Name what’s working and why. “I like how _____ because _____.”
Name what could go further. “I wish _____ because _____.”
Open a door. “I wonder what would happen if _____.”
Not This
See data in everything
Design the invisible
See a world as data — document, analyze, find insights
Design things worth keeping
Translate a place into something someone else can feel
Articulate your design principles
Design the collaboration, not just the product
Honest iteration — early work is material, not precious
Edit ruthlessly — what you remove matters as much as what you keep
Know who you are as a designer — and show it
Week 9
Schon — Reflection-in-Action (think while you act, the situation talks back)
Duarte — Resonate (the audience is the hero, status quo → gap → resolution)
Jony Ive — obsessive reduction. What can we remove and still have the thing be completely itself?
Dieter Rams — less but better. Restraint in presentation makes the design speak.
Apple Keynotes — the same work, presented two ways, lands completely differently.
Exhibition Design — the edit is the design.
V3: Less But Better — Design Challenge 9
Mid-project critique of V2 Monday. Build V3 — sharpen, deepen, push further. Design your final presentation as its own challenge.
All deliverables due Monday Week 10 (6/1) by 12pm. Final presentations + celebration.
Schön
The Reflective Practitioner (Ch. 2)
Duarte
Resonate
Groups assigned in class. Each student reads one.
Thinking while you act — the situation “talks back,” and making IS thinking. Schön’s central insight is that professionals do not simply apply theory to practice; they think in the act of doing. An architect sketches, sees something unexpected in the sketch, and redesigns in response. The sketch talked back. This is not planning followed by execution — it is a conversation with the material. Your V2→V3 process is exactly this: you built V2, it resisted in critique, you respond by building V3.
The audience is the hero of your presentation — status quo, gap, resolution. Duarte’s framework treats every presentation as a story where the audience is the protagonist, not the presenter. You establish where they are (status quo), reveal a gap between that and where they could be, then offer a path to resolution. Your final presentation is itself a design challenge: what do you show, in what order, and what do you leave out?
Reflection assignment: Find a designed thing in the world that represents one of these concepts. Bring it to Wednesday’s discussion.
Apple Keynotes
Same work, two ways, different impact
Dieter Rams
Less but better
Jony Ive
Obsessive reduction — what can we remove?
Exhibition Design
The edit is the design
The same work, presented two ways, lands completely differently. In 2007, Jobs didn’t start with the product. He started with three separate problems the audience already had. Then: “These are not three devices. This is one device.” The product didn’t change. The framing did. Takeaway: Your final presentation is its own design challenge — storytelling is how your work becomes legible.
Less but better. Restraint in presentation makes the design speak. If you have to explain it, you haven’t designed it clearly enough. The presentation disappears; the work appears. Takeaway: The principle that made Braun timeless is the same one that makes a presentation land.
Each generation of Apple hardware removed something the previous one had. Ive’s discipline was asking “what can we remove and still have the thing be completely itself?” Every element that survived had to earn its place. Takeaway: Less but better is not “less.” It’s the discipline of knowing what deserves to stay.
The Louvre owns 380,000 objects and shows 35,000. Every exhibition is an argument made through selection. Takeaway: Your final presentation is an exhibition of your work — what goes on the wall?
The same work, presented two ways, lands completely differently. Storytelling is not optional — it's how your work becomes legible to people who weren't there.
In 2007, Jobs didn't start with the product. He started with three separate problems the audience already had. Then: "These are not three devices. This is one device." The product didn't change. The framing did.
Restraint in presentation makes the design speak.
If you have to explain it, you haven't designed it clearly enough.
The presentation disappears; the work appears.
The original iMac removed the floppy drive — an act of editing that enraged the industry. The iPhone had one button. The MacBook Air fit in a manila envelope.
Each generation of Apple hardware removed something the previous one had. Ive’s discipline was not minimalism for aesthetics — it was asking “what can we remove and still have the thing be completely itself?”
Every element that survived had to earn its place.
The Louvre owns 380,000 objects and shows 35,000. The Hood Museum at Dartmouth makes the same decisions at a smaller scale.
Every exhibition is an argument made through selection — what’s on the wall, what order you encounter it, what’s deliberately left out. The curator’s job is not to show everything. It’s to show exactly enough.
