Discover Industrial Design Engineering 2021 | Brochure Bachelor IDE

As designers we are rarely satisfied. Whether we are developing innovations in healthcare, redesigning part of the public transport system, or – as in this case – renewing our faculty’s education, there’s always another improvement to be made. Our unrelenting focus on a better future state, combined with the nature of a design process which encourages many iterations, means we find it hard to draw a line. We are unable to pat ourselves on the back and say “job well done”. So today, I am going to do it for you.

What an amazing job! If I could, I would be awarding a bunch of Pluimen, but suffice to say that this booklet pays testament to your inspired work: a community-wide effort to redesign our Bachelor of Industrial Design Engineering. I want to express how proud I am of each and every one of you who has contributed. Thank you! First and foremost I want to pay homage to the passionate lecturers, coaches and education support staff. You’ve given your all in this process! Whether your role has been in the details - designing individual courses, or aligning all the components with our overall vision, thank you. We would not be doing this without you. Your creativity, expertise and commitment have been crucial in this process – bumpy as it was - due to the unforeseen pandemic. And to those staff new to the faculty or yet to be involved, we hope you feel inspired to bring our plans to life! I want to thank the partners inside and outside the University who have acted as critical friends – keeping us relevant to the needs of society. After all, this is the underlying reason for our bachelor renewal: we want to arm Delft designers with the knowledge and competencies to disarm complexity, empowering them to design a better future for people and society. Finally, my sincere gratitude goes to our wonderful students who are a continual source of optimism, inspiration and energy. Thank you for contributing to a programme which will prepare IDE students to design with impact for many years to come. Now let’s enjoy the fruits of our labour and get ready for the start!

Ena Voûte,

Dean

At IDE, our design education never stands still. We spot opportunities and we eagerly test them out. We see things that don’t work well and find ways to fix them. But despite this culture of innovation, a complete redesign of the bachelor is not something one undertakes lightly. With more than 2,000 students following IDE courses at any one time, the renewal process has had to run in parallel to the usual pressures of the academic calendar. Small wonder then that this is the first time the faculty has embarked on a complete overhaul of the BSc programme since 2007. It may have been a Herculean Effort for each of us involved, but for me, as Director of Education, there are no regrets. The new programme is nothing less than inspiring. This booklet gives a taste of what is on offer but the legacy of this process will become even more visible in the years to come as IDE students become skilled alumni, applying their design skills developed here in Delft, to a world of challenges that await. What an honour to be part of this process and work with you all. Thank you.

Ruud Balkenende,

Director of Education

It started in Rotterdam’s Hotel New York – a fitting location for the voyage we were about to embark on. Equipped with flip charts and marker pens we mapped out the vision for our renewed bachelor. Today, as we navigate the final leg of our journey, we find ourselves working from home, grappling with Miro and Teams. Corona may have blown us temporarily off course, but one thing has remained constant. And I don’t mean our commitment to sticky notes. What’s amazes me is the unwavering commitment of the IDE community in creating a programme which prepares IDE students to become the designers the world needs. This commitment and passion has translated into the inspiring courses that you can discover in this booklet. It also helps inform the overall design of the bachelor, which challenges students across a broad range of attainment blocks, covering everything from domain knowledge and research to professional development, communication and collaboration. These attainment blocks, together with the design competencies that they help foster, will lay the foundations for our students to become the skilled design practitioners or researchers of tomorrow. It will build their ability to navigate uncertainty and ambiguity, integrate a growing number of perspectives, frame design challenges, generate concepts, visualise and prototype and finally evaluate impact, fuelling their success in designing for a complex and challenging future. To understand and practice these competencies, the new curriculum has been structured in such a way that students are always doing designing. Theory acquired in the content courses is constantly applied in design projects where students get to prototype and test their ideas. There’s also an emphasis on an active learning attitude with students taking responsibility for their own learning and development, preparing them to be the confident new designers ready to make their impact on their world. I can’t wait to see their results!

Sylvia Mooij,

Bachelor renewal coordinator 7

Index

Creating change & impacting the world

Semester 1 DP 1: Diving into Design Understanding Product Engineering Understanding Design Understanding Organisations Understanding Humans

15 17 19 21 23 25

Semester 2 DP 2: Designing Product-Services Digital Product Development Research for Design Understanding Values Digital Interfaces

27 29 31 33 35 37

Semester 3 DP 3: Designing System Interventions Product Dynamics Data Envisioning the Future Sustainable Impact

39 41 43 45 47 49

Semester 4 DP 4: Designing for Society Strategic Brand Management Business Model Design Codesign in Services Materials & Manufacturing Mechatronics Machine Learning for Design Design Communications & Visualisations Leadership & Project Organisation Mastering Research Methods Human Factors & Ergonomics Experience, Motivation and Behaviour Culture & Society

51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73 75 77

Semester 6 Design for the Circular Economy Reimagining Mobility Health Identity & Portfolio Entrepreneurial Innovation by Design Design Engineering Contest Biomechanics of Product Use Design Analytics Form & Senses Design Didactics DP 5: Bachelor Final Project

79 81 83 85 87 89 91 93 95 97 99 101

Creating change & impacting the world The only constant is change, but these days the rate of change is accelerating. But whether it’s shifts in the rapid process of digitalisation or the demand for widely available personalised healthcare – the Industrial Design bachelor programme will make sure the designers of the future are ready. Our renewed bachelor prgramme will teach students to initiate and shape future transitions, shifting towards designs that address sustainable products and services, healthier living, and better mobility. The programme will empower students to analyse, shape, and innovate, connecting the potential of new technologies with the needs of people, organisations, and society. Besides the pillars People, Organisations and Technology, the renewed bachelor is designed with tho principles in mind: • Always Designing: Students learn how to design by continuously doing design. • Adopt an active learning attitude: Our teaching methods aim to stimulate an active learning stance, while students are challenged to take responsibility for their own learning process and development.

