Prototyping Interaction
- FREE
- English
- Art studies
- with certificate upgrade option
What is the course about?
Prototyping is a skill every designer should master because it's the most effective, fast and often cheapest way to make your ideas tangible and tested. In this course, you'll learn to think through and make your design a better experience for your users by sketching, experimenting, creating and testing.
In this six week course, you will be working on a prototype for a concept you’ll develop in the first weeks involving a mobile device. You will explore different types of prototyping, from paper prototypes to a digital prototype and eventually even a physical prototype.
In a world where we have to deal with new technologies on a daily basis, the prototyping process will help you understand the user and the way he or she interacts with these new and existing technologies. Understanding and executing this process will make your design stronger and more valuable to the end user.
What will I learn?
By the end of the course, you know how to incorporate prototyping interaction in your design process. This will not only make your design process more effective, it will also help you gain new insights about the user and the way he or she interacts with your product or service.
What do I need to know?
No prior knowledge is required, but some practical experience in UX design, interaction design and design principles is recommended since the course is covering prototyping for user experience for mobile devices but also physical prototyping. For this you might need a physical prototyping tool (e.g. a Makey Makey, an Arduino or a Touchboard) prior to, or during the course, if you want fully participate in the course exercises.
Course Structure
1. Start it: defining the design challenge & generating an idea
In this chapter, we will explain what design challenge you will be working on for the next six weeks.
Topics: introduction to prototyping interaction, research, idea generation and experience prototyping
Workshop: storyboarding
2. Sketch it: visualizing & paper prototyping
Visualise your idea by sketching and paper prototyping.
Topics: sketching interfaces and paper prototyping
Workshop: paper prototyping
3. Fake it: digital prototyping & tools
Use digital prototyping tools to make your prototype interactive.
Topics: digital prototyping, tools, transitions & gestures, connectivity
Workshop: digital tools
4. Test it: testing with digital prototypes
Testing you digital prototype and iterate on your design.
Topics: user centred design, usability testing
Workshop: testing
5. Make it: physical prototyping
Make a physical object or a maquette, anything that will help you translate your idea from your screen to the physical world.
Topic: model making, rapid prototyping
Workshop: modeling
6. Activate it: making it interactive
Experimenting with your design and test it using your physical prototype.
Topics: Internet of things, hacking stuff, interactive toolkits
Workshop: interactive tools
Course instructors
Maaike van Cruchten
I'm a lecturer on prototyping and audio visual design at the University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. Besides that I work as a freelance filmmaker.
But in this context the most important is that I'm one of the makers of the MOOC Prototyping Interaction here at iversity! Making this MOOC is a big design challenge and great fun. We keep on changing our ideas of this MOOC, so you could consider the course being a prototype itself.
Frank Kloos
Frank has been interaction design professional for more than twenty years. He teaches at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences since 2007. Prototyping is Frank's passion, and he believes it should be core skill for any designer. Until recently, he was called an "autodidact" (in the prototyping spirit of learning by doing), but eventually got his degree in communication and multimedia design. This was also an experience in being the user (he knows what it means to be a student in 2015).
Micky van Zeijl
Hi, i am Micky, currently i am a lecturer of design ethics and design history at the University Of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. I have a academic background in Interaction Design and New Media & Digital Culture.
Besides being a lecturer i have done several projects as a freelancer of which the most recent one, Swartzshield, is a web project supporting people that stand up for freedom of information. The project will launch in June 2015.
As a lecturer, in this MOOC and as a freelancer my biggest passion is thinking up creative solutions and working on interesting projects mixing art and technology, connecting people of different disciplines.
