MediaLAB Amsterdam — Design Process and Programme
COLOPHON
Design Process and Programme, MediaLAB Amsterdam, November 2014 Publisher MediaLAB Amsterdam Supported by Amsterdam Creative Industries Network MediaLAB Amsterdam Hogeschool van Amsterdam Wibautstraat 2-4, 1091 GC Amsterdam The Netherlands medialabamsterdam.com Section titles and paragraphs are set in Montserrat Bold, designed by Julieta Ulanovsky, with additional body text in Merriweather Black, designed by Eben Sorkin. This publication is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-sa/4.0
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About (4-33) — Who we are — Who our students are — Who our partners are — What we do — Manifesto Programme (34-73)
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— Design Process — Scrum — Toolkit — Workshops
TA B LE OF CON TEN T
@MediaLAB Amsterdam (74-89) — Multidisciplinary team — Presenting your work — Rules of thumb Schedule (90-105) — September — October — November — December — January
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About
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“We don’t design for the sake of designing, we design for a purpose” Marco van Hout
Our current age sees everything as an object of manufacture, as something which can be got hold of and improved or altered, to produce better or more effective outcomes. Though this is what makes us human, we
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should stay focused on designing for a purpose: to meet a need, to achieve a goal, or to make a statement.
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Who we are
Research and design with a focus on current, relevant and meaningful digital media and applications. It offers talented students a structured, fast-paced, 20-week programme in which they experiment and search for solutions in challenging projects formulated by academic and industry partners. The project teams are multidisciplinary and international, comprising students from different cultural backgrounds and from both academic and applied study areas. Each team writes a full academic paper and presents a working prototype to the challenging partners. The teams work five days
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a week at Studio HvA or at the partner’s premises. The students have one day a week to work individually on the documentation of their internship or graduation project. The programme is in English and available to all final year students from universities and applied universities. During the programme students follow an agile Human-Centered Design process supported by an expert from the MediaLAB, several workshops, and coaching by external experts. MediaLAB Amsterdam is located in Studio HvA and is part of CREATE-IT, the applied research centre of the School of Design & Communication at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
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Loes Bogers
My background is in critically engaged electronic arts, and media & cultural studies. I hold a BA in Media & Culture: New Media from the University of Amsterdam and an MA in Interactive Media from Goldsmiths College, London. In recent years I’ve worked as an innovator in arts education for youth and worked on projects at the Patching Zone (NL) and Kitchen Budapest (HU). Forget about practice, there’s only do: let’s get our hands dirty.
l.bogers@hva.nl
Gabriele Colombo
I hold a Master’s degree in Communication Design from Politecnico di Milano. My focus is on data visualization, infographics and visual story telling. In recent years I have gained a good experience in designing visual tools to facilitate academic and market research projects. I have worked at The Visual Agency, an Italian design agency focused on infographics and I often collaborate as a visual designer with the Digital Methods Initiative. I like big Excel files, risotto, old maps and typographic ligatures.
g.colombo@hva.nl
Gijs Gootjes
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My background is in Media Entertainment & Pop Culture. Since 2008 I’ve been researching and designing media applications together with various MediaLAB partners. Besides my work at the MediaLAB I have started an R&D lab at the NOS, the Netherlands News Network. I love to work on topical issues and trends in media and technology. Coordinating the MediaLAB gives me the opportunity to create collaborations between research, education and creative industries and to work with talented and highly motivated students. In my spare time I love to visit Amsterdam’s creative hotspots. I can advise you on places to go for inspiration or just an ice-cold beer.
g.gootjes@hva.nl
With a passion for human centered design, I bring over 12 years of experience in applied research and design practice. In the past decade I have specifically specialized and pioneered in design for emotion, building the foundations of this emerging field. I am a co-founder of Susa-Group, a strategic design consultancy. As a board member of the International Design & Emotion Society and as a trainer and public speaker I have the opportunity to travel and see many countries, but the best trips are to my atic where I love to create abstract paintings. As a research and design programme coordinator I foster the role and importance of applied research and the need for structure, critical thinking and deep questioning in our design process.
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Marco van Hout
m.van.hout@hva.nl
Tamara Pinos
My interests in art and technology motivated me to move to the Netherlands where I have discovered the fun of tinkering, computing and serious games. I hold a BA in Computer Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and a MSc in Media Technology from Leiden University. I am co-founder of Advance Consulting, a software development company based in Quito-Ecuador, and I have experience as a programmer, project manager and dancer.
t.v.pinos.cisneros@hva.nl
Margreet Riphagen
For the last ten years I have gained experience in various disciplines of new and interactive media. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Integrated Communication Management, a post-Bachelor’s in Business Science and a Master’s in Information Studies (Human Centred Multimedia track). After working at Waag Society and Media Guild for more than five years, I have now worked for the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences since 2008. I am also involved in the Institute of Network Cultures with various research projects. My motto is ‘keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars’.
m.riphagen@hva.nl
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Who our students are MediaLAB Amsterdam works with final year students from different backgrounds, and offers a multitude of opportunities to its students. We’re looking for people who are ready to respond to opportunities and challenges intelligently, creatively and enthusiastically; people who are motivated, have ambitions in life, love to explore what’s happening around them, and have specific skills and talents. We like to work with students who don’t give up easily, and who love experimenting with technology and the opportunities that digital media provide.
