Design Innovation 190/290-9: Technology Design Foundations
Instructors: Adam Hutz, Vivek Rao
Graduate Student Instructor: George Moore
OVERVIEW
Technology Design Foundations steps students through a suite of foundational prototyping, communication, and technical skills essential to a successful career within the design of emerging technologies. Following a human-centered design process that includes research, concept generation, prototyping, and refinement, the course emphasizes design thinking and the basic practices of interaction design, with the ultimate goal of providing students with an introduction to blending technology, design, and user experience to create compelling products and services. As class participants become more familiar with the above methodologies, they assemble in groups to conduct interviews, produce competitive analyses, and converge on a single idea. By the end of the semester, members of the class are able to present not only a product proposal that has been thoroughly researched and validated, but high-fidelity physical and electrical prototypes that explore possible looks, feels, and functions of retail products.
NAVIGATING COVID-19
Just as the class was was getting deep into leveraging medium- and high-fidelity prototyping and interaction design, we transitioned to remote learning in mid-March. We worked together quickly to adapt with some amazing effort by our students to continue projects with a swift pace. We organized production of lasercut and 3D printed parts with 3rd party vendors (Ponoko and CraftCloud) and mailed students key electronics components they needed for their projects. The results of the projects you see are a testament to our students' creative resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges. Congrats everyone!
