| Unit name | Immersive Experience Design |
|---|---|
| Unit code | THTRM0016 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2C (weeks 13 - 18) |
| Unit director | Dr. Wilson |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
COMSM0126 - Introduction to Immersive Technologies |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | Department of Theatre |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
State of the art immersive display technologies and emerging software for interactive experiences require innovative approaches to content creation, design, and development, which differ from making traditional forms of media and performance. This unit will explore idea generation, conception, pitching, designing and prototyping immersive experiences. Practical workshops will introduce approaches to interaction and experience design. You will develop understanding of the group nature of creating immersive multimedia, the different roles involved in professional teams and how these collaborate to shape the audience/user's journey and experience. Immersive Experience Design will prepare you to confidently pitch projects and then take on a design, creative direction and/or performance role in an interdisciplinary team.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study
Taught in an intensive 6-week mode in the first half of TB2, the design ideas researched and developed on this unit will feed directly into the experiences produced on Immersive Production. In combination, the mandatory TB2 units - Immersive Production, and Immersive Experience Design - will develop the core understandings, skills, and practices you need to successfully conceive, design and capture media for immersive experiences. You will bring these competencies together and apply them on the Creative and Immersive Project in TB3, in collaboration with MSc students, who will have developed more advanced technical expertise in designing interactions, producing and postproduction of AR/VR. The unit builds on the concepts and practices developed in TB1 and prepares you for the ideation, design-thinking and innovation processes that you will also be able to apply in different contexts on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Immersive World (INOVM0027), which runs concurrently in TB2.
An overview of content
On this unit you will follow the process of developing content for immersive experiences from identifying an opportunity or problem, to generating ideas for how to meet this creative challenge, conceiving the appropriate solution or form for your audience, to co-designing content and paper prototyping your planned immersive experience. Interactive presentations and practical workshops will introduce you to methods of R&D and iterative testing, develop your approaches to ideation, interaction, user-centred and experience design (UCD and UX). You will present professional pitches for immersive projects, design portfolios, make extracts of creative content, and prototype aspects of your planned experiences. These may be treatments, paper prototypes or proofs of concept, as well as software demonstrators. Some scenes could be realised on the Immersive Production unit that follows this one in the second half of TB2, or developed into full production on the TB3 Creative and Immersive Project.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit
You will be able to think through the implications of designing and developing content for virtual/3D worlds in which your audience is immersed and has agency. You will be able to design effective interfaces, integrate interactions into your narratives/experiences and direct a user’s role in the action. You will be able to confidently take on a role as designer, director, choreographer, or performer in an interdisciplinary team on an immersive project. You will understand the group nature of creating immersive multimedia, the different roles involved in professional teams and how these collaborate to shape the audience/user’s journey through the experience. You will value responsible tech development, be able to consider barriers to access and strive to create inclusive experiences.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course a successful student will be able to:
3hr weekly workshops.
Weekly group-based exercises will initially introduce you to, demonstrate and apply tools for ideation, co-design and paper prototyping. These will be followed by group workshop tasks and activities, which will give you hands-on, practical experience of designing for different forms of immersive media and virtual environments. Then, through group-based coursework, with staff support, facilitated discussion and incremental feedback, you will work towards your prototype portfolio. All workshops will be student-centred and interactive, with students developing their own problems/creative industry briefs to address. Group-based coursework is suited to the unit in order to simulate the format and professional practices of real-world content development in the immersive industries. Weekly group- based workshop exercises and sharing of work-in-progress enables students to socially construct their knowledge – reconstructing and discussing ideas together as a team and developing shared mental models of the course content. Staff can contribute to these discussions and provide regular, incremental feedback, which will support development alongside peer learning and feedback.
2hr weekly skills labs
Running alongside the weekly workshops will be 2hr skills labs focusing on technical tools that will support you to design and create content for immersive experiences. This could include, for instance, introduction to Unity, AR and VR prototyping tools, Figma/FigJam software.
Summary
100% Coursework ILOs 1-5
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Immersive Pitch (20%) ILOs 1-2 (Group submission)
In their groups, students will present a professional pitch for their immersive project and receive feedback on this before starting to create content and prototype their planned experience. Presented at an earlier stage of the process, the pitch will serve a formative function.
Immersive Prototype Portfolio (80%) ILOs 2-5 (Group submission)
Students will work on their portfolio in a small team. The portfolio could include:
Each student will report regularly on their individual contribution which will be used to award individual marks within the group assessments above if the contribution of the team members is not even.
When assessment does not go to plan
For students who are required to undertake a re-assessment, if there are enough students, a new group will be formed in order to collaborate on both Immersive Pitch and Immersive Prototype Portfolio. If there are not enough students requiring reassessment to form a new team, then the student will be required to present an individual Immersive Pitch and individually undertake a pro-rata contribution to the Portfolio, which may mean they only create a single element/extract of creative content and/or complete a specific stage/aspect of prototyping. In this instance, the Portfolio should include reflection on the collaborations, roles, responsibilities, and creative team necessary to fully realise the content and/or prototype.
Immersive Pitch (20%) ILOs 1-2 (Individual submission)
Immersive Prototype Portfolio (80%) ILOs 2-5 (Individual submission)
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. THTRM0016).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