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We believe that interdisciplinarity leads to greater creativity. Besides bringing people with different skills together, we try to bring in people from different cultures and working styles. We believe that collaborations between Do-ers and Thinkers, and the combination of their academic, applied and artistic approaches, can promote the design process and foster the creative application of digital technologies. We consider the academic, applied artistic, and personal qualities of each student individually. We seek students who will bring a variety of experiences, backgrounds, interests and opinions to our lab. We especially appreciate students who like to explore opportunities in the real world and love making things. To work with the best students from all over the world we need to look beyond their formal qualifications. This is why we ask our candidates to motivate their application, introduce us to their work by sharing their portfolio, and have a personal interview. Students we’ve worked with are ambassadors of our design process and the MediaLAB culture. This is why our alumni are very important to us. We invest in long-term relations with our alumni, introducing them to our education, research and industry partners. We motivate and facilitate them to bring our prototypes to the market and to start their own businesses. Our alumni have a special place in our programme and in our academic and industry networks.
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WE LIKE TO WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO -
love digital media and creative technologies care for others and have a desire to help them enjoy exploring their world and finding ways to improve it are the living proof that you get energy from putting energy into something love to make stuff are not afraid to fail have an open mind like to be challenged and keep learning
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(Enrico Catalano, Freelance Interaction designer)
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MediaLAB Amsterdam it’s the best place to experience a brand new idea of “learning” while being introduced to the huge potential of Amsterdam!
At the MediaLAB I finally got a chance to put theory into practice, to actually create something with a team. (Elin Wassenaar, Freelance text editor)
We came a long way in one semester. Work hard, and trust in the fact that you¹re going to create something awesome. (Kimberly Waldbillig, Branding Lecturer, AMFI Amsterdam Fashion Institute)
If it was possible I would do a couple of other projects at the LAB. Its the perfect combination between doing research, thinking of concepts, producing, presenting and managing projects. (Bauke Bakker, Trainee Natwerk) 17
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Who our partners are MediaLAB Amsterdam is interested in working with new partners, because great relationships with committed project partners are crucial to the depth of our students’ learning and to the development of new knowledge and design in products and services. MediaLAB Amsterdam works with various assigners from government, Dutch SMEs, and large international corporations in IT, media, urban planning, education, culture, healthcare and other fields. They bring in digital media & ICT-related problems, societal challenges, ideas and innovation issues.
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The projects we work on are always shaped in co-creation with our partners. During the projects the MediaLAB brings in a network of Amsterdam’s creative industries. Working with creative entrepreneurs, coders and designers gives the MediaLAB the opportunity to bring skills and knowledge to guarantee working prototypes, giving the assigner the opportunity to take the working prototypes into production. Recent partners have included Cisco, NOS, IKEA, ProRail, the City of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Light Festival, Dropstuff, Beeld&Geluid, Arkin, Ordina, AVROTROS, WeMakeVR, Submarine, TWC and many others.
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OUR PARTNERS
(Sruthi Krishnan, researcher, Fields of View)
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Working across time zones and cultures is never easy, but our collaboration with MediaLAB makes it seem so. And that’s thanks to the people there pragmatic, but with a strong spirit of adventure - a combination that seeds endless possibilities.
Working with the MediaLAB has been an exceptional experience. The students I’ve had the pleasure to work with were very well prepared and extremely creative and they embraced each new challenge with a lot of enthusiasm. (Stefania Bercu, Researcher Transmedia Analytics - Creative Industries Research Centre Amsterdam)
Everybody dived into the deep end. Head first. No cold feet. In 6 months the students accomplished something that normally takes years. (Maurice Levano - coach with VIP Team/Arkin)
I am in the middle of my first MediaLAB project now and it is exciting to see how the theoretical concepts that I proposed are being translated into actual experiments. (Mirjam Vosmeer, lectoraat)
researcher,
Games
&
Play 21
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What we do One of the key focus areas of the projects we work on is citizen empowerment. Digitization has a big impact on every aspect of everyday life: getting access to information and culture, purchasing clothing, organizing healthcare. The Create-IT research departments are specialized in this transformation and collaborate with the MediaLAB in designing possible solutions. Industry and research partners who are interested in this transformation and want to invest in this topic from their own expertise can team up with us to co-create in this design process.
