About the course

Design Processes IDM108 2013, Industrial Design, Konstfack

Teachers

Ramia Mazé, ramia.maze@konstfack.se, 0705942932
Jenny Althoff, jenny.althoff@konstfack.se, 0736101218

Examiner
Professor Bo Westerlund

Students

Ela Celary
Nelson Hardie
Tove Johnson
Fanny Karlsson
Jenny Markstedt
Lorenzo Polo
Anna Clara Rendahl
Maren Skyrudsmoen
Frida Åberg

Guests

Martin Avila, Konstfack
Brendon Clark, design anthropologist, Interactive Institute Swedish ICT
Magnus Lindförs, Konstfack
Mikael Lindström and personnel from Innventia
Jack Mama, Electrolux
Others to be announced

Course description

In this course, students explore ways to conduct design processes. The design field is always expanding – in addition to established settings in industry, industrial designers today work in a wide range of contexts, with many experts, stakeholders and users. Such complex settings of design work may require additional perspectives and methods. In this course, we will explore different ways of thinking about and working in the expanded field of design. From a basis in material and ‘designerly’ processes, the aim is to develop students’ experience with and knowledge of different perspectives and methods. Through trying out different perspectives and methods, the goal is that students will be better able to articulate their design processes, method(s) and role(s) as designers. After the course, students should have a wider and deeper repertoire, or toolkit, of approaches to choose from when creating a relevant design process.

Perspectives

As a source of inspiration, the course will start by sharing a focus with the project ‘From Materiality to Policymaking’, an ongoing research project funded by Mistra, led by Mikael Lindström (Innventia), Bo Westerlund and Jenny Althoff (Konstfack). The project develops design-led research on cellulose-based textile, a material that is more sustainable than many others but which as yet is limited in its applications and acceptance in the public sector and care settings. In this course, we will explore the qualities of this material and possible uses. The course unfolds as a sequence of perspective that build on one another:

• Material
• Commercial
• Service
• Critical

From a starting point in a material (assignment 1), the students will gradually develop one or more design proposal(s), in which they consider commercial applications and values (assignment 2), explore complex user settings and service systems (assignment 3), and speculate critically on the darker sides of its (mis)uses and ethical dimensions (assignment 4).

Results of the course will include student’s design proposal(s) (compiled in a blog). Primary focus will be on the students’ design processes. Thus, students may choose to develop or diverge from the Mistra project focus. They may choose to stay close to their first proposal and carefully iterate in relation to the additional perspectives, or to more substantially reformulate in design proposals for the additional perspectives. These decisions should follow the logic of the student’s own processes, which they shall communicate clearly. Additional results will include student’s reflections on process (a compilation of journal entries) and student’s methods (in the form of a toolkit).

Students’ journals and design proposals are done individually, but exploration, readings, and the toolkit can be done in smaller or bigger groups.

Teaching and Learning Activities

A series of assignments guide the perspective, tasks, methods and results. A new assignment is given every 1 or 2 weeks – when the assignment is given, a hand-out will be distributed digitally (and perhaps also on paper) with details.

Assignments 
1 – Material
2 – Commercial
3 – Service (in conjunction with ‘Research Inquiries’ course and with Brendon Clark)
4 – Toolkit
5 – Critical (parts may be in conjunction with critical studies at KTH ABE)

Assignments may include one or more of the following

• Lecture – by course or guest teachers

• Field trip, workshop, tutorial

• Reading(s) and reading circle
Each assignment (and the course intro) will come with one or more readings, to deepen knowledge of specific perspectives/methods. Each student will be responsible for one reading per assignment. Readings will be provided digitally (PDF via Dropbox) when an assignment is given. Readings will be discussed in scheduled ‘reading circles’, which involves discussions in small groups, short summaries and group discussion. More specific instructions will be provided.

• Show-&-tell, critique, peer-critique
Since the course will build up out of a series of assignments, discussions will take place around a series of more informal or in-process half-day ‘show-&-tell’s. Instructions for which aspects of students’ design processes or proposals to highlight in show-&-tells will be provided in assignment hand-outs. There will be one cumulative, whole-day critique tentatively scheduled for Jan 17. Guests will be invited to show-&-tells and critiques. The course will conclude with a ‘peer-critique’, an internal reflective activity in the class.

Coursework

• Design proposals
Rather than the terms design project or product, which may imply resolution or finality of a particular form, we speak of ‘design proposal’ here (Krippendorff, 2008). A design proposal may be preliminary or unfinished, it may take many forms. Characteristics of a design proposal include: that it articulate the actions and consequences of the design suggested, that it should account for the resources and knowledge involved, that it should account for how it is realistic, that it is meaningfully motivated, and that it is convincing even in opposition.

• Toolkit
Methods will be explored and generated within students’ work in the course, which will be reflected upon and gathered together into some kind of methodological toolkit. This could take many forms, including maps, instructions, stories, props, questions, etc. It may be collective (for the whole class) or individual. How this looks, what it contains, who it is for, will be discussed and decided in class.

• Journal
This course focuses on process, and one way of keeping track of what happens, breakthroughs and struggles, is a journal. Students will be asked to turn in written/visual reflections on a regular basis, which will also be discussed in periodic tutorials. The form of the journal is up to each student, it could be a physical sketchbook or notebook, or it could take a digital form. Journal entries should be submitted by email to Ramia Mazé on due dates, in digital form (pdf, doc, jpg or other common format). These materials will not be shared in class or on the blog unless the student does so themselves.

• Blog
Design proposals and other tasks will be documented publically on the course blog. More specific instructions will be given in each assignment. Each student is responsible for posting to the blog on due dates.

Grades and forms of assessment

Course grades are pass or fail. Active participation in class is required for a passing grade. In between class meetings, students are responsible for reading, reflecting and developing their own processes in the studio, workshops or in the field. Students will have responsibility for parts of the course such as the reading circles, toolkit and blog. Students present their work in show-&-tells throughout the course and email/upload journal entries and blog posts. Key dates are listed below and meetings are listed in the assignments. Students must notify of absence in advance as much as is possible and may be given extra tasks in case of absence. Through participation and results, students should be able to prove that they have achieved the intended learning outcomes of the course.

Readings

Required readings will be provided in digital form (PDF in Dropbox). The first 2 readings will be given on the first day of class, further readings will be specified in each assignment hand-out.

Schedule

The schedule is continually updated on this blog. Note: There will be changes in the schedule and more guest teachers participating in the course.