Interaction Design

After collecting a variety of information from internationals, locals and through research, we received a broad impression of the relationships between internationals and local students. Down below are the most important points that we've managed to gain over the last two weeks. Information gained from internationals: social gap exists between internationals and locals Swiss German often causes internationals to feel left out international programme at the ZHdK only brings internationals together  → the existing   buddy programme often doesn't help internationals to connect to locals internationals don't have many local friends internationals often feel lonely Information gained from locals: quality over quantity : friendships are built based on personalities and equal interest as a lot of time is already spent at the ZHdK, activities / networks should be outside the campus don't want to put a lot of effort into organising activities / networks l...

Research into Related Works Parallel to the interview two of us, Dominik and I, had the task to look into related works. We focused at first on other universities and colleges and their international programmes. Loneliness and International Students: An Australian Study This research paper served as our main source of information on our topic of international students in a foreign environment.  An Australian research team interviewed a total of 200 international students in 2007 and concluded that 65% suffered under loneliness during their exchange period. Their papers looked into the causes and possible solutions, which helped us solve many unanswered questions already. The research paper emphasised on the following: Networks are desirable but not a universal cure of loneliness Social networks are voluntary and therefore erratic Most internationals with problems turned to local friends instead of ones in their home country → this shows that having local friends...

Interviewing Locals After interviewing international students and hearing their opinion it was logical to turn to local Swiss students. We wanted to know how well connected they were to international students and whether they'd be interested in a network such as a club. Jan (Game Design) Carlo (Interaction Design) Jelena (Film Department) From our interview with the local students we realised that their main focus while making friends is the quality of the relationship. While international student want to make local friends, Swiss students focused more on the interest compatibility - nationality was to them of no concern. However, we observed that many Swiss locals did not have many international friends and weren't aware of the fact that internationals feel lonely during their stay in Switzerland. Once Jelena heard of Ju's situation she instantly offered her phone number and expressed interest in doing activities with her outside of Toni...

Rapid prototyping relies on spontaneity (for developing ideas within a very short time frame) and creativity with material usages (recyclability). This was a short exercise which we had to complete: within 25mins we had to come up with a concept and create a prototype with materials that were available to us. We decided to create some digital pin board that could advertise clubs and events within ZHdK. Using leftover styrofoam from the workshops we tried to build a small prototype that changed its paper display with a mechanical wheel. Unfortunately our prototype wasn't as successful as initial planned - we were later advised to not focus on mechanical aspects during a rapid prototyping as we had done.

A collection of notes of Lalya Gaye's presentation on  Quirky  Designs On Thursday morning Lalya presented to use different examples of successful and unsuccessful design projects that were critical or had a social change. Utopia through state-driven design: Folkhemmet (Swedish for "home for the people") → Embrace new technologies and architecture with the goal of creating a living space where everyone can enjoy a good life (→ paradise) Critical Design: Critical design embodies fears and possibilities. It does not always have a function, instead it illustrates a fear and causes people to express criticism. Dunne & Raby  Natalie Jeremjienko  Breathless Corset, Kristin O'Friel → embodying pollution Dissolving Memory, Sarah Wisniewska → representation of dementia with the goal to cause empathy EnduraSphere(TM), The Yes Men → imitate representatives of authorities and of companies to provoke public to critique such organisation and ask w...

A design method for designs that don't necessarily have to work (i.e prototypes) - instead, it demonstrates views of possible futures.  Diegetic prototyping fluctuates between what is possible and what is currently available . It serves as inspiration for new designs and ideas where the project's possibility of it actually working is less important. For diegetic prototyping all tools can be used, such as physical objects, literature, media, etc. It is in fact recommendable to use other types of concepts visualisations such as video, play or storyboards. In same cases, however, a functioning prototype is needed - these functioning prototypes can instead only focus on a small aspect of the full diegetic prototype.

Defamiliarisation is a design method that prompts the designer to estrange the known, the obvious and the familiar. It allows the reflection on our own design practices, the observation of life and our designs from a non-obvious point of view. This enables the findings of new possibilities, cancels out existing assumptions and causes the designer to avoid overlooking problems. Defamiliarisation supports the act of asking questions that are perceived as obvious and stupid at first . This is the challenging aspect of the methods, but will lead to prosperous results. Another aspect of this method is whether cultural representations, patterns and trends can be broken. Not always is the most obvious solution the best. It is important to note that defamiliarisation and design ethnography are linked together - Western solutions, for example, aren't always the right ones for other nations and cultures.

Design characteristics, process and principles Design is the activity of solving problems. We use design to have an impact on our everyday life. Most designs share the same characteristics such as: an incomplete description unclear possible steps unknown goal in advance trade-offs among interdependent elements need of different skills → relies on designers with a broad knowledge wide range and on-going impact on human activities Design often even follow the same process steps which roughly include: clarifying the problem identifying design moves envisioning the solution recognising trade-offs and dependencies integrating divers knowledge and skills anticipating impacts on human activity During design processes there are different types of principles that allow a more effective design. Most of these help in identifying solutions and designing with the user in mind . One form of design principles that focus on sustainability for environment and h...

International Students and their struggle with communication After taking a step back, we sat together to discuss what exactly interested us when it came to the term communication. This is where Ju's situation as an international student came to light: as she does not speak nor understand (Swiss) German she finds it difficult to reach out to others which often caused loneliness. She is aware of the fact that communication is the key to her situation and therefore wanted to look into the thematic. Her story instantly intrigued us others so we decided to focus on our next field research on international student within the ZHdK. Interviews For our second part of our field research we wanted to interview a handful of different international students and ask them about their communication experiences within the ZHdK. We managed to contact several students and organise four meetings for the Tuesday. We also interviewed Ju, as she had inspired us to go in this direction and had s...