WELCOME TO DESIGN 166!
This course introduces students to fundamental issues in design.
At the conclusion of the course, students should:
—Know how to make effective two-dimensional and three-dimensional compositions
—Understand the ideal relationship between form, function and content
—Understand the value of a thorough design process where multiple ideas are explored
—Be able to discuss, analyze and critique design work
—Develop professional practices, including meeting presentation deadlines and participating in scheduled critiques
—Gain insight into design as a profession.

FIRST DAY ATTENDANCE POLICY
If you are not present on the first day of class for Design 166, faculty assume that you have decided not to remain enrolled. It is your responsibility to drop the class. This is the official policy of the School of Art + Art History + Design due to demand for Art/Design courses. No exceptions.

ADVICE FOR STUDENTS IN DESIGN 166
We previously held a  DESIGN 166 AMA that may be of interest. Also, this Quora thread responds to common questions and concerns about this course: https://www.quora.com/How-does-University-of-Washington-Design-166-look-like-How-hard-is-it-and-how-many-hours-of-work-should-I-expect

Please also see Advice for 166 Students from former 166 students. Previous 166 students have also answered: Should I Take DESIGN 166? and How to Prepare for DESIGN 166.

SYLLABUS TOC
Calendar
Course Structure + Room Assignments
Contact Us
In-Person Class Behavior
Note-Taking + Laptop Policy
Lecture Recordings + Zoom
Supplies
Equipment
Textbook + Readings
Software
Grading
Process Participation
Final Exam
In the Event of Illness
Access + Accommodations
Academic Honesty + Plagiarism
AI (Artificial Intelligence) Policy
Academic Support for 166
Study + Working Spaces
General UW + SOAAHD Policies

COURSE CALENDAR
The course calendar is online as a Google spreadsheet.
Please note that this calendar and all course projects are subject to revision by the instructors as needed.

COURSE STRUCTURE
Lecture: Mondays and Wednesdays 12:30–2:20pm in Room 260 Savery Hall
Twice a week, the entire class meets for lecture. During lectures, faculty and TAs introduce each project, and discuss design theory, practice and history as it pertains to the assignment. Students will complete short exercises and in-class writing assignments. Students should be prepared to be called upon to discuss and critique their own and other students’ work.

Critique on Fridays (always in-person) in the Art Building
09:00–10:20am for Sections AA, AC, AG, AI
10:30–11:50am for Sections AB, AD, AH, AJ

Once a week, individual sections of 16 students meet in the Art Building for critique. Each critique session lasts for  80 minutes. During critique, Each instructor will lead group discussions (critiques) to analyze student work. Be prepared to present your ideas and respond to others with constructive criticism (your Week 1 Readings cover "what to expect" during design critiques). 
          Instructors strive to give each student feedback during critique, but due to time constraints, not all work may be discussed in-depth. You are expected to learn from the overall discussion and apply general concepts to improve your own project. Note that only work that is posted at the START of class will be discussed (work posted within the first five minutes of class start time). We plan the discussion around the quantity of work submitted. It is unfair for students entering late to take time away from students who were prompt and ready with their work. 

CONTACT US
Class Email List: 
Class-related announcements will be sent to: design166a_wi26@uw.edu. Please check your UW email account at least twice each day (i.e., in the morning at 9am and at the end of the day at 5pm). 

Email Policies
Instructors try to respond to all student emails within 48 hours, Monday through Friday, from 9am-5pm. Instructors do not have the capacity to critique a student's individual design project via email. Project feedback is given during Friday critiques, Monday/Wednesday lectures, and during office hours. Outside of these venues, we encourage students to give each other feedback during Wednesday and Friday study hall (see below). We also encourage students to self-organize study groups. 

Office Hours
To ensure fairness, each student can sign up for a maximum of three office hour appointments with their section instructor per quarter. If no one has signed up for an open slot two hours before the designated time, you can come to that open slot as a "free" additional extra (please add your name to the signup sheet and note "open extra appointment" in your comment so that instructors know you are coming).
          If you want feedback/critique on a class project during office hours, please be prepared with paper printouts of your work, or have your work queued up on a laptop/tablet. It is difficult to see work clearly on small phone screens and/or back-of-camera displays. Note that appointments are 15 minutes long. You are welcome to come to your appointment with another 166 student as long as the 15 minute time limit is observed.
          It's best to see your assigned section instructor for feedback about your work, because each section instructor grades their own group of students, albeit in consultation with the full team of 166 instructors. Note that your section instructor will also assess how well each student has worked through the complete design process, including how the student has responded to feedback that identifies the strengths and weaknesses of their proposed design (see grading section below).

