design lab steven dow scott klemmer student presentation

Information & Interaction Design: Students Present Ideas to Esteemed Panel

One theme of design classes at UCSD is to learn how to interact with the world, get feedback to shape design ideas, and learn what works.

On Friday, June 9th, 2017, approximately 120 students in Steven Dow’s class COGS122 Startup Studio and DSGN 100 Information Design, as well as Scott Klemmer’s COGS160 Advanced Interaction Design presented various ideas such as a company that performs oil changes in your driveway, an emporium where fans can sell and purchase fan-crafted goods, and what happens when we start to communicate with the cars next to us when we’re stuck in traffic.

For their final, students in the Startup Studio class presented Kickstarter campaigns and Design 100 students gave verbal pitches on their ideas to different jurors, such as UCSD Design Lab Director Don Norman; Hilary Nemchik, the Comm Director for Councilmember Barbara Bry, Sam Ladah, VP of Human Resources at IBM, Doug Powell, IBM Distinguished Designer, as well as other researchers, scientists, and professionals in the Design community.

Steven Dow said, “We decided to combine the two classes and invited external people because it makes it fun for the students. It provides an occasion for students to show their work to other people in the university and beyond.”

“For the startup class, we learn data driven design and how to use the Internet and web based advertising to understand if an idea has merit and how to potentially get funding for an idea. The other class is about information design and being able to work visually with text and images in order to communicate effectively. Students followed a human-centered design to explore problems around mobility within San Diego,” said Dow.

Students in all three classes learned how to reach people, how to get over their own shyness, talk to people, and how to get out of the classroom. They figured out what kind of resources they could pull to shape their design.

Dow said, “Each time we move students through these design courses, we’re giving them opportunities to build up their portfolio, showcase what design means in UC San Diego, and hopefully are starting to build bridges between the university and San Diego at large. When we bring a bunch of people and we get to see what they do, in both directions I think it’s positive. It’s building awareness for what we do.”

One theme of design classes at UCSD is to learn how to interact with the world, get feedback to shape design ideas, and learn what works.

Design-A-Thon: Mindshifts on Megafires

During fire season, it has become the norm to see front-page images of apocalyptic wildfires. A century of suppressing wildfires has created a dangerous accumulation of flammable vegetation on landscapes, contributing to megafires that risk human life and property and destroy ecosystems.

The Design-A-Thon brings together UC San Diego students from all disciplines and experience levels in a pitch-style competition to apply the Design Thinking process to proactive solutions to end destructive wildfires. All participants will be invited to present their submissions on April 20 after the Design@Large panel on Climate Risk Reduction and Technology.

Key dates and events:
-April 7 @ 4 PM - Design Challenge unveiled at kickoff
-April 15 - Registration & design-thinking workshop, lightning talks, and mentor sessions
-April 16 @ 11:59 PM - Submissions due
-April 20 @ 5 PM - Project showcase at Design@Large

Community-Based, Human-Centered Design

Don Norman, Design Lab Director & Eli Spencer, Design Lab Faculty

We propose a radical change in design from experts designing for people to people designing for themselves. In the traditional approach, experts study, design, and implement solutions for the people of the world. Instead, we propose that we leverage the creativity within the communities of the world to solve their own problems: This is community-driven design, taking full advantage of the fact that it is the people in communities who best understand their problems and the impediments and affordances that impede and support change. Experts become facilitators, by mentoring and providing tools, toolkits, workshops, and support.

The principles of human-centered design have proven to be effective and productive. However, its approach is generally used in situations where professionals determine the needs of the target populations and then develop products and procedures to address the needs. This is Top-Down design: starting with higher-level conceptualizations and then refining the ideas and concepts to specific instances of products or services. This works well for mass produced items which only allows limited specialization for individual needs and requirements.

Don Norman speaks on The Future of Design at the New School of Architecture

A crowd gathers as Don Norman prepares to speak on the Future of Design at the…

Giving Day Begins Now. Support the Design Lab Today

Through the integration of education, research and community development, The Design Lab is committed to advancing the best practices needed to solve the world's complex problems through the lens of human-centered design. One way we do this is through our thriving Design@Large speaker series. Via conversations with distinguished academic, industry, and community design leaders, Design@Large showcases the ever-evolving, interdisciplinary nature of design as applied in real world contexts. Today we are asking for your specific help to continue to build and grow this popular series which is open to all.