Prototyping Tangible User Experiences

The course gives an introduction to how to create interactive products and user experiences with technology, microprocessors, sensors, and output units. The course has the following content:

• Basic concepts about software and hardware
• Open source and open content
• Development cycles of prototyping and evaluation
• Methods about how to put together hardware components such as microprocessors, sensors, and output units
• How to program interactive behavior
• Basic evaluation procedures grounded on both aesthetic appreciation and technical quality
• Basic programming in Arduino
• Descriptions about interactive user experiences

Knowledge:

The candidate

• Can make products interactive with hardware such as microprocessors, sensor, digital output units, and code
• Can make the next generation of tangible interactive user experiences

Skills:

The candidate

• Can program Arduino
• Can put together hardware such as microprocessors, sensors, and digital output units.
• Can retrieve data from sensors and digital output units
• Can make products interactive with microprocessors, sensors, digital output units, and code.
• Can use open source code and open access content

General qualifications:

The candidate

• Can collaborate on the production of good code
• Can make better interactive products using an iterative design process with prototyping and user testing

There will be a combination of lectures and project work. The students will have to complete individual assignments and a group-based project. The individual work is mandatory and consists of the implementation and presentation of an assignment given by the teacher. The group-based project is a relatively open assignment where the students shall apply a classic iterative design process with the following phases:

• User studies
• Idea and concept development
• Prototyping
• Usability testing
• Implementation