatively inexpensive experience: https://secure.backblaze.com/r/019kbx (affiliate link, includes 1 month free).

Be an informed citizen

As a student, you have access to a lot of great resources for free or reduced prices. Take advantage of these while you can. Get your news from somewhere other than Facebook. For example, the Washington Post offers a free subscription for students. Learn how to access it here: http://time.com/money/4671856/get-free-subscription-to-the-washington-post/. You can get the New York Times for free via your IU account (https://ulib.iupui.edu/database/nyt). Wherever you get your news, get good at assessing the credibility of what you read.

Be forthright

To do our best work together, we need to have a good working relationship. Trust is the cornerstone. Do your best, and if you fall short, be humble and ready to learn. If you need to miss class for any reason, just tell us. We've heard it all and that's okay.

Honesty also works both ways. If something is not going as you would like in this class, tell one or both of us. I'm ready to talk about it and work through it.

Grading and Projects

Grades are a little different in this course. Traditional letter grades hinder creativity and place emphasis on task completion rather than creative investigation. With this in mind, your assessment in this course will be focused on your learning rather than your output. At the end of the course, you will be asked to complete a self-reflection that will facilitate a one-on-one discussion with me. At that meeting, we will discuss what grade we both believe is appropriate. With all this in mind, expectations for deliverables will always be clearly communicated and your participation in those activities will be considered when determining your grade.

There are a couple of things I want you to complete throughout the course that will help these end-of-term discussions:

• Reflections.
  Each week, I will post a reflection topic to Canvas that you should spend 30 minutes thinking and writing about. These will help you track your learning throughout the term.
• Weekly "prototype"
  Each week, I want you and your partner to upload materials to a box folder that communicate how your solution prototype has progressed since the previous week. Think of each entry as a "guess" about your final solution. If your project ended on that day, what would you solution look like? How can you best communicate its success?