Structure of the Bachelor’s The Bachelor is a three-year programme. Each academic year consists of four quarters, lasting 10 weeks each. The primary language is Dutch, but a number of courses and a lot of the materials are delivered in English. Throughout the first two years, students work on semester-long design projects. These projects are based on real-world scenarios and challenge students to integrate knowledge developed during the courses. Students get to create visualisations and prototypes that make their designs tangible, enabling user-testing and communication with stakeholders. In the fourth semester there is space for electives within four themes. This allows students to choose the direction they want while still developing in a broad way. Each semester consists of four extra courses, consisting of theory and practical exercises. Each course concludes with an exam, assignment/report or presentation. In the third and final year, students take a minor in the fifth semester. And in the sixth semester, they will take three free electives and work full-time on the Bachelor End Project (BEP) for ten weeks.

Curriculum

YEAR 1

YEAR 2

SEMESTER 1

SEM

Design Project 1

Desig

Understanding Product Engineering

Understanding Organisations

Digit

Understanding Design

Understanding Humans

Rese

SEMESTER 3

SEM

Design Project 3

Desig

Product Dynamics

Envisioning the Future

Elect

Data

Sustainable Impact

Elect

SEMESTER 5

SEM

Elect

Minor

YEAR 3

Elect

Design Project Technology 12

People Organisation

G El

riculum

SEMESTER 2 Design Project 2

Digital Product Development

Understanding Values

Research for Design

Digital Interfaces

SEMESTER 4 Design Project 4

Elective Organisations

Elective Skills

Elective Technology

Elective People

SEMESTER 6 Elective A

Design Project 5 Bachelor Final Project

Elective B

Elective C

General Elective 13

Semester 1 Introduction to IDE Welcome to the Industrial Design Engineering’s (IDE) bachelor’s programme. In the first design project you start by doing smaller assignments to learn about various aspects within the field of design. Once these are completed, you design a product set within clearly defined boundaries. In courses that run parallel to this, you learn the basics of the three pillars of design – people, organisations, and technology. Additionally, you get to see how design is viewed in our faculty, what our visions are, and how complex the field of design has become. By framing the domains, the complex field of design becomes manageable. The more you learn, the more you see that these three pillars are interconnected.

Illustrations by Marinka Roest.

DP 1: Diving into Design by Silje Dehli Let’s unpack design. What is design really about? As a designer, what motivates you, what are you curious about, what challenges you, what scares you? Through experiential learning, this course will lay the foundation for the bachelor’s programme, creating an understanding and a context for what is to come. This is the beginning of a journey. This course helps to build a foundation of understanding of what designing is about and what lies ahead. First, consider the state of being consciously unqualified. Recognising that there is a lot that you don’t know, but you’re willing to start learning. With a focus on experience, learning by doing and thinking, delve into the six main competences of designing – navigating, integrating, framing, concepting, visualising/prototyping and evaluating. Explore how to use these competences through four micro projects, tackling different design challenges. It’s not about the results, it’s about the process, about gaining knowledge, sharing experiences, and reflecting. Then, start the climb towards becoming more qualified. Experience the realisation of design, when it gets more concrete, more tangible and you deliver a design from the bottom up. Through this experience, gain an understanding of what it feels like to be a designer and develop your own design process, preparing for the journey ahead.

“I think it’s really exciting to be teaching this course at the beginning of the programme, being the ones setting the scene, giving the students a foundation. We give students the opportunity to experience and play around with design, but then also help them establish an attitude or mindset of wanting to learn.”

Students disassembling products.

Understanding Product Engineering by Bas Flipsen When you look at an object, what do you see? The exterior is what meets the eye, but this course aims to explore what’s behind, underneath or inside. To take a physical object and do a product autopsy, with the goal of developing an understanding and appreciation for how products are made. Think of your smartphone. It may have a sleek exterior, but there’s so much more to it than you see at a glance. Through the process of disassembling products, we learn what’s under the surface. This course aims to inspire an appreciation for physical objects, the notion of looking at them from a different perspective. It’s about understanding products and product architectures. How are products physically made and how are parts connected with each other? What is the function of each part and how do they add up to the main function? Thinking about a part and why it’s engineered that way. How are things made and what would happen when you use a different material? Does it still function as it should? Get a basic understanding of every day products and how they are materialized. Learn to analyse a product and all of its interconnections. Explore the importance of sustainability and not disposing of products so easily. Ultimately, gain an appreciation for physical design which is useful for Design Project 1 as well as other future design projects. “I hope this course gets students to see products from a different perspective, to think about them differently than before. When they walk through a shop to look at a product not just as something to buy but to reason how it’s made, used, manufactured, why it exists. I really want to get students enthusiastic about physical objects.”

