Design Expo 2019

Wednesdays, 9:30-12 (2/20 - 4/10)
NYU ITP, Room 15

**The week of 3/11, we will meet on Monday (instead of Wednesday) in the Conference Room.

PROFESSOR

Mike Dory | michael.dory@nyu.edu
Office hours: Tuesday evenings (mostly) | Signup form Office hours: TBD

TEAMS

LIAISONS

  • Amy Scarfone
  • Telmen Dzjind

OVERVIEW

Design Expo is an eight-week design challenge — seven weeks during the semester, and one after. Students will work in groups to understand, and then respond to, a brief from Microsoft Research (MSR), and then present their work for feedback and iteration. Each week will also feature guest presenters from the practitioners from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Kickstarter, and more.

This year's theme is "Empathy at Scale," and allows for a wide variety of interpretations. Given the scale and range of the topic, it will be critical for students to focus in on a particular community, type of interface, and problem that has impact. Students will form their own small groups of 3-5 people (before applying), and each group will research the challenge, propose possible innovations or solutions, and then iterate those proposals. A successful proposal can be a demo ("We've imagined a new possibility, and this is what it would look like") or a prototype ("We've imagined a new possibility, and we built a small version of it.")

At the end of the workshop, one group will be selected by outside reviewers to travel to Redmond, WA in July/August to present their proposal at MSR's Faculty Research Summit along with other students from top institutions around the world.

This workshop will run from 9:30-12 for seven sessions, and will meet for one additional session in July/August, prior to the trip to Microsoft.

COMPENSATION

Design Expo is an extra-curricular workshop. As such, accepted groups will be awarded a small research stipend, pending a successful completion of the program. There are also travel funds for presenting the winning project in Redmond, Wa.

SPECIFICATIONS

Students will submit their proposals as a group by February 12th, and selected groups will be notified of their acceptance by February 15th.

ASSIGNMENTS

The majority of the assigments given for this workshop are group-oriented, and focus on the definition, evolution, and presentation of each team's concepts. As such, each group should come prepared to not only discuss the assignments each week, but to give updates on the progression of their projects.

PROGRAM OUTLINE

Week 1: 2/20 - Why are we here?

Speaker: John Schimmel, DIYAbility

  • The plan for this program
  • The topic
    • The details
    • The thought behind it
    • Relevant examples

Assignments

Week 2: 2/27 - What's your idea?

Speaker: Clive Thompson, Wired/New York Times

  • Present your concepts (5-10 minutes per group)
    • Group critique
    • Research suggestions
    • Discuss next steps
  • Where to go from here
    • Points of inspiration around the topic
    • Ways to vet/poke at the idea
    • How to work as a team
  • Start a project plan
    • Figure out what you'll do and make, and when
    • Determine when to do testing, prototyping, and presenting

Assignments

Week 3: 3/6 - What did you learn?

Speaker: Vikram Tank, Google

  • How's your project plan
    • What are you going to build
    • What are you going to present
    • Who will work on what
  • How'd your explorations go
    • How did your mission/vision evolve
    • How did your explorations (user stories, personas, etc.) work out
      • Do they vet the concepts
      • Do people seem to agree/disagree
  • How is your idea evolving
    • How does it work within the theme
    • What will you do/make next
      • As a reminder, the thing you "make" doesn't need to be a functioning prototype
      • Successful projects in the past have included mockups, videos, and other presentation tools, rather than live demos

Assignments

  • Prepare a 10-15 minute progress presentation for next week
    • What have you done so far?
    • What's your mission and vision?
    • How as your idea evolved?
    • What are you working on next?
  • Begin lo-fi prototyping
    • Develop simple ways to validate your concepts
  • Update your class log

Week 4: 3/11 (Monday!) - Research and Prototyping

  • Where are your concepts now
    • What's changed
    • What are you worrying about
    • What to refine
  • How'd your lo-fi prototyping/testing go
    • Did it vet the concepts
    • Do people seem to agree/disagree
  • How to do more robust prototypes
    • Group discussion
  • How to conclude your research
    • Vetting your concepts
    • Testing with users
    • Learning from your mistakes

Assignments

  • Prepare a 10-15 minute presentation for next week
    • What have you done so far
    • How has your idea evolved
    • What are you working on
  • Work on your prototypes
    • Mockups
    • Clickable visuals
      • InVision
      • Balsamiq
    • Video
  • Explain how it might work
    • What will it integrate with
    • What technologies will it make use of
  • Update your class log

--- Spring break: no class 3/20 ---

Week 5: 3/27 - How do you present it?

Speaker: Oscar Murillo, Microsoft

  • What it means to present well
    • Good presentation examples
    • How to communicate your ideas
  • Revisit the brief and the rules
    • What will you present
    • How will you be judged
    • What will you work on between now and then
  • Discuss evolution of concepts
    • Group presentations (10-15 each)
    • Group discussion

Assignments

  • Prepare a full presentation for next week
    • Treating this more as a "real" presentation, you should cover:
      • Who you are
      • What you're doing
      • Why you're doing it
      • What you're proposing
      • What you've done so far
      • What you plan to do next
    • Practice this a few times, both on your own and in front of others. It will help, I promise.
    • Decide who will talk about which piece(s), and how you'll make this feel like a fluid presentation.
  • Watch at least two of the previous presentations for Design Expo
  • Update your class log

Bonus

Double-bonus

  • Record your own talk
    • Send it to me if you want — I'll happily give you feedback

Week 6: 4/3 - Bringing it to life

Guest Critics: TBC

  • Each group presents their work
  • Guests provide feedback and critique

Week 7: 4/10 - Presentations

Guest Critics: Microsoft, NYU ITP

  • Each group presents their work
  • Select our winners!

--- Break for thesis ---

Week 8: TBD - Dress rehearsal/workshop

  • Feedback and recommendations
  • Workshop

Trip to Redmond: 8/1 - 7/13

  • Final presentations at Microsoft!