Office: TSRB 316A
Office Hours: By appointment.
Email: ledantec@gatech.edu
Class Meetings: Monday/Wednesday, 9:30AM–10:45AM
Location: TSRB 323
Course Description
This project studio will explore civic media and the opportunities for designing interfaces for public data. The course will focus on building an interactive visualization and toolset for MARTA operations data. MARTA is looking to expand its use of operational data to improve efficiency and begin an important internal shift from a focus on assets to a focus on data. The goal of this semester’s project is to begin to understand the current data flow processes and practices for a subset of MARTA operations data, and then to design alternate flows, process, and interfaces to support data analysis and decision making for internal as well as external customers.
Students from any discipline are welcome to enroll.
Course Objectives
This project studio will further your exposure to design research and practice. We will conduct a wide ranging review of literature in design research, human-computer interaction, and science and technology studies. We will examine existing products and systems. This studio will provide a venue for exploring the cultural, social, and ethical implications of design and civic media through the lens of open data initiatives and how they intersect the realities of a public agency’s culture and operational constraints.
Grading
The total grade for the class will be based upon the following factors and weights:
Participation:20%
Writing Assignments: 30%
Design Project: 50%
Participation & Attendance
Studio attendance and participation is mandatory. Participation in discussion is imperative because it allows you to explore the readings and themes collaboratively, and in the process, discover meanings and issues that you probably would not discover on your own. Participation in class also challenges you to continuously question, refine, and articulate your own ideas and interpretations.
Missing more than 2 classes will result in a loss of 1 letter grade.
Readings & Texts
There are no required texts for this course, all readings will either be accessible via Canvas or online.
Writing Assignments
There are three written assignments each student needs to complete. Each should be between 1,500 and 2,000 words and engage in a meaningful way with the ideas presented in the readings and linking them to the project and how the research and design process unfolds. The essays are not to be simple summaries of the readings, but critical reflections to motivate and inform your design and your understanding of civic technologies.
You may choose when to turn in your writing assignments; though be warned, I will not remind you to do so.
Design Project
You will be developing an interactive prototype in this studio. The focus of the prototype is to develop ideas iteratively and critically with each other and with staff contacts at MARTA. There will be a series of milestones that will progress from proposing a design project and then iterating on the design toward a final artifact or system. You will document this process in a process book that will be turned in at the end of the semester. The process book will need to include details about each design iteration and short segments of text that connect the design explorations to the issues and topics discussed in class or surfaced through the readings.
The design project is a team project. We will sort into teams early in the semester
Final Presentations
The final class will be dedicated to final presentation where each group will present the work done during the semester, including the final version of your designed system. More details on the final presentation will be shared as the term gets underway.
Course Schedule
What follows is an outline for the course. As the course progresses, we may adjust dates and materials; however, unless specifically stated in class, you should assume this schedule is current and accurate.
| Week 1 | January 7 | Monday
First day of class, introduction to the project studio. Contact MARTA staff. Wednesday Bernard, Research Methods in Anthropology, Ch 9 and Ch 13 FutureEverything Smart Citizens pg 1–38 |
| Week 2 | January 14 |
Monday FutureEverything Smart Citizens pg 39-end Wednesday Examples of ten public data/public service systems. |
| Week 3 | January 21 |
Monday No class. MLK Day. Wednesday Schrock, Civic Tech intro-ch2 |
| Week 4 | January 28 |
Monday Schrock, Civic Tech ch 3 – end. Wednesday Studio – Initial data flow diagrams |
| Week 5 | February 4 |
Monday Clarke, R. Information Technology and Dataveillance. Commun. ACM. 31, 5 (1988), 498–512. Friedman, B., Kahn, P.H., Jr, Hagman, J., Severson, R.L. and Gill, B. The Watcher and the Watched: Social Judgments about Privacy in a Public Place. Human-Computer Interaction. 21, (2006), 235–272. Gilliom, J. Struggling with Surveillance: Reistance, Consciousness, and Identity. The New Politics of Surveillance and Visibility. R.V. Ericson and K.D. Haggerty, eds. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada, 2006, 111–129. Shklovski, I., Vertesi, J., Troshynski, E. and Dourish, P. The commodification of location: dynamics of power in location-based systems. In Ubicomp ’09: Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Ubiquitous computing. ACM, (2009), 11–20. Wednesday Studio |
| Week 6 | February 11 |
Monday Civic Media ch 8 + 9 Wednesday Studio – Data process flow revisions |
| Week 7 | February 18 |
Monday Critical Data Readings (TBD) Wednesday Studio |
| Week 8 | February 25 |
Monday Critical Data Readings (TBD) Wednesday Studio – Final Data Process diagrams/artifacts due. |
| Week 9 | March 5 |
Monday Studio – Begin design prototypes Wednesday Studio |
| Week 10 | March 12 |
Monday Studio – 10 prototypes due Wednesday Studio |
| Week 11 | March 18 |
Spring break, No class. |
| Week 12 | March 25 |
Monday Studio – Prototype revisions/Crit. Wednesday Studio |
| Week 13 | April 1 |
Monday Studio – Crit Wednesday Studio |
| Week 14 | April 8 |
Monday Studio – Crit Wednesday Studio |
| Week 15 | April 15 |
Monday Studio – Crit Wednesday Studio |
| Week 16 | April 22 |
Final presentations. |