Collage by Ianus Keller

Understanding Design by Bregje van Eekelen & Ianus Keller Design is all around us, not just in objects, but in everything that we see or do. It’s ambitious to try and understand what it really is. This course offers an introductory encounter with the field of design. It’s a sense-making exploration to provide a framework and a critical thinking toolkit, preparing students for their studies and beyond. Welcome to Design 101. As one of the first encounters with the field of industrial design engineering, this course introduces the conventions, language and constructs that are the basis for the academic journey that lies ahead. Through immersive experiences, learn about key concepts in the field of design. Explore the history and changes of design, how production and consumption have shifted over the years. Consider how that influences the way we design and who we design for. Prepare yourself for an uncertain future. Develop critical thinking skills and a contextualising mindset to understand and deal with challenges. Build a design vocabulary and learn to be mindful of the perspectives of others. Participate in debates on topics like capitalism and politics and the role they play in design. Discover how design, society and culture influence each other. With a lens of curiosity, learn how to feel and sense the expanse of the designed world. And maybe even become slightly obsessed with the field of design. “We want our students to be curious and to become even more curious. We want them to have a questioning mindset. We are not telling them this is how it is, but we want to equip them with the tools to encounter design methods and problems, to be able to unpack a toolkit and get to work.”

Photo: ‘Lone tree’, Troy Williams, 2018. Released via Unsplash. Illustration: Astrid Rutten, 2021.

Photo: ‘Mist over a field 3’, Mirjam Aarbodem-van der Geur, 2021. Released under CC BY-NC-SA via We Like Sharing, Flickr. Illustration: Astrid Rutten, 2021.

Understanding Organisations by Sander Mulder Organisations are somewhat like trees, with roots, trunks and branches that extend in different directions. Only if designers understand the roots of organisations can they make a difference and give rise to novel branches. Increasingly, designers shape organisations creatively and responsibly by devising new key collective goals that address the challenges of our time. Everyone has a lived experienced being part of an organisation, be it with a school, hospital or company. Tapping into that experience, this course aims to bring a deeper understanding of organisations, to look at them from three perspectives: technical, interpretative and critical. Explore how to categorise, interpret and produce knowledge about organisations while making use of key thinkers and renowned examples that shaped the study of organisations. Such efforts to create general understanding helps with developing a critical view of organisations, with an eye to what they could become while considering the consequences for stakeholders and society. Learn to think beyond the status quo, recognising that we cannot solve today’s problems with the thinking of today. Use this to propose a specific change within an organisation. Part of a designer’s job is to make sense. This course can be applied to Design Projects 1, 2 and 4 and relates to other courses that require an understanding of organisations.

“Students should experience that they can plant new trees or branches. By clarifying their own aspirations and understanding the dynamics of organisations they can deliberately conceive triggers that set people into motion.”

Understanding Humans by Valentijn Visch Design for humans, with humans, and from a human perspective. In order to design well for people, it is essential to understand them. This course is an exploration through personal experience of building an understanding of human theory. By getting to know yourself you can better understand others and apply this in design practice. Working with and for people is an important part of design. This course lays a foundation for understanding humans by providing a toolbox of theoretical concepts and looking at how they can be linked to humans. Explore three different perspectives on how to approach humans as a designer. First, consider Human Factors including physical, perceptual and cognitive ergonomics. Then dive into the Human Experience with topics including emotions, aesthetics & meaning, and motivation & behaviour. Finally, look at the Human Context through cultural & social, political & economic contexts as well as the context of daily life. Discover the importance of design research. Participate in discussions that build understanding of the concepts and develop critical thinking skills. Learn to ask the right questions, how to build an argument and defend your position. Reflect on your own human experiences to explore the personal relevance of the theoretical concepts. This course is directly linked with Design Project 1 and is also relevant to further design studies.

“I really want students to understand the relevance of theory for a designer. We are academic designers and design researchers and I think the motivation and the inspiration that you can gain from theory is important to learn. In our course we will try to make this explicit, how theory can be inspirational for designers.”

Semester 2 Product-services After the first products are designed in Semester 1, it’s time to take the next step. This includes exploring the digital side of design in Semester 2. By quickly going through design iterations, concept product-services are created. The knowledge you gain in Semester 1 is expanded upon in the courses taught in Semester 2. The interaction between people and digital technology plays a central role in all of this. You learn how to conduct research for design projects and how to create value with a product-service for a user and an organisation. By the end of the year, you will have taken your first steps towards embracing complexity.

DP 2: Designing ProductServices by Zoltan Rusak These days digital technologies are everywhere. Designers need to understand them in order be leaders in creating innovative solutions. This course is about agile design and innovation approaches in the context of digital product-service systems. It’s about looking to the future and creating impact and value in a responsible way. Let’s get digital. Agile innovation is key in the fast-paced world of digital products and product-service systems. If it takes too long, you are doing it wrong. This project-oriented course prepares designers to engage with digital technologies using lean innovation methods. As a starting point, take an existing product-service system like a smart device. Use research methods to explore user needs and find new ways of using this technology. Formulate an idea that has the potential to create impact and value for stakeholders. Practice visualisation, envisioning the future context of this product-service system. Experiment with the new concept by first creating and then validating assumptions about desirability, viability and feasibility. Develop a digital prototype and evaluate it with end users. Then assess the impact it will have on society in order to propose a sustainable business model. Ultimately, put into practice the knowledge gained in other theoretical courses to produce innovative digital solutions. “It’s inspiring when students develop a solution that actually hits the market. I hope to see them creating concepts and novel solutions that might be interesting for companies to take further like product-service systems that break away from the current trends and actually introduce some sort of change within society.”

