Core Studio IxD

Developing the syllabus for a second year IxD course.

In the spring term 2016, Sabrina Hauser and I taught the 2-year core studio interaction design course at Emily Carr. While planning the course, Sabrina and I took the time to completely restructure the course syllabus to provide an engaging and comprehensive course for 2nd years interaction design students.

This course offers students a foundational understanding of interaction design and interaction design practice. Students engage in three projects and while doing so learn key design techniques and methods including user research, personas, scenarios, Kano analysis, information architecture, design techniques for graphical user interfaces, concept iterations, prototyping techniques, as well as presentation and evaluation techniques.

The three studio projects include a re-design of an application, the development of a tangible user interface and a concept design for emerging technologies.

The three studio projects include a re-design of an application, the development of a tangible user interface and a concept design for emerging technologies. Each project focuses on a different aspect of interaction design as well as a different part of the design process. This way students gain an insight into different interaction design disciplines while also working through the single parts of the iterative design process.

Following our success from 2016, Sabrina and I taught the course again in 2017 and the course structure we created is still being used today.

*Sabrina and I want to thank HfG and especially Hans Krämer, Jörg Beck, Ralf Dringenberg, and Michael Götte, who have been inspiring us in the way we teach and approach interaction design.