CMNS 354: COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN DESIGN

Professor: Ellen Balka ebalka@sfu.ca

Office: CC 6228 Phone 291-3764

Office Hours: Thurs. 1:00-4:00 My office hours are a mix of drop in time and scheduled appointments. Please sign up for appointments on my
office door.

Teaching Assistant: Brandi Bell (Office hours during labs) Phone: 291-3757

This course can be used as an upper division elective in Communications, and has been approved as an upper division elective in Computer Science, Engineering (as an approved complementary studies elective in the "OTHER" category) and Kinesiology.

It is recommended for
Communications students interested in technology and society;
Kinesiology students in the human factors/ergonomics stream,
Computer Science and Engineering students interested in usability and the social implications of their work.

Pre-requisites:

60 credits, including any ONE of the following courses:

Communication: CMNS 253, 353, 453 or 454;
Computer Science: CMPT 275;
Engineering: ENSC 100;
Kinesiology: KIN 201, KIN 205.

Course Description:

This course will explore social issues and values in designing technology, through a focus on both the objects and processes of design. Emphasis will be placed on communication between participants in the design process, and identification of social issues and values that influence design. Lab exercises will emphasize making decisions that occur during the design process explicit , and making values that enter into design processes explicit.

Topics will include:

· arts, craft, innovation and design;

· the design process as a social and communicative process;

· cultural factors in design;

· communicating across disciplinary boundaries;

· the use of representations in the design process;

· universal design;

· sex, gender and design;

· environmental considerations in design and green design;

· ergonomic considerations in design;

· user involvement in the design process.

Required texts:

Margolin, V. And Buchanan, R. (1995). The idea of design: A design issues reader. MIT Press: Cambridge.

Balka, E. (1998). (Ed.). Custom Course Reader and Lab Manual: Communication and Social Issues in Design, 1999. SFU Bookstore.

Norman, D.A. (1988). The design of everyday things. Doubleday: New York.

Highly Recommended:

Orr, J. (1996). Talking about machines: An ethnography of a modern job. Cornell: Ithaca, N.Y.

Course Format:

The course will consist of weekly 2 hour lectures, and 2 hour labs. Lectures will be used to introduce students to a range of topics. Labs will be used to give students practical experience addressing the topics introduced during lectures. Students will work together in small groups (ideally 3 students, though 4 may be permissible) during labs, and will complete a variety of exercises designed to complement lecture topics.

Assignment Structure:

Students will be evaluated on a combination of individual and group assignments.

Type of Assignment Approximate Due Date % of grade

Individual assignments:
In class mid-term Week 8 20%
Lab Exercise Week 12 10%
Individual final paper 1 week after class 10%
Class and lab participation Ongoing 15%

Group Assignments:
Design Brief Week 7 20%
Final Paper and Project 1 week after last class 25%

Preliminary Description of Assignments

The objective of final papers and projects is to design or modify a technology. Students do not require previous experience, as the lab exercises and readings will lead them through the steps required to complete their final projects and related papers. All of the assignments are intended to assist students in completing their final projects and papers. Detailed instructions for completing the final projects and paper will be given to students at the beginning of the term.

Mid-term:

The in class mid-term will encourage students to synthesize materials introduced in lectures, readings and labs. It should be viewed as an opportunity to demonstrate that you have kept up with assigned readings and attended labs and lectures regularly, as well as a creative exercise. It will consist of a few short answer questions as well as one or two extended essay questions.

Design Brief:

Each week during the lab time students will be given one or more exercises to complete during lab time, in small groups. Part way through the semester, in their small groups, students will have to complete an extended lab exercise (a design brief), and submit it for evaluation. This assignment builds on work completed in all of the labs that preceded it.

Lab Exercise:

One of the lab exercises included in your lab manual consists of obtaining information about how a technology is used, from those people who use the technology. Your lab exercise will consist of collecting information from users about their use of a technology, and presenting what you have found. You will be given more guidance about methods you can use to obtain user information (e.g., direct observation, interviews, focus groups, etc.) in class and labs. Your lab manual provides further detail about how to write your lab exercise up.

CMNS 386: Communication and Social Issues in Design (99-1)

Clarification of Individual assignment and final papers (individual and group portions)

Individual Assignment- Lab Exercise:

The purpose of this assignment is to obtain information about how the technology your group is designing is being used, from those people who use the technology. Your lab exercise will consist of collecting information from users about their use of a technology, and presenting what you have found.