Prototyping with code to shape the behavior of digital products, solo and through pair programming.

Specifying software solutions with a holistic understanding of the requirements.

Digital Product Development by Jacky Bourgeois Programming is not just for computer scientists any more. Being a designer in this rapidly evolving digital world doesn’t mean you need to be a software developer. But, learning basic digital knowledge and skills will prepare you to fully and confidently engage with stakeholders throughout the product development process. This course introduces designers to the digital knowledge and skills needed to effectively and responsibly engage throughout the design process of digital products and services. It’s about learning new development processes because developing software is quite different from developing a tangible product. Take a high-level look at the internet and networking technologies like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as data and how it drives algorithms. Learn about the important role the designer can play in crafting these algorithms instead of letting them just be crafted by computer scientists. Learn the basics of programming using Python. Look at business models for digital technologies as well as learn about e-waste. And explore the responsibility designers have in influencing design choices that may impact privacy and security issues related to a product or service. In a technology-driven world, this course gives designers the knowledge, skills and confidence to be an integral part of a multifaceted design process.

“I think it’s quite exciting to teach digital skills to designers. I want to give them the opportunity and the encouragement to try and fail. There really is no such thing as failure, but being willing to take a little more risk creates plenty of opportunities to learn.”

Sensitizing excersizes.

Research for Design by Marijke Melles Human-Centred Design is a process that begins with investigating users, their needs, and the systems around them. Research is an integral part of the process, which helps establish a well-defined problem so that you can design the right solution. And good research requires curiosity, openmindedness and an eye for what’s going on in the world around. This course explores how to do research and how to implement it in your design process. There are many ways to describe the design process, but one way to look at it is that in order to find the right solution you first have to find the right problem. Defining the problem means asking questions like what are the motives or behaviours of the people you are designing for and what is the bigger system they are part of? Once you have the right problem, you can design the right solution. The Delft design process thrives on research: research with users, research into the social-technical ecosystems they are part of, research into usability and into materials. Learn how to define the right research questions, how to analyse the findings or data and how to use that in your design process. Explore different research techniques like interviewing, observing and using questionnaires. Then put knowledge into practice working in a studio on research from the Delft Design Labs . Learning about research is useful in all design projects and prepares you for becoming a Delft designer.

“In this course we want to spark students’ enthusiasm for research and help them see the value of research driven design. And we aim to make students aware and proud about being a Delft designer because research is what sets us apart.”

Understanding Values by Lise Magnier Design is never neutral. There are always (un)intended consequences that can be social, ethical or political in nature. This course aims to bring awareness of how to deal with the complex global issues the world is facing. Helping students to master the different nuances and start embracing them. Learning to design with intent and a sense of moral responsibility. This course is about preparing designers to deal with the complex issues they will face in a world full of unprecedented challenges. Choices made in the design process always have consequences, both positive and negative, depending on your perspective or interests. The products, services and systems we design will need to be inclusive and sustainable. This course aims to provide understanding of the complexity inherent to this challenge. Learn to incorporate ethics and different stakeholder values in the design process. Identify and map-out these values in the context of a new productservice system. Consider who or what benefits from - or is harmed by – this innovation. Learn to analyse and explain possible value conflicts, with the goal of defining a desirable value proposition for all stakeholders, which includes the environment. Develop skills in systems thinking and value flow modelling. Get exposed to a mindset, methods and tools to reflect on values, consequences and the responsibility of being a designer. Ultimately, create a personal code of conduct for your professional future.

“I am proud that students get to consider the ethics of designing under different lenses so early in the curriculum. Often you don’t see this until the master’s programme, but that they get it so prominently in their first year is important.”

Meet Flip, a product-service system to make spending money more tangible.

Designing the interface of a wearable step-counter.

Digital Interfaces by Aadjan van der Helm Technology is a hungry beast, fed by more and more products becoming technology enabled and connected over time. The interface of productservice systems is where humans and machines (or technology) meet by interacting. By understanding human-computer interaction, designers can mediate the user experience and find solutions to the challenges of making the interaction meaningful or beautiful. Interactive product-service systems are found everywhere in daily life. This course provides an understanding of what goes on inside these devices and what it takes to design them. Along with the rise of technology enabled products, our environments are also becoming interactive. Future designers must understand what that means and how to make it possible for technologies embedded in our environment to work together. Explore the human experience, principles of human motivation and behaviour. Study the dynamic qualities of interaction and giving form to a design. Understand technologies like sensors, actuators and microcontrollers. Discover how programming can orchestrate sensing and feedback for human computer interaction. Build knowledge through theory and making activities, to shape the behaviour of interactive devices. Apply this in Design Project 2 as you prototype the user experience of a product-service system. And as we look towards technology for solutions to societal challenges, gain an understanding of how designers can craft human and machine collaboration to make the world a better place.

“Interaction can be initiated by humans or by machines. How the interaction unfolds over time will determine how humans attribute meaning to the service the product can deliver. I’m proud to take part in the education that builds confidence in the students in order for them to design beautiful, meaningful product-service interactions in the future.”

Semester 3 Sustainable Impact In the second year, you develop your first product-service within a system. Following this, you create an innovative design from a sustainability perspective to improve the system. This semester highlights how the pillars of people, organisations, and technology are always connected. You expand your technical knowledge, allowing you to create more dynamic designs. In addition to this, you learn the important role data plays in the design process, how people learn to look to the future, and how to take aspects of sustainability into account. You learn about the impact designers can have on the world and how students can make independent choices in the fourth semester.

