Designing Sociable Media
MIT's Media Arts and Sciences course looks at how people interact through computer-mediated networks and asks students to design for it directly. Weekly readings pair with hands-on design assignments covering data-based portraiture, ways to depict growth and change over time, and visualizations of conversations, crowds, and networks. Later sessions turn to interfaces for the connected city and mobile social technologies, pushing students to prototype interactive systems rather than just critique existing ones. The course is project-based throughout, building visual and interactive literacy through repeated cycles of assignment and critique instead of exams. Materials are published through MIT OpenCourseWare under a Creative Commons license, including the syllabus, assignment briefs, and reading lists, free to access with no certificate offered. It suits anyone interested in interaction design, social computing, or data visualization who wants a structured, assignment-driven introduction rather than a single lecture.