Just another way

The last five weeks just flew by and I'm already at the end of the first module. In "Digital Media" a German/English guest lecturer directly from the industry (Interaction Designer for Skype, London) came in and taught us tricks and principles of digital media design, personas and scenarios, wireframing, site mapping and prototyping and guided us through the process of creating a social networking site. In groups of four, we developed concepts for cross-generational social networks that are suitable not only for a younger audience but also for the generation 55+. This was a very interesting experience for me. Not only would I learn a lot more about digital media, I also got the opportunity to do that in a team with very different and interesting people. On the other hand this also meant that I had to get used to a completely different style of working. Getting up at 7.30 every morning and getting home at 7 or 8 at night is different from the Bristol way of working.



Just to recap: In Bristol things are more, well, let´s call it "relaxed". Lectures are typically timetabled for 10am but usually don't start until 10:30. They take the form of a standup talk, seemingly improvised, generalising a lot (e.g. phrases such as "it´s all about appropriateness" or "consider your audience") and showing plenty of more or less relevant examples of work. How these link to the brief is usually left open for interpretation by the 85 students in the class (of which about 50 tend to turn up). Sometimes students don't attend because they simply forgot about it or didn't know it was happening because they don't check their university e-mails and the tutors misspelt their illegible hotmail address. Briefings fall into the scope of these "lectures". A brief typically consists of one or two pages (sometimes as short as 64 words), they get reused every year in order to allow tutors to "tweak" them until they're perfect. Tasks are usually very open and therefor not clearly outlined. There are no strict rules to follow as such, although the briefs frequently state style guides such as "Helvetica, range left, 10pt, 3cm margin". Apparently though these "rules" are there to be "challenged" by the student (and they usually make very little sense). Students come in two days a week for lectures and usually one day for a workshop of some sorts. They can work on the computers in the computer labs, which are shared with the entire faculty. Because this is kind of inconvenient, they tend to work at home, presenting their work in weekly tutorials or a crit at the end of the module. For a crit, 85 students put their work on the table and walk around it. There is a possibility to briefly talk about some pieces, but it´s usually rather painful to stand around for so long, so they tend to keep rather quiet. Tutorials happen in groups of 15 with one tutor per group for about 3 hours; that´s about 12 minutes per student. If students require more time, they can sometimes sign up for a personal tutorial and get 3 minutes more and 1-on-1 time. In the first 3 semesters (1.5 years) students have to give two short 10-minute presentations. Preparations for each of these 10 minute presentations take up a project length of 3 weeks. The first presentation is about their home and their heart, the second one on an industry research topic. Group work usually takes place once per semester in groups of 2-4. Because of the large number of students, groups dont tend to mix a lot. Usually keeners team up with keeners, bums with bums. Sometimes, you can be unlucky and end up in a team that you're not compatible with. That´s why people make sure they team up with others that they know will do lots of work or avoid it respectively. At the end of the semester students bring in everything they made, collected in a portfolio and accompanied by a module file which contains all the bits and bobs they collected over the semester in relation to the projects. They leave the work on the table and are asked to leave promptly so that tutors can spend days and nights trying to find their way through these files and judge a student´s performance on the things they collected in this big lever arch. About a week later, students can come in and queue up for their feedback. Feedback is given in 15 minute 1-on-1 sessions and relates to the performance of the entire module. It is usually written on a feedback form in 3 to 4 sentences and is usually as concrete as 'you are working well, you need to challenge yourself on a daily basis' or 'your work nearly teeters on the edge of almost being too gimmicky'.

That was just to recap and sum up my experience in Bristol. I'm not implying that´s bad (well, I kinda am, since I'm not very happy with it) but it´s one way of running a course. Well, people already told me to f* off elsewhere if I don't like it there, and now I have the great chance of experiencing how a course is run in Switzerland and can feed back my experiences. Maybe someone finds it inspiring. It´s different indeed, how most people would expect. After the first 5 weeks, at the end of the first module and having finished the first project, here´s a comparison. Again, I'm not saying one is better than the other, everyone needs to see for themselves which one they would prefer.

In Zurich, things are far more structured and organised. Improvisation isn't typical for the Swiss. Lectures are timetabled for 9am and they start on time. If you want a coffee at 8.57, forget it—or the door will be closed. Well, sometimes things don't run as planned, there might be technical difficulties etc. so delays do happen. But it still means that the 20 students all turn up for 9am sharp. Lectures are well prepared, accompanied by slides and outlined in advance so students can prepare themselves for it. They cover topics such as "Interaction Design" or "Prototyping with Flash" and use lots of relevant examples at the appropriate point in the lecture. You won't hear "consider your audience" but "how to create and visualise personas and scenarios in the conceptual process in order to tailor your design to a specific target audience and why this is important" (perhaps not in a sentence like this but you get the idea). This means instead of simply stating the obvious ("it´s about appropriateness") there´s a larger emphasis on the how, why and when.

