building the narrative cloud: reflection and distributed cognition in a design studio classroom

Building the Narrative Cloud

Omar Sosa Tzec・Jordan E. Beck・Martin A. SiegelSchool of Informatics and ComputingIndiana University

drs // cumulus 20132nd International Conference for Design Education Researchers

Oslo, 14-17 May 2013

Distributed Cognition in a Design Studio Classroom

Maya Lin

Source: http://www.naaapconvention.org/

Source: http://militaryblog.militaryavenue.com/

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

How do we use narratives as teaching tools in a design studio to cultivate design agency

in non-designers?

Question

hci design studio

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Observer

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Instructor

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ss

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s

ss

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s

s

ss

s

s

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Students collaborating

Methodology

Sketching and prototyping

Content-Dependent Concepts

Students sketching and prototypingImage by Sam Tian

Content-Dependent Concepts

AffinityDiagramming

Affinity diagram made by studentsImage by Sam Tian

Content-Dependent Concepts

UsabilityTesting

Students testing their prototypeImage by Sam Tian

Content-Independent Concepts

courage

Content-Independent Concepts

“You know, I couldn’t help but think that, she was so young and early in her career, inexperienced, really. A student still. And yet she still had

the courage to believe in her design. I wonder if I could do that.”

graduate student of hci/d studio

Content-Independent Concepts

Content-Independent Concepts

The Zen Dog by Edward Mocton - http://www.edwardmonkton.comSource: http://birchbeauty.blogspot.com/2011/01/zen-dog-made-me-do-it.html

Content-Independent Concepts

The Zen Dog by Edward Mocton - http://www.edwardmonkton.comSource: http://birchbeauty.blogspot.com/2011/01/zen-dog-made-me-do-it.html

perseverance

Content-Independent Concepts

International student of the HCI/d program at IUImage by Sam Tian

diversity

Content-Independent Concepts

International student of the HCI/d program at IUImage by Sam Tian

Content-Independent Concepts

Narratives act as catalysts for cultivating a sense of design agency

HCI/d students during the lecture stageImage by Sam Tian

instructor students

s s scontent-independent concept

studio

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reflection-in-narrative

Content-Independent Concepts

Content-Independent Concepts

reflection-on-narrative

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studio

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The Narrative Cloud

The Narrative Cloud

The Narrative Cloud

s si s

The Narrative Cloud

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The Narrative Cloud

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The Narrative Cloud

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The Narrative Cloud

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Narratives: typology

Narratives: typology

OralNarratives

Narratives: typology

OralNarratives

VideoNarratives

Narratives: typology

MusicalNarratives

OralNarratives

VideoNarratives

Narratives: components

•Characters

•Setting

•Actions

•Time Pins

•Objects

•Emotions

•Intentions

•Values

Summary

•Content-Dependent Concepts

•Content-Independent Concepts

•The Narrative Cloud

•Typology and Components for Narratives

We introduced an HCI/d pedagogical approach to be applied in a studio-based course.

This approach employs narratives as a means to convey content-independent concepts. These stories gather in a conceptual space we call the narrative cloud, and they serve to engage students into self-reflection.

The graduate students of the HCI/d studio in the Rite of PassageImage by Sam Maverick

Conclusions

This self- reflection motivates achievement of two student goals:

1.Consciousness

2.Empowerment

The graduate students of the HCI/d working at the studioImage by Sam Maverick

Conclusions

•Student acceptance

•Design principles

•Best fit (curriculum/instructor)

The graduate students of the HCI/d studio in the lecture sessionImage by Sam Maverick

Conclusions

•How to build a framework for practical use?

•When to consider the narrative cloud?

•What are the implications of use?

The graduate students of the HCI/d studio receiving a lecture of musicImage by Sam Maverick

Future Work

They strengthen and refine their sense of agency by composing their own life narratives. In the end, the students are the story.The graduate students of the HCI/d studio after their participation

in the student design contest of the CHI Conference 2013Image by Tony Pattin

Acknowledgements

This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant

Award no. 1115532. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire research team

or the NSF. Other project team members include Erik Stolterman, Nathan Bilancio,

Colin Gray, Minqi Luo, David Roedl, and Mengyao Zhao, all from Indiana University.

Questions?{omarsosa, joebeck, msiegel}@indiana.edu

http://www.soic.indiana.edu/

http://uxdesignpractice.com/