A Design Case Featuring the Graduate Design Studio at Indiana University Bloomington’s Human-Computer Interaction Design Program

In this article the author illustrates the design of a physical space that was created to serve as a performance intervention for graduate students in the Human-Computer Interaction Design (HCId) program in the School of Informatics, Indiana University Bloomington. Opened in Fall 2010, the HCId Graduate Design Studio was designed to help facilitate collaboration between students and faculty in the HCId Program. An effort was made to document the Studio and students working in the Studio over an extended period of time. The author visited the Design Studio a minimum of ten times between late January and late April 2011. Visits were conducted on different days of the week (Monday - Friday) and at different times of the day to capture a variety of students and activity level in the Studio. In order to gain a perspective on the two distinct groups of students who utilize the Studio, interviews of graduate students from both the HCId Master of Science and Doctoral program were conducted. In addition interviews were conducted of two other important stakeholders, the HCId Program Director and the Director of Facilities for the School of Informatics, both of whom were heavily involved in the design of the Studio. Through faculty and student interviews, text descriptions, photographs, and audio and video recordings this article addresses the design features and their impact, both successful and unsuccessful, on student and faculty collaboration of the HCId Graduate Design Studio.