System Design

Format: Lecture.

Assignment: Choose an IO system in your Fab Lab/home/environment that could work better - making coffee, lighting, fan etc. Sketch the system (context diagram/relationship diagram/journey map etc) and show how the user benefits from the change. Mock it up with whiteboard/paper/other tools and test it on people. Evaluate the effectiveness of the change and identify any problems.

Learning Outcomes:

• Utilise analogue tools to develop a system
• Identify the value of iterative testing/spiral development
• Analyse your system

Note: System Design is part of design thinking but it's more about the electronics, UX and UI, with software and hardware. It's some of the 'why to make almost anything'. You imagine some interaction and design a system that lets you achieve that. Identify a problem, plan to solve it, prototype and test your solution, analyse the results and propose new solution/s or next iteration

Who are your 'customers' and what do they experience now? map their story. make a couple of personas from these stories what are your objectives? what is the minimum intervention that will make a difference? fail fast, fail forward...

Move to things like little bits afterwards. Francisco has said that the engineering students are super-good at electronics. It would be good to know what subjects these students are studying.