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PROJECT CASE 1 Women’s Safety PosturAroma (2014)
PROJECT CASE 2 Games 4 Therapy Keep it! (2014)
PROJECT CASE 3 iNDiViDUALS SOUND.IT.IS (2013)
PROJECT CASE 4 Amsterdam Light Festival The Dark Side of Amsterdam (2014) 23
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WOMEN’S SAFETY - POSTURAROMA Challenge How can we improve women’s safety in Amsterdam? Solution By using the powerful relationships between scent & emotion, and confidence through embodiment, PosturAroma helps women to feel safer by enhancing their posture. By sensing the angle of the back and using scent as a trigger, the user is reminded to keep her head up and straighten her back when stepping into the world. Walking proudly to feel confident, look confident, and be safe. This project is a collaborative design effort that looks into what it means to design collectively across different countries and contexts. Two teams, one in Amsterdam and one in Bangalore, worked on the same project brief in parallel, while regularly exchanging insights on their methods and progress. Students investigated how to enhance the objective and subjective safety of women in public space by the innovative use of digital media, communication technology, and/or (networked) electronics. Industry partner: Cisco Systems Winner of Best Design Case at the Design & Emotion conference in Bogota, Columbia. Nominated as finalist for Intel ‘Make It Wearable’ Challenge (October, 2014)
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Akarsh Sanghi (IN) - Bachelor’s of Technology of Computer Science Laura Mul (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture & Information Science Shinichiro Ito (JP) - Graduate School of Design Kyushu, Keio University SFC http://medialabamsterdam.com/womens-safety-nl Hout, van, M., Mul, L., Bogers, L. & Ito, S. (2014). PosturAroma – The Embodiment of Safety, in: Salamanca, J., Desmet, P., Burbano, A., Ludden, G., Maya, J. (Eds.). Proceedings of the Colors of Care: The 9th International Conference on Design & Emotion, Bogota, Colombia.
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GAMES 4 THERAPY – KEEP IT! Challenge Design a game that supports therapy in early intervention of psychosis. Solution This project sets out to explore the development of a game to support therapy for VIP (Early Intervention Psychoses) clients of Arkin. This solution will be characterized by including game elements, context awareness and social aspects, and can focus both on awareness (recognition) and social function (reintegration). As a solution the team came up with Keep It! Keep it!, an iPhone application that attempts, in a playful way, to counter the harmful thoughts of people recovering from a psychosis, in situations with lots of stimuli. The application helps users to structure their thoughts by creating a mind map, and tries to re-orientate users towards a more positive and healthy way of thinking by providing questions and messages that can be answered by writing a note or just thinking about it. The mood and intensity of the thought (pattern) that is bothering the user is actively portrayed in the interface of the app to make the actual process more playful; the user needs to make a colour bar, that represents the bothering thought, disappear from the back of the screen. Industry partner: Arkin Corporate
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Research partner: Lectoraat Games & Play, Menno Deen and Karel Millenaar
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Gerdjan van Hagen (NL) - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Game Design Matias Daporta (SP) - Amsterdam School of Arts Sebastiaan Broek (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture Susana Passinhas (PT) - Coimbra University http://medialabamsterdam.com/games-4-therapy
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INDIVIDUALS - SOUND.IT.IS Challenge How can the narrative of fashion culture be revived through digital media in the context of the iNDiViDUALS brand? Solution Once upon a time, fashion shows were focused on being seen, not being heard. Combining the best of both worlds, SOUND.IT.IS proves that new media in fashion shows can be more than just a visual spectacle. Although it was an outcast in the past, immersive audio can now amplify the emotions of the catwalk experience as well as the designer’s collection. Industry partner: Soundlings, International Sound Collective Research partner: Amsterdam Fashion Institute
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S/S14BY21 collection presentation. Photo by Peter Stigter. Dion Gavriilidis (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture Kimberly Waldbillig (NL) - University of Utrecht, New Media and Digital Culture Marissa Memelink (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture Myrthe de Smit (NL) - University of Amsterdam, Media and Culture http://medialabamsterdam.com/individuals
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AML - THE DARK SIDE OF AMSTERDAM Challenge How can we enlighten Amsterdam during the Amsterdam Light Festival ’13? Solution Students of MediaLAB Amsterdam pitched a project idea for the Amsterdam Light Festival ’13. A projection map was projected onto the Mozes and Aaronkerk on Amsterdam’s Waterloo square. The Dark Side of Amsterdam, one of the seven chosen concepts, is an interactive installation that was presented for 3 days on the market square. Passersby and visitors were asked to reflect on their sins. Users would then choose custom made glow-inthe-dark glasses that corresponded with their worst sin, and were asked to enter ‘the confession booth’ where a semi-anonymous long exposure portrait was taken. The portraits were projected onto the church instantly, accompanied by visuals depicting a sin, such as brothels and sex club signs to go with the sin ‘lust’. 410 people visited the installation and lust is (still?) Amsterdam’s favourite sin. Industry partner: Beam Systems Research partner: Frouke ten Velden, Excelsior Visuals The Dark Side of Amsterdam won the audience award at Beamlab #32
