CMS.362 | Fall 2020 | Undergraduate

Civic Media Codesign Studio

Calendar

Week Topics Key Dates

1

Icebreakers, Introduction to the Course and Way of Working

Guest: Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell

 

2

Approaches to Design

Topics:

  • Thinking with technology
  • Foundation and critique of design thinking
  • Fundamentals of design ethnography

Guest: Gabriel Mugar, Design Researcher, IDEO

Due (Journal): Personal reflection on the topic area and how you hope to approach the design process

3

Participatory Design (PD) and Codesign

Topics:

  • Power in design
  • Trust and collaboration
  • Participatory and codesign traditions
  • Running public process guided by explicit values
  • Listening and conversation methods

Guest: Ceasar McDowell, MIT DUSP, on Civic Design methods

Due: Stakeholder Interview and insights

Due (Journal): Where do you see opportunities to open up the design process? What needs to be changed or established?

4

PD in the Public Sector

Topics:

  • Application of PD methods in complex organizational settings
  • Problem definition
  • Policy coproduction

Guest: Nigel Jacob, Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics

Due: Problem Definition Worksheet

Due (Journal): What does policy codesign entail? Is participatory process enough?

5

Creativity and Scoping

Topics:

  • Project scoping
  • Creative ideation
  • User personas / journeys
  • Design hypothesis
  • Field scan

Guest: Thomas Vogel

Due (Journal): Peer feedback on problem definition. This can take the form of an interview, focus group, etc.

Assignment: Design a creative ideation exercise with your partners. Plan of the exercise is due next week. Plan to implement your listening exercise within two weeks.

6

Value Alignment and Partnership Agreements

Topics:

  • Aligning values
  • Partnership agreements
  • Integrating values into process and desired product

Due: Draft of plan for ideation exercise process. Documentation of process due next week.

Due (Journal): Reflection on ideation process

7

Working with Data

Topics:

  • Critical thinking with data
  • Role of data literacy in any process
  • Representing data
  • Privacy

Guest: Catherine D’Ignazio, DUSP MIT

Guest: Carl DiSalvo, Georgia Tech

Due (Journal): How are you thinking about data in your project?

8

Project Proposal

Use seminar time to work with your team on Project Proposal.

Due: Project Proposal

9

Evaluation

Topics:

  • Process evaluation
  • Rapid methods and communicating results

Guest: Justeen Hyde, VA

Due (Journal): Open topic

10

Making

Topics:

  • Wireframes
  • Paper prototypes
  • Paper prototyping in a virtual environment

Due (Journal): Open topic

11

User Testing

Topics:

  • Focus groups
  • Observations
  • Documenting insights on use

Due (Journal): Open topic

12

Iteration

 

13

Use seminar time to work with your team on final projects.

 

14

Final Presentations

Due: Design book and final media or documentation. 

Course Info

Instructor
As Taught In
Fall 2020