DESIGN APPROACH

syllabus 2015mooc

colophon

2015

This course was produced, written & designed by

José Hekkens Jaap Daalhuizen Jan Schoormans Annemiek van Boeijen Koen Schellekens Iris Jönsthövel

DESIGN APPROACH

© TU Delft 2015

3Delft Design Approach Syllabus 2015

1. Introduction 1.1 Delft Design Approach 1.2 Delft Design Guide

2. Course structure 2.1 Planning 2.2 What to expect each week

3. Deliverables 3.1 Templates 3.2 How to upload your work 3.3 Share your work 3.4 Assessments

4. Discussion forum 4.1 Guidelines

5. Grading and certification 5.1 Grading 5.2 Certification

6. How to get most out of this course

4 4 5

6 6 8

9 9

10 11 11

12 12

13 13 13

14

table of content

© TU Delft 2015

4 Delft Design Approach Syllabus 2015

introduction1.

This MOOC introduces you to the Delft Design Approach: an iterative design process we use in the Design program in Delft. During these weeks you will be introduced to - and be using! - techniques and methods that can help you in creating successful products people love to use.

Main learning objectives are:

You will understand the basics and a structure of designing meaningful products for people.

You will be able to apply relevant design methods and tools in a design project; starting from discovering a design domain and ending with the delivery of a tested design concept.

You will be able to communicate your design process.

You will understand the iterative and reflective nature of designing.

1.1 Delft Design Approach

This MOOC offers you the opportunity to gain insight in and training with a number of signature methods and tools from the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology. The methods and tools that we offer you - and the way that they have been integrated in this course - is particular for the way that we teach designing in Delft. The program is one of the oldest, university-level, design programs in the world, dating back more than 40 years. We find it important to share the vision on design and design education that drives our educational program forward.

The faculty of Industrial Design Engineering has a rich tradition in developing and teaching models and methods for product and service design. In this course you have the opportunity to get introduced to some of the basic principles that underlie the way we teach design in Delft and to some of the key methods and tools that we use to teach design.

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1.2 Delft Design Guide

Most of the methods that we use in our design program in Delft have been published in the Delft Design Guide. This guide presents an overview of models, perspectives and methods used in the Bachelor and Master curriculum of the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of the Delft University of Technology.

Some of the reading material for this course is from the Delft Design Guide and is available on the course pages as pdf’s in the appropriate weeks. If you are interested in all of the methods in the guide you can order the book or ebook at the publisher or via bookstores. The guide is also available in Chinese and Japanese.

Figure 1: Delft Design Guide, available in Chinese, Japanese & English

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designing something that meets your design challenge, to delivering your end result in a final presentation. This is also illustrated in the Figure 2.

The course material will be released each week on Wednesdays. For each step, you will have the opportunity to do a design exercise. The deadline for uploading your assignment is always on a Tuesday. On these Tuesdays the system will close uploading possibilities on 12 am UTC. This UTC time (Coordinated Universal Time) means that you need to translate this time into your local time (In week 7 some countries will switch from summer to winter time or vice versa). On edX we give a 2 week deadline because of the time differences. After 2 weeks we close the assignment. We open the assignments up again for ‘latecomers’ in the course. The assignments are then open until the end of the course.

To get the most out of the course we advise you to stick to the deadlines we mention in this syllabus.

2.1 Planning

The course is structured along 6 steps that run over a period of 7 weeks. Each step will teach you a key element of the Delft Design Approach, including relevant methods and/or tools. When you go through the whole course you will complete a whole ‘design cycle’ in 4 main phases: Discover, Define, Design & Deliver.

Before the course starts, you will get familiar with the contents and structure of the course in the ‘welcome’ section. Then, we kick of by introducing you to the way that we advocate Design in Delft. In this first week, we will also teach you how to design meaningful products for people. After that, the course takes you through the Delft Design Approach as illustrated in Figure 2. If you want to advance your skills even more, we also provide you with the possibility of doing an extra assignment: building a prototype for your final concept!

In short, during the course, you will notice that the nature of your work on the exercises will shift from discovering the design theme, to defining your own design challenge within that theme, to

course structure2.

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Figure 2: Course structure

Week 1 Week 2Preparation

Discover

Understanding meaning in design

Released23 September

Deadline29 September

Released30 September

Deadline6 October

Released7 OctoberDeadline

13 October

Released4 November

Deadline10 November

Released21 OctoberDeadline

3 November

Released14 OctoberDeadline

20 October

Understanding the context

of use

De�ning your design

challenge

Creating ideas

Developingconcepts

Testing with user &

�nal presentation

Prototyping concept

De�ne

Design Deliver

Week 3

Week 4 Week 7Week 5 & 6

Extra

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your own design project. The details of each assignment will be revealed per week. In most assignments we ask you to upload a picture or a link to a short movie or presentation of your work.

