Industrial design education: Taming technology to enhance user experience

Abstract

Background The world we live in today is dramatically different than the world at the turn of the century. Over the past two decades, new technologies and social change have provided opportunities to radically reshape the way we live, work and play. The cellphone, the internet, wireless communication and miniaturized sensor-based technologies have profoundly altered our daily lives. But how well have we done as designers to take advantage of these changes? And how well have we done as design educators in leveraging these technologies to the benefit of our students and society? Industrial Design is very much a discipline in transition. As designers and design educators we have the opportunity and responsibility to reposition and redefine the role of Industrial Design as a key strategic vehicle to reshape the future. But how do we find space in an already packed curriculum to interject substantive new material without losing the core values of the discipline. The term "Taming Technology" in the context of this research refers to the designer's goal to create products, systems, and services that are accessible, effective, and meaningful for their intended audience and user base. Methods This empirical research traces 20 years of active engagement in design curriculum development. It builds from the evolving role of industrial design in modern society seen through the eyes of two designers/design educators from distinctly different generations and distinctly different cultural backgrounds who have integrated research from the field tempered by their experience in both design education and practice. Results The result is a new curriculum designed to postion ID students to effectively leverage new technologies in support of human centered design in response to recent thinking in industrial design practice together with changes in social trends and their implications for business and industry. Conclusions The current iteration of this design curriculum integrates key contextual drivers that differentiate the design profession from many other disciplines that focus more exclusively on optimizing the utility and performance of the technology itself. The research begins to build a set of recommendations to serve as guidelines representing best practices for integrating new technologies into the design curriculum while maintaining a clear focus on enhancing user experience.