Enrollment

This is a limited enrollment course. We are still in the process of hiring experienced studio leaders so we do not know yet how many students we will be able to accommodate. For now, please apply on my.harvard. Note that everyone who takes the course will need to enroll in a studio section. The times of the studios are not yet available. We will follow up on studio scheduling as soon as we can. But it is important to understand that people who cannot be scheduled into any of the studio sessions will not be able to take the course.

Update, April 9: We have confirmed enough teaching staff to accommodate 80 students. I have accepted accepted all enrollment petitions that have been submitted thus far. I will make the next round of enrollment decisions on Friday after 8pm. If there are more people petitioning than we have spaces, I will run a lottery.

Update, Friday, April 11: I have accepted all enrollment petitions submitted by the end of today. We still have room for more folks to join. I will review petitions again on Monday evening. Again, a reminder that we have not scheduled sections yet -- we will do it later.

Who should consider this course

This is an introductory design course meant as the first exposure to the design process. It is taught from the computer science perspective so we will emphasize interactive digital artifacts but the underlying concepts and processes that we teach should be broadly applicable.

All undergrads are welcome, whether you discover your interest in design in your first or last year. Under some circumstances, this course may be appropriate for Masters students. If you are a Masters student considering the course, please make sure that your program will allow it.

Learning goals

• Design useful interactive systems. Learn how to discover real and valuable needs and aspirations of people who might be very different from yourselves. Make design decisions that appropriately support those needs and aspirations. Articulate and validate your design hypotheses. Identify all relevant stakeholders and design your solutions such that all of them will advocate in favor of your solution. Begin to recognize that technological solutions exist as part of complex sociotechnical systems. 
• Design usable interactive systems. Recognize that designers and users often have different mental models of interactive systems. Uncover users' mental models of relevant tasks and make design decisions consistent with those models. Analyze existing solutions and design new ones using contemporary knowledge of human perception, cognition, and motor performance. Design for diverse abilities. Appropriately use existing design principles. Create interactive prototypes. Design, conduct, and analyze results from usability studies.
• Be intentional about and accountable for societal consequences of your solutions. Recognize that design decisions (what problem to solve, for whom, and how) impact the distribution of power and resources in a society. That is, design inevitably has moral and political consequences. Articulate and explain your moral and political stance. Make design decisions consistent with your stance. Analyze your designs for likely indirect and "unanticipated" consequences.
• Be ready to be part of or lead design organizations. Contribute to effective teamwork. Lead teams with or without authority. Understand the benefits and challenges of diverse organizations. Effectively communicate design research and design decisions. Provide systematic design critique. Productively receive design critique. Use effective team-based creative processes.

Prerequisites

None. We will teach you all the skills required for the course. 

Course format:

Besides the two lectures each week, students will also meet every week in studios. Each studio will comprise of up to 20 students and a TF. Each studio will have its own meeting time of one standard class period on either Thursdays or Fridays (exact times and locations TBD). The studio time will be used by the teams to present their work and to solicit critique, to complete some design activities for the projects, or to practice new skills. 

There will be three team-based projects. The first two will take three weeks each, and the topics for those projects will be provided by the course staff. The third project will take six weeks and it will be a chance for the teams to pursue a topic of their own choice. 

When is course typically offered?

Fall of most years.

Assignments and grading:

Most of the learning in the class will occur in the context of 3 team-based projects. You will work on teams of 3 or 4. You will submit progress reports every week. These reports will be primarily an opportunity for you to receive formative feedback from your studio leader. At the end of each project (and possibly in the middle of project 3), you will submit a more formal report, which will be graded. There will also be formal presentations associated with the projects (some in studio and some in front of the entire class).

Prior to most lectures, you will review some material (read an article, watch a video) and you will submit a brief written reflection.

The following elements will be taken into account when computing your final grade:

• Projects
• Written reflections
• Attendance and participation in studios
• Attendance in lectures
• Professionalism

In general, we set up the grading scheme such that course grades mean the following:

• A. People who competently do their work, are generous and dependable team members, and who demonstrate a non-trivial level of creativity, initiative and effortful curiosity.
• A-. People who competently do their work and are generous and dependable team members.
• B+ or lower. In all other situations.

We want to emphasize here that, in most cases, we will focus our grading on the process rather than the outcome. Specifically, it is perfectly find to pursue a risky design challenge and fail to find a complete solution as long as the team engages in a careful design process and documents their work clearly.

Generative tool (AI) policy:

We have a separate page with our policies for using generative tools in your work for this class.

Course policies:

• Studio attendance is mandatory. If you have to miss a studio, you must let your team and your studio leader know in advance and receive an acknowledgement from both. You are allowed one excused (i.e., reported and acknowledged) absence for the semester without penalty. To receive credit for attendance, you must arrive on time. Note that if you have a mild illness you can still attend via Zoom (see below).
• Lecture attendance is expected and contributes to the grade. Note that if you have a mild illness, you can still receive attendance credit by attending via Zoom. If you have a more serious medical/family/life situation, please reach out to your studio leader with appropriate documentation (e.g., doctor's note) if appropriate. If you are very uncomfortable sharing details of a particular situation with your studio leader, you can contact the instructor instead.
• Attend remotely if you are not feeling well. If you are feeling a little sick, it's best if you stay in your dorm/home. However, unless you are feeling really bad, you should still participate synchronously via Zoom. If you plan to attend a lecture or a studio via Zoom, make sure to notify your team and your studio leader as early as possible.
• Active participation is essential particularly in the studios and will contribute to the final grade.
• You are welcome to knit, sketch, etc,  as long as you do it in a way that does not distract those around you.
• Take your own notes, even though the slides will be made available. We recommend notebooks with dotted paper — the dots provide just enough of a guide so that you can draw neat sketches, but they do not get in the way of your drawings.
• Simultaneous enrollment is not allowed. 
• Visitors are OK in lectures, but please introduce them. It’s OK for a class member to bring a guest to a lecture. But if you do so, please alert an instructor prior to the start of the class so that your guest can be introduced to the rest of the class. Also, please make a name tag for your guest at the beginning of the class so that they can be integrated into our community.
• All students’ first point of contact is their studio leader. All students’ second point of contact is the logistics TF. All TFs have been instructed to respond within one day. 

In addition to the above course-specific policies, we are bound by the more general FAS policies contained in the Harvard College Student Handbook.

Mental health

If you experience significant stress or worry, changes in mood, or problems eating or sleeping this semester, please do not hesitate to reach out to the professor. There are also several free and confidential resources available to you including:

• Counseling and Mental Health at UHS , which also runs a 24/7 support line for Harvard students at 617-495-2042
• Room 13, every night, 7 PM – 7 AM EST in Thayer Basement B-09 and by phone at (617)-366-7375

We recognize that mental health challenges can be intermittent, that a person who is doing great in many aspects of their life may have difficulties with others. We recognize that mental health challenges can be invisible to outsiders making it hard to get the support and understanding you need. We will do everything we can to help.