IN-PERSON CLASS BEHAVIOR
Please avoid behaviors that could annoy others and prevent them from learning. You will be asked to leave class if you are texting, web-browsing, listening to music, talking loudly to others, reading a newspaper, or otherwise being disruptive. During class, we expect that you will behave with respect and consideration for others. For example, if you are late for lecture, please enter from the back doors and find a seat quickly. If you need to leave early, please choose a seat near the back exit and leave quietly.
          If you must eat during class, do so unobtrusively and clean up after yourself. In a previous year, a student sat in the front row and began to consume a large take-out carton of noodles; she upset the container onto herself and her neighbors. A different student spilled a large Starbucks drink on herself and the floor, flooding nearby classmates and staining their backpacks, shoes, etc. These food-related incidents disrupted the learning environment for several minutes and involved odor, noise, destruction of property, and of course, embarrassment. Please try to eat and drink outside of class time unless it is absolutely necessary for you to have immediate nourishment. 

NOTE-TAKING + LAPTOP POLICY
In lecture and critique, please take written notes by hand in a notebook or digital tablet. DO NOT USE LAPTOPS OR PHONES unless you have a disability accommodation. This policy serves several purposes.
          First, research consistently shows that laptops and phones create significant distraction—multitasking hinders classroom learning not only for the laptop/phone user, but for the surrounding students observing the user. In a foundational design course where we're building visual literacy and attention to detail, maintaining focus matters.
          Second, design education benefits from hand-drawn diagrams and sketch notes. Because research shows that students writing notes by hand are more likely to replicate diagrams and images, we believe that prohibiting laptops and phones will enhance your learning in DESIGN 166. Sketching letterforms, diagramming spatial relationships, and annotating visual examples by hand helps you develop the observational and manual skills central to design practice. While you're welcome to use digital tablets that allow handwriting and drawing, we've found that laptop note-taking doesn't support this kind of active visual thinking; see also this research on handwriting/physical writing. 
          Finally, this is a course about thoughtful attention—to form, to space, to visual relationships. The note-taking approach that best serves our work together is one that keeps you present and engaged with what we're studying.

LECTURE RECORDINGS + ZOOM
Lectures will be held in-person unless UW is closed—or there is a specific reason to use Zoom. Our lecture room is equipped with Panopto, which automatically records videos of our in-person class. Click on "Panopto Recordings" in the left Canvas side menu to access the recordings. Note that technical glitches may occasionally prevent Panopto from properly recording the lecture sessions.
          Regarding Zoom, we will tell the class if and when we choose to any sessions online. We may do this when the technology aids learning, or when circumstances require meeting online (i.e., weather conditions, health issues, etc.).  If Zoom is used for class sessions, Zoom Lecture Recordings can be accessed the day after lecture. To view recordings, click on "Zoom" in the left Canvas side menu, then click the "Cloud Recordings" tab.
          If we do hold class on Zoom, if your internet bandwidth allows, instructors appreciate if you can turn on your camera so that we can see and communicate to each other with humanity. If this is not possible, we appreciate if you can personalize your Zoom account with a photograph of yourself. A positive community forms when students and faculty see each (vs. an empty black box). please feel free to interrupt when you have a question (we can't always see everyone on Zoom). To make the Zoom sessions more interactive, we will ask for student volunteers to:
—Be a "chat captain" by interrupting and reading chat questions/comments out loud
—Be a class timekeeper (this is also valuable in-person, especially during critique sessions)

SUPPLIES
You will need the following supplies listed on this Google sheet by the start of the second week of the quarter. These supplies are available at the UW Bookstore on University Avenue. The School of Art + Art History + Design also has a free materials library for students in Room 318 of the Art Building (hours pending, students may take five free items at each visit).

EQUIPMENT
You will need a camera for this course. Your camera can be a digital SLR, a point-and-shoot camera, or a recent smartphone camera. If using a smartphone camera, please make sure that it can take high-resolution images. For example: an iPhone from 2017 has a 12 megapixel rear camera which creates high resolution photos of 300 pixels-per-inch (ppi) at 10x13 inches. Note that you can (for free) borrow cameras (as well as additional lenses, tripods, laptops, webcams and wifi hotspots) from the UW Student Technology Loan Program (STLP). See information and policies at: https://stlp.uw.edu/