DP 3: Designing System Interventions by Arnold Vermeeren Design is no longer simply about making stand-alone products. Nowadays, products become part of complex product-service systems involving multiple stakeholders. Changing one thing in a system is like a chain reaction; it effects the system on all kinds of levels. This course explores how the role of the designer changes when designing for interdependent systems. With products and services now being embedded in larger systems, this course focusses on the skills needed for designing interventions in this context. It’s about understanding the effect that interventions have on a system as well as optimising a system for sustainable impact. Learn about the complexity of systems, which involve various types of dependencies from products to services to stakeholders. Use this knowledge in a case study to develop a new system. Introduce a product into it and explore what happens. Experience the dynamic environment when you tailor, or redesign, the product and it affects the system again. Using this understanding of how the system works, consider what it would take to scale it up. Try to improve it from a sustainability standpoint, considering things like materials, organisations or behaviour change in people. This course is an introduction to the complexity of systems, an opportunity to make choices around sustainable impact improvement and preparation for choosing a direction for further studies and a career.

“I really hope that by the end of this course students are not simply intimidated by the complexity of systems, but that they are fascinated by the design space it gives. I want them to enjoy the fact that they can be a spider in the web to design for such systems.”

Product Dynamics by Zjenja Doubrovski Products around us are becoming increasingly complex, with more electronics in them. They can seem like black boxes – we know what they do, but not how they do it. This course explores the dynamic behaviour of products, looking inside to see how they work. And it aims to show that understanding complex products doesn’t have to be complicated. Many products nowadays are in motion or rely on motion to function. Think of e-bikes, drones, or 3D printers. This course centres on giving designers the skills to evaluate, conceptualise, and prototype such products. Learn to analyse the mechanics and electronics of a product. Calculate how objects move and understand which forces are applied. Practice applying both simple back-of-the envelope calculations as well as more detailed mathematical calculations. Explore how to control the dynamics of moving parts using electronic sensors and actuators. Develop the ability to communicate with experts from different disciplines during the embodiment of a design. Use new knowledge and skills to work on an applied prototype. Ultimately, build a level of confidence to be able to quickly assess a product, then reason, calculate and predict the behaviour and the properties of that product. This course is closely aligned with Design Project 3. The content is also relevant to any project where movement or moving parts within a product are essential for its functioning.

“What I like about this course is that it’s really a place where math, physics and electronics come to life in applied cases. I will be proud if students are confident to really dig in and try to understand complex dynamic products.”

Data by Marco Rozendaal Data is intertwined in many aspects of everyday life. It is connected to people, things and organisations, forming a data ecology. Think of this course as a sort of safari through ‘data-land’, observing the various sources and uses for data. In the end, discover how data plays an important role as a material in the design process. This course is about understanding data, seeing it as a new design material and using it in responsible ways. Develop a technical, social and ethical understanding of what data is. Learn how products and services can be shaped by data as a design material. Zoom out to see the systemic view of data as part of a complex ecology that involves different stakeholders. Explore the transdisciplinary nature of data. Work on a design case based on a societal challenge. Consider different types of data and then map out a data ecology involving relevant stakeholders, needs and values. Reflect on the ethical implications of the data being used. Learn to formalise data and create visualisations that are insightful and useful in forming hypotheses. Bring it all together to produce a design proposal based on data. Ultimately, it’s about preparing designers to use data to empower rather than exploit people, helping to shape the future in responsible ways. This course is directly applicable to Design Project 3 and any project where data is part of the design process.

“I hope at the end of this course students feel like they understand and can work with data, that it is demystified. It’s about making data tangible for them and workable in a design project. I want them to see data as a design material in its different ways, different angles, different perspectives.”

Project by Eva van Eck, Matthijs de Koning, Dario Sapienza and Jia Wang. Photo by Guus Schoonewille.

Biopunk City by Munashichi.

Envisioning the Future by Roy Bendor What will the world look like in five, ten or even fifty years? Design is by nature a future oriented activity. This course offers a better understanding of how design changes the world in very material ways. Open your eyes, explore different ways of thinking, and create your own vision of the future. Design is by nature a future oriented activity. Every design process starts with an understanding of what the future is going to be like for a particular object, service or environment. Who is going to be the future user that will use what we make, where are they going to use it and how? This course is about developing the knowledge and skills required to conceptualise the future as a designer. To see the links between practice and ideas. It’s about combining research and creativity. Consider different ways to think about the future by exploring things like pop culture and science fiction. Work with futuring techniques taken from different disciplines, like road mapping for businesses, horizon scanning, design fiction, and speculative design. Explore the ethical, social, cultural, and political aspects of design, especially when it comes to technologies. This course will provide a set of tools to help think about and create a rich image of the future which can be applied to Design Project 3 and beyond.

“I hope this course motivates students to really think about how different ideas of the future percolate and circulate in culture and design practice, to give them a nice palate of ideas and a vocabulary to talk about these things. We want to give students something that is both useful and inspiring.”

