Course Overview

This course explores speculative design as a means of imagining possible futures and influencing societal change. Students will study design fiction, critical design, and design for social impact, and will develop their own speculative design projects.

Course Content

This course provides an in-depth examination of design as a tool for envisioning and shaping the future. Students will learn about design fiction, critical design, and design for social impact, and will study the work of leading speculative designers. The course will cover the principles of speculative design, including research, prototyping, and storytelling. Students will also have the opportunity to develop their own speculative design projects, exploring potential futures and considering the ethical implications of their designs. Through hands-on learning and critique, students will gain a deeper understanding of the role of design in shaping our world. Special attention will be placed on the development of digital design concepts that examine the societal implications of emerging technology.

Learning Outcomes

You will learn how to…	In order to help you become a…	You’ll know you’ve learned this through your performance in…
Course Learning Outcome	PUL	Course Activity
Identify social contexts that can benefit from speculative design inquiry.	Problem solver	In-class critique, project work, reflection
Construct speculative objects or designs based on perceived future constraints.	Innovator	In-class critique, project work, reflection
Devise a plan to abstractly expose social issues through design artifacts.	Communicator	In-class critique, project work, reflection
Justify design decisions through the lens of social activism.	Problem solver	Project work, reflection
Assess the implication of short and long-term tech projections.		In-class critique, project work, reflection

Readings

Dunne, A., Raby, F. (2013). Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. United Kingdom: MIT Press.

Hoffman, J. (2022). Speculative Futures: Design Approaches to Navigate Change, Foster Resilience, and Co-Create the Citie S We Need. United Kingdom: North Atlantic Books.

Tharp, S. M., Tharp, B. M. (2018). Discursive Design: Critical, Speculative, and Alternative Things. United Kingdom: MIT Press.

Grading

A rubric will be provided for each project at the beginning of the project. Instructor feedback will be delivered as written notes, audio or video recording, or in-person discussion. We will use the following grade scale for each project. Generally, grades will be reduced by 1.5% points for every day a project is late. Deductions for work that is more than 7 days late will be assigned on a case-by-case basis.

Grades will be based on completion of work, attendance, participation and your engagement
during class. Work (even when unfinished) must be displayed at critiques to receive credit.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Work must be handed in via the method
requested by the instructor (hard-copy, and/or Canvas) by the date due. 

Breakdown of Overall Grade

Weeks	Topic/Activity	Grade %
1-5	Data Dignity	40%
6-15	Utopia/Dystopia	50%
16	Reflection	10%

Grade Scale

Grade	Percentage
A	93-100
A-	90-92
B+	87-89
B	83-86
B-	80-82
C+	78-80
C	73-77
C-	70-72
D	60-70
F	50-60

Computers and Software

All VCD students are required to provide their own computer and software. Students
are welcome to choose the Mac or PC platform. NOTE: typically the Mac is the preferred
platform in the visual communication design profession and knowing this operating system
is many cases a requirement for employment or internships. Please keep this in mind.
VCD students are required to be connected to IU Secure through wireless and use the
Adobe Creative Cloud. This software is offered to IUPUI students for free. Go to IUware at
https://iuware.iu.edu/Mac to download this software.

It’s important to utilize educational tutorials to learn and stay up-to-date with software.
Instructors will introduce you to basic skills but students are expected to pick-up
software skills on their own. Many times you can Google your question to find the
answer or find a video tutorial that will help you learn specific techniques.

Adobe tutorials:
https://helpx.adobe.com/search.html#q=tutorials&t=All&sort=relevancy

Envatotuts+: graphic design & Illustration tutorials
www.tutsplus.com/

Creative Bloq: graphic design tutorials
www.creativebloq.com/tag/indesign

Graphic Design Stack Exchange: answers questions
www.graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/tags

 

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.

Reevaluate your expectations for critique

Professor Mitch Goldstein from the Rochester Institute of Technology has put together a very useful guide to critique. Please review it prior to any critique to refresh your memory on the purpose of critique. One of the best quotes from his guide:

"You should walk away from getting a crit feeling empowered and excited to make the work better, not defeated and miserable from the experience. It is up to both the givers and the receivers of the critique to make this happen." 