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Akarsh Sanghi (IN) - Bachelor’s of Technology of Computer Science Gabriele Colombo (IT) - Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences MediaLAB Amsterdam, Mizuki Kojima (JP) - Graduate School of Design Kyushu, Keio University SFC Sandro Miccoli (BR) - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Shinichiro Ito (JP) - Graduate School of Design Kyushu, Keio University SFC Shubhojit Mallick (IN) - Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay http://medialabamsterdam.com/amsterdam-light-festival
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The Agile MediaLAB Manifesto Our highest priority is to satisfy society with the early, open and continuous delivery of valuable research and meaningful solutions. We welcome change and acknowledge the need to continuously adapt tools, approaches and requirements to meet changing needs and to respond to other results. We deliver working prototypes frequently and test them continuously with real people. Researchers, designers and engineers must work together daily and connect with other stakeholders as much as possible throughout the project. We build projects around motivated individuals. We give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
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A B O UT - M AN IFESTO
of conveying information to and within a development/research team is face-toface conversation. Useful research and working prototypes are the primary measures of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable research. Sponsors, partners, researchers and developers should be able to maintain
technical and design excellence enhances agility. Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of unnecessary work – is essential. The best theories, requirements, solutions and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly. 33
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Programme
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A fast-paced, agile design programme with room for experimentation and personal development. MediaLAB Amsterdam uses a combination of an iterative design cycle and the Scrum process in order to foster both the creative process and enforce teams to work in a structured and
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The process is further fed by workshops, an extensive (research) method toolkit, expert meetings, and is supported by (embedded) researchers and MediaLAB coaches.
P RO G RAM M E
goal-oriented way. This has proven to be a powerful combination for the multidisciplinary design teams that work on projects in the lab context we provide.
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Design Process
The MediaLAB Amsterdam design process is a problem-solving method that helps create and evaluate solutions in response to challenges. In the process MediaLAB tries to evoke real curiosity in order to make teams feel highly motivated to find answers and solutions. This involves lots of iterations, making, prototyping, going out on field studies and testing each idea, concept or prototype with actual users.
D ESIG N
RESEARCH, TRANSLATE AND CREATE At the start of every design challenge, and afterwards, at the start of each new stage in the design process, research has a central role. Research provides plenty of insights; how people act/think/feel and who the intended users are, within the context of the challenge.
translate
RESEARCH
CREATE
These insights are the key to a solution, but they have to be translated into actual design requirements: which are key for the optimal solution? This is something that can be decided on the basis of research, and implemented and tested by creating a prototype. A next step might be to research again into what you created by setting up a test with users. During the project there is a constant two-way flow: from research, translation to creation, and from creation, translation to research. 39
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Scrum
Scrum is an iterative and incremental process for the design and development of products and way of organizing a team. Tasks are achieved faster and with higher quality when using the Scrum Framework. This is possible because of the high self-motivation of the team, which chooses itself how tasks will be executed. The project partner’s demands are iteratively prioritized and quickly actualized. At MediaLAB Amsterdam,
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is embedded in a sprint-based schedule, supported by Scrum roles, rituals, sessions and artifacts that support the process.
SCRUM
SPRINTS A ‘sprint’ (or iteration) is the basic unit of development. The sprint is a ’timeboxed’ effort; that is, it is restricted to a specific duration. The sprints in the MediaLAB programme have an average duration of three weeks. However, teams are free to fit and perform more sprints within those scheduled three weeks.
sprint
RITUALS At the MediaLAB we use specific ‘rituals’ during each sprint. Each sprint starts with an ideation and planning session, has a mid-sprint translation / transfer session, and ends with a sprint review meeting and retrospective. During a sprint, the team has daily stand-up meetings.