Graphics by Jerker Lokrantz/Azote

Photo and Drawing by Jeremy Faludi

Sustainable Impact by Jeremy Faludi Get ready to leave behind the idea that design is only form and function with no other consequences. All products have environmental and social impacts, which can no longer be ignored—considering them is increasingly crucial for all human endeavours, especially manufacturing, business and design. This course opens your eyes to the environmental and social impacts of the products you design, and then gives you tools to improve them. The core of this course is about being empowered to make decisions that are good for the long-term while helping you mature in your design process. Learn how to work with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, translating these goals into practical priorities for your own design projects. Explore how to calculate carbon footprints, persuade users toward sustainable lifestyles, and prevent your designs from being thrown away so soon by using circular economy business models. Learn about quantifying environmental impacts using life cycle assessment (LCA), energy effectiveness, recovery strategies for products and materials, as well as product-service systems. In the end, you will be able to understand environmental and social impacts, and design for their improvement rather than harm. The tools and methods taught in this course can be applied to the concurrent Design Project 3, and coaching sessions throughout the class will help you do that.

“I’m proud to run this course because these are vital issues—the fate of the world and humanity are at stake, and these are solvable problems. Designers can go from being part of the problem to part of the solution.”

Semester 4 Follow your own Path By the time you begin your fourth semester you have a solid grasp of the complexity of the design field. In this semester, emphasis is placed on social themes. The goal is to change the system by designing interventions for social problems. The focus is on one stakeholder, as well as the other parties involved. You learn that it is important to reflect upon your own position within design processes. In addition to the design project, there are electives that can deepen your understanding of the following themes: people, organisations, technology, and skills. In each themes, you have the ability to choose courses that fit your personal interests. The electives run alongside the design project and because not everyone takes the same courses, you learn from each other. Having access to this kind of broad knowledge can play an important role in your development as a designer and the development of your project.

Photo by john-simitopoulos.

DP 4: Designing for Society by Nynke Tromp & Mieke van Bijl-Brouwer Design can actually make the world a better place. But when it comes to tackling complex societal issues with networks of stakeholders, how does it work in practice? This course challenges students to think about their role as designers and how they can contribute to effecting positive change in society. Taking on societal issues is no easy task, but designers can make an impact. This course teaches core skills for how to use change-making as a driver for design activities. Build an understanding of theories about complexity as you develop an academic design practice. Explore framing, working with a future vision and systems thinking. Consider your personal values, how you define a better world and reflect upon what position you want to take in this world. Through challenge-based learning, delve into a societal issue, first with a single client and later with a network of stakeholders. Learn how to make change within such a complex system. Actively engage in an exploratory learning process, realising that success is in the learning itself. Learn to be comfortable dealing with ambiguity, trusting that you can contribute even though you don’t necessarily know how. Build confidence to explore unknown territories. Find your personal compass, exploring how you as a designer can contribute to societal change.

“We hope students will develop a drive and the confidence to use design as an enabler for societal change” – Mieke van der BijlBrouwer & Nynke Tromp

Strategic Brand Management by Pinar Cankurtaran There’s a lot more to branding than most people think. In fact, brands define and guide the strategic direction of organisations, drive innovation, and even influence the marketplace. And designers play a valuable role in cultivating a meaningful brand that resonates with customers and sets it apart from the competition. This elective course is about exploring the fundamentals of branding, with an emphasis on how the brand itself can inform the future of the innovation. Learn the principles of how a brand is built and managed over time. Explore the importance of creating a connection between the customer and the brand. Understand the dynamic nature of branding and the importance of balancing consistency with relevance as it evolves. Consider management and innovation choices that can fuel brand growth. Through case studies, explore scenarios to learn how companies actually do things. Actively and critically engage in discussions, applying what you have learned to decision making and problem solving in a real business context. Then put your knowledge into practice by creating a brand, building an identity, defining a purpose and considering how to launch this brand into the market. Ultimately, learn how to use your design skills to add value to the process of branding.

“I want the students to understand that the brand isn’t something you just sort of slap on a product or put up a sign. Obviously, signs and symbols are part of a brand, but the brand is a lot more than that. It’s something that actually defines an organisation in many ways and also influences the way it is perceived by outside stakeholders.”

Business Model Design by Marina Bos-de Vos This is not about business as usual. When it comes to design, what are business models, how can they be designed and what challenges and opportunities do they present? This course aims to inspire new ways of thinking about business model design, encouraging you to choose innovation over copy and paste. This elective course is about understanding the basics of business models, tailored for the perspective of design students. Learn about the components that make a business model and what the implications are when you change them. Explore how stakeholder values can shape business model design. Through exercises and workshops, start with the basics of designing business models and work towards more complex contexts. Looking first at the level of a firm, then moving to an interorganisational collaboration and finally exploring the context of an entire ecosystem. Develop knowledge, methods and skills to meaningfully engage in business model design activities in diverse situations, including new ventures, creative studios and networks of organisations. Propose new ideas for business model design, reflect on the content and methods used to produce them and how they can be improved. Ultimately, this course aims to inspire innovation and thinking in less structured ways. It is relevant for all design projects.

“I hope students are going to disrupt the world of business model design a bit as there’s not a lot of innovation going on in this field. I will be proud if they start doing something with this course later in life, like designing business models in totally new ways or designing unexpected business models that can change the world and can improve society.”

