Hi Soumitra.
I have some experiences working with undergrad students within tight
schedules.
First thing I tried was giving them a stripped down version of the Activity
Checklist from Kaptelinin & Nardi, but it turn out that without knowing
basic concepts on Activity Theory they could not figure out how to answer
some questions like: "what's the object the activity is oriented towards?".
But it was even more difficult to come up with design ideas after answering
those questions. There is no guidance on that.
I considered using the models from Holtzblatt's Contextual Design but I
thought they were too structured, leaving no room for horizontal
explorations
http://mc.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/konferenzbaende/mc2001/Holtzblatt.pdf
What is difficult for them is seeing what's not directly visible, the
abstract relationships between people and artifacts that makes a human
activity. But usually, innovative ideas comes precisely from seeing
something that others didn't see.
What worked for my students was doing a warmup exercise previously than the
actual field studies, studying an activity they already know. I choosed
children's street games because they are fun to study and we can simulate
them in the classroom.
Recently, I compiled a model for bridging the gap between research and
design by using multiple levels of analysis-synthesis. I found isonomic
categories that can be used when moving across research, mediation and
design. Perhaps it could be useful to you:
http://fredvanamstel.com/blog/interaction-design-as-mediation
Soumitra <[log in to unmask]>
> Dear PhD-Design list members,
>
> I am about to teach a short 'Research for Design' course to undergrad
> students at a professional design education institute (not a university).
> This will probably be the first and only such course that they will follow
> in their UG program. I want to make it simple for them to effectively apply
> some techniques like observation and interviewing for their future
> projects.
> So far, my experience has been that the students are able to look at and
> hear many things within a situation, but have difficulty in seeing and
> listening to stimuli (focus and interpret) and transform them into insights
> for design. Personally, looking at my own process, I think notetaking forms
> a critical part of the research activity and it would be effective to focus
> on developing/collecting some tools that would help the students
> systematically take notes of their observations and interviews with the
> intention of extracting insights from them.
>
> I thought of note-taking methods with corresponding templates that I have
> seen earlier that are used by practitioners to prescribe and guide an ideal
> note-taing process. Some of these are:
>
> 1. Cornell Notes
> 2. 6-up and 1-up templates from AdaptivePath? (
>
> http://www.boxuk.com/blog/using-sketchboards-to-design-great-user-interfaces
> )
> [not exactly note-taking, but similar]
> 3. The notepads used by McKinsey and BCG that have a grid on one side and a
> powerpoint slide on the other... (haven't been able to locate a link to a
> picture)
>
> Can you point me to some more examples and/or share some of your own
> expreriences and tools?
>
> Thanks and regards,
> Soumitra
>
>
> --
> Soumitra Bhat, MSc.
> Director - UserINNOV Design Co.
> www.userinnov.com
>
--
.
.{ Frederick van Amstel }.
http://fredvanamstel.com
Faber-Ludens Interaction Design Institute
http://www.faberludens.com
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