This project-based course offers a critical examination of contemporary design practices, research methods, and discourses informed by Neuroscience, Behavioral Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, and Philosophy of the Mind. In recent years, theories of extended cognition, embodied interaction, and affective computing, combined with behavioral and physiological data collection techniques such as eye-tracking, electroencephalography, and electrodermal activity, have raised new questions about the foundations of design. Crucially, these methods and frameworks have enabled design practitioners and scholars to investigate the nature of human relationships with designed artefacts, from the digital to the physical, and from the scale of the hand-held device to the city.

While acknowledging the contributions that these fields make to our understanding of the built environment (as an experience) and design (as a practice), this course argues for a rigorous and systematic assessment of their applicability, value, and potential in design research. What aspects of the built environment and designed artefacts can their methods and theories help us understand better? To what extent might they reshape how we conceptualize and operationalize design practice? And, more importantly, what role do designers play within the research ecosystem devoted to the scientific study of human experience in design?

In this course, students will develop the foundational knowledge needed to understand the opportunities and limitations of this emerging space while gaining hands-on experience designing and conducting research within it. Students will review relevant literature, discuss emerging theories and speculative ideas, and work in groups of three on a series of small assignments using technologies covered in the course, including eye tracking and EDA; other technologies and methods may be discussed with the instructor. They will also engage in common practices related to human-subjects research, including preparing for IRB approval, designing surveys, administering tests, coding data, and conducting Exploratory Data Analysis. These small assignments may be undertaken as separate efforts or build together towards a semester-long project.

Students interested in the course are encouraged to reach out to the instructor with questions about the class.