Codesign in Services by Fernando Secomandi Designing services calls for a different way of doing things. Instead of designing for people, it’s about designing with people. This course focuses on codesign, engaging stakeholders from the very beginning in actively cocreating new service concepts. As a designer, it’s about understanding how and when to use this participatory approach, as well as understanding the value it brings to an organisation. When it comes to designing services, participation is the key. This elective course provides an understanding of the service design process with an emphasis on codesign. Study the fundamental concepts and theories about service design. Explore different codesign approaches and how to apply them in conceptualising new service experiences across multiple touchpoints. Learn to evaluate opportunities to use participatory methods in tackling service design challenges within organisations. Put knowledge into practice, working in teams to conduct codesign sessions with a chosen group of participants. Understand how participatory approaches to innovation can lead to designing better services within organisations. Learn to be more democratic in the making of design decisions, without losing sight of the key role that designers play in the service design process. It’s about participation and collaboration, and ultimately, the process determines the quality of the outcome.

“I hope that students really see the difference in designing with people, not only for people. You have to have humility as well as empathy for the people involved and to know how to engage them. But at the same time, you have to understand the role of design expertise because users are not necessarily designers.”

Materials & Manufacturing by Sepideh Ghodrat Imagine using a starch-based material to make an edible lunch box. Or designing a bio-based cover for a tablet. Why not use a corn starch-sand mixture to make a flower pot or a mussel shell composite to 3D-print a ceramic lamp? This course examines the use of bio-based materials, making new materials through the re-use of waste streams. On a global scale scientists and designers are looking for sustainable alternatives to carbon based organic materials. New materials can be designed by combining waste materials streams like coffee waste, ground mussel shells, starch and bio-waste. This elective course explores how to make such materials, how to test their properties and design a sample product. Discover how to combine components to make new materials, like mixing bio-based and degradable components to make new composites or products. Learn to work with the tools that are needed to design with novel composites. And understand how to make, test and model a product composed of a new material designed by you. Grow your material awareness and develop a more creative and proactive attitude towards the use of materials and manufacturing. Learn how to evaluate a product using finite element simulation tools. Develop a more comprehensive understanding of bio-based materials, their manufacturing methods and how this affects product design.

“I enjoy being able to bridge the gap between materials and manufacturing from one side and design from the other side and making a contribution to the concept of designing simple, sound and sustainable products.”

Mechatronics by Wolf Song Building a bridge between the physical and digital world, mechatronics integrates mechanics, electronics and computing. It can be found in a simple electric kettle that automatically shuts off at a certain temperature or a high-tech drone that sends images to a smart phone. This course explores using synergy to create smart, affordable, reliable and versatile consumer products in a human-centred way. Mechatronics crosses disciplinary boundaries, combining mechanical and electronic principles to create products with intelligent behaviour. This elective course focusses on integrating technological, organisational and human aspects to create technologically advanced products for services and systems. Gain knowledge and skills related to software, micro-electronics, embedded systems, control theory, mechanics, modelling and design. Use this to design smart products with an advanced level of automation, faster response, smaller size, and better integrated features at an affordable price. Consider the user experience by including comfort and function in design. It’s about creating synergy between mechanical and electronic components while striving for added value. Pursue academic driven design by using theoretical knowledge to make informed, educated guesses in design. Experience design in practice by building your own smart product. Learn to continuously iterate from concept to prototype, building mechatronics competencies and the power of critical thinking. Ultimately, learn that design is not about perfection. It’s a compromise that comes with creating something that beautifully balances technology, affordability and desirability.

“I love the final day of the course when the students make a presentation and show their final works. That they gain knowledge, that’s what I’m most proud of. I want them to build a unique competence in mechatronics design. Their competence is always my focus, but I also want them to be happy and motivated in developing these new competences.”

Machine Learning for Design by Alessandro Bozzon Few technologies throughout human history have had a transformative impact on society. Machine learning, a form of Artificial Intelligence, can be one of them. If designers want to help shape a better future, they should master this technology. This course seeks to make that possible. The purpose of this elective course is to enable design students to mingle, manipulate, and play with machine learning as a digital design material. Through a hands-on approach, learn about the capabilities and limitations of state-of-the-art machine learning methods. Create prototypes, lowfidelity concepts, that use machine learning technology to enable the functionality of a product, service, or system. Think of an intelligent home appliance operated through movement or voice. Consider systems like cities or government and how algorithms play a role in their work. Machine learning can also support the design process: imagine automatically coding thousands of user interviews and opinions to get insights into how people use a product or a service. This course aims to equip design students with the skills required to meaningfully interact in teams working with machine learning technology. Ultimately, it’s about designing humane technology that can lead to a better digital society.

“Machine Learning will play an increasingly important role in our lives. My wish is to empower design students with the knowledge that will allow them to drive our transition towards a digital society, by applying their design skill to the design of intelligent products, services and systems.”

Observing and drawing

Storyboard

Photography

Design Communications & Visualisations by Jan Willem Hoftijzer Being able to visualise something that does not yet exist is crucial for designers. Because in design, ideas are communicated through drawings and visual representations. This course deepens skills and techniques aimed at creating and communicating designs. It’s about building visual literacy and helping you develop a signature for yourself as a designer. Effectively communicating thoughts and concepts to clients and project team members is essential in the world of design. This elective course centres on learning the language and skills needed for running and communicating design processes and projects. Study the theory behind visual communication techniques. Learn about generative communication, how to use visualisation techniques to create a design, through the exploration of sketching. Delve into explanatory communication, learning how to convey to others what your design is about through applied techniques like animation, virtual reality or graphic design. Develop the ability to visualise and communicate both concrete and abstract elements of a design situation or process. Build an understanding of the consecutive stages of the design journey as well as the complex relationships within a system. Learn how to analyse and tackle problems and then develop solutions using visual communication. Extend your own visual library through the development of a portfolio of sketches and visualisations, preparing for the bachelor’s final project and the next steps of your journey.

