Learning Tools & Activities

In addition to their core project, participants in this course will engage with a series of texts, discuss them together, and share reflections on the course blog about the progress of their projects in the context of the history and theory of co-design. Process and final project material will also be remixed for a civic media co-design toolkit.

Learning Activities Include

  • Work with community partner on a weekly basis
  • Document and share the co-design process
  • Engage with class texts and discussions
  • Take shared notes via Etherpad
  • Transform shared notes into blog posts
  • Create a working agreement with project partners
  • Business / product planning using a business model canvas
  • Interview potential customers
  • Create paper prototypes
  • Create clickable mockups
  • Conduct peer review of each others' work
  • Present a detailed project plan early on
  • Complete multiple project iterations
  • Project presentation at the end of the term (public presentation by design teams, including community partners)
  • Final project case study

Projects & Partners

Projects must have a clearly defined community partner that is a worker-owned co-op and must be approved by Professor Costanza-Chock. Early in the semester, several potential project partners will pitch their work to students. Students will rank order their preference and the teaching team will make every effort to assemble teams that balance interest with diverse skills.

Tools