Name this location on the CMU campus. Photo by Molly Steenson.

Syllabus: Interaction and Service Design Concepts, 2017

Context and Perspectives for Design in Flux

Seminar One (51–701), Fall 2017
Carnegie Mellon School of Design

Prof. Molly Wright Steenson, PhD
TA: Manya Krishnaswamy

Interaction design is in flux.

The decisions that designers make have a major impact how people interact with these technologies in the world. The contexts that we designers address are more complex than ever, as intelligent technologies bleed into the world around us. There’s a lot of money to be made by tech companies and unicorns alike. And at the same time, designers need to consider the impacts of technology and business decisions on everyday people in order to design in fair and ethical ways. It’s a tall order.

There is no single definition of interaction design.

There are many answers. They change depending on who is asking the question and what their agenda is.

What about you?

You come from all over the world. You have different backgrounds, experiences, and opinions. Our goal in this class is to provide a safe but critically engaged space for us to figure out the impact on design. I expect that we will not always agree, and that’s by design — no pun intended.


Course policies are on a separate page. They include information about grading, deadlines, and important policies.


Week 1, Introductions

M, 8/28: We will go over the course structure and activities, meet your fellow students (if you haven’t already), and get to know your professor.

Watch Bill Moggridge’s apocryphal story about the birth of interaction design, from the documentary Objectified. For as beautiful and thoughtful as the Grid’s exterior was, it was the interaction with its software that produced its soul.
  • Second mission: Based on your own experience and your own values, answer the following: what is interaction design? In a Medium post separate from your introduction, write a headline, write no more than 100 words (not one word over, excluding your headline), and include a sketch or diagram to help us know what you mean. This sketch does not need to be beautiful and can, in fact, be quick, dirty, and ugly. You may do it on a whiteboard, or on paper, or with some of the make tools you’ll find in the Grad Studio kitchen‚ photograph it, and then incorporate it in your Medium post. Print out your post, write your name (if it’s not apparent), and bring it with you to class on Wednesday, 8/30.
    Throughout the semester, we will return to these statements to see how they—and you—change (or don’t). This will be the beginning of your sketchnoting for the semester. (Hat tip to Christina Wodtke for her approach to sketchnoting in teaching.)
Here’s an example of a sketchnote by Sacha Chua. It’s also a useful diagram for how to approach the readings this semester.

Week 2, Origin Myths

M, 9/4: NO CLASS, LABOR DAY

  • Muriel Cooper, “Computers and Design,” Design Quarterly (142), 1989, 1+4–31. [Box]
  • Please note that I have removed the Vannevar Bush piece from this week. We’ll read it later.

Week 3, What’s at Stake?

What’s at stake in a world increasingly governed by algorithms—and what is the role of design and designers? That’s what we’ll be talking about for the next several weeks.

  • Kate Crawford, “Artificial Intelligence’s White Guy Problem,” New York Times, June 25, 2016.
  • Two videos to watch:
    Eli Pariser’s TED Talk, “Beware Online Filter Bubbles,” 2011.
Kate Crawford & Meredith Whittaker lead the AI Now Research Initiative in New York that examines “the social and economic implications of artificial intelligence.”
From Monty Python’s Flying Circus, a skit about… an argument.

Week 4, Data Humanism

Readings (complete these for Monday, 9/18):

Giorgia Lupi, in her 2017 TED talk on data humanism
  • What argument is the author making? What evidence does s/he use? How effective is it?
  • How is the introduction and the conclusion?
  • How does the structure flow? Might it work better if it were rearranged differently?
  • What questions do they raise for you? How might they be improved? Is there enough evidence and examples to support it?
  • Where do you think you most need feedback?
  • If you could ask your fellow authors one question about your paper, what would it be?

Week 5, Architecting is (Not?) a Real Word

People have a lot of opinions about architecting being a verb.
  • Richard Saul Wurman, excerpts.
  • Discussion on research sources. Jill Chisnell, the librarian for design, will join our class to talk about research sources.
  • Your final draft of your 750–word essay is due to Molly Friday, 10/6.
  • UPDATE: As you revise, please visit the page about reading and writing resources. I update it throughout the semester.

Week 6, What AI has to do with design, part 1

M, 10/2: No class meeting Monday; longer meeting on Wednesday.

  • Molly Wright Steenson. 2017. Architectural Intelligence: How Designers and Architects Created the Digital Landscape. Cambridge: MIT Press, forthcoming November 2017. (Required reading: pp. 165–190 and pp. 221–22; additional optional reading: pp. 191–220 and if you wish, the whole chapter 6).

Week 7, What AI has to do with design, part 2

M, 10/9:

  • Negroponte, Nicholas. The Architecture Machine: Toward a More Human Environment. The MIT Press, 1973.

Week 8, Catching Up and Futures

M, 10/16: Catch up. Finish the discussions and unit so far, review what we’ve discussed, hand back 750-word papers. Grading rubric is here on Box.

Week 9, Social Construction of Technology

M, 10/23: Readings

  • Janet Vertesi, “Seamful Spaces: Heterogeneous Infrastructures in Interaction,”Science, Technology and Human Values 39.2: 264–284.

Week 10, Value-Sensitive Design and Designing Ethically

M, 10/30, Readings:

  • Batya Friedman, Peter H. Kahn, Jr., and Alan Borning,” “Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems,” in: Human-Computer Interaction in Management Information Systems: Foundations, 2006. This piece is longer and more academic in tone. Focus on sections 1–3, then skip to p. 15, to “Practical Suggestions for Using Value Sensitive Design,” then go back to read the case studies that start on page 4. Friedman’s research in this area goes back some 25 years, and it’s more relevant than ever.
  • Phoebe Sengers, Kirsten Boehner, Shay David & Jofish Kaye, “Reflective Design,” Proceedings of the 4th Decennial Conference on Critical Computing: Between Sense and Sensibility (2005): 49–58.
  • Robinson Meyer, “Everything We Know About Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment,” June 28, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/everything-we-know-about-facebooks-secret-mood-manipulation-experiment/373648/ (online and not a difficult read) MDes students, take note: you’ll be learning more about IRB next semester as you put together your thesis proposals. This is one of the reasons why we do IRB.

Week 11, From Bias to Inclusive Design, led by Manya Krishnaswamy

M, 11/6: Readings (selected by Manya Krishnaswamy with special guest MacKenzie Cherban)

Microsoft Design: Inclusive (please watch in time for class)

Week 12, Design & Imaginaries (with Dan Lockton & Ahmed Ansari)

M, 11/13: Imaginaries, metaphors, mental imagery, and design
W, 11/15: Mini-workshop: Mental Landscapes, using landscapes toolkit developed by Delanie Ricketts and Dan Lockton.

Week 13, Peer Review of Paper Drafts/Thanksgiving

M, 11/20: Peer review session

Week 14, Speculative & Critical Design Practice ( with Deepa Butoliya)

M, 11/27: Readings

Week 15, Final Presentations and Conclusions

M, 12/4: Pecha Kucha presentation in class

Seminar One: Context and Perspectives for Design in Flux, CMU School of Design, 2017

By Master of Design & Master of Professional Studies Students at Carnegie Mellon

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Molly Wright Steenson

Written by

K&L Gates Associate Professor of Ethics & Computational Technologies @ CMU/School of Design. Author of Architectural Intelligence (MIT Press 2017).

Seminar One: Context and Perspectives for Design in Flux, CMU School of Design, 2017

By Master of Design & Master of Professional Studies Students at Carnegie Mellon

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