Interaction design projects
This page intoduces lab and thesis projects by students on the Interaction Design programme at IUAV University of Venice.
LAB 1: SCREEN-BASED INTERACTION
In this eleven-week design lab which meets four afternoons a week, students take people's neeeds as their starting point. They identify people for whom mobile or internet services could be useful and imagine these peopl's needs, motivations, hopes and fears. In their first year students do a mobile phone project, designing for the small screen; in their second year they take a more complex project. During the lab they are introduced to concepts of computation through learning to programme in the programming language Processing and make a final prototype using Processing as well as using video to demonstrate the context of the projects's use.
Invisible Bridges 2007–08
The theme this year was ’social capital’—friendship, shared interests, and common civility between strangers. Focus was on Venice. Each team was asked to invent, design and prototype an ‘invisible bridge’: an interactive system to allow people to construct social and/or cooperative relationships. Projects range from a social network for agoraphobics to a service for homesick Neapolitans in Venice. See the projects site here>
Nomads@Work 2006–07
For this project students were asked to design and prototype a mobile service which would be useful for workers whose job takes them around the streets of Venice. They chose such people as boatmen, ambulance crews or the itinerant rose sellers.
Smart Biennale 2005–06
Each year in Venice a Biennale takes place: architecture alternating yearly with art. The brief for this project was to design a service to make the experience of visiting the Biennale richer and more enjoyable.
LAB 2: AMBIENT INTERACTION
In the physical computing design lab students, working in teams, are asked to design a physical installation to provide information. Students learn some basic electronics and experiment with 'hacking' exisitng electronic devices such as electronic toys or keyboards to make new ones. At the end of the Lab they make a working prototype of their design.
Time Machine 2007–08
Students were asked to make a site-specific installation in Venice responding to the theme of time. They interpreted this in a variety of ways, from a system to reflect light down a dark alley, changing with the path of the sun, to an installation that allowed people to become orchestra directors: their musicians were ripples and their instruments projected water lilies.
See the projects here>
Walls Have Ears 2006–07
Students were invited to design and prototype an interactive installation for a public space in Venice, to provide useful informaton in a playful and enjoyable way. Their solutions ranged from an installation in the Venice fish market to demonstrate the ecology of the lagoon to an installation that let you know how high up your trousers the water would reach on days when Venice would flood.
See the projects on the Lab work-in-progress site>
THESIS PROJECTS
At the end of their second year students start planning their thesis project which usually runs from October to April. The thesis is an individual project on a topic chosen by the student, accompanied by a report of the background to the project and the design process.
On this page
Project finder
Photo: Lab 2 physical computing project, ''Flyer Café', by Davide Cocchi and Luca De Rosso.