Introduction
The aim of this course is to take you through the process of creating a Design Informatics piece of work, from idea, to user research, to prototype. We will look at case studies of related work, investigate which design decisions were made how and when, and what their consequences were, and then put that learning into practice in your own group case studies.
In the first part of the course, we will look at case studies from the literature, and review relevant research methodology. In the second part, the focus is on you conducting your own case study in groups of 3-4 students, under the guidance of the Year 2 Design Informatics students.
Learning Outcomes
The formal learning outcomes are:
- Discuss the research and design processes behind a small set of Design Informatics projects.
- Describe, with examples, the practical limits of current technologies and theories.
- Analyse in groups problems and suggest potential solutions, which can or should combine computational and design thinking.
- Extend, through engineering and/or design methods, specific features or applications identified in one real example.
- Critically evaluate research literature in the field, taking into account legal, social, ethical or professional issues
Each week has its own learning outcomes. These are structured into three groups:
- understand (concepts that you should be familiar with)
- remember (concepts that you should remember for quizzes and assignments)
- apply (skills and methods)
One of the main themes of the course is learning from errors. So please do ask questions, make suggestions, and let me know what is and isn’t working for you.
Course Sessions
Lectures are Mondays and Wednesdays, 15:10-16:00. Tutorials are Mondays and Wednesdays, 16:10-17:00. Tutorials will be taken by Maria Wolters,
Your Host for this Course
Maria Wolters, Reader in Design Informatics (Contact Details on LEARN), Programme Director, MSc in Design Informatics / Advanced Design Informatics.
A Dynamic Course
The current plan is provided on the Materials and Readings page. This course plan may change depending on the feedback I get from you, and the learning needs that I see. The materials for each lecture will be available on Thursday 9am for the Monday lecture of the following week, and on Monday 9am for the lecture on Wednesday.
Assessments
There are two types of assessments, individual and group. In the individual assessments, you reflect on the theory and methods you are learning as well as on your own practice, and demonstrate your knowledge of key concepts. The group assessments will document various aspects of the case study you produce in the second half of the course.
Detailed marking rubrics for the reflection and the three group assignments will be available three weeks before the submission deadline.
IMPORTANT: All Assessments are handled through the LEARN site for the course. Check your MyEd to access it. If you are on a mobile device, you MUST use the mobile LEARN app. DO NOT attempt to use the browser version of LEARN.
Submit well before the deadline. TurnItIn and LEARN are not known for being stable and robust systems, they can and will let you down when you need them to work the most. Take screenshots of your submission.
Individual Assessments (50% of total mark)
- Questions and Comments – 3% of total mark
Submitted through TopHat, and required for all lectures in Weeks 2-8. The deadline Monday 9am for the Monday lecture and Wednesday 9am for the Wednesday lecture. You need to write at least 100 words to pass.
These are marked pass / fail. Your overall grade for this component is the percentage of questions and comments assessments that you passed. - Quiz – 10% of total mark
Submitted through Learn. Opens: Tuesday 12pm, Week 6, closes: Wednesday 11.59am, Week 6.
In the Quiz, you will get 20 multiple choice questions in 20 minutes about topics covered in Weeks 1-5. There will be a practice quiz.
Marked out of 100 - Reflection – 37% of total mark
Submitted through Learn. Opens: Week 8. Closes: Friday 12pm, Week 9
In the reflection, you look at an aspect of your case study that you uncovered through your own research. This can be ethical, legal, economical, social, or cultural. 1000 words excluding references
Marked out of 100
Group Assessments (50% of total mark)
- Summary of Project Idea – 2% of total mark
Submitted through Learn. Opens: Week 6. Closes: Tuesday 12pm, Week 7.
A summary of what you hope to design, and who your target group is. 300 words. Marked pass / fail. - Group Presentation – 15% of total mark
Submitted through Learn. Opens: Week 10. Closes: Friday 12pm, Week 11.
A presentation (saved as PDF, maximum 4 slides) about the theory, user research, and practice (prototype) of the artefact or experience that you created, and a short video (1-2 minutes) documenting how it works.
Marked out of 100; Peer Marking - Group Report – 33% of total mark.
Submitted through Learn. Opens: Week 11. Closes: Friday 12pm, Week 12.
A summary of the theory and user research behind your artefact, and a critical reflection of what you learned during the collaborative making process. 1000 words.
Marked out of 100; Peer Marking
Marking
All assessments will be marked according to the Postgraduate Common Marking Scheme. For those of you that are used to other systems of marking, bear in mind that anything above 70% is great, and anything below 50% is not a pass at Master’s level.
For all assignments that are not quizzes and not marked pass/fail, I use a detailed grading scheme. This comprises the Reflection, the Group Presentation, and the Group Report.
For the Group Report and the Group Presentation, your mark will consist of my overall mark for report and presentation and a peer marking component. The formula for computing it will be 60% of my mark + (40% of my mark)*(your individual peer weighting). For the peer weighting, you will be asked to assess the ability of yourself and others to work well in teams. We will use a modified version of the Key Skills scale developed by the University of Loughborough (the final scale on the linked web page). You can find the scale on the Group Work Tips page. All peer marks are anonymous.
We will be using WebPA for the peer assessment. The link also contains a worked example of the scoring algorithm.
After completing a quiz or submitting an assignment, please take a screenshot of the confirmation screen so that you have independent proof should the technology not work as required.
Note: The grades in Grade Centre are not final until I have sent out an announcement that I have checked and officially released them. All Grade Centre entries need to be manually checked.
Late Submission
The late submissions policy follows the standard policy of the School of Informatics: for every day you are late, 5% will be deducted from your mark. If you need an extension, please contact the Informatics Teaching Organisation.