Assessment Every week we will ask you to assess your results. This will be done via peer reviewing, self assessments and checklists. For more see Chapter 3.4.

Benchmark video For each exercise, there will be a benchmark video to which you can compare your own work. You can use it either before you start with the assignment as inspiration, or afterwards for reflection purposes. The benchmark video shows you how Koen and Iris, two experienced students from Delft, did the same exercises, as well as reflections from a professional designer from industry. The video is intended to enrich and deepen your insight into the topic.

Sofa session After each week, we will post a sofa session video in which Dr. Ir. Annemiek van Boeijen discusses intermediate results and raised questions on the discussion forum, and in other media. Each week we will show you some

2.2 What to expect each week

Each week (or period of two weeks) of the course has more or less the same structure. Figure 3 shows what content you can expect every week and what kind of activities are expected from you.

Introduction videos Each week starts with an introduction video by Dr. Ir. Jaap Daalhuizen. He will highlight last week’s learning points and introduce the topic of the new week.

Lecture videos The topic and related methods and/or tools are introduced in two or more videos by the related lecturer. There is a quiz after each lecture that you can use to test your knowledge.

Assignment template For each assignment you can find instructions that guide you through the steps. You will also find a downloadable template (PDF) that you can use to present your results.

Design assignment In this course we focus on the design exercises. We think this is the most important part of the course. And the most fun! The exercises build on each other, so as you go along, they form

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inspiring examples from your peers or maybe even from you! So please stick to the advised deadlines for the assignments!

Course content (input for you)

Work session (your output)

Introductionvideo

Video lecture 1

Video lecture 2

Quiz

Assignmenttemplate

Designassignment

Upload & share work

Assessment Benchmarkvideo

Sofa Session

Input for assignment

Re�ecting on & discussing your work

Quiz

Figure 2: Course structure

Figure 3: Weekly content & work

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3.1 Templates

A work template will accompany every week’s assignment. These templates will guide you through the steps of the assignment. You can fill these in on your computer or use a printed version. If you use a printed version of the template, we advise you to use a clear handwriting, so others can easily read it. A printed version also allows you to clarify your thoughts with drawings. This can help in communicating your ideas; see Figure 4.

deliverables3.

Figure 4: Filled in templates by Koen & Iris

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Youtube or Vimeo) double-check if it is available for anyone watch. While making a video make sure if there is enough light and that you talk clearly.

Worldmap Sometimes we will also ask you to place assignment on the “worldmap”. This edX feature allows you to see all contributions from around the world. You can only upload URL’s on the worldmap.

3.2 How to upload your work

There are multiple ways to upload your work. Please follow the instructions in the assignments.

JPEG In the peer review and self assessment module you can only upload 1 Jpeg (and a URL). You can place all your printed templates next to each other and make a photo, or use a computer image tool to cluster your templates into one image. Make sure all text and images are clear and readable.

URL A link or URL can refer to any online storage facility that gathers your work (e.g. Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft Onedrive). Make sure that your files are accessible for your peers and make sure your work is available during the full run of the course. Only share formats that are commonly used (e.g. JPEG, PDF, Word or PNG).

Video You could also make a video of your templates in which you discuss your output. If you use this possibility make sure your video has a maximum length of 3 minutes. If you place your video file on an online streamer (for example

Copyright Please only use your own pictures and ideas or use pictures with a creative commons license.

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3.4 Assessments

Every week we ask you to assess your work through quizzes, checklists, self-assessment or peer review. In a peer review you can compare your work with your fellow participants by uploading your work in the peer review module. After uploading your work you have to evaluate the work of 3 of your peers before getting feedback on your own assignment.

In Table 1 you can find when to perform which assessment.

3.3 Share your work

If you want to get direct feedback from your peers in an open conversation we advice you to use the discussion forum. The discussion forum can be found on the edX platform (for guidelines See chapter 5 Discussion forum). On Facebook we created a closed group in which you can share your ideas. It is called: “Delft Design Approach Course 2015” A link to this group can be found on the Delft Design Approach Facebook page.

Type of assessmentc Quizc Checklistc Self-assessment

Peer reviewcWeek 1 XX XWeek 2 XX XWeek 3 XX XWeek 4 XXX XWeek 5&6 XXXX XWeek 7 + Wrap Up XX XFinal presentation X

Table 1: Assessment per week

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Be respectful to your peers. Please, show respect to your fellow participants. We encourage debate and discussion but only when that is done in a polite and respectful manner. We do not tolerate rude behavior, condescending or abusive words. Instances will be reported and removed.

