H79.2322 Lecture 4 Credits
Instructor(s): Udagawa
What does "designing experience" mean? It is an act of choreographing a series of events in the others’ mind. How is it different from, for example, making a movie? In the case of linear narrative media, such as music, film and novel, an experience is predetermined by the maker and “spoon-fed” to the audience (at least, in the mechanical level of perception). However, in the case of a functional object, such as a product, a prescribed event does not reveal itself until the user interacts with it. Therefore, the design must solicit the user for desired action, which triggers the product’s functionality/experience. Here, the user’s experience is an inseparable element of the functional system. The class will explore the nature of designing experience in three successive projects. Firstly, various ways of describing experience will be discussed. Secondly, the class will re-design an existing experience of a functional object, such as an ATM. Thirdly, the class will design a new experience as a vehicle of integrating the user and novel functionality. Students will be encouraged to explore new vocabulary of interactivity, to expand lexicon of interactive experience and to examine the societal role of designing experience.
