ID/DJ project

The ID/DJ project is an opportunity to apply what you’re learning to a real design opportunity in an area of interest to you (e.g., architecture/built environment, technology, product design, educational experiences, etc.). In broad terms, the project should demonstrate that you understand an exclusion in your area of interest and its history/context, that you created a thoughtful project proposal in consultation with peers and instructors, that you worked with several ID/DJ practices, and that you can show how these practices connect to the design exclusion you identified and to broader course topics.

In short, you will do the following:

  • A Proposal: Submit a project proposal where you identify an exclusionary design;
  • ID/DJ Practices: Put ID/DJ practices into action. For this part of the project, you’ll need to do the following:
    • complete fully and thoughtfully a Table of Collaboration for your design context,
    • implement 2 ID/DJ practices for your project/design, chosen from a list that we’ll provide,
    • identify an additional ID/DJ practice that you would implement in the future and describe in detail how you would implement it.
  • A Final Report: Turn in a final report that describes the practices that you implemented as well as the future practice, and a reflection.

This can be an individual project or a group project, it’s up to you. If you choose to do a group project, we will require each member of the group to document their contributions to the project, and complete a group self-assessment at the end of the project.

Here are more details about each deliverable.

Project Proposal – due Friday, January 14

The Project Proposal identifies the design challenge or exclusion that you want to address. It should be 2-4 pages (double spaced) and will need to reference historical and/or social contexts to justify your choice of that exclusion. See the Readings section of our website for some relevant literature that you may wish to draw on for your justification. The proposal should also include:

  • a clear articulation of the design challenge/exclusionary design issue your project will address;
  • history and/or social context of the exclusionary design and justification to support why you’re choosing this issue to address (what are the harms caused by this exclusionary design);
  • a reflection on the following questions (1) what about this project excites you?, (2) what challenges do you anticipate?, and (3) what resources/support do you think you might need for this project?

To help you consider what exclusionary design to address, we recommend that you view the example projects from last year’s class that we’ll share in our Teams space.

ID/DJ Practices – ongoing

For the ID/DJ Practices part of the project, you will put several ID/DJ practices into action to help to address the design challenge you identified in your Project Proposal. You’ll need to do the following:

  • complete fully and thoughtfully a Table of Collaboration for your design context,
  • implement 2 ID/DJ practices for your project/design, chosen from a list that we’ll provide,
  • identify an additional ID/DJ practice that you would implement in the future and describe in detail how you would implement it.

Possible ID/DJ Practices, Aligned with the Co-Design Process from Beyond Sticky Notes

Build the Conditions

  • Design a model of care for your co-design project (Beyond Sticky Notes, p. 90)
  • Identify potential barriers to participation in your co-design process and create a plan for how you would address them (Beyond Sticky Notes, pp. 105-107)

Immerse and align

Discover

Design

Test and Refine

Implement and Learn

Final Report – due February 2

Your final report should be 4-6 pages, double spaced, and organized into the following sections:

Description of the Practice Implemented and your Plan for Implementing the Future Practice

In this section, provide some details about which ID/DJ practice you implemented for your project, and how you implemented it. Here, you can also link to any artifacts that you created in the process of implementing your practice (scans of prototypes, user personas, results of usability testing, transparent process docs, etc.). In this section, you should also provide details about which ID/DJ practice you would choose to implement in your project in the future. Please provide a clear description of the practice, and of how you would go about implementing it in your project (what steps would take? who would need to be involved? what resources would you need, and how would you obtain them? etc.).

Reflection

This section should include your responses to the following questions:

  • what went well with implementing your chosen practice?
  • what challenges did you encounter with implementing your chosen practice, and how did you address them?
  • what would you do differently, if you had the opportunity to do it again?

Group Work Self-Evaluation

If you completed your final project as part of a group, we would like each member of the group to complete a group work self-evaluation as part of your final report. Note that means you will each need to turn in your own final project report, because the self-evaluation piece will be individual to each member of the group. Please include responses to the questions below:

  • Overall, how effectively did your group work together for your final project?
    • Poorly     Adequately         Well       Extremely Well
  • Out of your group members, how many participated actively during project work?
  • What were your specific contributions to the group project?
  • Give one example of something you learned from the group that you probably wouldn’t have learned working alone.
  • Give one example of something the other group members learned from you that they probably wouldn’t have learned working alone.
  • Suggest one change you or the group (not the instructor) could have made to improve your/its performance.

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