Intro to UOCD

Welcome to User-Oriented Collaborative Design (UOCD, ENGR2250)! 
Led by Prof. Benjamin Linder and several section teachers, UOCD is is an engineering course at Olin College where students develop detailed concepts and models of authentic new products and services based on a client population. (Course Website) The focus is user-oriented and collaborative, encouraging approaches towards the design process that seek holistic solutions integrating both user and functional/designer perspectives. We -- the students -- observe and engage people to help us (and them) develop a deep understanding of their values and the lifestyle patterns. Both the students and the users work together to create a shared comprehension of the user group and the product concepts.

What's a User Group?
"To design a product, you should know your client." That's the informal motto of this course which is why student design groups spend a great deal trying to observe and engage the target population in both personal and indirect manners. The client, or "user group," and the students, or "designers," work together (i.e. interview, show-and-tell, co-design) to understand one another and identify areas for improvement (we dislike the word "problem areas") before starting any direction of movement. More details on the project blog.

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