Briefings are not lectures (by definition). However they still start on time as outlined in the timetable which students get e-mailed and can subscribe to in iCal. Students actually check their university e-mail address because a lot of important information is communicated by this means. Additionally it´s made very easy for them to set up their e-mail client through step by step guidance. Nobody needs, wants or does use a web interface to check this address because it puts people off. This is possible because it´s mandatory for every student to bring their own computer. The one brief I got so far consisted of 9 pages. It explains the initial position and background, the actual task with points to consider, a detailed to-do list outlining the different stages of the project, a timetable outlining what happens each week and what needs to be presented and prepared, examples of story boards for interaction and a template for own storyboards and scenarios. This brief was tailored to this class and while the modules and the learning outcomes stay the same every year for the appropriate semester, the brief still changes so people can't simply go to a student in a higher semester and get an idea of what it needs to look like. This obviously requires more work and preparation from the lecturers and tutors and can't be done by copy & paste. But that´s what they get paid for after all. It´s their job and they do it well. Tasks are fairly specific with some similarities to a real industry brief. They offer guidance by dividing the work up into different stages. Yet the task is not set in stone and still negotiable. If through their research students decide to make changes to the suggested task, they're free to do so as long as they can justify it. In this particular example the brief asked specifically to create a cross-generational social network that helps families to connect with each other. Through our research we found a multitude of networks that already fit this task perfectly and therefor decided to create a different social network but maintaining the cross-generational aspect.

Students usually come in every day at 9am and stay until 6pm, sometimes until 11pm when the school shuts. Because every student has a desk space in the studio and turns up every day to work (voluntarily), it actually feels kind of like a real job. A real job, with long hours. They even have a lunch break from 12-1, voluntarily. Nobody tells them to, they just do it. And why not? That´s what they pay for. That´s what they fought for at the entrance test. That´s where they want to be. They bring their own computers, everyone owns a Mac laptop. WiFi with 50 Mbit (I measured it) is provided as well as an A3 b/w printer per room (accessible without problems from your laptop) and A3 colour printers on each floor. The studio has 20 desk spaces and the flair of an open plan office. Everybody has a desk, 2 walls, 4 lockable drawers, a pidgeon hole, plugs and a network cable. There´s an A3 scanner with power Mac and hooded screen, a coffee machine, sink and a microwave. Also two A2 lever guillotines and a large cabinet with different sorts of paper (good paper, not just 80gsm photocopier paper) for everybody to use. It makes sense to come in every day, for the equipment and the company.

In this 5 week project, we had to deliver 3 presentations. That´s proper presentations with slides, notes, talking in front of the class and lectures, everything. These presentations were delivered to a high standard even though they were a tool and not a means to an end. We were told that we don't do a project to give presentations, we give presentations to pitch our ideas to the class and to the lecturers. Because the presentations were positioned at 3 points of the project, the beginning, the middle and the end, it gave the tutors a good insight into our process and where we stand at every stage of the project. It also allowed us to focus and make important decisions. I had the feeling that the structure really "carried" us through the project. There was no way we could waste valuable time or go off on a tangent. The structure always brought us back on track because it forced us to focus. That way, presentations really make sense. More sense than talking about your home just for the sake of doing a presentation anyway. Every week we also had tutorials. Because we worked in groups of four, we got 45 – 60 minutes with all four lecturers. The team of lecturers consisted of two specialists for branding and corporate design, an interaction designer and a web designer (all with an industry background). That´s a ratio of 45 – 60 minutes per student and lecturer with the advantage of getting advice of four experts on our project. Added note of awesomeness: the lecturers were so prepared for our tutorials that they each had a printed sheet with our names and photos (the photos are from the student ID database) on which they collected notes throughout the project.

The grouping was interesting too. Because I didn't know anyone I was worried I would end up with "shit people" as we usually put it when it comes to group work. I was lucky and got into a group with three highly motivated people though this didn't actually require a lot of luck. I don't think it really matters what group I got into, they were all awesome. Every single one of them.

And finally, the hand-in procedure. After our final presentation we handed in a documentation which was designed to a given style guide (not "Helvetica, 10pt, margin 3cm" but a proper InDesign template with a given grid). This documentation describes our process through every stage of the project, explains our decisions and ideas and had to be printed in an edition of 5 (and all that within the scope of the project — 3 presentations, a documentation and a prototype of a new social networking platform in 5 weeks). The reason for the style guide is that the documentations of every group will be collated into a book and printed properly. That way, everyone gets a copy of everyone elses documentation bound into a book and the tutors don't need to look at useless collected examples of made up research and process. It´s like a professional pitch document and together with the notes on our process that the tutors made throughout the project, forms a good basis for assessment. No need for module files that annoy both students and tutors. The 45 minute feedback session with all four lecturers took place only hours after the final presentation. We were asked to comment on our experience, what we learnt and what we had problems with. Then we got our marks and some very valuable feedback specifically on our process, presentation, final outcome, concept and visual design.















And that´s just another way to run a course.