New Interactive Media Course for Fall 2004

CTIN 499 Design and Technology for Mobile Experience
Units: 2
Mondays 10am-12pm
Fall 2004 Syllabus
Professor: Julian Bleecker

The proliferation of mobile devices with built-in networking capabilities offers a unique opportunity for designing compelling entertainment, productivity and information experiences.

The objective of this course is for students to develop a strong sense of the design challenges and opportunities presented by mobile technologies. Through readings and discussions, students will develop critical and pragmatic insights into designing mobile experiences and technology. Students will form design groups to develop a mobile project design using the principles from readings and class discussions.

Sample Syllabus:

Week 1: August 23
Introduction
• Introduction to Design for Mobile Experiences
• Motivation for Mobile Experience Design
• Syllabus Review
• Survey and Review of Mobile Applications

Week 2: August 30
Place vs. Space – Understanding the distinction between geographic space and social place.
• Discuss possible mobile project concepts
• Design teams formed
• Students refine team projects
• ("Re-Place-Ing Space: The Roles of Place and Space in Collaborative Systems", Harrison and Dourish)
• ("Social Mobiles", Jones)

Week 3: September 6:
Labor Day – University Holiday- No Class
Week 4: September 13
Mobile Technology and Ubiquity – What does it mean to be always on, everywhere?
• Design teams present project concepts to class for review and critique: project pitch, narrative descriptions.
• ("Smart Mobs: The Power of the Mobile Many", Rheingold)

Week 5: September 20
Mobile Society – What are the large scale changes societal changes brought about when we become mobile and have wireless access to networks?
• Design teams present design document for project to class: requirements, wireframes, development technology
• ("The Co-Existence of Cyborgs, Humachines and Environments in Postmodernity: Getting over the End of Nature", Luke)
• ("A New Set of Social Rules for a Newly Wireless Society", Ito)
•
Week 6: September 27
Mobile Social Practices – How does mobile technology become us? Are mobile social practices new or are they evolutions of existing ageless ones?
• Design teams present initial project prototype to class for review, critique
• ("The Gift of the Gab?: A Design Oriented Sociology of Young People's Use of 'Mobilze!'", Taylor and Harper)
• ("Framing Mobile Collaborations and Mobile Technologies", Churchill and Wakeford)

Week 7: October 4
Bringing the Physical to the Digital – What is the compulsion for integrating the physical and digital worlds?
• Design teams present refined project prototype to class for review, critique
• ("Camera Phones Changing the Definition of Picture-Worthy", Ito)
• ("Urban Tapestries: Wireless Networking, Public Authoring and Social Knowledge", Lane)

Week 8: October 11
Conceptual Mobile Practices – How does art-technology inform the possibilities for pragmatic designed objects?
• Design teams continue project development
• Class discussion on the pragmatic aspects of situating and presenting art-technology projects for exhibition, financial support, commercial opportunities
• ("Programming Media", Reas)
• ("Mobile Feelings", Sommerer and Mignonneau)
• ("Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects", Raby)

Week 9: October 18
Mobile Cities – What has the city become with the proliferation of mobile, wireless access to data?
• Design teams present second prototypes for class review and critique
• ("Space of Flows, Space of Places: Materials for a Theory of Urbanism in the Information Age", Castells)
• ("The City of Bits Hypothesis", Mitchell)

Week 10: October 25
Mobile Cities II – Location, location, location – but where is that? How do we orienteer in physical space using mobile communications?
• ("Mobile Communications in the Twenty-First Century City", Townsend)
• Excerpts from - (“Splintering Urbanism : Networked Infrastructure, Technological Mobilities and the Urban Condition”, Graham, Marvin)

Week 11: November 1
The Network Is Us – When cyberspace is everyplace what are the design challenges for creating sensible, usable mobile experiences?
• Design teams hand off prototypes for peer review and usability testing.
• ("The Era of Sentient Things", Rheingold)

Week 12: November 8
Approaches To Post-Internet Design – What now for designing networked experiences in the aftermath of the dot-com gold rush?
• ("Situated Software", Shirkey)
• ("Life after Cyberspace", Agre)

Week 13: November 15
Approaches To Post-Internet Mobile Design – What are the considerations for designing mobile experiences in the present day urban environment?
• Guest presentation and discussion from the mobile design and technology field.
• ("Mobile Communications in the Twenty-First Century City", Townsend)

Week 14: November 22
Professional Survivalism – In an increasingly crowded, what are ways to distinguish your own craftwork?
• Class discussion on professionalizing yourself in your field.
• Class discussion on ownership and copyright issues; developing professional networks and how to represent yourself and your work.
• ("How to Be a Leader in Your Field", Agre)

Week 15: November 29
Project Presentations I
• In class presentations with outside discussants

Week 16: Final Exam Period
Project Presentations II / Conclusion
• In class presentations with outside discussants
• Course review and wrap-up