Epic Everyday project course, Chalmers University



Epic Everyday, a project course in the then new Human-Computer Interaction program, investigated interaction design roles and methods in local public situations. Kiosks, bus drivers, shopping bags – mundanities that have potentially epic impacts on the social ecosystem of the city. Students were asked to: get up close and personal in their neighborhoods and communities; go out and detail rituals, events and formats for social exchange in everyday life; and design an intervention, enhancement or disruption. The project course was action and concept-driven, with an emphasis on active verbal participation, hands-on involvement 'in the field', iterative idea generation, and methodological inventiveness. The structure of the course was based on one full-day tutorial session a week, in which the morning focused on students presenting and discussing the status of their project and the afternoon was individual or group tutorials. There were three lectures, including those on 'design research process' and 'prototyping methods', a more formal interim critique and a final presentation open to the public. Deliverables were to include a material prototype and/or multimedia presentation (with less emphasis on written, theoretical or scientific documentation). Students were also assessed on their webpage documenting their process, concept, related work and reflections on higher-level interaction issues.

Level Masters (MSc)
Credits 5
Dates 2004-2005
Number of students 6

My role
Within the program 'project course' unit, one iteration in 2003 was initiated and co-taught by Margot Jacobs and myself. We took joint responsibility for the topic, structure, lectures, readings, field trips, tutorials and assessment. It was a 7-week course with enrollment limited to under 10 students, who applied by submitting an expression of interest. The course was taught in conjunction with our research at the Interactive Institute within Public Play Spaces. The HCI/Interaction Design program at the IT University Göteborg was initiated and managed in part by researchers from the Interactive Institute and the Interaction Design Group at Chalmers University of Technology.

Image (above)
Photo from the final presentation by Anna Dahlberg and Anna Götesson

More about the course
Course webpage with links to student projects


See also

/ Projects / Public Play Spaces