dMedia Syllabus 2009

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E281 : Media+Design

Course Syllabus dmedia.stanford.edu


Welcome to E281 : Media+Design Media + Design will explore the underlying structures at play in the emerging media landscape. We will prototype our way to new discoveries and offerings that help people make sense of their world. The course is divided into two modes:

STUDIO : Designing Media Immersion During studio times, the class will be actively realizing prototypes and creating

working solutions. The first part of the course will include four 1 week topic specific assignments in Participatory Systems (game design), Digital Design, Communication Design and the History of Social Media. The second half of the course will focus on a 5 week core project: Designing Media for the Public Good.

SALON

:

Reflecting and Refining

During salon time the class will focus on reflection and discussion. Throughout the quarter we will

engage with outside practitioners who will help us refine our insights and prototyping efforts. We have conversations scheduled with creators of both old and new media in the domains of radio, television, film, journalism, entertainment and software. Our guests will represent a diverse set media outlets ranging from Saturday Night Live and the Colbert Report to Electronic Arts and CurrentTV.

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Hasso Plattner Institute of Design


d.Media Threads The course will explore several topic threads that create the underlying framework of the media landscape. We will then apply our understanding and insights around these topics in the context of real world solutions.

Wired Magazine Grateful Dead

Global Business Network

SOCIAL MEDIA HISTORY

creative writing hci

web 2.0

COMMUNICATION DESIGN

graphic design

graphic novels storytelling

THINKING DIGITALLY

The WELL

interaction design

interactive art

collaboration

comics

information visualization

Whole Earth Catalog transparency

film design

network theories

bias toward action

public interest

MEDIA that MATTERS

open source

culture of prototyping

show don’t tell needfinding

public domain

experience design

intellectual property systems thinking

tragedy of the commons locative media

crowdsourcing

DESIGN THINKING radical collaboration user-centered

PARTICIPATION / GAME DESIGN level design

flow

mindful of process

_topic | HISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA Long before Facebook, mySpace and the O’Reilly trademarked Web 2.0 term, people were using both digital and physical artifacts to create shared meaning and enable collaboration. “Social media” has existed for decades, but never before at this scale and with this ubiquity. What can we learn from the past to help us design solutions for the future? _topic | THINKING DIGITALLY Media as a (1) single (2) dynamic (3) medium (not many static media) should change the way we think (not just what we need to know, but how we need to know [learn] it). Students will learn strategies for experimentation that will guide them through the design process in the digital realm. _topic | PARTICIPATORY SYSTEMS (game design) Now that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the conversation (and in some cases become their own media outlet) can we discern what is at the root of individual participation? What are the underlying motivations for engagement and what behaviors are at play? How do these motivations inform, reflect or create mediums for communication and interaction? _topic | COMMUNICATION DESIGN Many domains (graphic design, interaction design, comics, information visualization, creative writing, film, journalism) inform the practice of communication design, but the unifying factor is simple: communication of emotional and informational essence drives design decisions. Students will learn strategies for distilling meaning (e.g. narrative, dramatic center, metaphors) and skills for creating representations of that meaning (e.g. graphic design, short video, sketching, storytelling). _topic | DESIGN THINKING Students apply design thinking tactics to dynamic media design opportunities. Students will develop new mind sets that can be used to take creative action and formulate new working methods. As an advanced practicum, we will focus on creating new working habits in an active prototyping environment.

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Hasso Plattner Institute of Design


d.Media Threads (cont’d) _project | MEDIA THAT MATTERS Technology is enabling individual participation and connecting communities at an unprecedented rate. The world is now connected. We can no longer live in isolation locally or globally. Events across the globe can effect us in our own backyard. (terrorism, SARS, oil production, climate change) and events on our own backyard can have an immediate impact on the world. Our connected nature makes it clear that we must collaborate around the big issues of our time to live peacefully both locally and globally. Participatory media has the opportunity to give every individual a voice. How do we design media frameworks that transform these individual voices into the collective action of a larger community? Of equal importance, how can we evaluate the "collective action" and determine if it is truly being designed to serve the public interest given that every issue often involves multiple stakeholders and divergent viewpoints? Working from a semi-directed design brief, students will work in teams to design media solutions that leverage the learnings from the first half of the quarter. Depending on the skill, craft, and prototyping creativity of each team, projects will be realized to varying levels of fidelity. Working digital prototypes are encouraged. Strong conceptual prototypes are also acceptable end results of the project. _example projects