You are being given some handouts that describe a few ways you can collect information from users about their use of new technologies. These include observation, focus groups and interviews. Each member of your groups must individually collect information related to your group project. Each individual should hand in the following:

• One sentence about what your project is;
• The questions (e.g., interview or focus group questions or survey) or rationale (e.g., what you hoped to learn from observation) that guided your data collection;
• Questions you have about use of your group's technology and/or a rationale for collecting the user information you have attempted to collect;
• Who you collected the information from, where you collected, when and how you collected it (e.g., through observation, interviews or focus groups);
• The purpose of your data collection (what you want to gain insight about through your data collection);
• What you learned from your data collection and how it will influence your group's design;
• Any raw data you have (e.g., notes from interviews or observations tape recordings of interviews, etc.).

Your assignment should be no longer than 7 pages double-spaced, excluding your questions and/or rationale and raw data.

(add stuff Evelyn has typed re: individual assignment)

Final project and paper:

Working in small groups, students will invent, modify or design a technology. (Some lab time will be set aside for students working in groups to work on their projects). Groups must submit a paper that provides a rationale for the invention, modification or design of the technology the group has focused on, and charts decisions made during the design process, including social and cultural aspects of design. In addition, each student must hand in an additional short paper that addresses how social, cultural and disciplinary issues were addressed in their group’s design process, and how material from assigned readings and lectures was incorporated into their group’s project.

Final Paper and Project

Groups must submit a paper that provides a rationale for their design, presents the design, and charts decisions made during the design process, including social and cultural aspects of design. Your group's paper may follow the format of the design brief, but should be both more thorough and include more detail than your design briefs did.

In addition, each student must hand in an additional short paper that addresses

· how social, cultural and disciplinary issues were addressed in their group’s design process; and

· how material from assigned readings and lectures were incorporated into their group’s project.

Class participation:

It is expected that students will attend both lectures and labs regularly, and will come to class prepared. Class participation will be based on contributions to lectures and labs.

CMNS 386-4: Communication and Social Issues in Design

Weekly Lecture and Reading Schedule

This schedule replaces the one handed out during the first week of class.

Week	Topics, Readings and Lab Activities (Readings to class on the date they are listed0
Week 1 Sept. 7	Introduction to the Course themes and requirements
Week 2 Sept. 14	Situating Design in Technology and Society Studies Design as Interdisciplinary Communication The Use of Representations in the Design Process Chapter 1 of Design of Everyday Things. D. Wood, (1992). Maps work by serving interests. The power of maps. New York: Guilford Press. (Course Reader). Arnheim article in Design Issues. Lab: Mapping from memory
Week 3 Sept. 21	Innovation and the Design Process 1st Buchanan article, Arnheim article in Design Issues. Chapter 2 and 3 of Design of Everyday Things. Lab: Defining a problem
Week 4 Sept. 28	Design, Users and Use Deforge and Margolin articles in Design Issues. Orr, J.(1996). Chapters 1 and chapter 9 in Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a modern job. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR/Cornell Press. (Course Reader). Lab: Investigating needs

Week 5 Oct. 5	Situated Work, Skill and Design Johnson, J. (1995). Mixing humans and non-humans together: The sociology of a door closer. In S.L. Star, (Ed.). Ecologies of knowledge: Work and practices in science and technology. Albany: SUNY Press. (Course Reader). Kuhn, S. (1996). Design for people at work, and Profile: Participatory Design. In T. Winograd (Ed.). Bringing design to software. New York: ACM Press. (Course Reader). Chapter 7 Design of Everyday Things. Lab: Establishing performance criteria
Week 6 Oct. 12	Social Responsibility, Ethics and Design Bias in Design Findeli and Papanek articles in Design Issues. B. Friedman and H. Nissenbaum, (1996). Bias in Computer Systems. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, vol. 14 #3, July, 1996. pp. 330-347. (Course Reader). Chapter 6 of Design of Everyday Things. Lab: Writing design briefs
Week 7 Oct. 19	Design Briefs Due The Meaning of Products, part 1 Dilnot and Krippendorf articles in Design Issues. Lab: Expanding your thinking
Week 8 Oct. 26	Exam The Meaning of Products, part 2 Krampen, Tyler, Csikszentmihalyi and Balaram articles in Design Issues. Lab: How to build a prototype

