This page contains an archive of the past five years of Directed Research Groups led by Professor Atman. View her currently offered DRGs »
- Teaching Teamwork Through Game Design
- Dear Design
- Design Awareness App: Research and Testing
- Dear Design
- “Dear Design”: Developing design awareness by representing everyday design processes
- Dear Design:" Capturing, representing and interpreting everyday design processes
Winter 2024
Teaching Teamwork Through Game Design
Our teaching team is running a Winter 2024 DRG to make a teaching tool for teamwork concepts through game design. This is a DRG for students specifically interested in teaching tools, education, and game design.
This DRG will develop a kit to help future students in Organizational Teamwork (HCDE 322) as early as this Spring 2024 quarter.
Winter 2022
Dear Design: Defining Your Ideal Design Signature
Human Centered Design and Engineering Interdisciplinary Seminar/DRG
- Grace Barar, Post-bac Research Assistant, HCDE
- Yuliana Flores, Graduate Student, HCDE
- Cindy Atman, Professor, HCDE
The Basics:
Seeking 12 to 14 interested students (juniors & seniors) from a cross section of majors
Description:
Every time you engage in a design activity, formally or informally, you create a tracing of your design process activities that you could call a “design signature”. Design signatures vary across different types of design projects, with different goals, constraints, and deliverables. Your “ideal design signature” represents a tracing of the design process you aspire to in your design projects. It can also serve as a personal reminder that can guide you to become a better designer. In this Directed Research Group (DRG)/Seminar we will explore broad aspects of the design process and you will have the opportunity to discover your own personal ideal design signature.
Design is everywhere -- it can be the five minutes you spend planning your bus route before leaving your house, it’s cooking, it’s drawing and writing, in addition to more traditional product and graphic design. Inspired by the book “Dear Data”, we will investigate everyday design processes through visual representations. We will explore research on design process expertise and the concept of design awareness. These explorations will enable you to develop your “ideal design signature” that can be used as a roadmap for future design experiences.
Specifically, you will:
- Capture your design processes in everyday design activities
- Respond to a set of weekly prompts to create visual representations of your design processes in the form of a postcard
- Synthesize and reflect across visual representations through group discussions and personal reflections.
- Give feedback for a website we are developing comprised of the Dear Design postcards and seminar materials
Expectations:
Students will be expected to attend a virtual 2 hour meeting each week during the Winter quarter. It is expected that each student will spend between 3 to 4 hours of time outside of the meetings working and reflecting on seminar materials and assignments.
Logistics:
This is a 2-credit (Credit/No Credit) research group offered to undergraduate and masters students of any major. For HCDE students this is a 2-credit DRG offering. Group meetings will be held on zoom. Enrollment is limited to twelve/fourteen students. This DRG is no longer accepting applications.
Winter 2021
Design Awareness App: Research and Testing
Led by:
- Grace Barar, Senior, HCDE
- Rylie Sweem, Senior, HCDE
- Jordan Yoon-Buck, Senior, HCDE
- Shiva Rithwick Anem, Post-bac Research Assistant, HCDE
- Khadijah Jordan, Post-bac Research Assistant, HCDE
- Nicole Washington, Post-bac Research Assistant, HCDE
- Advised by Cindy Atman, Professor, HCDE
The basics:
Seeking up to 8 to 10 interested students
Open to BS and MS HCDE students
Expectations:
This group will meet for 2 hours each week during the quarter. It is expected that each student will also spend between 3 to 4 hours of time outside of the class meeting.
DRG Description:
Design awareness can be seen as a state of being in which a designer is attentive to and reflective about their current design behavior. It embodies the practice of being cognizant of the steps one is taking in a design process to enable the designer to make more informed decisions about next steps. Design awareness can help you overcome common design roadblocks like not knowing where to start, or when you have done enough research, what to do next, or even how to know when you are done.
We have developed an app to help people track and reflect on their own design process, with the goal that they become aware of their design process and ultimately become better designers. We are looking for students who are interested in learning more about their own design processes in addition to helping us test our app. After learning about Design Awareness, students will have the opportunity to work with the designers and developers to suggest improvements to the Design Awareness App and begin to gain insight into their own process.
