The educational objective of the Design Studio is to acquire project skills for imagining and designing new
projects related to the use of AI.
The design process develops from the research phase to the ideation one and will provide students a clear
understanding of the different aspects and dimensions of an interactive service.
The Design studio will cover a wide project activity carried out in groups and supported by inspections by the
professors with the purpose of team building.

Students will acquire the following competences:
- knowledge and understanding - knowing and understanding the design methods and tools for managing the
ideation of an interactive system, the role and potentialities of AI and its implications for Digital
Transformation;
- making judgements - understanding how to integrate the skills acquired during previous theoretical courses
and applying them to managing the development of a design project;
- communication skills - autonomously and in groups, students develop the ability to present and discuss their
projects and the attitude to negotiation in teamwork.

The Design Studio will deal with the development of an interactive service related to the use of the AI by leveraging three main aspects:

• Principles and Practices of Speculative Design for Digital Transformation: understanding how a system interacts (communicates) with the user in the specific context of use (Tools and methods to analyze and design the system). A specific design fiction tool will be used for the speculation phase;
• Principles and Practices of Service Design for Digital Transformation: understanding the logic of the system, the specifics to digital services, the different stakeholders involved and their roles and connections, the user journey and the different touchpoints to be developed;
• Elements of AI: deep learning, machine leaning, image recognition etc.

The aim of the design studio is that students learn the potentialities of AI in varied fields of application from public to private and personal ones, and consequently develop an understanding of how to apply this technology in an innovative service system. To achieve this, the first part of the Design Studio will provide the necessary basic skills coming the double disciplinary perspectives of interaction design and service design, jointly with the engineering point of view. Moreover, the course will use a blended learning approach, suggesting readings and other materials through which students can deepen knowledge independently. For example, one of the possible activities will present to students several case studies of AI adoption both in private and public sectors and will ask them to study and discuss cases during a peer-to-peer session in class to set the design brief.

In the second part of the Design Studio students will practice the skills acquired in the first part through a design project. The aim of the exercise will be to design a new interactive service and develop a physical prototype together with an architecture of the system itself.

Students will work in groups. Teachers will provide all the information on the contents during the theoretical lectures and project reviews.

It is compulsory that each student follows the MOOC “Elements of AI” (https://course.elementsofai.com/)
before the class begins.
It is desirable that students have already mastered soft skills like collaborative problem solving, negotiation,
team building, and public speaking.

The evaluation will be based on the quality and content of the results achieved during the Design Studio.

In particular, it will be evaluated: the understanding developed about potential use and application of AI, the coherence between the concept and the promise of AI, the quality of the final project (i.e., communication, technical understanding and development, prototype).

The examination will be held at the conclusion of the Design Studio during which students will present their project to the teachers and, if it is the case, to the company that has provided the design brief.