TEXTBOOK + READINGS
All required readings (including excerpts from the books below) are provided on Canvas (see Files > Readings) or as online links in the course calendar.
          For Project 1, several required readings are from The Elements of Visual Grammar by Angela Riechers. We encourage you to read the entire book, which is relatively short (has many images). The book is available as a free e-book (with an unlimited number of readers) through the UW Library system.
          Several chapters from the book How to Be a Design Student by Mitch Goldstein are also required for this class. We encourage you to read the entire book—it is also quite short. This book is available as a free e-book through the UW Library system, but the publisher only allows for one borrower at a time. There are additional print copies of the book that can be checked out from the UW Library or the Summit system.
          Project 2, you will need to read excerpts of Structural Packaging: Design Your Own Boxes and 3D Forms by Paul Jackson. The book is also available as a free e-book (with an unlimited number of readers) through the UW Library system. Previous 166 students said this book was extremely helpful for our ID project and should be required for the course. 

SOFTWARE
For this course, we recommend students use Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator—these programs are the design industry standard. The largest UW computer lab with 2021 Adobe Creative Suite is the Media Production Computers in Odegaard Library. To the best of our knowledge, the following small UW departmental computer labs (with limited hours) also provide access to the 2024 Adobe Creative Cloud: 
—UW iSchool Computer Labs: Room 430 and Room 440 in Mary Gates Hall
—UW College of Built Environments Digital Commons: Room 007 in Gould Hall
—UW School of Art + Art History + Design Computer Center: Room 025B in the Art Building

          If you wish to install Adobe software on your own laptop, it is only available as a subscription service. You can access a free trial subscription for seven days: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/start-with-free-creativecloud.html.  After seven days, student plans start at $24.99 per month; see: https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/buy/students.html
          Because Adobe pricing may be prohibitive, we will also be demonstrating software from Affinity, which is free. For our class, you must watch the following tutorials for the software that you plan to use: 
See Photoshop/ Photo Tutorials 
See Illustrator / Affinity Designer Tutorials 

*Note: Please back up your digital files every time you work. You may use USB sticks, external hard drives, Google Drive, etc. We recommend that you keep at least one copy of your files on a tangible device in your physical possession to prevent issues associated with lack of server access or server failure. 

GRADING
As in any art or design course, grading is subjective. Your final grade is based on the quality of the final projects and your class participation, as assessed by your section instructor. We do try to be transparent in our judgement, and to explain our assessment rationally with logic. However, in cases where students and instructors disagree about the merits of the submitted design work, the instructor view prevails. Note that your specific section instructor will grade your work, in consultation with the entire team of DESIGN 166 instructors. 

Project 1: 30 points
Project 2: 30 points
Project 3: 15 points
Reading Assignments: 5 points (complete/incomplete)
Critique Participation: 5 points (you are present with your own work and provide feedback on others' work)
Canvas Participation: 10 points (you complete Canvas assignments, including uploading work by 1pm on Fridays)
Process Participation: 5 points (you respond to feedback on your work by making well-considered revisions)
---------------------------------------------
TOTAL = 100 points

All Canvas assignments should be submitted on the due date shown. Late assignments that are submitted within the same week as the original due date will receive partial credit (50% point deduction). Late assignments that are submitted after the same week will not receive any credit. We will make exceptions on a case-by-case basis; please email your section instructor to explain your situation. We do understand that students may experience personal emergencies and/or internet outages. However, we encourage you to plan ahead when possible. 

At the conclusion of the quarter, a grading curve is applied. Over the last decade, the DESIGN 166 class average has ranged from 3.3–3.4. This matches the UW grading average across all courses on the Seattle campus.

Students who excel in the course and earn a 3.7 or higher (the top 10% of the class) will be given the option of direct entry into the sophomore level of the design curriculum, bypassing the Design Major Admissions Review. More information on the Design Major Admissions process is online at: https://art.washington.edu/design/bachelor-design-application. If you have questions about the UW Design majors, please post them in this UW Canvas Discussion thread.

PROCESS PARTICIPATION
We try our best to make the course an interesting, exciting, and rewarding educational experience for students. Please note that DESIGN 166 is classified as an experiential class. When you are in class, please plan to actively participate. Your engagement is vital to your learning and will be recorded and counted towards your grade.
          Specifically, during this class you will receive feedback on your work from both faculty and peers during both critique and lecture. To be an effective designer, you need to actively listen to all criticism. Active listening (see "Becoming a Better Listener" from the UW Husky Experience Toolkit) means visibly paying attention—maintaining eye contact, observing body language, asking questions, and taking notes.
          Your notes should capture what is and isn't working in your design—as well as the designs made by other students, as their efforts can and should inform your own work. You can expect that often critics will identify a problem, but not a solution. It isn't always possible to immediately offer a remedy, even if the problem is clear. Good design solutions usually require trial and error, as well as time for reflection.
          However, DO NOT blindly act on every suggestion offered during critique. Not all feedback is accurate, and not all proposed solutions are sound or viable. After critique, you should review your notes carefully, then decide which feedback is coherent with your own vision—and worth acting upon. Ultimately, you are the designer, and you are responsible for the creation and execution of your design.
          Your section instructor will observe you over the course of the quarter and assign you a grade (0 through 5) based on how successfully you have participated in and completed the design process described above. Your score will be higher if you actively solicit feedback from others, and respond to criticism by selectively revising your project. Your score will be lower if you discourage or ignore feedback, and/or fail to modify and develop your design to address known flaws.