IDEATION
translate 41
1 DAILY STAND-UP MEETINGS
2 IDEATION
DESIGN METHODS TOOLKIT
SPRINT PLANNING
RESEARCH CREATE
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IDEATION AND PLANNING
sprint
RESEARCH CREATE
translate
3
SPRINT REVIEW
4
SPRINT RETROSPECTIVE
5
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SCRUM - RITUALS
1 — Daily stand-up meetings
The daily stand-up meeting takes place at the same time and place of every working day. The daily scrum meeting is held in the morning, as it helps set the context for the coming day’s work. These scrum meetings are strictly time-boxed to 15 minutes. This keeps the discussion brisk but relevant. The daily stand-up meeting is not used as a problem-solving or issue resolution meeting. Issues raised are taken offline and usually dealt with immediately after the meeting. During the daily scrum, each team member answers the following three questions: a) - What did you do yesterday? b) - What will you do today? c) - Are there any impediments in your way? 43
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2 — Ideation and planning
PLANNING
IDEATION
Every sprint has a ‘ideation and planning’ session. In this session the creative process is triggered by the facilitation of a brainstorm and ideation session in which ideas are identified and quickly sketched. The most promising ideas are placed in a hierarchy and it is decided which have potential to be taken along in the sprint. After this, tasks are identified, but more importantly the exact sprint goal (and duration) is defined. It is important to have a very clear goal, so that the team can break the effort down into smaller-sized pieces that contribute to achieving that goal more smoothly, using the planboard (§ page 34, Toolkit)
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SCRUM - RITUALS
3 — Translate and transfer
translate
In the middle of the 3-week sprint there is a scheduled ‘translate and transfer’ session in which your team and the project-related researchers come together to translate research insights and decide which things to act on in this sprint or the next (transfer).
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4 — Sprint review
After the team has completed the planned deliverables for this sprint it is time for the ‘sprint review’. In this meeting, which is organized with all stakeholders present, decisions on progress and how to proceed are made, including next steps and possible needs and wishes. Specifically, the team will present the work they did during the sprint and will run through the sprint backlog together with stakeholders.
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SCRUM - RITUALS
5 — Sprint retrospective
A ‘sprint retrospective’ is held at the very end of each sprint. This is a meeting to reflect on both the results and the processes with the team. It is meant to change, improve, or stick to the way they work and function as a team.
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ROLES Scrum has only three roles; the relationship between these roles is easily defined and easy to understand.
2 Scrum Master (SM)
Team
3 48
Product Owner (PO)
1
SCRUM - ROLES
1 — Product Owner
PO
The Product Owner is the final authority on the requirements for the product and is responsible for the product vision and improving return on investment. The PO manages end user and stakeholder expectations, prioritizes the product backlog, releases planning details, and provides clear and testable requirements to the team. A PO collaborates with the team, end users and stakeholders, ensuring that the goals are met and that they accept the deliverables at the end of each sprint. The project partner is the PO, and during the sprints the team coach serves as dedicated Product Owner. 49
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2 — Scrum Master
SM
The Scrum Master is responsible for facilitating the team: creating a trustful and inclusive environment, facilitating team meetings and negotiations with the product owner, and removing team and organizational impediments. SMs keep the process moving forward, ensuring that the values and principles of Scrum along with its framework are followed. They also facilitate stand-up meetings and the retrospective, and organize the planning and ideation sessions and the sprint reviews.
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The SM is a crucial role within the team, ensuring its success. Therefore, at the start of the semester each team has to make sure they appoint someone who has the characteristics of a good SM. Important: the SM is also a team member.
SCRUM - ROLES
3 — Team
TEAM
The multidisciplinary design team is cross-functional, autonomous and self-organizing. The team is responsible for researching the requirements, translating them, and making their own design and implementation decisions. The team members track the progress of their own work with the guidance of the Scrum master, and the team commits to create deliverables, being accountable to the product owner and delivering as promised.
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5
DONE
PENDING
IN PROGRESS
SCRUMBOARD
TO DO
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Artifacts
SPRINT BACKLOG
3
USER STORIES
2
TASKS
4
PRODUCT BACKLOG
1
SCRUM - ARTIFAC TS
1 — Product Backlog The requirements for the product are listed in the Product Backlog, an ever-changing, dynamically prioritized list of requirements ordered by Business Value. Requirements are broken down into User Stories. 2 — User Stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, usually a user or customer of the system. They typically follow a simple template: As a <type of user> I want <some goal> so that <some reason>
3 — Sprint Backlog The Sprint Backlog contains all the committed User Stories for the current Sprint, broken down into Tasks by the Team. All items on the Sprint Backlog should be developed, tested, documented and inte-
4 — Tasks sprint without having to add new tasks. 5 — Scrumboard The Scrum board gives you a quick way of visually seeing the status of your iteration. Add and move stories into different columns to change their statuses, such as To-do, In progress, Pending approval, and Done. Every Team member works on tasks and the PO decides when the tasks are moved from Pending to Done.
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SCRUM - RITUALS
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SCRUM - RITUALS
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Design Methods toolkit
To support research planning, ideation and testing, MediaLAB Amsterdam has developed a special method toolkit, which is a combination of a 60+ method cards collection and a plan board. medialabamsterdam/toolkit
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D ESIG N M ETH ODS TOOLK IT
PLAN BOARD
Use the plan board to have a clear idea of what the goals are, how much time needs to be invested, and what the results will mean for a possible solution. O-DO, IN PROGRESS, PENDING FOR APPROVAL AND DON The plan board asks the teams to take a User Story as a starting point. Then, go to the method cards deck and choose a method according to the goal the User Story represents.