Compiled below is a small list of media projects we admire. Remember, projects can be realized throughout a broad range of digital mediums and within a variety of realms. Audiences size can vary from a handful of commited users to several million viewers. World Without Oil

http://worldwithoutoil.org

ShovelWatch

http://www.shovelwatch.org

On The Media

http://www.onthemedia.org

Organizing for America

http://www.barackobama.com

The Extraordinaires

http://www.theextraordinaries.org

PostSecret

http://postsecret.blogspot.com

Wikipedia

http://wikipedia.org

We Feel Fine

http://www.wefeelfine.org

Spot.Us

http://spot.us

The TakeAway

http://thetakeaway.org

NYTimes: Code Open

http://open.blogs.nytimes.com

StoryCorps

http://www.storycorps.net

Everyblock

http://www.everyblock.com

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Hasso Plattner Institute of Design


course structure _class framework Like all d.school courses, media + design is an active, experiential class. Our use of design methodologies will be an implicit part of the underlying course, project and assignment frameworks. define point of view ideate

SYNTHESIZE reflect

empathy insights inspiration

SATURATE context REALIZE action prototype test implement

_class experience SATURATE : MEDIA EXPERIENCES The class will always be looking for opportunities to incorporate media in delivering content encouraging student participation in the digital realm and in assignment deliverables created in a variety of digital mediums. SYNTHESIZE : SALON Class discussions and conversations with outside guests will be used as opportunities to reflect, synthesize and iterate our point of view around various media topics. REALIZE : STUDIO This is an advanced practicum where project sessions will operate like a design studio. Assets and space will be used to create a media realization lab.

_class calendar social media

digital thinking

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final project participation & games

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design gauntlet mini-projects

dmedia.stanford.edu

communication design

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reflection & action plan

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salon

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studio

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project media design in the public interest

10

reflect & realize

Hasso Plattner Institute of Design


Course Vital Stats details Course Name: Time: Location: Units: Grading: Email: Website:

E281: Media+Design T/TH 1:15-3:05 Building 524, 451 Panama Mall, Room 524A 3 Letter (ABCD/NP) designandmedia@gmail.com dmedia.stanford.edu

application process If you are a graduate student with an interest in designing media that matters, please apply to be a part of our class and community. Application details can be found at: http://dmedia.stanford.edu. Applications are due NO LATER THAN 11:59p after the first class sessions (Tuesday March 31st, 2009).

Our world is changing.

What are you going to do about it?

dmedia.stanford.edu

Hasso Plattner Institute of Design


Media Samples The course will use a wide range of media and mediums to explore the manyy facets of designing media. The reading list below is provided as a sample of the types of authors and ideas we will be engaging around. From CounterCulture to CyberCulture, Fred Turner

Universal Principles of Design, William Lidwell

Smart Mobs, Howard Rheingold

Don’t Make Me Think, Bill Buxton

Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky

Designing Interactions, Bill Moggridge

The Wealth of Networks, Yochai Benkler

Interaction Design Sketchbook, Bill Verplank

Convergence Culture, Henry Jenkins

Understanding Media, Marshall McCluhan

Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig

Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud

Rules of Play, Eric Zimmerman

Thinking With Type, Ellen Lupton

A Theory of Fun, Ralph Koster

Sketching User Experiences, Bill Buxton

Shaping Things, Bruce Sterling

Rapid Viz, Kurt Hanks

In the Bubble, John Thackara

Computers as Theater, Brenda Laurel

The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki

Experience Design, Nathan Shedroff

Wikinomics, Don Tapscott

True Stories, David Byrne

A Pattern Language,Christopher Alexander

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Creating Short Films... Hillman Curtis Hasso Plattner Institute of Design


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