Happern is a part of Design Lab in Koç University, focusing on interactive information design related research projects. We explore the complex, unexpected, uncommon happenings in human-information, human-human, human-environment and human-system interaction and communications. We spot these weird situations; we analyze them, we ideate, dream and design for them while looking for authentic interaction patterns.

And we do not work alone. We collaborate and team up with a network of people with similar interests. We walk this path together with people who like expressing themselves through visual language since they were kids, spending hours in front of maps examining numerous information; playing and tinkering with objects and nature to discover how things work and how they are constructed; collecting any kind of weird and inspirational stuff to imagine novel artifacts.

If you think you are one of us, why don’t you join in? One way we can work together is applying for graduate degree in Koç University. Below you can find the details how you can apply for Non-Thesis or Thesis MA, and Phd.

MA, MA-non-thesis, and PhD Candidates

There is an all time open call in the Design, Technology and Society Program, in Koç University. You can be apart of our research team by joining the post-graduate program. As mentioned on the DTS website;

“This graduate program aims to provide students with an opportunity to acquire an applied, theoretical, and critical understanding of interactive communication, experience design and service design, and to develop as researchers and practitioners. The Design, Technology & Society graduate program offers students the options of completing the program with a graduation project (MDes Degree), a master’s thesis (MA Degree), or a doctoral thesis (PhD degree).”

For this program, you can learn how to apply through this link.

And you can check from these links to learn about what we do and current ongoing research projects.

For Koç Undergrad Students; Work&Study, Independent Study, MAVA 444 and 446 Project Courses

Koç University undergraduate students from any department can apply to join our research projects and processes using one of the following methods:

Work&Study; Koç students can do work-study in KUAR and participate in research studies. Details of the work&study program can be found in this link.

Indep Study, MAVA 444 or 446 Courses; Students can get in contact with Evren Yantaç, to apply for taking an independent study which will count as a 3 credit course. These students can work on a practical design study, user experience study or write a paper about Happern’s focus areas.

Summer Research Program for University Students

University students from all around the world can apply for a summer research program in our group. This program is organized by the VPRD. The duration of the program is at least 7 weeks. In case of their acceptance to the program, they work closely with our group and their research groups that include graduate and PhD students. Students are exposed to a broad range of new concepts and research techniques which help to improve their independent thinking and creativity. All students will be given participation certificate upon completing the program successfully. The medium of instruction is English, unless otherwise specified by the project owner academician. For further information click this link. 

Other Ways of Collaboration

We are looking for designers, cognitive psychologists, sociologists, engineers with programming or development backgrounds for many different needs within our research projects.

If you’re an engineer, please check our latest call for several ways of collaboration.

We are open to any one who is interested in maps, spatio-temporal data, visualizing complex data, experience design, autism, interaction under disabling conditions, augmented reality, user interface design as well.

We are open to volunteering as well as partnership. We make use of participatory design methods such as design workshops. So you can also join our workshops or other events.  If your are interested in working with us, please feel free to get in contact. Contributors of our studies can also join the “KUAR Yaratıcı Genç Gönüllüler” Program. You can learn more about the program via this link.