USER STORIES
METHOD CARDS
TIME ESTIMATION
SINGLE TASKS
Time requirements then need to be estimated (how long will execution, preparation and analysis take?). Based on the necessary steps in the method, the User Story can be broken down into single tasks (and serves as input for the Scrum board).
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METHODS CARDS The MediaLAB Amsterdam method card collection presents a very wide range of design and research methods that can be used to get the necessary insights.
Most of the cards can be used throughout the design process. The teams are encouraged to use a variety of methods (in order to have a wide variety of insights) and to use them continuously. The method plan board is literally the reverse side of the scrum board, making these two interdependent tools. 62
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METHODS CARDS - CATEGORIES The methods are divided into categories relating to the type of insights that can be gained with them. The methods can be about defining goals, knowing context, knowing the user, framing insights, ideation, prototyping or testing.
Define Goals and Intentions
Know the Context
Know the User
Frame your Insights
Ideation and Concepts
Create and Test
Know the context Explore the background of the project, the situation, the location, the time, the social and technical context. What are the main factors?
D ESIG N M ETH ODS TOOLK IT
Define goals and intentions Define vision, scenarios, scopes and constraints. Why are you doing it? What are you looking for? Who are you designing for?
Know the user Get to know users, explore their goals, needs and feelings. Who are the users? Explore their features, values, standards, emotions. What are the touchpoints of your user? Frame your insights A way to draw conclusions, to make lessons learned explicit. Try to narrow down the information. Can you extract the most valuable and important element from your insights? Ideation and concepts Generate ideas, explore possibilities. Generate concepts, explore ideas in a very broad sense. How can you visualize, sketch and conceptualize the requirements arising from your research insights? Create and test Ways to get from concepts to production, prototyping and testing. Are your ideas valid? Can you create working prototypes from your concepts? How can you test your prototypes with users?
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METHODS CARDS - DURATION
4 hours
1 day
2 days
1 week
Each method card has an estimated time of completion. The estimated time helps to chose a method according to the available time. 4 hours 1 day
2 days low effort
1 week high effort
METHODS CARDS - EFFORT
low effort
high effort
Each card also takes the time for preparation, processing and analysis into account: more effort probably means that more team members should be involved. 66
MED IALAB M ETH ODS TOOLK IT
Day in the life 1 DAY
01 E F F O RT
Define intentions
D UR ATION
Know context
Know user
Frame insights
Day i n the life A study in which the designer observes the participant in the location and context of their usual activities, observing and recording events to understand the activities from the participant’s point of view. 1. Define the activities to study. 2. Recruit participants. 3. Observe subjects in context. 4. Capture data. 5. Create storyboards with text and timeline. 6. Analyze data.
Ideation and concepts
Create and test
01 RESOURCES
— Czarniawska-Joerges, Barbara. Shadowing: and other techniques for doing fieldwork in modern societies. Copenhagen Business School Press DK, 2007. — based on Design Methods 1, R. Curedale BENEFIT
Provides insights with little cost and time. CHALLENGE
Something that seems insignificant may become significant later
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Workshops An important part of the support in the design process consists of the workshop programme. These workshops are facilitated by experts from the MediaLAB and from the field, and they follow the work intensity and current needs of the teams as the programme evolves. Students learn about ideation, idea selection, user experience (design), user testing, prototyping, the business model canvas, etc. Every workshop holds relevant information and skills for each sprint.
WO RKSHOPS
Workshop Scrum September 8 9:30 - 12:00
Scrum
This workshop covers the principles and process (theory) underpinning the mechanics, rules and roles of the Scrum framework. Attention is paid to rituals, artifacts and roles, and specifically to how they relate to the programme and the creative process within the MediaLAB. Students learn through instruction and team-based exercises, and are challenged to think in terms of the Scrum principles to better understand what to do when starting their project. After this workshop, Scrum teams still need a lot of practice and trial/error, but it is beneficial to team dynamics and project progress from day one! 69
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Workshop Problem definition September 15 9:30 - 12:30
In order to clearly understand the â&#x20AC;&#x2122;problemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the team has been asked to solve, this workshop will show how a design brief can be written based on a deep understanding of the stakeholders, needs, values, requirements, restrictions and opportunities that surround an assignment. Teams are also inspired to think beyond descriptives and to become creative thinkers.
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WO RKSHOPS
Workshop Tinkering September 17 9:30 - 12:30
Tinkering
Tinkering is all about exploring materials (often technical materials) and finding new applications by engaging with them in playful, somewhat unstructured ways. In this workshop, students will experiment with Makey Makey (an Arduino-based device that lets you turn nearly anything into a computer key) and Scratch (a free programming language, originally developed by MIT for kids, with which you can create your own interactive stories, games, and animations). Build a playful installation, game or prototype in just the time of this half-day workshop! 71
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Workshop Ideation October 6 9:30 - 12:30
IDEATION
Ideation
In this workshop students recheck their understanding of the problem at hand. In order to generate good ideas it is vital to make them a good fit with their context. The workshop introduces several fast-paced and productive exercises that can be used to generate lots of ideas in a short time frame. Teams then try to cluster the ideas into potential solutions. The most important goals of the workshop are to have fun, open your mind, and change the way you look at the world.
