MAS964 (H): SIMPLICITY DESIGN STUDIO
TR 10AM-1PM
E15-468H (Orange & Green Conference Room 4F)

We are working to establish an intellectual framework around the topic of SIMPLICITY by collaborating with some of the world's top graphic and product designers. The SIMPLICITY Design Studio will leverage professional design knowledge combined with topics in emerging technology to find ways whereby complex user interactions can become vastly simplified. An ongoing critique delivered by internal and external critics will be the basis of this course and culminating in an end-of-term exhibition of the final work.

Instructors:

Cynthia Breazeal, Chris Csikszentmihályi, Hiroshi Ishii, John Maeda

Design Fellows:

BluDot, Alexander Gelman, Bill Moggridge, Jessie Scanlon

Credits:

(Graduate) 12

Intellectual Goal:

To develop a method for making concrete the process of designing for simplicity across interaction, aesthetic, engineering, and cultural concerns.

Method:

Core methods tested, debugged, and invented together with exercises from Design Fellows and Instructors. Skills culminate in a final competition of small teams.

Grading:
40% Problem Sets + 40% Competition + 20% Class Participation

Readings:

Norman, D. A., The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution 1998, Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1998.
Dourish, Paul, Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction. Cambridge:MIT Press. 2001.
Reeves, Byron and Clifford Nass, The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places. Distributed for the Center for the Study of Language and Information. Chicago University Press, 1996.
John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, "Keeping it Simple". In T. Winograd (ed) Bringing Design to Software, ACM Press pp.130-150, 1996.
Norman, D., Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
De Certeau, M. and S. Rendall, The Practice of Everyday Life. Univ. California Press, 2002.
Dunne, A. and F. Raby, Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. Princeton: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.
Thau, C. and K. Vindum, Arne Jacobsen. Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press, 2001.
Petroski, H., Small Things Considered. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.
Calza, G., Tanaka Ikko. Milan, Electa, 2000.
Dondis, D., A Primer of Visual Literacy. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973.
Elam, K., Geometry of Design. New York: Princeton University Press, 2001.
McCullough, M., Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996.
Papanek, V., Design for the Real World. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1984.
Simon, H., The Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge; MIT Press, 1969.
Mumford, L., Technics and Civilization. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1934.

Schedule:

    February 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7 | Week 1 VISUAL SIMPLICITY sol
 8  9 10 11 12 13 14 | Week 2 TEXTUAL SIMPLICITY sol
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | Week 3 FUNCTIONAL SIMPLICITY
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | Week 4 GELMAN SIMPLICITY
29

     March 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
    1  2  3  4  5  6 | Week 5 BLUDOT SIMPLICITY
 7  8  9 10 11 12 13 | Week 6 AUDIO SIMPLICITY
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 | Week 6 PERSONAL SIMPLICITY
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 | Week 7 STRANGER SIMPLICITY
28 29 30 31

      April 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
             1  2  3 | Week 8 COMPETITION ANNOUNCED
 4  5  6  7  8  9 10 | Week 9 SIMPLE MEANS
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | Week 9
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | Week 10
25 26 27 28 29 30

       May 2004
 S  M Tu  W Th  F  S
                   1 | Week 11 DOCUMENTATION/REFINEMENT
 2  3  4  5  6  7  8 | Week 12 REVIEW/REFINEMENT
 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | Week 13 COMPETITION
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31