Department of Design, The Ohio State University

Erik Evenson
MFA, The Ohio State University

Under the direction of noted design researcher Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders, Ph.D, a group of MFA students and one undergraduate student conducted a user-centered research process for development of a prototype board game to teach disease-management skills to children with diabetes.

Collaborating with employees of the Central Ohio Diabetes Association (CODA), students were able to conduct an exploratory workshop to develop game concepts with members of the user group. After analysis of relevant findings, an initial prototype was further-developed and tested with the same users.

Erik Evensen has since advanced this project as his personal thesis direction, which he will continue to pursue over the next academic year. He has recently made refinements to the game, and conducted further usability testing. His final thesis project will include development of a finished prototype and documentation of all user-centered research findings.

This project initiated in the Design Research + Inquiry course required for all first-year MFA students in The Ohio State University, Department of Design's interdisciplinary Design Development track. Students in this graduate program come from a variety of backgrounds in the traditional design disciplines -- such as industrial design, interior design, and graphic + visual communication design.

Students also come from other design-related fields such as architecture, engineering, fine-arts, communications, etc. While some students pursue thesis research that is specific to a single design discipline, others pursue topics that cross-over two or more design and/or design-related disciplines.

Watch the video of this presentation here: http://www.socialstudiesconference.org/node/268