4.1 Guidelines

The discussion forum is an important tool on the edX platform for you to share and discuss your insights, exercises and reflections. It allows you to learn from your peers (and allows your peers to learn from you). In this course, an important part of the learning happens on the discussion forum. The forum is all about showing your work to your peers and inviting them to give feedback. Sharing on the Discussion Forum will also give us the possibility to reflect on your work in the Sofa Sessions.

We stimulate a positive, constructive atmosphere. Please attend to the rules provided below to make this course a pleasant experience for everyone!

discussion forum4.

Be constructive in your feedback. Learning in an online community is about interacting with each other. When commenting or providing feedback on work of others be constructive and whenever possible provide suggestions for improvement.

Be sensitive to your peers’ background and culture. This is a global forum with participants from around the world. This means that your fellow participants come from very diverse cultures and backgrounds. Please be sensitive to this when discussing your own work or results of others.

Post appropriate content. Content that violates the Terms of Service is not permitted. You may not post inappropriate (eg. pornographic) or copyrighted content, advertise or promote outside products or organizations, or spam the forums with repeat content.

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5.1 Grading

The assessment of exercises will together with the quizzes and the final presentation determine whether you passed the course or not, see Figure 5. In total you will be asked to successfully make 15 short quizzes, 7 assessments and 1 final presentation. In order to successfully pass the course we stimulate you to make all of them.

5.2 Certification

When you have earned 60% or more of the total score, you will receive a certificate. You can see your progress in the Progress tab on edX.

There is a ID verified option available for $50,-. Doing the course for fun is totally fine, but sometimes you need to complete a course to get a better job or to include in a college application. Besides, working towards a verified certificate has proven to keep students more motivated. If you want to, you can change your registration on the site.

grading and certification 5.

Exercises Quizzes50% 30% 20% Final Presentation

Self-Assesment

Self-Assesment

ChecklistsPeer review

30% 10% 10%

Figure 5: Grading versus assessments

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We have designed this course to give you the opportunity to learn all about the Delft Design Approach and to apply what you have learned in a series of design exercises.

Of course, every participant in this course has her or his own unique goals for what they want to get out of it. So, please spent your time accordingly. The basic idea is: you will get out of the course what you put in! If you do the design exercises and share and discuss your experiences with your peers, you will really be able to internalize some of the design skills that we teach. But that doesn’t mean that you will not get any value out of simply watching the video’s and doing some follow-up reading based on our reading tips.

Here are some tips for the most effective ways to engage with this course.

of the video lectures and additional reading in relation to the exercises.

Think of the design exercises as part of a design project in which you want to design something valuable for real users rather than something you turn in for a grade. To make the design exercises more focused and close to real life, we have chosen to work with a design theme: ‘morning rituals’. You might want to keep in mind that whatever you are going to design might actually improve the morning rituals of people close to you.

If you get stuck during an exercise, leave it alone for a while. It is very normal that designers get stuck from time to time, and the trick is to find a strategy that gets you going again. You might want to watch the video lecture again or skip forward to the benchmark video to get inspired. Or you might want to share your problem on the forum to discuss it with your peers. They might have good suggestions to get going again!

There are no right or wrong answers in design, but there may be more or less valuable and/

how to get most out of this course6.

Get to know your peers! Share your experiences and exercise results on the forum. Post your questions on the forum as well and discuss them together.

Look at the exercises at the beginning of each course week (we release on Wednesdays). That way you will know what to get out

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If possible follow this course together with your colleagues or other people who you can meet physically. Experiences from other online courses show that it is very motivating to do the course together.

Have fun! In this course you have the freedom to choose your own direction. You have the opportunity to design something for a challenge that you formulate yourself and for a user-group that you choose. Please don’t do things just because we ask you to. Do them because you see the value and enjoy creating a meaningful design!

or meaningful ideas. In order to explain the merits of an idea, it’s important to back it up with evidence from your field work or with an explanation why your idea or concept is valuable to its users. This helps the person giving the feedback to solidify their understanding of a concept.

Remember that the best way to learn how to design is by designing things yourself. Going through the iterative process of designing is what makes your design better and your design skills sharper. So take the opportunity to take the methods and tools that we offer and apply them in actual design work.

Give your peers the kind of constructive feedback that you would want to receive. Don’t just point out the negative parts of someone’s work, but instead provide suggestions for how he or she could improve it. Try to both point out things that are well done and things that could be improved (and suggestions for how they might do that!)

GOOD LUCK DESIGNING!