In an effort to immerse our Graphic Design students in an exciting realm of innovation, a PilotProject is being proposed as a part of the Interaction Design course (GDES 3335), which majors take as juniors in their Spring semester. The Pilot Project will instruct students on app design and development, allowing them to design for touch interfaces within a touch interface. After exploring and analyzing the purposes of apps, students will form teams to conceive, design, test and prototype an app.
The majority of the project will be conducted in the App Cooker app on group iPads. Hot Apps Factory developed App Cooker to combine a number of tools for mocking up and testing apps prior to coding. Students will plan, wireframe, design and prototype within the easy to learn App Cooker interface. Project files can be exported through iTunes or email. Additional assets created with traditional desktop tools in Adobe Creative Suite can be imported through iPhoto or Dropbox. Teams of three will have access to an iPad during class in the lab and open lab hours in TH108.
There are two Interaction Design sections of approximately 15 students each during Spring 2012; the Pilot Project will take place the second half of the semester. Project goals include:
Integrating known design tools (desktops, Adobe CS5 Suite) with new tools (tablets, apps)
Exploring touch interaction possibilities
Creating a testable prototype of an app without the need for coding
Mimicking collaborative working environments
Since creating the Interaction Design course and adding it to the curricula in 2008, the goal has been to teach interaction design’s core principles within the context of the latest technology. As technology continues to advance, giving our students hands on experience will allow them to grow a healthy respect for technological change and its relationship to grounded design principles.
The goal of this pilot project is to test a very simple solution for connecting SEU students to their peers in the United States as well as to students in the countries they visit before, during, and after their travel. The project relies on portable computers that are very inexpensive and easy to manage as well as cellular devices that provide internet on the go and are usually more connected to networks even in remote locations. Through the devices proposed here, students can communicate with faculty and students back home in SEU even when they are gone for short or long trips out of the US, they can maintain continuity and productivity on their courses with less challenges, and most importantly, we can afford to provide the same technological devices to groups of students abroad who are then able to stay in touch with SEU students beyond the travel dates to grow and learn from each other. In particular, if this pilot project proves to be successful, adding the cost of acquiring these devices as part of the study abroad program fee would not be cost prohibitive.
To give SEU students traveling internationally mobility without relying on host country capabilities & infrastructure
To utilize cellular networks for internet-on-the-go so students are not restricted in their ability to communicate to certain times or locations.
To send SEU students to global locations where wifi & computer access is unpredictable thus increasing the value and breadth of their travel while also maintaining contact and safety.
To encourage SEU students to become involved and invested in social justice movements or projects in countries they visit and maintain collaboration, facilitation, or learning through ongoing audio visual communication.