Specifically, in the quarter, students will:
- Participate in formal user testing
- Complete several passes of design activities with various ways to capture design process
- Engage in individual and group design activities
- Visually represent design processes
- Complete weekly reflections on design and recording experiences
- Understand and personalize their own ideal design process
Autumn 2020
Dear Design
Led by:
- Cindy Atman, Professor, HCDE
- Kathryn Shroyer, Graduate Student, HCDE
- Khadijah Jordan, Post-bac Research Assistant, HCDE
The basics:
- Seeking up to 12 interested students
- Open to BS and MS HCDE students
There are many research results from the design research community about effective practices of expert designers that could be useful for design practitioners to know about. In this DRG, we will explore the potential of learning about a set of design research findings through the concept of design awareness. Students will be developing design awareness through the doing, documenting, representing, and reflecting on everyday design activities.
Specifically, in the quarter, students will:
- Capture their own design process in an “everyday design task” (e.g., baking, making a portfolio)
- Respond to a set of weekly prompts to create representations of their design process
- Synthesize across the representations in group discussions
- Reflect on what they are learning with respect to their understanding of design processes
Inspired by the book “Dear Data,” the responses to the weekly design prompts will be via a physical postcard that will also be uploaded to a google slide deck. Each week students will discuss the representations created the previous week, as well as the task for the following week. We will have several cycles of data collection and representation through the quarter. In addition to the representations, throughout the quarter students will write brief reflections at the end of each weekly session and will write a final reflection at the end of the quarter.
Expectations: This group will meet for 2 hours each week during the quarter. It is expected that each student will spend between 3 to 4 hours of time outside of the class meeting.
Logistics: This is a 2-credit research group offered to HCDE students in the BS or MS program. [Note: Masters students could enroll for 1 or 2 credits.] Enrollment is limited to twelve students. Meetings will be held on Tuesdays in the afternoon. A final meeting time will be decided once students have been enrolled.
Spring 2020
“Dear Design”: Developing design awareness by representing everyday design processes
Cindy Atman, Professor, HCDE
Kathryn Shroyer, Graduate Student, HCDE
The basics:
Seeking up to 12 interested students
Open to BS and MS HCDE student
Description:
There are many research results from the design research community about effective practices of expert designers that could be useful for design practitioners to know about. In this DRG, we will explore the potential of learning about a set of design research findings through the concept of design awareness. Students will be developing design awareness through the doing, documenting, representing and reflecting on everyday design activities.
Specifically, in the quarter, students will:
Capture their own design process in a “everyday design tasks” (e.g., baking, making a portfolio)
Respond to a set of weekly prompts to create representations of their design process
Synthesize across the representations in group discussions
Reflect on what they are learning with respect to their understanding of design processes
Inspired by the book “Dear Data,” the responses to the weekly design prompts will be via a physical postcard, that will also be uploaded to a google slide deck. Each week students will discuss the representations created the previous week, as well as the task for the following week. We will have several cycles of data collection and representation through the quarter. In addition to the representations, throughout the quarter students will write brief reflections at the end of each weekly session and will write a final reflection at the end of the quarter.
Expectations: This group will meet for 2 hours each week during the quarter. It is expected that each student will spend between 3 to 4 hours of time outside of the class meeting.
Logistics: This is a 2-credit research group offered to HCDE students in the BS or MS program. [Note: Masters students could enroll for 1 or 2 credits.] Enrollment is limited to twelve students.
Winter 2020
Dear Design:" Capturing, representing and interpreting everyday design processes
Cindy Atman, Professor, HCDE
Kathryn Shroyer, Graduate Student, HCDE
The basics:
Seeking six interested students for this exploratory DRG
Open to BS and MS HCDE students
Date & Time: Winter Quarter
Number of credits: 2 credits
Application process: Apply via email by Nov. 26 – see below for details
Description: There are many research results from the design research community about effective practices of expert designers that could be useful for design practitioners to know about. In this DRG, we will explore the potential of learning about a set of design research findings through the lens of the doing, documenting and representing everyday design.
Specifically, in the quarter, students will:
Capture their own design process in a typical “everyday design task” (e.g., baking)
Respond to a set of weekly prompts to create representations of their design process
Synthesize across the representations in group discussions
Reflect on what they are learning with respect to their understanding of design processes
Inspired by the book “Dear Data” (dear-data.com), the responses to the weekly design prompts will be via a physical postcard, that will also be uploaded to a google slide deck. Each week students will discuss the representations created the previous week, as well as the task for the following week. We anticipate that we will have two to three cycles of data collection and representation through the quarter. In addition to the representations, throughout the quarter students will write brief reflections at the end of each weekly session and will write a final reflection at the end of the quarter.
Expectations: This group will meet for 2 hours each week during the quarter. It is expected that each student will spend between 3 to 4 hours of time outside of the class meeting.