Instructors: Nathan Shedroff & Linda Yaven
This course is both an investigation into the dimensions of experience, with a particular focus on the senses, and a chance for our students to begin a year-long final project. Design processes and techniques will be studied in readings as well as put into practice in projects throughout the course. Students will be required to present articulate design concepts verbally as well as visually at a professional level in an open class critique format. A final presentation will be made representing a high level of professional finish, including but not limited to drawings, marketing materials, sketch models, and finished models.
All interactions with products, services, and events are experiences. These experiences occur, whether or not they are designed, and often do not have the effects their creators might intend. What are the mechanical and aesthetic components of products and services and what do they mean for value? How can organizations consciously create successful experiences for their customers and other stakeholders? What innovation processes work appropriately for what kinds of organizations?
The semester project will challenge the students to identify an interesting customer/user/audience group, investigate their needs as well as the senses and meanings embedded in their experience, and develop an innovative product, service, event, environment, or policy solution that both meets these needs and expresses and triggers meaning throughout the dimensions of experience. Several students will, likely, use this solution as the basis for exploring the offering in next semester's studio, the Venture Studio, where they will build a business model and realistic financial scenario around the offering.
Required readings for the semester include a reader with selected articles as well as the following books:
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A Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman
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The Secret of Scent, by Luca Turin
Optional tools include:
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Experience Design 1 Cards by Nathan Shedroff
