In this course we will investigate the principles of interactive design through a historical and theoretical exploration of the

LCC 6313 — Principles of Interactive Design

Spring 2005 MW 10 – 12, Friday 11 – 1

Skiles 010 (Lecture), Skiles 346 (Lab)

Prof. Ian Bogost

(404) 894-1160

Skiles 363, office hours by appointment

OVERVIEW

In this course we will investigate the principles of interactive design through a historical and theoretical exploration of the separation of form and content. We will read theoretical and historical texts covering the last 5000 years of human production, from the first writing through Tim Berners-Lee's Semantic Web. Theoretical topics covered include the history of writing, printing and reproduction, the encyclopedia, typologies and taxonomies, and databases. Artifacts covered include the printed book, desktop software, websites, ambient devices, the semantic web, and others. Production topics covered include dynamic scripting (PHP), database design and development (including SQL), information design, needs assessment, writing design documents, and the Semantic Web (XML, RDF, Web Services, OWL, etc.). Understanding of principles of object-oriented software design is assumed. The course requirements include a combination of in-class presentations, individual project assignments, and individual written assignments.

DISCLAIMER

This, like all proper syllabi, is a work in process, a living document. Expect it to change over the course of the term, including additions, subtractions, changes, etc. Please refer to the online version of this syllabus regularly for updates:

http://www.lcc.gatech.edu/~bogost/courses/spring05/lcc6313/syllabus.pdf

TEXTS

Texts are available at Engineers Bookstore (or your favorite online bookstore). Additional texts will be distributed in class or electronically. Please note that “Recommended” texts should be considered highly recommended for anyone not already fluent in the technologies covered therein.

Required

ü Course Reader (available the week of 1/10 in the Engineers Bookstore only)

ü Grigoris Antoniou and Frank van Harmelen, A Semantic Web Primer

ü Jesse James Garrett, The Elements of User Experience

ü Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

ü Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving The World Wide Web

ü Edward Tufte, The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint (also check with the ISYE 4009 texts)

Recommended

Gilmore, Beginning Php5+Mysql

Harrington, Relational Database Design

Chappell, Visual Intro.To Sql

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Course requirements fall into four categories, Projects, Position Papers, and Participation.

Projects

Three projects are required, each in two parts. The first part is a Preliminary design description and presentation. The second part is a complete implementation, written final Design Document, and in-class Presentation.

Each project constitutes 20% of the final course grade, for a total of 60% of the final course grade.

Specific requirements for each project assignment will be provided at appropriately dramatic junctures moments during the course of the semester.

Position Papers

Two written reports are required, in the form of position papers. Your position paper should summarize and critique one or more of the course readings. Position papers should be no more than 2 typed pages in length.

Rather than specific due dates, students should write and turn in position papers continuously during the course, as the fancy to write one strikes you. All position papers will be uploaded to a course wiki for sharing with your peers; students should be prepared to discuss their position papers in occasional 5-minute in class presentations.

The position papers together constitute 20% of the final course grade.

Skill Portfolio

Complete a portfolio of exercises completed during the hours of this course. You can do the default exercises (to be determined by the lab TA) or you can make up your own program of study for mastering technical skills related to encyclopedic and procedural design.

The skill portfolio constitutes 10% of the final course grade.

Participation

Your attendance and participation in class discussions constitutes 10% of the final course grade.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Week	Date	M	W	F
1	Jan 10 – 14	Introduction	Design	Lab
		Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, chapters 1 – 4
2	Jan 17 – 21	MLK Day, no class	Writing	Lab
		Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, chapter 1 (distributed in-class) Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, chapters 5 – 7 Philip Meggs, A History of Graphic Design, Section 1 (reader)
3	Jan 24 – 28	Lab	Print & Reproduction	Digital Affordances Project 1 prelims
		Philip Meggs, A History of Graphic Design, Section 2 (reader) Janet Murray, Inventing the Medium, section 1 (electronic PDF)
4	Jan 31 – Feb 4	The Web	The Web	Lab
		Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the World Wide Web Scripting technologies, http://microsoft.toddverbeek.com/script.html Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, http://bid.berkeley.edu/bidclass/readings/benjamin.html Andrzej Wirth, “Beyond Benjamin: Performative Artwork and its Resistance to Reproduction,” (distributed in-class)
5	Feb 7 – 11	Design documentation	Design documentation	Project 1
		Jesse Garrett, The Elements of User Experience, chapters 1 – 2
6	Feb 14 – 18	Design documentation	Design documentation	Lab
		Garrett, chapters 3 – 5 Garrett, A visual vocabulary for describing information architecture and interaction design, http://www.jjg.net/ia/visvocab/
7	Feb 21 – 25	Design documentation	Design documentation	Lab
		Garrett, chapters 6 – 8
8	Feb 28 – Mar 4	Information	Data and Security	Lab Project 2 prelims
		Geoffrey Bowker, from Sorting Things Out (reader) Simson Garfinkel, from Database Nation (reader)
9	Mar 7 - 11	Lab	Lab	Encyclopedic Design
		Murray, chapter 7 (reader)

Week	Date	M	W	F
10	Mar 14 – 18	Database	TBD	Project 2
		E.F. Codd, “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks,” http://www.acm.org/classics/nov95/toc.html E.F. Codd, Codd’s Rules, http://itmanagement.webopedia.com/TERM/C/Codds_Rules.html Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, from The Physiology of Taste (distributed in-class) Steven Feuerstein, “I don’t like your examples!” http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/news/feuerstein_1000.html

	Mar 21 – 25	Spring Break, no class

11	Mar 28 – Apr 1	Database	Data	Lab
		Lev Manovich, “The Database as Symbolic Form,” from The Language of New Media (reader) Works from Database Imaginary, http://databaseimaginary.banff.org/workstabDes.php?t=2 Flickr, http://www.flickr.com
12	April 4 – 8	XML	XML	Lab
		Grigoris Antoniou and Frank van Harmelen, A Semantic Web Primer, chapters 1 – 2 Extensible Markup Language (XML), WC3, http://www.w3.org/XML/
13	April 11 – 15	Software	Software	Lab Project 3 prelims
		Edward Tufte, The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint Aaron Swarz, PowerPoint Remix, http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/000931 Tufte, “PowerPoint is Evil,” Wired 11.09, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html “Learning to Love PowerPoint,” Wired 11.09, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt1.html Peter Norvig, Gettysburg PowerPoint, http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/ (presentation, http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/making.html (making of), http://www.norvig.com/lancet.html (essay) Ian Parker, “Absolute Powerpoint,” The New Yorker May 28 2001, http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/group/powerpt.html Daniel Radosh, The PowerPoint Anthology of Literature, http://home.nyc.rr.com/dradosh/ppaol.html Friedrich Kittler, “There is no software” (reader) Friedrich Kittler, “Protected mode” (reader)
14	April 18 – 22	Semantic Web	Semantic Web	Lab
		Antoniou, A Semantic Web Primer, Chapters 3 – 8 Mining the Semantic Web, http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=6628_0_3_0_C
15	April 25 – 29	Final Projects	Final Projects	No Lab