Irwin ChenTeaching / Interaction Design for News Apps Syllabus



Journalism + Design
Eugene Lang College
The New School

Interaction Design for News Apps Syllabus 



Instructor: Irwin Chen




COURSE DESCRIPTIONThis course will introduce students to key concepts and foundational principles of UX (user experience) and interaction design in the context of journalism. The 2016 Presidential election exposed the hidden power of interaction design in clickbait, the exploitation of design signals in fake news websites, and behavioral ad targeting. Now more than ever, a real understanding of UX and interaction design will be critical to the success of journalism in all its diverse forms (apps, interactives, visualizations and other news delivery mechanisms). The primary focus of this course will be understanding the behavior of news consumers and how these behaviors can be exploited or changed, building a vocabulary to analyze interactions and designing optimal and ethical interactions for digital news-related applications. Students should have some experience with Photoshop and Illustrator, basic knowledge of wireframing and prototyping, as well as an interest in news and current events. Students must have taken (or, with permission of the instructor, be currently taking) News, Narrative & Design I or Design for Journalists I. This class is strongly recommended for all Journalism + Design majors.


The final project will be to redesign an existing news delivery mechanism (or create and prototype a new one) that takes into account research and analysis of news consumption from the 2016 Presidential Election. The final prototype should be as high-resolution as possible and should be able to be demoed without the intervention of the creator.





COURSE OBJECTIVES By the end of this course, you should be able to

  1. Describe the fundamental principles of interaction design and user experience (UX) and how they work, particularly in relation to news applications.
  2. Operate and design with attuned awareness of a range of interaction strategies
  3. Be able to express ideas quickly and get feedback with prototypes generated using pen and paper as well as digital tools such as Keynote, Sketch, Figma, or HTML/CSS/JS.



GRADESOver the course of the semester, you will work on one project: developing a news-delivery application applying concepts learned in this class. To qualify for a B, you must create at least two iterations -- an initial prototype, and a final working prototype. The more prototypes you make, the higher your final grade will be. Additional prototypes you show will automatically add a half a letter grade (B -> B+) and the excellence of your work will augment your grade from there. You will need to show how you have incorporated learnings from previous iterations and feedback from a diverse set of users.  


Attendance10%
Participation10%
First Proposal and Prototype30%
Final Prototype40%
Additional PrototypesUp to 10%




REQUIRED MATERIALS
  • At least two decks of index cards
  • Journal
  • Pens/Sharpies
  • Smartphone with a camera
  • Laptop (recommended)


SOFTWARE
  • Keynote
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Experience Design
  • (Framer.js)
  • (Figma)

ACCOUNTS YOU WILL NEED TO HAVE
  • Slack
  • Twitter
  • Google Drive

SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKS
    Inventing the Medium: Principles of Interaction Design As A Cultural Practice
    By Janet H. Murray


CLASS STRUCTURE
    Each class will be divided into four types of sections:

    ReviewDiscussion and critique of assigned work and/or reading from the previous class.
    TopicIn which I will introduce a new topic, show slides, and we will have class discussion.
    ExerciseOccasionally we will do short exercises in class to “get your hands dirty” with a topic. 
    SkillsTime set aside for learning technical skills needed for your projects — software, coding, etc.

Class Schedule


 1.1Introduction/Overview of the course 1.2Intentions and Goals 2.1Affordances 2.2Affordances II 3.1Spatial Design Strategies I 3.2Attention 4.1Flow 4.2Feedback 5.1States and Modes 5.2Navigation 6.1Spatial Design Strategies II 6.2Reading 7.1Text as Interface 7.2Microinteractions 8.1Microinteractions II 8.2Midterm Review of First Prototype 9.1Data 9.2Data II 10.1Lists, Tables, Objects, and Beyond 10.2Algorithms 11.1Conversational Interfaces 11.2Immersiveness 12.1Workshops 12.2Workshops 13.1Workshops 13.2Workshops 14.1Workshops 14.2Workshops 15.1Workshops 15.2Final App Prototype Review