English 309, Spring 2020: Digital Design & Production

Bradley Dilger, Purdue University

This course provides an introduction to critical elements of design thinking which involve computing: user-centered design, type design, page design, and design through testing. You’ll get practical skills, theoretical knowledge, and diverse experiences to help you engage in design projects, broadly speaking, using both traditional and electronic tools. Our introduction will include a strong practitioner emphasis, from texts to projects. We’ll explore the connections of design and ethics, design and writing, and computing and design.

Course syllabus (PDF) (contains a math error to fix; sorry about that)
Detailed course schedule
Google Drive shared folder

Texts

Reading is an extremely important part of designers’ work, and it will be crucial for this class as well. Three books will be assigned, in addition to a large selection of articles:

Kleon, A. (2012). Steal Like an Artist. New York: Workman. 978-0761169253. $10.
Krug, S. (2010). Rocket Surgery Made Easy. Berkeley: New Riders. 978-0321657299. $17.
Lupton, E. (2010). Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (2nd ed). New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 978-1568989693. $17.

Please purchase the textbooks immediately. If you buy your books online, use priority shipping. We begin reading the books in week two.

Assignments

Participation: Discuss readings, participate in group work, and complete other activities.
Reading responses: Short responses, written most weeks, that engage the readings and assignments.
Redesign portfolio: Redesign a small portfolio of found documents using hard copy and electronic tools. Annotate your designs to describe your thinking.
Semester project: Complete a theoretical project which examines issues in computing and design in relevant research, or an implementation project which engages them through problem-solving.

Please contact me if you have questions.