The Journalism Design course evolved from the Journalism + Interaction Design (J+IxD) course ran at the University of Queensland between 2013 and 2015.
That course was a collaboration between the School of Communication and Arts (formerly Journalism and Communication) and the School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. The course teamed final-year journalism students with final-year interaction design students with the aim of developing journalistic tech. During the 13-week course students researched, designed and prototyped a solution to a journalistic issue.
In 2016 the collaboration was unwound but the core ideas remain. During the semester journalism students explore some of the technical, economic and social issues facing journalism and encouraged to consider the value of journalism as production and consumption habits change. They work in teams to design and prototype a proposal for an issue of their choice.
They are introduced to a process of contextual research, designing, prototyping, and evaluating. There is an emphasis on user research and students are encouraged to talk to the people they are designing for.
They have six weeks for design work and prototypes are generally low-fidelity, including sketches, digital wireframes, websites, and cardboard mock-ups in some cases.
Design methods are suited to tackling complex issues because they allow you to imaging new things and try them out.
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