kay's

Anna Schwaninger’s Bachelor Thesis

After having collected oodles of data from an assignment I gave to our students in the course Ways of Thinking in Informatics in the winter semester of 2020/21, where they had to interview each other on their social media usage and then conceptualise social media designs that are better for well-being, I was sitting around […]

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Blackmirror for Design Education

Back when I was teaching game designers, I always liked to use what I called the “Blackmirror Recipe”: Pick a technology or a social or other phenomenon that is unique to your world Create a character who is impacted by this phenomenon Think about worst case unfolding of events (revolving around the phenomenon) for this […]
Peter Zahradnik’s Bachelor Thesis

I had the pleasure of supervising Peter‘s bachelor’s thesis — Design of a female character that actively opposes the sexist stereotypes in League of Legends — and I am unbelievably proud of his written and practical work, which reflects the unfaltering dedication for justice in design that has shaped his path as a fledgling game […]
Knowledge Management: Zotero is Bae

Good news: I have found a good system of managing and archiving my knowledge. My remembrance structure has improved insanely these last couple of months. Unexpectedly, the more my flow improved, the less I took notes – these days, I directly write everything into the working file, and only open my notebook when I take […]
Knowledge Management: Twitter Notes

Right now, I’m obsessed with finding a way to better archive and manage all the stuff I learn on account of having a sieve for brains. I use Evernote at the moment, where my thoughts are gathered in a wild flurry of digital notes (interspersed with links, sketches, and so on) not too different from […]
Teaching Reflections: Our twisted perception of creative work

As I skim the more than 250 student feedbacks about a condensed speculative design assignment they did (described more closely in this post), I find many, many answers along the lines of “I’m not good at drawing” “I’m not very creative” “I was so happy we were allowed to do something free and imaginary, even […]
Teaching Reflections: Good Calls by Mistake

The semester is over, and I haven’t updated my research blog this entire time – because I haven’t done any research. Turns out co-organising a course with ~600 students is a full-time job, so I was unable to get much of anything else done during the winter semester. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind […]
Criticism is Care: The “Science” of Well-being

I completed half the course in a day in an onset of curiosity and impatience (my worst but most fruitful personality traits) – it’s a great overview, providing what it should: a gateway, guidance and a thorough overview of the field. I did recommend it to many of my friends, as a solid crash course […]