Plagiarism
The School of Informatics has extensive information on what constitutes Plagiarism and, more generally, Academic Misconduct. PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION.
A note on the passage
For assessment to be fair, the extent to which submitted work is your own must be clear. Any discussions you have with others must stop well short of an actual solution (essay, code etc.).
When you are doing group work, you = plural you, your group. When you are submitting individual assignments, you = singular you, yourself.
General Rules
If you need an extension, tell the Informatics Teaching Organisation as soon as possible, and at least one working day before the deadline. Otherwise, 5 points will be deducted from your grade for each day you are late submitting.
Make sure that you submit any written assignments using your exam number only, and that you state the number of words in your assignment. Table of contents, figure captions, table captions, and references do not count towards your total number of words. You have some flexibility – you can go over the word count by around 10%, but not more.
Make sure that you know how to cite, how to quote, and how to avoid plagiarism.
Delivery, Workload, and Feedback
This course is delivered using a flipped classroom. This means that you will be expected to read at least some of the required resources (typically academic papers, sometimes textbook chapters or blog posts), and to engage with some of the materials posted on the web site before class. You can expect to spend around 10 hours doing that every week.
While most flipped classroom teaching involves videos, I have decided to use written materials and podcasts instead. Videos take up more bandwidth and require you to watch; whereas you can download and listen to podcasts whenever you like. I will do my best to provide transcripts for all podcasts.
Each of the teaching sessions that I take will be designed around the issues that have emerged from the Questions and Comments submitted. We will also do group activities that relate to the week’s learning outcomes, and you will have an opportunity to check how well you understand each week’s key concepts and ask questions.
For each lecture, there will be a Page on this web site, and for each tutorial, there will be a blog post.
Skills and Equipment
You will need strong English language skills, as the course involves a lot of in-class debate and listening to others under noisy conditions. I speak with a Scottish-German accent, which may be difficult for you to understand if you’re mainly used to American accents. If you have trouble understanding me, and need me to speak more slowly and/or clearly, let me know.
You also need to be prepared to
- make stuff, fail at making stuff, and try again
- think outside of the box of Powerpoints and apps
Bring your own device! Laptops, tablets, and phones are welcome in class. I trust you to use them responsibly, and to keep your phones on silent. I also assume that if you’re physically present, you’re ready and prepared to actively take part in class activities.
We will use TopHat to take attendance in class and for class activities. So make sure that you bring at least one properly charged device! Power strips may or may not be available when you need them.
I am happy for you to record course sessions using your own recording devices, but please make sure that you protect your classmates’ privacy. These recordings are only for your own use and study. As our sessions won’t be classical lectures, and as the T-Room is not equipped with Media Hopper Replay yet, I won’t be using lecture recording technology. However, I may prerecord some pieces and put them onto the Media Hopper link in LEARN.
You will need
- stable Internet access, preferably through an Ethernet connection, to submit assignments and take part in quizzes
- earphones and an Internet connection with sufficient capacity to watch videos and listen to podcasts
- a device that you can take to class which allows you to submit answers to Top Hat questions. Top Hat allows you to answer questions by sending a text to a number that is charged at the normal rate, so all you need is a simple phone.
Readings
You will get design-oriented resources in Histories and Futures of Technology, therefore, the suggested readings for this course are methods and user research practice oriented. (Links go to publisher web sites)
Research Methods in general:
Boynton, Petra (2016, 2nd edition): The Research Companion. Routledge This book is far more comprehensive than a standard design methods book, and delves into the detail of planning, conducting, and reporting research. It also contains much useful information about life as a researcher.
User Research:
Ritter, Frank E.; Baxter, Gordon D; Churchill, Elizabeth F. (2014): Foundations for Designing User Centred Systems. Springer.
I recommend purchasing these two books if you are interested in pursuing further what we discuss in class. I expect all of you to read the User Research textbook, and to be fully aware of what is discussed there.
We will also use the following short book: Neff, Gina and Nafus, Dawn (2015): Self Tracking. MIT Press
We will draw on this compendium of user research methods:
Tullis, Edward and Albert, Bill (2013, 2nd edition): Measuring the User Experience. Morgan Kaufmann
A classic in this field that we will sometimes talk about is:
Norman, Donald (2002): The Design of Everyday Things. Bantam Books
The online materials for the classic textbook by Preece, Rogers, and Sharp (Interaction Design, 2015, 4th edition, Wiley) are also very useful, but the book itself is very expensive to buy.
If you want to learn more about usability and user experience online, I recommend the following three web sites:
- The Encyclopaedia of Human-Computer Interaction. Chapters vary in structure and usefulness, but overall, it is a very good guide to relevant theory and some practice. Can be cited in papers and submissions.
- usability.gov – your one stop shop for basic usability techniques. Do not cite this website in papers; read the papers referenced on the web pages instead
- Nielsen Norman Group – the Godfathers of web UX / usability. Some of the blog posts can be cited as reference material, but look for underlying papers first.
Additional readings are given in specific weeks.
How to obtain the readings
Books that are available through the University Library are linked in the Leganto Resource List accessible from LEARN. For papers, I have given links to the official publisher web sites. You can access all papers from the Edinburgh University network.
Last, but not least: What to do when life happens
Things happen. You move house, fall ill, break up with your partner. There is a family emergency. The long, dark Scottish winter nights become very depressing. The workload is very high. You suddenly have a lot less money than you thought you had.
When this happens, REACH OUT! We’ve all been there. If you tell me in time, I can share strategies and resources to help you cope. Remember that successful and strong people ask for help when they need it.
People you can contact for help include
- Your Personal Tutor
- Your School’s student support services (Informatics / ECA)
- Nightline (see the back of your student card)
- Your Programme Director (MSc / AMSc: Maria Wolters; MA / MFA: Dave Murray-Rust)