Week 9 Nov. 2	Design and Culture Ghose, Fry, Hirano, Cheng articles in Design Issues. Lab: Develop ideas
Week 10 Nov. 9	Design, Sex and Gender Maldonado article in Design Issues Whiteley, N. Feminist Perspectives. Design for society. London: Reaktion Books Ltd. (1993). (Course Reader). Sparke, P. (Ed.). (1995). Preface and Introduction. As Long as it's Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste (1st ed.). London: Pandora. pp. vii-12. Berg, A.J. and Lie, M. (1995). Feminism and constructivism: Do artifacts have gender? Senter for Knvinneforskning, Universitetet I Trondheim-AVH. Lab: Test ideas
Week 11 Nov. 16	Ergonomic Design Dul, J. and Weerdmeester, (1993). Ergonomics for beginners: A quick reference guide. Bristol, PA.: Taylor and Francis Ltd. (Selections; in Course Reader). Kome, P. (1998). Fitting the jobs to the workers. In P. Kome, Wounded Workers: The politics of musculoskeletal injuries. Chapters 4 and 5 of Design of Everyday Things. Lab: Implementation
Week 12 Nov. 23	Individual Assignments Due Universal Design Covington, G.A. and Hannah, B. (1997). Preface, Introduction and Chapter 9, Access by design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Access Prohibited? pamphlet. Lab: Evaluate your process

Week 13 Nov. 30	Green Design and Wrap-up Papanek, V. (1995). Designing for a safer future and Toward the spiritual in design. The green imperative: Natural design for the real world. London: Thames and Hudson. Selle, Moles and Margolin articles in Design Issues. NO CLASS THIS WEEK- Labs will meet
Exam Week

Communication 386: Communication and Social Issues in Design

Description of Lab Activities and Lab Assignments

For the lab exercises you hand in, please remember to include your name, as well as a sentence or two about your group’s final project. Whenever possible, please type your responses. All assignments, whether typed or handwritten should be double spaced to allow room for feedback and comments on your assignments. You are expected to hand in your assignments on time. Papers and assignments that come in late will be penalized 1% per day.

The material below outlines lab exercises for the term. Requirements for your final papers will be distributed later in the term.

It should be noted that although students are required to hand in only one lab exercise as a group and another as an individual, completion of the final project will be much more difficult if students do not complete each of the labs listed below. The design brief (the group lab exercise) cannot be completed satisfactorily unless all of the steps leading up to it are followed. You are strongly urged to make good use of your lab time.

Lab 1: Mapping from Memory

In this exercise, you should think of a familiar place on campus. From memory, draw a map of the place on campus on an 81/2 by 11 piece of paper. After you’ve drawn your map from memory, go to the place you drew, and draw a new version of your map, based on the observations you make on site. Make sure you do this on the same size piece of paper, using a clean sheet of paper. Before you leave the site where you have drawn your second map, note on a third piece of paper what you left out of your first map, what you added to your first map in error and any differences that existed between your first and second maps.

After you have completed your second map and your list, return to the lab. Spend a few minutes trying to figure out why you added, left out or altered your first map. Were there any specific events that caused you to recall something accurately on your first map or omit something from your first map? Can you think of any reasons (other than weak drawing skills) that you made one area larger or smaller than it was in reality? How have your past experiences influenced your understanding of the space you drew? Read Woods’ article (in your Course Reader) and the Arnhiem article in Design Issues. Are their any ideas in these articles that add to your understanding of the process you just engaged in? Explain.

Lab 2: Defining a problem and identifying the need for change

Look at the section of Why Design? marked Step 1 (pages 114-115) and Design Detective (pages 14-17). Read through them and go through the steps listed in Identifying the Need for Change and the Design Detective. (You may want to start with the Design Detective). In class, working as a group you should work through an example following the Design Detective Worksheet, and suggestions contained on the Identifying the Need for Change.

Review the Design Detective worksheet. Can you think of any issues that have been omitted from this list that could be included? If so, what are they, and why do you think they are important?

Complete the design detective worksheet for a topic of interest to you. Ideally, this will be the topic you pursue in your final project. You should use more room that the worksheet allows to explain your answers. Once you have completed the design worksheet, think about gender, ethnicity and cultural differences, and how real people (including people with disabilities) might interact with this solution. When you consider gender, ethnicity, physical ability and environmental concerns, do you still feel the design is successful? Why or why not? Answer all of these questions, and hand in your completed design detective worksheet (with extended answers) as well as answers to the questions above. You should also include some of your own reflections about the process you have just engaged in as part of what you hand in.

Lab 3: Investigating needs

Refer to Step 2: Investigating the need of Why Design? (pages 116-119). Working with a problem you have identified or defined (either in last week’s lab during class time, or on your own since the last class), work through the need investigation checklist (on p. 119). First read the text on pages 116-119. The text discusses how to investigate how time, culture and the environment have influenced the design of technology. As you read the text the first time, ask yourself if there are any questions that should be added, that will help you consider the influences of time, culture and the environment on technology. As you read the text the second time, make a list of the questions, and answer them to the best of your ability. Discuss in your group whether there are any social solutions to the problem you have identified. Might a social solution be superior to a new design? Why or why not? After working through the exercise with the information you can generate in your group, use the lab computers to try to find information that will allow you and the others in your group to answer some of the questions that you weren’t able to answer off the top of your heads.