How to Crit Guide

Links to an external site.Make sure you have backups 

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. You could use Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. or use a remote backup service like Backblaze or iDrive.

Be honest and sincere.

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. We're ready to talk about it and work through it.

Creating a positive class culture

Creating a sense of camaraderie within the classroom is essential.

In an ideal world, a healthy classroom culture will have these characteristics:

• Interacting with each other about projects and design-related activities.
• being aware of what is on the schedule for a particular day and pro-actively
  preparing themselves in advance—such as on a critique day, pinning work on
  the wall as if you were presenting to a client.
• Organizing ways to seek constructive criticism from other classmates and
  proactively organizing critique groups with other classmates.
• Printing out work to ask for feedback from faculty or other classmates.
• being curious about the design profession—bring in interesting design-related
  items or issues—sharing design finds. Organizing a field trip and inviting your
  instructor.
• Keeping each other informed and helping each other find ways to economize
  working methods, sharing techniques, and software knowledge.

Policies

This course abides by all Indiana University Indianapolis policies. You can reference them here: Campus Course Policies (or in the Canvas course navigation)

Contact with Instructors: Please use the Canvas messaging system (Inbox) as the primary form of communication with instructors. It is best for us to keep all student-based course communication in one place.

Intellectual Diversity: This class will cultivate an environment of free intellectual inquiry, debate, and constructive criticism, even when views expressed are unpopular or controversial. Legitimate academic and pedagogical work may involve expression of views, words, symbols, images, or thoughts that some people find offensive.

Plagiarism and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Plagiarism is not allowed in any form. Being caught plagiarizing other's work may result in failure of the assignment or removal from the course. There is a lot of gray area around the use of AI in design. We encourage you to use AI as a divergence tool (brainstorming ideas) and as a way to generate placeholder text for your designs. There are some rare cases where you may be allowed to use AI-generated images as a small component of your work. Your instructors will let you know when may be the case. You are not allowed to use AI-generated visuals or design layouts. When it comes to AI, the general rule of thumb is that if it feels like cheating or plagiarism, it probably is, even if the work was created by an AI service and not another person. When in doubt, ask the instructors for clarification.

Accommodations:  Students seeking accommodations because of disability must register with Accessible Educational Services and follow the procedures of that office before accommodations will be given. All forms must be completed and students must identify themselves to me sufficiently in advance of any exams so that I have time to make the accommodations.  Accessible Educational Services is located in UC (Taylor Hall rm. 137, aes@iu.edu, tel. 274-3241. I follow their recommendations and I consult them for advice when I have questions.  

Academic misconduct:  Academic dishonesty of any sort undermines the very principles on which educational pursuits are founded, and if encountered, will be dealt with as the most serious of offenses. If you are ever in doubt about what constitutes cheating or plagiarism, please consult the university's Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct, or ask me directly.  Ignorance of the standards is not an excuse.

Administrative Withdrawal: Students who miss more than 50 percent of their class meetings of a given section during the first four weeks of the fall or spring semesters may be administratively withdrawn from that course unless documentation of contact with their course instructor, academic unit, or academic advisor is provided. Undergraduate students may be administratively withdrawn regardless of class level.

Regular Withdrawal:  I hope you won’t need to drop this class!  But if you do, pay attention to the date and make sure you are aware of all the potential ramifications for your tuition, financial aid, and degree progress.  Information about withdrawing can be found here: https://indianapolis.iu.edu/academics/classes-registration/register/withdrawal/Links to an external site.

Religious holidays: IU Indianapolis respects the right of all students to observe their religious holidays and will make reasonable accommodation, upon request, for such observances. Students seeking accommodation for religious observances must make a request in writing by the end of the 2nd week of the semesterLinks to an external site. to the course instructor and should use the Request for Course Accommodation Due to Religious Observance Form.Links to an external site. 

Technical Standards Policy:  Herron School of Art & Design applicants and enrolled students must be able to fulfill the requirements and demands of the courses for the degree program they have chosen. Reasonable accommodations will be made for students who are registered with IU Indianapolis Accessible Educational Services.