Social Human Factors

Instructor

Ben Jacobson

This course will help students develop skills in identifying Social Human Factors relevant to solving contemporary design and business problems. Social Human Factors are those that relate to group interactions and shared usage. Family, team, work group, religious group and activity- based groups all provide particular social contexts within which significantly impact design criteria. Through weekly fieldwork assignments students will combine theory with research practice to better understand design problems and business opportunities.

Methods

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Base Framework: Structure, Function, Representation and Reproduction and Exchange

Format & Grading

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Class One: Introduction

Lecture: What is (and is not) a social human factor? How do social human factors apply to
design?

Generally Helpful Readings

Coser and Rosenberg. Sociological Theory: A Book of Readings; Second Edition. The Macmillan
Company, 1964.
Chapters 3 (p. 55-86), p. 358-366

Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred. Structure and Function in Primitive Society. 1952
Chapters Intro, 1, 10

THE SOCIAL CONTRACT OR PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL RIGHT
by Jean Jacques Rousseau 1762
Translated by G. D. H. Cole, public domain
Rendered into HTML and text by Jon Roland of the Constitution Society
http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon.htm

Schneider, David M. American Kinship: A Cultural Account. 1968
Chapter 4 (p57-75)

Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday, 1959.
Seminal work on human behavior in social situations. Chapters Intro, 1, 2 & 3 (p. 1-140)

Form Follows WHAT ?
The modernist notion of function as a carte blanche*
By Jan MICHL
http://www.geocities.com/janmichl/jm-eng.fff-hai.html

Class Two: Social Structure

Lecture: How do we make sense of social roles? What is the difference between structure and
function within social groups?

Assigned Reading for next week

Exerpts from Durkheim and Evans Pritchard’s The Nuer,

Illinois Institute of Technology: INSTITUTE OF DESIGN
Social Human Factors
gy: INSTITUTE OF DESIGN
Social Human Factors

Class Three: Social Roles, Rules and Regulation

Lecture: The construction and maintenance of social norms, rules and meanings

Assigned Reading for the week

Goffman, Erving. Behavior in Public Places. New York: The Free Press, 1963.
Chapters 9 and 10 (p.151-178)

Jacobs, Jane. The Life and Death of Great American Cities.
Chapter on sidewalks

Class Four: Boundaries and Representation

Lecture: How are Roles, membership and rules communicated? How do we know when they are
being contested?

Assigned Reading for the week

Rubinstein, Ruth P. Dress Codes: Meaning and Messages in American Culture. Westview
Press Inc., 1995.
Chapters 15 & !6 (p. 191-222)

Oldenburg, Ray. The Great Good Place. Paragon House, 1989
Chapters 2, 6 & 7

Class Five: Social Reproduction

Lecture: How is it that groups reproduce themselves and handle issues of change?

Assigned Reading for the week

Moffatt, Michael. Coming of Age in New Jersey: College and American Culture. 1944
Chapter 3

Membership? What is in a name? Voting Rituals? Firehouse folk lore?

Class Six: Forms of Exchange and Social economies

Lecture: How and what do individuals and groups exchange in both everyday and extra-ordinary
moments?

Assigned Reading for the week

Moore, Joan W., Homeboys: Gangs, Drugs and Prison in the Barrios of Los Angles,
ch 5 Temple University Press 1978.
Folk objects? Kula Ring? Rumours? Reciprocity? Prestige? Visibility? Pigs for the ancestors?

Illinois Institute of Technology: INSTITUTE OF DESIGN
Social Human Factors
gy: INSTITUTE OF DESIGN
Social Human Factors

Assignments

Week 1
none

Week 2
Each student will observe and document a single environment for a minimum of 2 hours.
Environments should be selected that provide ample opportunity to observe social interactions.
Prepare your observations for sharing with the class Week 3.

Week 3
Each student will observe and document the social behavior of an individual. Follow this
individual through a number of social experiences during the course of a one to two day period.
Prepare your observations for sharing with the class Week 4.

Week 4
Each student will observe and document a day in the life of a shared object. Follow or observe
this object over the course of a defined period of time.
Prepare your observations for sharing with the class Week 5.

Week 5-6
Each student will choose a group with which they can participate and observe. Drawing upon
your experiences and learning from Weeks 2-4 select appropriate research strategies, observe,
participate and document routine group activities.

Prepare your observations for sharing with the class via posting up.

Week 7
Looking back looking ahead at our collection of Social Human Factors. What have we learned?
How will we approach the design of social objects, spaces and systems differently?

Course grading
This course is graded based upon weekly class participation in discussion and sharing of
observation materials.