Social Interaction Design in Community

Catalog description

The course looks at Design for Social Innovation principles and practices, Documentary Photography, and Design Research while walking the streets, talking to residents, and working with organizations in a Pittsburgh neighborhood to understand its challenges. Students will examine Social Design case studies, with a focus on Problem Reframing processes (Dorst), and Solution Amplification (Manzini), and various design-enabled Theories of Change. They will also explore histories and theories of Documentary Photography. For the project/ethnographic portion of the class, students will work in teams of two within a neighborhood, and partner with residents and organizations. These collaborations will help students see the challenges of the community from an insiders point of view, in order for them to design appropriate responses to some of those challenges.