Parts of Speech: Reimagining Computing Through Verbs  Fall 2026, Project Seminar, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

 Every interface is built from actions. We click, tap, swipe, scroll, and cancel, and each of these verbs carries a history and a worldview about the body, attention, and who computing is for. Those verbs now do more than they once did: with large language models and text-to-form tools, a word can call a world into being in seconds, so the words a designer reaches for carry real weight. Architecture has long issued its own verbs, telling the hand what to perform and the body where to be, and interfaces do the same work in another material. This seminar takes verbs as its subject. Its method is the action study, where a single verb is followed across scales, from the screen to the object to the building to the city. The first half examines one computing verb per week, tracing its etymology, its metaphors, and the field's role in inventing, standardizing, and teaching it. The second half turns critical, interrogating the worlds those actions build, who built them, and what was left out. Each student then proposes a new verb, reimagines computing through it, and builds one scale as a playable interaction. Students will be introduced to UI/UX practice, representational strategies, and the fundamentals of visual communication.

HOUSE — Jenny Rodenhouse

Designer — Educator
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