HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN & ENGAGED MEDIA

INFO 6940/ENGL 4705/INFO 4940/COML 4231
Wed & Fri RCK 102 12:20 – 2:15 and ZOOM for Partner Meetings
Prof. Jon McKenzie • jvm62@cornell.edu • Office: W 2:40-4:00

ZOOM LINK    GOOGLE FOLDER    PROJECT SITE LINK

This StudioLab course connects critical design teams with researchers, activists, and community stakeholders. Practicing methods of research translation, design thinking, and participatory action research, students collaborate on projects through Cornell Cooperative Extension and community organizations in the US and Africa:

• Digital Equity+Excellence: Across the country, COVID has exposed the lack of access and equity to basic digital services: can a youth media campaign help democratize data and cyberinfrastructure in schools and communities and connect to wider social issues?

• Health Access Connect: A small successful non-profit in Uganda, HAC has for years worked with remote Ugandans to access low-cost government healthcare services: how to share their knowledge and experience on such work across Africa? 

• Singular XQ: An exciting start-up nonprofit is exploring a software development framework that addresses sustainability more adequately. How to design multimedia artifacts to illustrate the research and the framework itself? 

• Us Undivided: Across the nation, political polarization divides people and communities: how to articulate values we share as humans that bring us together – rather than the things that drive us apart? 

Consulting on partners’ ongoing projects, teams study and practice critical design drawing IDEO’s Design Thinking  and Stanford’s Design for Extreme Affordability, as well as tactical media and organizational developed by ACT-UP, Black Lives Matter, Guerrilla Girls, and contemporary, multi-platform campaigns. Teams present and share their collaborations via project site and other platforms.

Part of a multi-year Civic Storytelling project to translate StudioLab into practices, policies, and infrastructures of different disciplines and institutions in order help democratize digitality, the class and workshops are supported by the Society for the Humanities’ Mellon Rural Humanities Initiative, Einhorn Center, and a Kaplan Family Distinguished Faculty Fellowship, with support from the Department of English and the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. 

Design thinking, transmedia knowledge, and artist activism overlap and all focus on engaging multiple stakeholders. Our partners’ interests include issues of social justice, rights of the incarcerated and dispossessed, economic development, and public health and well-being. 

This course serves Cornell’s long-standing mission of public engagement, as embodied in Cornell Cooperative Extension, Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research, Engaged Cornell, and the Mellon Rural Humanities Initiative. In particular, it seeks to translate research found in Transmedia Knowledge for Liberal Arts and Community Engagement: A StudioLab Manifesto  (Palgrave, 2019).

Course Process and Projects

Over the semester, Cornell students develop design, media, and community engagement skills through seminar, lab, studio, and field activities: conceptualizing projects, learning technical skills, creating media, and consulting with school students and educators. 

Critical design teams will work with their partners, using design thinking to share their knowledge of transmedia forms, to learn from them about project-based learning, and to reflect together to generate insights and recommendations regarding the viability and scaleability of civic storytelling. 

Teams complete three projects, focusing on the theory and practice of design thinking, transmedia knowledge, and strategic storytelling while reporting on their work with partners. Over the semester, students create reports, info comics, Pecha Kuchas, and a portfolio project site.  

Traditional and emerging scholarly media genres often seek to inform, enlighten, convince, persuade, and sometimes entertain and move readers. We will learn critical and creative skills for sharing research, consulting on community projects, and creating impact with different audiences, including specialists, community members, and the general public.

Evaluation

Each of the three projects is worth 20% of the class grade; participation (including attendance, discussion, and exercises) is also worth 40%. Two absences may result in final grade reduction; three in failure. 

Learning outcomes

Conceptual analysis and synthesis Argumentation and narrative Individual and collaborative problem-solving Divergent and convergent thinking

Hands-on knowledge of transmedia genres Hands-on knowledge of DT, UX, and CAT frames Hands-on experience working with community Portfolio of engaged media and design

Academic Integrity: Each student in this course is expected to abide by the Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student’s own work. 