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Workshop User Experience Design October 29 9:30 - 12:30
User Experience Design
This workshop engages the teams in a hands-on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;design for experienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; practice. By introducing a systematic approach to designing products that deliberately elicit predefined emotional responses, the workshop aims to facilitate a shift from an intuitive to a structured and manageable perspective on user experience in conceptual design processes. Denying experiential and emotional impact in the design of new concepts is like denying they are designed for humans.
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Workshop User Testing November 19 9:30 - 12:30
User Testing
User testing is important but is often overlooked due to budget, time, and resource constraints. This workshop will explain how user testing can support the design process and can be employed to deliver better a user experience and a more meaningful end product. Learn how to choose between unmoderated and moderated testing. Learn when to integrate testing at different development / design phases. Learn how to maximize the ROI by knowing what to test. learn how to extract useful patterns from qualitative and quantitative tests. 74
WO RKSHOPS
Workshop Business Model Canvas December 17 9:30 - 12:30
Business Model Canvas
The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot any business model. In this workshop, teams will be challenged to imagine the business behind their concept and foresee opportunities, constraints, challenges, etc. Seeing the potential of the concept from a business perspective will help to sharpen the offering and final deliverable, and will support future scenarios for the continuation of the project after the semester. 75
@MediaLAB Amsterdam
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Your team is bigger than you might think! You are supported by many. Besides your fellow team members, many other people are directly involved in the project: an expert from the MediaLAB Amsterdam team, your graduation or internship mentor, the project partners and, in the course of
@ MEDIALAB AM STERDAM
the design process, developers, external experts, creative consultants, etc.
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Multidisciplinary and multicultural teamwork
At MediaLAB you work in a team comprising people with different skill sets and from different educational and cultural backgrounds. Even local cultural differences between people from the same country can have a big impact on the way they work with each other. Working in a team with a varied composition therefore requires a special attitude, both professionally and socially. Here are some things you should take into account.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
T EA M WORK
Language
Multidisciplinary and intercultural teams are great for creative processes. However, when people who work together have different languages, this can be an obstacle to success. Speaking in your mother tongue is very different from speaking in a second or third language.
So consider your words carefully; there are issues of interpretation, but also of cultural differences, especially when the spoken language is not the first language for either of you. Use visuals, write down your ideas, sketch. Make sure you understanding each other.
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Communication Styles â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Methods of communication that are normal for one group of people may appear ineffective or inappropriate to another group.
A person from a culture in which loud voices and interruptions are not seen as aggressive may intimidate someone from a culture that teaches more reserved modes of expression.
Learning in advance about the cultures of your team members before you work on a team with them can help you understand their methods of communication.
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—
T EA M WORK
Hierarchy
The importance of authority varies greatly between cultures. Some groups give great respect to people in positions of authority, while people from other cultures are perfectly willing to question an authority figure if they see them doing something wrong. Authority is based on different criteria in different cultures. The nature of a team should be made clear to all participants at its inception. At the beginning of the semester you will therefore write a team ‘plan’ in which ways of working together, but also values and roles are written down and agreed on.
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Conflict — When conflict does occur within a team, members from different backgrounds may react to it in dramatically different ways. Some people will repress their reactions to an insult or slight, while others will fight back. These reactions are based on individual personality to some extent but are also conditioned by a person’s background.
Resolving conflict between team members effectively requires an understanding of everyone’s view of what caused the conflict. Being open, but respectful to each other’s background, is the best remedy for conflict resolution.
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T EA M WORK
Language
Communication Styles
Hierarchy
Conflict
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Presenting your work
At the end of the design process you will have the opportunity to share with the world what you have created. We use the website as a communication portal for all our projects, but you will also have the opportunity to present your results to the creative industry during a final event organized at MediaLAB Amsterdam. This will be the showcase of your final design and prototype. You will present yourselves as experts to an audience consisting of friends, family, and partners from the creative industries, but also creative agencies looking for the latest trends and scouting for talent.
One of MediaLAB Amsterdam’s most important communication channels is its blog. Here, project teams keep followers and friends updated on the latest developments and insights in their projects or in related fields. As a team we trust you are just as proud as we are of our work, and just as keen to share its news on a regular basis. In the first week you will learn how our blog works and how you can best communicate and promote your team’s work there.