Design Challenge 9
Mid-Project Critique of V2
Monday — what needs to change for V3?
Build V3
Sharpen, deepen, push further
Design Final Presentation
The presentation is itself a design challenge
V1 → V2 → V3 Arc
The progression is the point
Due Monday 6/1 by 12pm · Final presentations
1. Monday: present V2 for mid-project critique. This is the pressure point — what needs to change for V3? 2. Respond to feedback: what will you change, what will you keep, and why? 3. Build V3 — sharpen, deepen, push further. The blind spot in V2 is where V3 starts. 4. Design your final presentation as its own challenge. What do you show, in what order, what do you leave out?
V3 of your final project, V1→V2→V3 progression (the arc is the point), evidence of process (iterations, failed attempts, critique response), principle transfer statement, gallery slides (your 3 slides in the weekly shared class deck), final presentation ready for Monday 6/1.
Can someone who never saw V1 or V2 be captivated by V3 on its own? Is your final presentation designed with the same care as the project itself? Did Schön’s “reflection-in-action” happen — did the critique change V3? Is the audience the hero of your final presentation (Duarte)?
Monday Studio (25 min)
Process V2 critique, decide V3 direction
Wednesday
Theory discussion (10 min) + V3 + presentation studio (80 min)
Due Monday 6/1 by 12pm
V3 + final presentation + gallery slides
Monday Week 10 (6/1)
Final V3 presentations + celebration
What feedback did you get in V2 critique? What will you change for V3? What will you keep and why? Begin designing your final presentation as a designed experience. “Can someone who never saw V1 or V2 be captivated by V3 on its own?”
Schön group: What decision did you make WHILE building V3 that differed from your plan? Duarte group: What’s the story structure of your final presentation? Status quo → gap → resolution?
Bridge: How are you making your work legible to someone encountering it for the first time?
Final push. Build V3, refine final presentation, prepare gallery slides.
Your WIP Doc — Week 9 section:
V2 critique feedback notes (what you heard, what you changed for V3, what you kept and why)
V3 process photos & iterations
Gallery slides
Concept tags — mark which apply to your work this week:
Week 9: Reflection-in-Action · Audience as Hero · Obsessive Reduction · The Edit as Design
Week 8: Ugly Darlings · Artful Making · Design with Intent · Iteration at Scale
Week 7: Collective Intelligence · Technology as Teammate · Braintrust · Useful Friction · Candor Without Authority · Service Design Under Pressure
Week 6: Curation as Self-Knowledge · System Clustering · Body of Work
Week 5: Multisensory Design · Frame Innovation · Emotional Design · Obsessive Sensory Attention · Place as Story · Making Invisible Perceptible
Week 4: Constraints Increase Variability · Emotionally Durable Design · Craftsmanship · Constraint as Identity · Durability as Desirability · Repair as Understanding
Week 3: Disappearing Interviewer · Curiosity as Structure · Interviewing Users · Invisible Systems Made Visible · Dual Desires · Going Deep
Week 2: Structure Mapping · Far-Field Analogies · Technology Brokering · Experience Economy · Affordances · Anticipation as Design · Controlled Reveal · Sensory Arc · One Resonant Idea
Week 1: Service · Energy · Material · Interactive/Sensory · Natural · Artificial · Longevity
Weekly Gallery Slides — your name section (3 slides, FINAL):
Slide 1: V1 → V2 → V3 progression — the arc is the point. What got sharper, deeper, pushed further?
Slide 2: V2 critique response — what feedback you got, what changed for V3, what you kept and why.
Slide 3: Principle transfer + preview of your final presentation. What concept(s) from this week’s theory or cases shaped V3?
Week 9
Schon — Reflection-in-Action (think while you act, the situation talks back)
Duarte — Resonate (the audience is the hero, status quo → gap → resolution)
Jony Ive — obsessive reduction. What can we remove and still have the thing be completely itself?
Dieter Rams — less but better. Restraint in presentation makes the design speak.
Apple Keynotes — the same work, presented two ways, lands completely differently.
Exhibition Design — the edit is the design.
V3: Less But Better — Design Challenge 9
Mid-project critique of V2 Monday. Build V3 — sharpen, deepen, push further. Design your final presentation as its own challenge.
All deliverables due Monday Week 10 (6/1) by 12pm. Final presentations + celebration.