module specification

In this digital media project module, students will work under supervision and independently to develop creative ideas into a practice- based project that relates concretely to research proposed. This is a final year project module, where students design and develop a digital media creative brief around a topic of interest. The idea is that whatever you design and develop in this module will be linked to the research question you are trying to find out.   The sessions will also include exercises to help you develop your skills in key areas of academic study, prototyping and human computer interaction, user experience design methodologies and methods. Students will demonstrate technological competences, organising project work around a self- defined brief. Key skills include how to manage time and resources effectively by drawing on planning, organisational, and project management skills learnt in Year 2.

Students produce work, which demonstrates an understanding of media forms and structures, audiences and specific communication approaches and contextualised within relevant theoretical issues and debates. Students are encouraged to experiment, as appropriate, with forms, conventions, techniques and practices and employ design and production skills and practices to challenge existing forms and conventions and to innovate. Also, be adaptable, creative and self-reflexive in producing output for a variety of audiences.
This module aims to:

● Support and develop skills and knowledge in design, research towards and production of a digital project
● Support and develop skills in the critical evaluation of own and others’ projects in digital media
● Support problem-based learning and employability skills in relation to digital media applications
● Support students applications of models and theories of communication
● To apply these models to visual and computer‐mediated communication
● To develop student’s skills in written, oral and visual communications in digital media

Developing practice based project work using creative ideas, concepts and research methodologies:
● Developing project briefs and production plans
● Developing portfolio work for wider audiences (employers, public, press etc.)
● Consideration of usability and accessibility
● Independent development of practice- based skills with technical support and guest lectures

Indicative Syllabus
● Theories of human-computer interaction
● Project cycles and planning
● Design methods
● User research methods
● Scoping
● User-centred design methods
● Design stakeholder and audience requirements
● Personas and scenarios in design
● Proto-typing techniques
● Iterative design
● Interface design
● Design evaluation methods
● Usability and accessibility
● Media platforms and distribution
● Multimedia content creation and asset management
● Narrative and online story-telling
● Participatory practice
● Content management systems

Learning Outcomes LO1 - LO3

The balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity is slightly different in this module to allow for project supervision process.
Weeks 1 - 12 Workshops
Weeks 13 - 30 Supervisor Contact
WORKSHOP sessions: are student-led sessions which enable you to actively engage with the learning programme. You should prepare in advance for these sessions and be willing to participate and be open to discussion. Discussing research topics and sharing ideas with other students is an essential part of the learning process. The sessions will also include exercises to help you develop your skills in key areas of academic study, prototyping and user experience design methodologies and methods.

In this module, students will work under supervision and independently to develop creative ideas into a practice- based project (50% of the mark) that relates concretely to research proposed. Students develop a proposal, which they set for themselves. The idea is that whatever you design and develop in this module will be linked to the research question you are trying to find out. Students will demonstrate technological competences, organising project work around a self- defined brief. Key skills include how to manage time and resources effectively by drawing on planning, organisational, and project management skills learnt in previous levels. Students produce work, which demonstrates an understanding of emergent technologies, digital media forms and structures, audiences and specific communication technologies, contextualised within relevant theoretical issues and debates. Students are encouraged to experiment with these forms, conventions, techniques and practices, employing production skills and practices to challenge existing forms and conventions and to innovate.

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:
● Propose and research a digital media project, demonstrating an understanding of new and emergent media forms and their relation both to their social context and to earlier forms. (LO1)
● Understand the nature, constraints, opportunities and parameters of the media platforms and technologies you are planning to work with to create your digital artefact. (LO2)
● Be able to evaluate different technologies, tools, formats, and creative or technical approaches with regard to their advantages, disadvantages and implications. (LO3)

Coursework 1: Research Proposal:  2500 words
Coursework 2: Individual Presentation of project
Coursework 3: A Digital Media Artefact

Reading List
https://londonmet.rl.talis.com/modules/sm6P07.html

Core
Bell, J. & Waters, S. (2018) Doing your research project: a guide for first-time researchers. 7th edition. London: Open University Press, McGraw-Hill Education.
Collins, H. (2018a) Creative research: the theory and practice of research for the creative industries. 2nd edition. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Additional Reading
Barr, C. & LinkedIn (Firm). (2016) ‘3D Content Creation for Virtual Reality.’ [Redmond, Washington]: LinkedIn Learning.
Benyon, D. (2014) Designing interactive systems: a comprehensive guide to HCI, UX and interaction design. 3rd ed. Harlow, England: Pearson.
Biggs, M. & Karlsson, H. (2010) The Routledge companion to research in the arts. London: Routledge.
Buxton, W. (2007) Sketching user experience: getting the design right and the right design. San Francisco, Calif: Morgan Kaufmann.
Cooper, A., Reimann, R., Cronin, D. & Noessel, C. (2014) About face: the essentials of interaction design. Fourth edition. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Dourish, P. (2001) Where the action is: the foundations of embodied interaction. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Farman, J. (ed.) (2014) The mobile story: narrative practices with locative technologies. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Garrett, J. J. (2011) The elements of user experience: user-centered design for the Web and beyond. 2nd edition. Berkeley, Calif: New Riders.
Gilbert, S. F. (2001) 90 days to launch: Internet projects on time and on budget. New York, N.Y.: J. Wiley & Sons.
Kaptelinin, V. & Nardi, B. A. (2006) Acting with technology: activity theory and interaction design. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Krug, S. (2014) Don’t make me think, revisited: a common sense approach to Web usability. [3rd edition]. [Berkeley, California]: New Riders.
Laurel, B. (2003) Design research: methods and perspectives. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Miller, M. (2015) The internet of things: how smart TVs, smart cars, smart homes, and smart cities are changing the world. Indianapolis, Indiana: Que.
Moggridge, B. (2007) Designing interactions. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Noble, I. & Bestley, R. (2018) Visual research: an introduction to research methods in graphic design. 3rd edition. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts.
Norman, D. A. (2013) The design of everyday things. Revised and expanded edition. New York: Basic Books.
Ryan, M. L. (2015) Narrative as virtual reality: revisiting immersion and interactivity in literature and electronic media, 2. 2nd edition. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Saffer, D. (2010) Designing for interaction: creating innovative applications and devices. 2nd ed. Berkeley, Calif: New Riders.
Sharp, H., Rogers, Y. & Preece, J. (2019) Interaction design: beyond human-computer interaction. 5th ed. Indianapolis: Wiley.
Sherman, W. R. & Craig, A. B. (2018) Understanding virtual reality: interface, application, and design. Second edition. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann an imprint of Elsevier
Shneiderman, B., Plaisant, C., Cohen, M., Jacobs, S. M. & Elmqvist, N. (2018) Designing the user interface: strategies for effective human-computer interaction. Sixth edition. Harlow, Essex: Pearson.
Snyder, C. (2003) Paper prototyping: the fast and easy way to design and refine user interfaces. Amsterdam: Morgan Kaufmann.
Suchman, L. A. (2007) Human-machine reconfigurations: plans and situated actions. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at: http://catalogue.londonmet.ac.uk/record=b1685315~S1.
White, T. (2006) Animation from pencils to pixels: classical techniques for the digital animator. Amsterdam: Focal Press.
Villamil-Casanova, J. and Molina, L. (1997) Multimedia: production, planning, and delivery. Indianapolis, IN: Que E&T.
Wells, P. and Moore, S. (2016) The fundamentals of animation. 2nd edition. London: Fairchild Books.
Unger, R. and Chandler, C. (2009) A project guide to UX design: for User Experience Designers in the Field or in the Making. Berkeley, Calif: New Riders.