Syllabus

DIY Health

ITP - Fall 2011
Mondays 9:30 am – 12:00 Noon
Steve Dean
sd107@nyu.edu
917 538-5194
@sgdean
Office Hours: Mondays after class, 12 – 1 or by appointment

Goals

  • Understand how actions (behaviors) can lead to achieving goals
  • Understand how behavior change works and how to design for it
  • Learn how to model a self-care system
  • Design a final project that is a self-care system that works for you
  • Collaborate with others to iterate and improve on what you design

Class Schedule

Sep 12 / Intro, what is health?

  1. What does health mean to you?
  2. Goals of the course
  3. Syllabus overview
  4. Unraveling the health-care system

Sep 19 / Quantified self & self-experimentation

  1. The QS movement
  2. Hackers, experimenters and DIYers
  3. Guest: Ari Meisel

Sep 26 / What is behavior change?

  1. What is a behavior?
  2. Models of behavior change
  3. Human nature and some basic psychology
  4. Types of behaviors

Oct 3 / Designing for behavior change

  1. Types of behaviors
  2. Motivation, ability, triggers
  3. Designing for behavior change

Oct 10 / No Class

Oct 17 / Habit formation

  1. Magic wand
  2. Building a habit machine
  3. Self-tracking and self-experiments in habit creation
  4. Guest: Tim Roberts, Fitbit
  5. Tonight is the inaugural meetup of the NYC chapter of Habit Design. Go!

Oct 24 / Body as interface

  1. Sensors, devices, technology on the horizon
  2. Hacking the body. Hacking the self.

Oct 31 / Goals, actions and feedback loops

  1. Cybernetic systems
  2. Self-tracking and self-monitoring
  3. Guest: Paul Pangaro, SVA & Cybernetic Lifestyles

Nov 7 / Designing a Self-Care System

  1. Final project drafts
  2. Designing and building lean machines
  3. Guest speaker: Henrik Werdelin, Prehype

Nov 14 / Final Project Proposals

Nov 21 / Final Project Workshop

Nov 28 / Final Project Reviews
w/ folks from Amsterdam and the QS Europe Conference (via Skype)

Dec 5 / Final Project Workshop

Dec 12 / Prepare for Final Presentations

Dec 14 (on Wednesday) / Final Presentations

Requirements

1. Attendance. Come to class. If you miss class, you can’t really make it up because a lot of the work gets done in class. If you’re sick, stay at home. But otherwise, join us.

2. Punctuality. Arrive to class on time.

3. Contact me. Feel free to contact me via phone, email or text.

4. Readings. These are important and required. Contributing to the class blog is required for every reading assignment and to read and comment on other’s entries. Include 3 questions that the reading prompts you to ask or 3 ways the reading may be helpful in your work. Post links and other resources that may be helpful to the group.

5. Assignments. All must be submitted to pass the course.

6. Distractions. Please do not email, text or surf during class.

7. Contribute. The success of this course is as dependent on your contribution as it is on mine. Please let me know if you see a way to help the class succeed and thrive.

Grading

ITP uses a pass/fail system. In the grade-based system, you had to maintain a B average or higher to stay in the program. The same expectation exists. A, C or below translates to a failure. Grading in this course will be largely project-based. A break-down of the grading structure is as follows:

20% Attendance On-time & Participation
20% Blogging
30% Assignments
30% Final Project