FINAL EXAM
As shown on the course calendar, we will be using the final exam time that has been assigned to us by the UW, which is Thursday of finals week, from 8:30-10:20pm in our assigned lecture room. Note that the UW requires all instructors make use of the final exam time, so that students are not forced to complete their final projects in a shorter (and more stressful) time period. 
       Specifically, our last course project will be due online on Canvas on the date and time of our scheduled Final Exam. We guide students through a number of short reflection activities that previous students have rated positively for helping their learning/development/growth overall.
       We do count your presence/participation in the Final Exam as part of your participation points in the course. If you are not present at the Final Exam, you will not receive these participation points.
       Note that we do not consider the desire to leave early for a Spring Break vacation to be a valid excuse for missing the final exam of DESIGN 166. However, if students have a personal, family, or medical emergency that arises unexpectedly, we will provide an excused absence on a case-by-case basis. Please email your section instructor if you already know that you have specific personal, family, or medical situation that prevents you from attending the scheduled final exam for DESIGN 166. 

IN THE EVENT OF ILLNESS
Winter is traditionally a time when respiratory diseases such as colds, flu, RSV, and now COVID-19 spread. UW's face covering policy generally recommends masking in the first two weeks of the quarter, when students return to campus after travelling. Please do not come to class if you are sick with any infectious illness. If you are ill—or if you have a personal emergency—please email your section instructor as soon as possible and we will mark your absence as "excused."  
          To help you catch up from absences, please exchange contact information with at least two other students in your section so that you can review any missed discussions or assignments. Because this is a large class and instructors receive many emails, it's best if you can first review class notes from another student, then e-mail your instructor with any remaining questions. Note that our classrooms do not have in-room technology to record in-person class sessions.
          Please be flexible, patient, supportive, and kind with each other during our course meetings. The pandemic and political environment has been challenging for many of us. This UW article on "beating burnout" may be useful; UW has also increased mental health support for students: https://wellbeing.uw.edu/. Positive, collegial interaction with your peers/classmates is critical to your well-being. Humans are inherently social, and need interpersonal and informal interactions with each other in order to be healthy and alive. 

ACCESS + ACCOMMODATIONS
It is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please activate your accommodations via myDRS so faculty can discuss how they will be implemented in this course. It is a good idea to discuss these accommodations directly with us to ensure that we can help you with your needs.
          If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability that requires accommodations (conditions include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), contact DRS directly to set up an Access Plan. DRS facilitates the interactive process that establishes reasonable accommodations. Contact DRS at disability.uw.edu.

ACADEMIC HONESTY + PLAGIARISM
We expect all students to follow the highest standards for academic integrity. Students may report suspected cheating to instructors via email.

Examples of cheating and plagiarism in DESIGN 166 include (but are not limited to):
—Allowing someone to complete a project for you, or completing a project for someone else.
—Attempting to alter a grade on a project after it has been returned/graded.
—Exact copying of someone else’s design—from a website (Pinterest), book, magazine, or other reference.
—Using another person’s photographs, drawings or illustrations in your projects. You may NOT use stock photography or creative commons material (for example, icons from The Noun Project). Your 166 projects must be made ENTIRELY BY YOU during this quarter; you cannot reuse photographs that were taken prior to this class.

Using typefaces and digital brushes created by others is not considered plagiarism. However, typefaces and digital brush options range widely in visual quality. We will discuss these topics in more detail during lecture and critique

Note that getting help is not cheating or plagiarism! For example, you are encouraged to:
—Ask someone to suggest improvements to your project, then act on those suggestions.
—Ask someone to help you with a digital or manual technique that could improve your project.
—Discuss your project with other students and brainstorm ideas.
—Look at other design work to analyze how and why it works or does not work.