P RESEN TIN G YOUR WORK
BLOG
SHARING, WORKING, DOCUMENTATION To work together efficiently you’ll need tools to collaborate on projects, share documents and calendars, and communicate. There are huge numbers of digital tools to help you with this: use them! The right tools will put the most relevant information within easy reach. 87
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Rules of thumb
No ambitious programme would be achievable without some good old rules of thumb about things you can do, or should do (act); things to remember; and things to respect. We expect you to take note of these and commit them to memory. We are open to initiatives, so if you have anything to add or suggest (a change), please do not hesitate to talk to someone from the MediaLAB team and your team members. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find a way to make everybody happy.
RUL ES OF TH UM B
→ACT
1 — Every team works and studies for five days a week from 9:00 until 17:30. 2 — Schedule when you will spend time on individual research, your own graduation project, or your personal development plan 3 — Appreciate the value of the structured morning-scrum setup; it is there to help you and your team aim for the highest level of quality 4 — Finish things on time, as agreed upon with your team in your meetings 89
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→REMEMBER
1 — Involve or CC your MediaLAB expert coach in communications with the project partner. In case of a meeting, inform them in time about the details. The expert will always want to be present at partner meetings 2 — You can request a day off with your PM. Of course you will have to inform your team too. Oneday requests: a week in advance. More than one day? At least 3 weeks in advance. Be aware that your requests may or may not be granted, depending on project needs. 3 — The MediaLAB team is not responsible for your personal grades (except for international students) 90
RUL ES OF TH UM B
→RESPECT
1 — Keep to the team agreement document that you filled in at the start of the process 2 — In the event of illness, please contact your expert coach before 9:30 3 — Keep the MediaLAB tidy, shiny and awesome! 4 — Workshops are obligatory. There are no exceptions, as these are a vital part of the programme. If you arrive late, the doors will stay closed 5 — Some distraction is good, but don’t overdo social media, appointments with others during working hours, etc. Keep the work/fun ratio balanced 6 — You are not alone, and your team members will need to feel the same dedication coming from you as they are putting in themselves. Keep the same energy level and the motor will run beautifully! 91
Schedule
Schedule — September MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
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2
3
4
5
sprint 0
KICK OFF
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TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
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sprint 0
deadline: user scene
DESIGN CULTURE
WORKSHOP SCRUM
- MORNING
INTRODUCTION
-AFTERNOON
PARTNER VISIT
REVIEW AND RETROSPECTIVE
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
15
16
17
18
19
WORKSHOP PROBLEM DEFINITION
WORKSHOP TINKERING
sprint 1 PLANNING
deadline: design brief
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
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22
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sprint 1 TRANSLATE SESSION
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Schedule — September/October MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
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29
30
1
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9:30-12:30
MAKE SESSION AT MK24
sprint 1 REVIEW AND RETROSPECTIVE
WRITE UP
PEERPITCH
deliverable 1
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IDEATION
IDEATION
WORKSHOP IDEATION
WORKSHOP IDEATION
sprint 2 PLANNING
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-AFTERNOON
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sprint 2 TRANSLATE SESSION
IDEA SELECTION TEAM SESSIONS
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deadline: design brief
MONDAY
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WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
20
21
22
23
24
9:30-12:30
sprint 2 REVIEW AND RETROSPECTIVE
PEERPITCH
deliverable 2
WRITE UP
Schedule — October/November MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
27
28
29
30
31
sprint 3 PLANNING
WORKSHOP UX DESIGN
MONDAY
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3
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7
sprint 3 TRANSLATE SESSION
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- MORNING
-AFTERNOON
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9:30-12:30
sprint 3 REVIEW AND RETROSPECTIVE
PEERPITCH
deliverable 3
MONDAY
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sprint 4 PLANNING
WORKSHOP USER TESTING
Schedule — November/December MONDAY
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24
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sprint 4 REVIEW AND RETROSPECTIVE
PEERPITCH
deliverable 4
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-AFTERNOON
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sprint 5
sprint 5
TRANSLATE SESSION
PLANNING
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sprint 5 REVIEW AND RETROSPECTIVE
WRITE UP WORKSHOP BUSINESS MODEL
deliverable 5
Schedule — December/January MONDAY
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22
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26
XMAS PERIOD
XMAS PERIOD
XMAS PERIOD
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2
XMAS PERIOD
XMAS PERIOD
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- MORNING
-AFTERNOON
XMAS PERIOD
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TRANSLATE SESSION
PLANNING
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REVIEW
TRY-OUT
Schedule — January MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
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19
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TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
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9.30 BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS VALORIZATION SESSIONS
DELIVER PACKAGE TO PARTNERS
- MORNING
-AFTERNOON
Design Process and Programme MediaLAB Amsterdam Research and Design with a focus on current, relevant and meaningful digital media and applications. Offering talented students a stuctured, fast-paced, 20 week programme, in which they are part of a multidisciplinary, multicultural team to experiment and search for solutions in challenging
projects
formulated
academic and industry partners.
with