Core 2: Interaction Studio

PUCD 2125

Instructed by Tinley Melvin,

who you can reach at melvint@newschool.edu

When? 4:00-6:40pm, Tu/Th

Where? 2 W. 13th St, Room 1201

What is this course?

This course exposes students to thorough and elaborate interactive concepts and techniques for applications. It is an extensive investigation in the interface, the mechanism, the controls and the aims of interactive works. Students will learn how to design and develop complex interactive projects and understand how to undertake comprehensive research and direct their thinking process from brainstorming to the final outcome. They will be given the tools to conceive, plan and develop an interactive system and they will become aware of the importance of design’s role in contemporary media.

💡 Learning outcomes

By the end of the semester, students will be able to:

1. Use the vocabulary of interaction design to give and respond to critique productively.
2. Identify and understand the needs and context of the audience for an interactive experience.
3. Contextualize work within historic and current design precedents.
4. Begin to develop a perspective on the relationships among design, technology, and the internet.
5. Effectively deploy typography and compositional form to create interactive experiences that are compelling and dynamic.
6. Conceive design systems that respond to unpredictable and variable content, situations, and end-user devices
7. Understand how interaction design patterns facilitate orientation, user behaviours, usability, and consistency.
8. Understand the iterative making process of user research, prototyping, and refinement from low to high fidelity designs.
9. Translate design ideas and sketches into working prototypes and built experiences.
10. Document and archive screen-based work in a reflective manner.

🗺️ Course Overview

🌀 Unit 1: Structure & Style  (Weeks 1–4)

🧩 Unit 2: Ways of Arranging (Weeks 5–9)

🌐 Unit 3: Users and Platforms (Weeks 10–14)