We encourage you to look at design work in order to get general ideas that you subsequently adapt. Designers do commonly get “inspired” from other designers’ work. The key is to make any design idea your own through substantial revision. For example, it’s perfectly fine to see a pattern of dots on something—a dress, a painting—and be inspired to use dots on your own project. However, your projects should use those dots in a unique way to communicate your own vision. The dots should not be a mirror image/exact copy of the original inspiration.

Process for Addressing Academic Misconduct
If instructors in this class suspect design plagiarism, we will ask the student to produce early sketches, process development and original artwork that substantiates their claim of authorship. We do understand that in some cases, students do coincidentally come up with the same idea as another student or professional designer.

Depending on the original artwork produced by the student, instructors may:
—Accept the project as submitted.
—Give the student the option to redo the assignment without penalty.
—Give the student the option to drop the assignment, with the final grade determined by the remaining course work.
—Give the student zero points for the project.

If instructors are unable to determine the best course of action, they will refer the matter to the UW College of Arts & Sciences as a Report of Academic Misconduct. For more information on academic dishonesty and plagiarism, please see: http://guides.lib.uw.edu/c.php?g=345664&p=2331761

AI (Artificial Intelligence) POLICY
As designers we should aim to understand AI and contemplate both its ethical dilemmas and innovative potential. In this course, you are encouraged to use simple AIs such as auto-spell-check and Grammarly to improve your written submissions. You may also use Photoshop tools such as "content-aware fill" to make minor improvements to photographs and illustrations that you have created (e.g., dust removal, etc.) However, you may not:
—Incorporate any part of an AI-generated image in an assignment (e.g., Midjourney, DALL-E)
—Use AI-suggested templates for visual composition/layout
—Submit your own work for this class to online learning platforms for iteration or improvement.

Regarding AI and ideation: You may use AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) as one resource among others during early brainstorming, similar to how you might browse existing work for inspiration or discuss ideas with peers. However, understand that AI tends to generate generic concepts that are not specific to your assigned content/context. Strong projects in this course will demonstrate:
—Deep engagement with the specific content/brief (not just surface-level themes)
—Original visual thinking and execution
—Conceptual development beyond first ideas

In other words, AI-generated suggestions could be starting points for your own thinking, not endpoints. Work that merely executes an AI concept without significant development will not generate good enough outcomes to match those that are expected of you in this course.
          Additionally, there are serious discussions regarding artist rights, plagiarism, and data that any ethical designer should consider. Above all, remember that using generative AI (such as ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) to complete coursework without proper attribution or authorization is a form of academic dishonesty. If you are unsure whether something may be plagiarism or academic dishonesty, please contact your section instructor to discuss the issue.

ACADEMIC SUPPORT FOR 166
We encourage all students to form 166 Study Groups.
Please indicate your interest by suggesting a time and place on this UW Canvas Discussion post.

OPTIONAL WEDNESDAY EVENING STUDY HALL: 6:30-8:00pm in Mary Gates Hall, Room 058
Note: No Wednesday Evening Study Hall during: 1) first week of the quarter or 2) finals week.
The Wednesday Evening Study Hall (previously part of UW CLUE; CLUE tutoring has been eliminated due to UW budget cuts) is an optional session where students can work with each other and/or the undergraduate tutors. Again, this is an ideal time to get project feedback and software help from your classmates.
If you want to reserve a time to speak with a specific undergraduate tutor, please signup on this Google spreadsheet.

OPTIONAL FRIDAY STUDY HALL: Fridays 12:00-1:00pm in Room 236 Art Building
This is a second optional session. The timing allows students to review feedback received during critique with each other. This is an ideal time for brainstorming and software help. A single undergraduate tutor is available to facilitate peer interaction.

The two study hall sessions are supported by undergraduate tutors from the Division of Design
Project 1: Emily Hao and Lee Hardisty (VCD seniors) 
Project 2: Kat Lew and Lew Walker (ID seniors) 
Project 3: Lily-Day Rose and Macks Brooks (IxD senior) 

GENERAL UW ACADEMIC HELP
UW provides free academic success coaching and other free resources to improve study skills via the office of UW Academic Support Programs. The UW Counseling Center also has workshops and support groups on stress management, procrastination/perfectionism, anxiety and mindfulness/meditation. 

STUDY + WORKING SPACES
Unfortunately, we do not have classroom space in the Art Building for students to work on their projects. We suggest that students look for study spaces on the UW Scout search portal. Past 166 students have said that they worked in their dorm common rooms, in the study spaces of the UW libraries, and at UW Maker Spaces. 

GENERAL UW + SOAAHD POLICIES
Please read these official policies of the UW School of Art + Art History + Design. Note that Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request Form.