2021 Høst

“Digital Service Experiences” is an advanced Master course in interaction and service design. The course addresses current developments in the design of digital services, with an emphasis on experiential, creative and innovative qualities. The field of digital services is growing, and the design possibilities and challenges in this field are rapidly evolving. As designers we need to interpret and explore this changing landscape, and create our own methods and perspectives on how digital services can deliver valuable and meaningful experiences, empowering users and citizens, and through this expand the tools and mindsets for design as a discipline.

In this course students will develop projects across 3-5 themes and modules. Themes and modules will reflect current research and industry trends and will be updated each year. The modules will be run by different teachers, and involve a range of internal and external experts. The modules can be connected to research projects, external partners or emerging problematics within the field of interaction and service design. The themes will reflect current developments in the fields, and therefore change over the years. Current themes might include: new methods for digital service prototyping, cultural innovation, ‘servitisation’, ritual design and experience, novel techniques and creativity methods in digital design, exploration of technology in an interaction and service context, the ethics and politics of digital services, pop-up service piloting, as well as themes that reflects innovations in the digital service sector.

Students work individually or in small groups depending on the demands of the themes and modules. Each module will be followed by a supervisor and/or a partner. Partners and supervisors depend on the themes that the projects take up. Each module supervisor will be responsible for the students during the module. 

As this is a final year Master course the students are expected to be self-driven and mature within their own practice. Together the students are expected to integrate skills and knowledge across interaction and service design, working either individually, inparallel, or in teams.

The main teaching structure is mentoring on project level and an ongoing evaluation of progress. There is a common structure for milestones and core-deliverables throughout the modules (development of project descriptions and plans, documentation and deliverables, and main presentations). Co-learning is central across the modules and students will be involved in developing research, lectures and materials that will be shared with the whole group.

The course has two objectives. Firstly, it aims at informing students of the various tools and techniques involved with technologies that are currently becoming increasingly relevant for design, architecture and urbanism; such as mixed reality (AR, VR, etc), machine learning, 3D scanning, sensors, data and creative code. Secondly, it seeks to engage with these technologies and tools in a critical fashion, through open-ended exploration, play and error. The course aims to expose students to emerging technologies, tools and methodologies, and the content of the course will therefore be updated each year. Through these objectives, the course seeks to teach master students at AHO the various possibilities that lay in emerging technologies that are available for design-processes and which might guide their studio work. As such, the course has a theoretical and practical approach to technology. It involves a series of lectures, as well as individual case work among students.

Students will be expected to create case study related to an existing service, protocol or platform which may be improved/modified through their work.

The themes and exercises of the course will cover:

• Creative exploration of new or emerging technologies.
• Making use of technology in creative processes
• Interdisciplinary exploration of technology as materials and tools for creative processes.
• Hands-on exercises
• Larger in depth project for the final week with an individual project from each student or in a group.

The diploma at the Institute of Design is the final project in the Master programme. The Institute takes a broad approach to the design profession that includes products, services, systems and interactive experiences. The education brings together aesthetics and technology, creativity and design methods, culture and research. The programme has roots in Industrial Design, but today also includes Interaction Design, Service Design and Systems Oriented Design. This is reflected in the width of our students’ diplomas, and the broad range of themes that they address.

The diploma concludes our five-year Master in design and is done in the final semester. The diploma is a self-initiated and self-organised project that takes place over 18 weeks. The students develop and define their own project-descriptions (the diploma programme) in a pre-diploma’ course, in the semester leading up to the diploma. During the diploma project the students have a main supervisor at the Institute, but can also seek additional input and guidance form across AHO and externally. Diplomas are typically done as individual projects, but can also be done in groups.

The diplomas at the Institute of Design are characterised by variety and breadth. The diploma projects are typically initiated and developed by the students, and they are free to explore different themes and formats. These can be creative explorations, product development and theoretical projects, or collaborations with commercial companies, public services or researchprojects. Diplomas can also be discursive design projects that seek to raise questions or challenge societal or cultural issues. Often our diplomas are ‘hybrids’ that bring together different methods and actors, or span across our different design specialisations.

The purpose of the diploma is multi-layered. The students have to bring together what they have learned throughout their education to define and develop their own project. A challenge here is how the project is followed through, how it is developed and how it is executed as a design project. In the scope of the Master, the diploma is a relatively large project that demands that the student is self-driven, organised, structured and creative. At the same time, the diploma is a possibility for the student to explore his or her own identity as a designer, to research topics she or he finds interesting, or to challenge the students acquired skills and methods. The diplomas should therefore be understood holistically as projects where the students get to choose their own themes, approaches and processes, but where the challenge is also about organising and developing the project itself. Defining and developing the scope and plan for the project is done both in the project-description (diploma programme), as well as throughout the process.

It is important to note that in doing a holistic evaluation of the diplomas, the focus should be on the project itself rather than how closely it follows the initial description or diplomaprogramme.

Modulen består av et sammenhengende tema fordelt på to seminarer: I Seminar I kommer det en rekke eksterne bidragsytere for å snakke om nylig utførte eller pågående plan- og arkitekturprosjekter der vern har en sentral rolle. Fokus ligger på hvordan vern kan håndteres gjennom ulike arkitektoniske strategier, både på overordnet nivå gjennom planer og helt ned til detaljnivå i prosjektering. Dette temaet belyses gjennom ulike faglige perspektiv, fra arkitekter, eiendomsutviklere og kulturminneforvaltere. Det er også lagt inn en ekskursjon i Oslo der vi skal befare relevante eksempler.

Seminar II Intensiverer fokuset på arkitektonisk praksis i møte med vern, samt kulturminneforvaltningens møte med arkitektonisk praksis. Det vies særlig plass til vern i møte med bestemte sektorinteresser, som idrettsanlegg, sosial boligbygging og kulturarenaer.