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Syllabus / UNICEF-S09
UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund; http://unicef.org) is a UN Agency that takes on issues affecting the health, well-being, and opportunities of children and youth around the world. Increasingly, this includes creating and managing novel communications tools, from online forums for youth journalism to communications support for youth AIDS activists. Because many of the youth served live in places with poor connectivity (whether because of poverty, state controls, crisis, or displacement) UNICEF also creates and manages field-deployable communications hardware that improve basic access to communications, whether via SMS, internet, or FM radio. (A list of innovative UNICEF communications projects can be found at mepemepe.com.) Design for UNICEF starts with an embrace of the opportunities and constraints of serving a diverse, young, and global population. In particular, the goal of this class to create engaging and useful tools for participants, ages 15-30, in the Young African Summit, taking place this in Madagascar in June of this year. This conference will take place at the same time as the annual African Union meeting, and will center on four themes of importance to youth (both children and young adults.) Though the themes have not yet been announced, there are several obvious issues that are likely to be represented including Health, Food and Nutrition, Environment, and Education. Each of these themes will be represented by youth selected from one of seven African cities key to the African Union -- Accra, Addis Ababa, Antananarivo, Cairo, Dakar, Johannesburg, and Kampala. These representatives will discuss and present material related to these themes at the Summit, and will also be in communication with other African youth following the issues at the Summit from around the continent during the Summit. The projects in Design for UNICEF will be imagined, designed, and tested by you, working in groups. The course will proceed in three basic stages: Ideation, Creation, Feedback. Ideation is the process of having an idea, and making it specific enough to be worth criticizing. Creation is about getting an idea to the stage of a prototype or mockup fleshed out enough to invite response from potential users. Feedback is the period of both user testing and presentation of the idea in an effort to improve the idea continuously. The goal is tools or service useful for the either Young African Summit representatives, the African youth on the rest of the continent being represented, or both. A project can serve fundamental functions (e.g. gathering and distribution of information; aggregation of ideas or questions from the field; translation or annotation tools; etc) or it can relate specifically to one of the official themes of the Summit. Your goal is to come up with an project that is simple enough, compelling enough, and effective enough to merit testing with real users during the actual Summit. (The choice of whether or not any of the projects coming out of the class will be made by members of the UNICEF Innovations team.) Schedule Week 1, Jan 22: Introduction of Class Form and Theme An introduction to the class structure and theme; background on UNICEF and communications design goals and constraints; ad hoc groups formed, and first design challenge posed. Readings:
Week 2, Jan 29: "Practice" Ideas and Questions; UNICEF Presentation Presentation by Erica Kochi of UNICEF staff; ad hoc groups present observations, questions, and design ideas they have prepared during the week. New ad hoc groups formed; second design challenge. Readings:
Week 3, Feb 5: "Practice" Ideas; Questions for Summit participants Ad hoc groups make short presentation of ideas they have worked on during the week. Work on goals and constraints from UNICEF presentation. Final groups will be formed during class. Readings:
Week 4, Feb 12: "Practice" Ideas Each group will present two ideas to the class --15 minutes of presentation plus discussion for each idea. Readings:
Week 5, Feb 19: First draft Each group will present their idea to the class for review, with 15 mins to present and 15 mins of discussion. The expectation is that this idea will be the one you work on for the rest of the semester. Readings:
Week 6, Feb 26: Work Week Work period, plus group-by-group meetings with professor. Readings: From Week 6 onwards, readings will be per group. Week 7, March 5: First presentation to UNICEF Each group will present their idea to a panel of UNICEF staff and outside reviewers. (15+15 mins format.) Week 8, March 12: Post-mortem Discussion of reviewer comments Week 9, March 26: Work Week Brief discussion of where each group is, post spring break, followed by discussion on ways of collecting user feedback. Week 10, April 2: Groups present Groups present to UNICEF reviewers (15+15 format), followed by plenary discussion. After this class, some form of user feedback from the field is required. The method of soliciting that feedback will be particular to each group. Week 11, April 9: User Feedback #1 Each group presents their method of soliciting user feedback, documentation from that feedback, and next steps. Week 12, April 16: User Feedback #2 Each group presents changes they made since the previous week, documentation from additional user feedback, and next steps Week 13, April 23: Final UNICEF Presentation #1 Two groups present to UNICEF staffers and outside guests, followed by plenary discussion. Week 14, April 30: Final UNICEF Presentation #2 Two groups present to UNICEF staffers and outside guests, followed by plenary discussion. |