In your group discuss what (if any) life experiences you have had that relate to the problem you are discussing. For the questions you are not able to answer with information you have on-hand (or that you have some ideas about), you should indicate where you would look for the information or who you might contact. In other words, where you are unable to answer a question, you should ‘brainstorm’ about where you would look for the answer. Write down as much information as you can about specifically where you will look or who you will ask to complete your unanswered questions. (Instead of simply saying I will contact manufacturers, try to figure out what kinds of manufacturers you will contact).

Discuss what questions you think should be added to those contained in your handout.

Lab 4: Establishing performance criteria

Read page 120 of Why Design?. Working on your group’s technology, generate an exhaustive list of performance criteria for the technology you are discussing. Begin by first identifying as many categories of performance criteria as you are able to (e.g., economical, environmentally sound, sensitive to gender differences). After identifying broad categories, you should then identify specific performance criteria for each category.

Record your responses on a piece of paper. Then return to the section of Why Design? titled Establish Performance Criteria, and complete all three steps under the performance criteria checklist. You should explain why you have prioritized the performance criteria the way you have, and in addition you should indicate why you have chosen the performance criteria you have as the minimum acceptable for meeting the need you have identified.

Lab 5: Writing design briefs

Refer to Step 4 of Why Design? titled Write the Design Brief (pages 121-125 of Why Design?). After reading through the materials, discuss the design brief form. Are there any modifications you should make to it? If so, what are they and why should they be made? Working with your group’s technology, complete the design brief, including any modifications your group has made to the design brief form.

Do not limit your response to the amount of space provided on the design brief worksheet.

Lab 6: Working with Prototypes

In this lab, each group will be given materials to use to produce a model of an artifact. You will be guided through the process of building a model using everyday materials. This lab will assist you in communicating your design ideas to others.

Lab 7: Expand your thinking

Refer to the section of Why Design? titled Generate Ideas (p. 126-129). After reading through the handout, generate as many ideas as you can about the problem you are focusing on for your final project, following the methods described in the text. Feel free to include any additional methods for generating ideas.

You should try to follow the methods for generating ideas identified in the text, and you should attempt to try all of them (with the exception of photographing or videotaping). Hand in everything this process generates.

Week 8: Edit and Develop Ideas

Read the lab handout pages 130-132. Working with ideas you generated during the week 7 lab, complete the steps summarized on the bottom of page 132, in the idea editing and developing checklist.

Spend a good bit of time on the first two steps of the checklist-editing a lot of ideas down to a few that are most likely to satisfy performance criteria, and research into existing solutions and problems. You should make sketches, diagrams or models of the ideas you have generated in the first part of the assignment that seem most likely to meet performance criteria.

Week 9: Testing Ideas

Read pages 133-134 of your lab handouts. To do this lab, you should follow the steps listed on the idea testing checklist on page 134. In soliciting feedback about your design, you should ask the people giving you feedback on your design ALL of the questions listed on the right hand side of page 133, under critique questions. In addition, you should add any questions you feel are important that will improve the feedback you get, that are not on the list.

In your lab, you should plan who you will ask for feedback, and also identify any additional questions that you will add to the critique question list. Try to write down what you did to obtain feedback, the questions you added to the critique questions list along with a brief explanation of why you added them, and well labeled responses to all of the critique questions you asked. Summarize what you learned from engaging in this exercise.

Week 10: Communications Proposed Solutions

Read pages 135-138 of your lab handout. In this lab you will be preparing the presentation you are required to do during the last lab of the semester. After reading through the lab materials, complete all of the steps on the presentation checklist. Be sure to address or answer the sub-questions under each heading, rather than just responding to the overall topics contained on the presentation checklist.

Week 11: Evaluate your process

Read page 139 of your lab handout. Answer all of the questions contained and provide a brief explanation of what you would do differently if you went through this process again. This will help you prepare for this section of your final paper.

Week 12: Implementation

In this lab, you will be identifying any and all possible constraints to implementing your design. You should brainstorm to generate ideas about what might constrain the implementation of your design. Try to generate a thorough and exhaustive list of possible constraints to implementation, along with suggestions about how to overcome the constraints you have identified.

CMNS 386 (Communication and Social Issues in Design):

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