Inclusivity: The English department is committed to providing an atmosphere for learning that respects diversity. While working together to build this community we ask all members to:

Share their unique experiences, values and beliefs Be open to the views of others Honor the uniqueness of their colleagues

Appreciate the opportunity to learn from each other Keep confidential discussions of a personal (or professional) nature Discuss ways we can create an inclusive environment

Accommodations for students with disabilities: In compliance with the Cornell University policy and equal access laws, I am available to discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for student with disabilities. Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester, except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made. Students are encouraged to register with Student Disability Services to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations. 

Schedule

Week 1	8/23  Introduction   We start with the Design Challenge: DT(TK->YPP), and then introduce ourselves and together begin exploring our partners and their projects.  Watch before class: Brown, “Designers—Think Big!” McKenzie, “DesignLab and Democratizing Digitality”	8/25  DT in Theory and Practice Study partner sites: mission, projects We move between theory and practice, while also transmediating between them. Begin by learning the 5-phases and 3-layer models of the d.school’s DT process. Then reframe DT in terms of Critical Design Thinking, Pluriversal Design, and Decolonizing Design, which all point to limits and biases: you want to be able to address and respond as a designer. Read IDEO, Process Guide IDEO, Human Centered Design (Hear, Create, Deliver) Loewe, “Towards a Critical Design Thinking” Noel, “Envisioning a Pluriversal Design Education” Tunstall, “Decolonizing Design Innovation”
Week 2	8/30  UX Design, Play, and TOYWAR   We learn design as the sharing of worlds with a bias toward thought-action or mindful practice that draws on tutors from design thinking and art activism.  Dominant design paradigms exist alongside alternative design worlds, and knowing when, why, and how to draw upon each are key skills to both know and practice.   Study partner sites: mission, projects Read McKenzie, Sociopoetics of Interface Design: etoy, etoys, TOYWAR Norman, Psychology of Everyday Things, 1-33 Design Exercise: Make a toy	9/1 DT exercise  Empathy and Listening In addition to readings, this d.school design exercise hones interview and listening skills that teams will use in the first phase of the course.  Read Brown, Change by Design, 1-62 IDEO, Human Centered Design, Intro p 4-18 Hear p 21-68 IDEO,  Process Guide: focus on empathize and define Download Backpack exercise sheet   Proj 1 assignment
Week 3	9/6 Co-design with partners Teams should prepare for initial fieldwork by researching partner’s own sites/social media, relevant outside perspectives, and most importantly, previous StudioLab work with them.	9/8  Transmedia Knowledge and Strategic Storytelling  To integrate TK into your partner’s project, teams must gain conceptual and practical skills for creating transmedia knowledge. We are translating research into practice, in the tradition of Urie Bronfenbrenner. Study these materials to get a sense of the “why,” “what,” and “how” of transmedia knowledge and strategic storytelling via sparklines.  Read McKenzie, Transmedia Knowledge, Ch 2 Becoming Maker View Wagstaff, The {Silence} Project: Some Adventures in Remediation, graphic essay, video essay Tsoa, “Crippled Confrontations,” Pecha Kucha DTMC Make Media!, various resources Partner-related Media
Week 4	9/13  Draft due Prep by continuing research into DT, TK, and YPP via partner-provided materials, research into their media ecology, best practices, relevant models, and past StudioLab work with them. Her Whole Truth F20 Presentation Health Access Connect team S21 Presentation Black Farmer Fund team S21 Presentation	9/15 Project 1 due Shared Media for Thinking the Unthinkable Outline and develop your draft report and presentation using past reports as models: for now, prioritize CONCEPTUAL more than AESTHETIC and TECHNICAL. Study Edelman and Victor for insights into how different media (and media combinations) enable different types of thinking. Try to work these and the WhyWhatHow sparkline into your Proj 1 deliverables. S21 Project Site F20 Project Site Assign Proj 2
