IXD414, 'Design Systems', Spring 2026
T/R / 12:30-03:10pm / Chalmers 307
Matt Kirkland / mattk@ku.edu

IXD414 - Designing with Systems

This is a studio course about designing digital products for the screen, with an emphasis on designing with systems in mind. This syllabus will be updated with more information throughout the semester. I'll let you know in class about updates.

Questions? mattk@ku.edu.

Texts

If you're going be good designers, you also need to be good readers and writers - because that's how design happens in the real world. You'll always need to explain what problems your designs are trying to solve, and why your solution works.

That's especially true in digital teams where many other people will be responsible for approving and implementing your designs.

I'll assign some things to read or watch or listen to throughout the semester. They'll all be online.

I used to have people write responses, but obviously I can't trust that anyone reads or writes anymore so I think we'll do some kind of screens-down in-class discussion.

Your completion points for this will be: can you talk about it like a regular person in class? I want you to provide some indication that you actually read and thought about it. You could tell us:

  • NEW: something in the text that was new to you.
  • RIGHT: something in the text that you agreed with.
  • WRONG: something in the text that you disagreed with.
  • HUH: something you had a question about

You don't need to post anything on your site for this, unless you have to miss an in-class discussion. If you can't make it to class, you can make it up by writing a short reflection and posting it to your site. (And tell me so I know it's there.)


Texts

I'll list the texts as we go here.

Week Due Text
1 1/22/2026 When We Build, Wilson Miner