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.
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. For each 'text', you'll need to write a short response, and post it on your website. Your response can be short or long, but needs to include:
Writing these shouldn't take you much time. I'm not looking for a five paragraph essay, just give us a thoughtful response that covers those things at minimum. I do want you to use reasonably sound grammar and spelling, but feel free to let your writing show your personality.
We might work in class on this in the first few weeks, just to make sure you can get things posted on your site.
Once we've all got sites set up, we'll list them here for easy reference.
| Week | Due | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1/27/2025 | When We Build, Wilson Miner |
| 2 | 2/3/2025 | Welcome to design systems Lesson 1, Figma |
| 3 | 2/10/2025 | Just Enough Research, Erika Hall
AND Guide to Guerilla Testing |