Goal

The goal of this exer­cise is to develop and use com­mu­ni­ca­tion the­ory and strat­egy to develop a design solution.

Objective

The objec­tive of this exer­cise is to doc­u­ment the pos­si­ble com­mu­ni­ca­tion the­o­ries that would pro­vide insight into devel­op­ing a design solu­tion, and use gen­eral data sources to val­i­date solutions.

Background Reading

• Davis, Part One, Chap­ters 1–3
• O’Grady, Ch 2, Research Strate­gies and Tactics
• List of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion The­o­ries https://​www​.com​mu​ni​ca​tion​the​ory​.org/​l​i​s​t​-​o​f​-​t​h​e​o​r​i​es/
• https://​learn​.g2​.com/​c​o​m​m​u​n​i​c​a​t​i​o​n​-​t​h​e​ory

Exercise

The­ory and strat­egy can take more than one form usable to the designer. In one form, it could be used for the devel­op­ment of a direc­tion of a project (Davis). An over­lap­ping and com­pli­men­tary approach involves using strat­egy to research the para­me­ters, influ­enc­ing fac­tors and suc­cess of a solu­tion (O’Grady).

Using a sim­ple, and fairly com­mon activ­ity, develop a design ques­tion that sur­veyed, researched, out­lined, tested and recorded. A final report and pre­sen­ta­tion will review the activ­ity and record the find­ings. Each group will sub­mit their work and earn scores as a team (updated 02.08.2021).

Part One

Begin with obtain­ing a com­mu­ni­ca­tion design prob­lem pre­sented in class. The prob­lems will be gen­er­ated ran­domly from a series of Activ­i­ties, Audi­ences and Artifacts.

Part Two

Develop solu­tion that begins to address the prob­lem using Davis’ resources (as a min­i­mum resource) to deter­mine the com­mu­ni­ca­tion goal. Use any sup­ple­men­tal resources as needed.

Part Three

Using a min­i­mum of two (2) tac­tics out­lined in O’Grady, mod­ify the solu­tion to incor­po­rate data influ­ences and find­ings. Gen­er­ate two (2) pos­si­ble solu­tions that are ready for testing.

Assessment

• The fol­low­ing rubric posted on D2L will deter­mine assign­ment score: Exer­cise Grading

Techniques

cre­ative think­ing, exper­i­men­ta­tion, process, abstract thought, Idea Gen­er­a­tion, The­ory, Tac­tics, Writ­ing, Presentation

Supplies

com­puter, soft­ware, paper, pencil