#ituniversity

This tumblr is part of the course Designing Interactive Artifacts (DIA) at the IT University of Copenhagen.

I’m Jakob and I’m doing my master of science in Digital Design and Commmunication at ITU in Denmark. DDK as the programme is called on campus, provides students with technical and sociological knowledge about the way digital communication affects our lives and an insight into the processes of digital solution development.

After the introductory lessons for DIA we were asked to start a digital portfolio containing reflections on the course, curricullum, progress, design argumentation, problems etc.. Here I will try  to share my experiences with interested readers, teaching assistants, fellow students and teachers. It will also serve as part of a written exam and as a basis for discussion at the final oral exam.

The specialisation (DIA) builds upon a foundational interaction design course. It was therefore relevant for us to discuss “Argumentation in Academic Design Education” based on our own experiences with interaction design from last year’s semester. Interaction design or IxD is where students can study an important and exciting field that encompasses elements of computer science and design. Fieldwork is relevant for doing interaction design, but is was clear that the intention with this course was not doing fieldwork and gathering data, but more about tinkering thoughtfully.

It  was also an important lesson that design in academics is about teaching students how to build up a shared design vocabulary in order to formulate valid claims when arguing for and through their design work based on empirical, theoretical and material grounds.

We were introduced to our TA’s and a series of very interesting projects that work within the field of interaction design and digital artifacts. It was interesting and eye opening. During the course we will  ben doing javascript and programming, and we will explore design opportunities with arduino and leds (RGB/white). I find this very exciting since I have long been wanting to get hands-on experience with microcontrollers. This means engaging with different qualities of interaction, new modalities and forms.

I’m looking forward to keeping this updated and sharing more about my work at ITU.