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CS377A: Topics in HCI: Experience Design
Dates: March 31 - May 21 1996
Experience Design
Experiences are the basis for all life events and form the core of what interactive media have to offer. While on the surface interactivity may seem new, it is only new to computerized devices and not to humans. In fact, we have been interacting with each other for longer than we can remember and an understanding of what forms successful interactions will lead to better-designed experiences, as well as novel, innovative, and potentially more successful interfaces (computerized or otherwise). What people find interesting, the kinds of activities they choose to spend money on, and the things that excite them and are memorable, have not changed much since recorded history began. Indeed, we can expect it to change little in the next 1000 years-long after any of us need to concern ourselves with? This means that we are not at square-one when designing interfaces for computer experiences but have a wealth of knowledge, history, and meaning to draw on for inspiration, technique, and process.
This course will explore what it means for an interface to be interactive in many forms: what it can do for an audience, what a user can do with it, how it can adapt to different audiences, how it can be seductive and attractive, how it might be persuasive, how it can catalyze others to interact, how it affects identity and community, and how it might be best organized and presented. The course will concentrate on practice and exploration, using projects as a departure for observation, analysis, iterative development, and critique. There will be little required reading, but a large portion of the class responsibilities will be interacting in class and work on the various projects. Participation from the students is mandatory and there will be many opportunities for glossary, arguments, and fist fights (if it comes to that).
One of the premises of this class will be that interactive media-even in computerized interactions-are primarily about people and not technology. While technology will be downplayed, it will not be ignored altogether. The emphasis will be on creating opportunities for rich and satisfying interactions and then finding a technological basis for their realization.
There are no prerequisites for this class and no current knowledge of Interaction Design or Interface Design is necessary but a general understanding of communications, media, and the interactive media industry is encouraged. Since everyone has experience with experiences, every student should already be qualified to learn more about applying what they implicitly understand to the problems of creating "interactive media." Each student will be able to apply these principles to their present discipline and current work. While the class should be stimulating and fun, it's content-as well as its interaction-will be serious and valuable.
www.nathan.com | experience design | thoughts | projects | inspirations | me