Perspectives is the newsletter of the Stanford course,
Perspectives in Assistive Technology.

Week 2

This newsletter issue describes the next class session of the Quarter.

Course News

In-person, In-classroom Instruction Resumes - Stanford has decided to return to in-person, in-classroom instruction starting next week, January 18th. Community members are welcome to attend class sessions at that time, but must attest to being vaccinated or receiving a negative COVID test result. Masking during class sessions will be required for everybody.

Student Enrollment - As of today, 51 students have signed up for the course, with 31 working on team projects. Of those, 4 are Freshmen, 4 are Sophomores, 6 are Juniors, 22 are Seniors, and 14 are Graduate students.

Third (virtual) class session of the 16th season - Tuesday, January 11th at 4:00pm PST

Abstract: When we look at the drivers of effective innovation we see two complementary themes emerging: First, new technologies or methods that open the way to new solutions, and second, new insights or experiences that yield a better understanding of the problem. With a design thinking approach, we begin by building empathy with the user and the situation, then we use ideation, prototyping, and iteration to explore, formulate, and test solutions.

In this class session we will look at ways to gain understanding of user needs, goals, and values around a problem, as well as the constraints and requirements of the situations around them. One goal for this session is for students to identify a set of questions to explore through interview and observation with real users of assistive technologies. Teams may also get some good ideas about the people they might approach for both inspiration and insight.

Biosketch: Gayle Curtis is a UX design consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in user interface architecture and design strategy for online ventures and interactive products. Recently he was Principal Interaction Designer at Yahoo!, where he also developed a practice area in strategic ideation and disseminated it through workshops in the US and Asia. At Stanford he has held Lecturer appointments in Human Computer Interaction (CS) and Product Design (ME). Gayle is a graduate of the MS Engineering Product Design Program at Stanford.

Upcoming Virtual Class Sessions: Thursday, January 13th - Bridging the Gap between Consumers and Products in Rehabilitation Medicine Upcoming In-person, In-classroom Class Sessions: Tuesday, January 18th - Perspectives of Stanford Students and Faculty with a Disability Thursday, January 20th - Improving Home Environments for Older Adults

Please contact me with your ideas, questions, comments, and project suggestions - or just to say hello. Please continue to stay safe & healthy.

Dave Jaffe - Course Instructor