Week 5	9/20 Co-design with partners From Hear to Create We begin Project 2, the Create phase, by using Project 1 to re/define the design challenge, ideate possibilities, and prototype across media. Teams will meet with partners to ensure alignment of design challenge and scope of deliverables.   Read IDEO, Human Centered Design,Create 81-111 IDEO, Process Guide: focus on empathize and define McKenzie: Transmedia Knowledge, Ch 3: Becoming Builder	9/22 Platform- and channel-switching Making transmedia means building collaborative platforms for shared experiences. These sociotechnical platforms include our class, our partner’s infrastructure, and potentially those of stakeholders. Can we help partner align players to key platforms and media forms and learn to switch between them to storytell? Watch and explore:  Victor, online interface for “Media for Thinking the Unthinkable” Dynamicland, “a humane dynamic medium” learning environment UX Resources Scenarios Journey Maps Mood Boards
Week 6	9/27 Scenarios and journey maps UX workshop Wurman, Information Architects 15-19  Bradford, Information Architects 62-74 Appelbaum, Information Architects 150-161 Slide deck	9/29 Building UX across Platforms Making transmedia means building collaborative platforms for shared experiences. These sociotechnical platforms include our class, our partner’s infrastructure, and potentially those of stakeholders. WordPress resources in support of CampusPress blogs: CUBlogs login Appearance and Themes(link is external) Posts and Pages(link is external) Plugins and Tools, including Custom CSS, JetPack, and Google Analytics(link is external) (Not all plugins on are available in the Cornell Blog Service.) Comment Options(link is external) Embed Media(link is external) Files and Images(link is external) Settings and Privacy(link is external) Widgets and Sidebars(link is external)   Linkedin Learning videos
Week 7	10/4 Co-design with partners Translate design challenge into WhyWhatHow sparklines of partner. Pluralize sparklines for different stakeholder experiences of/with partner and their media. For 3-4 key stakeholders, Design UX (xD, iA, iD) of calls to adventure and action attuned to TK forms and platforms. Scenarios, journey maps, and mood boards prototype xD, iA, and iD.  WhyWhatHow quests of strategic stories channel pathos/logos/ethos of transmedia knowledge and  images/words/actions of media cascades, while pluriversal choreographies and satisficial rituals (eg, performance assessments) transform thought-action figures across three ecologies of self, society, and world.	10/6  Workshop  – Info design Tufte, Envisioning Information (selection) McCandeless, The Visual Miscellaneum (selection)  W. E. B. Du Bois’ Hand-Drawn Infographics of African-American Life (1900) McCloud, Making Comics 8-57 Madden, 99 Ways to Tell a Story Sample storyboard 1 Sample storyboard 2 CDC Zombie Pandemic materials.
Week 8	10/11 NO CLASSES	10/13 WordPress blogs.cornell.edu
Week 9	10/18 Meet partners Work on prototypes	10/20 Draft report, scenarios, maps due
Week 10	10/25 Open studio	10/27 Proj 2 Presentation/Report due Assign Project 3
Week 11	11/1 Meet partners	11/3 Classes cancelled
Week 12	11/8 Workshop Read IDEO, Human Centered Design, Deliver 113-151 IDEO, Process Guide: focus on prototype and test McKenzie, Transmedia Knowledge, Ch 4 Becoming Cosmographer Project sites S20      F20      S21	11/10 Workshop
Week 13	11/15 Meet partners	11/17 Workshop DRAFTS DUE Al-Marsad Golan presentation Black Farmer Fund presentation Health Access Connect presentation Survived & Punished presentation
Week 14	11/22 THANKSGIVING	11/24 THANKSGIVING
Week 15	11/29 Open studio	12/1 Presentation/Deliverables Due
Finals Week	Sun 12/10 Final sites due