“Coming from design practice, I can tell you that the language you use as a designer is visual. If you want to talk to someone about a proposal or idea, I would say do that visually, it’s better, more concrete. For a designer it’s one of the essential tools to work with, both in the generative and the explanatory sense.”

“Don’t expect to be in control” - Maurits Willemen

Leadership & Project Organisation by Maurits Willemen Realising design project goals takes more than being a good designer. In the real world, knowing how to work with teams, collaborate with stakeholders, and organise and manage a project is essential. Throw yourself into an immersive experience to develop strong leadership and organisational skills and find out what kind of leader you will be. Successfully running a design project has a lot to do with organisation and leadership. This elective course centres on teaching and developing the skills needed to organise design projects, enabling the realisation of project goals. Learn about the various roles in design teams and how to lead those teams. Explore how to manage collaborations with multiple stakeholders and how to handle different communication styles. Develop skills to manage the time, budget and deliverables of a design project, as well as how to handle scope changes. Start by jumping into new surroundings, case studies that present different real-world scenarios that designers are faced with. Recognise and accept that you might not yet have the necessary skills to find your way out. Then learn the theory and skills needed to navigate these surroundings, empowering you to achieve your goals as a designer. Through the immersive process of learning how to run a project, discover who you are and where you want to go as a future design leader. “We teach our students everything and anything about design, but that doesn’t necessarily fulfil all of the requirements that you need to have as a designer, to make sure that your design goals are actually realised. If our students feel empowered to successfully run a project that would make me very happy.”

Mastering Research Methods by Ellis van den Hende Scientific reasoning is crucial in today’s society. So, for designers, developing scientific literacy is a vital tool. This course aims to unlock a curiosity towards understanding the value of arguments and information. To trigger enthusiasm for scientific research. Teaching you to use new wings while falling down a rabbit hole of information. Building on the foundations of basic research for design, this elective course dives deeper into the realm of scientific research. Gain broader knowledge about different research methods. Develop a critical stance towards academic publications you encounter. Learn to see the value of these papers, both in terms of shortcomings and contributions. Explore how to dissect a scientific paper and have the opportunity to discuss it with the researcher that wrote it. Get hands on experience with scientific research by participating in an ongoing study with one of the experienced researchers at our faculty. Bring something new to the project, such as adding a variable, and write your own paper about it. Embrace the value of information and scientific studies, preparing to build better arguments. Develop resiliency when it comes defending your position when challenged. Apply this knowledge and experience to your bachelor’s final project, graduate studies and beyond.

“As an IDE graduate, I am grateful to have discovered the value of scientific research for design. I hope that after this course students think that with good research, they can build a strong argument. That by knowing more they can get more done.”

Human Factors & Ergonomics by Toon Huysmans Humans and their interactions in sociotechnical systems are complicated. So, when designing for human use, understanding the relationship between people and technology and environments is crucial. Through a scientific and systems approach, this course explores human complexities from a physical, cognitive, perceptual, and organisational perspective and teaches how to apply this in the design process. This elective course provides students with knowledge, tools and hands on experience to support them in designing for human use. Explore scientific theories, methods, data, and tools that can be used to study interactions. Use this knowledge towards the goal of optimising the interactions in a balance between performance, well-being, and satisfaction. Contemplate the human perspective in design, considering what their needs, capabilities and limitations are. Explore how interactions occur from the micro to the macro level. Use a systems approach to map out these differences and their impact on individuals, teams, and organisations over time. And take a scientific approach to designing sociotechnical systems. Get hands on experience through workshops and projects in the fields of healthcare, mobility, sports, and consumer products/services/systems. Produce scientific reports and present design recommendations to stakeholders. Ultimately, gain deeper insight into the complexities of humans and the challenges of considering human factors in design.

“There is a lot of great research going on at our faculty in this field and we have developed great methods, tools, and data. It is exciting to introduce the students to cutting edge research and to get to see how they use these techniques in creative ways in their design process.”

Image by Micheal Austin.

Experience, Motivation and Behaviour by Jos Kraal Why do people do what they do? Understanding this is critical when it comes to creating impactful designs. It starts with comprehending how things work inside the mind and how external factors influence people. This course explores human behaviour, motivation and experience from a psychological perspective, helping designers to influence and support people towards certain behaviours. Knowing what behaviour is and why people do or don’t do things is key for designers to be able to stimulate a desired behaviour. Through principles of psychology, this elective course examines motivation and behaviour and provides tools designers can use to influence users and address complex challenges in society. Study evolutionary psychology, positive psychology and phenomenology to better understand behaviour. Explore not only what happens inside the mind, but recognise that motivation and behaviour are connected to external factors. Analyse how influences come from the outside through our experiences, our environment, our social groups. Learn theory, tools and strategies for design aimed at influencing users. Use these to experiment with how to pull the strings on other people’s behaviour and motivation. Apply this new knowledge to steer target group behaviour around challenges related to health, sustainability and mobility. Use this experience to ensure that designs fit with the existing theories and models in psychology so that design can have an actual impact.

“I hope that students not only understand or observe what people do, but also understand why people or users do things. I will be very happy if they are able to get a better understanding of actions on a deeper level in this course.”

Power of Ten™ by Ray and Charles Eames (1977)

Culture & Society by Annemiek van Boeijen Design does not take place in a vacuum. In fact, designers operate in an entangled world. If we look at the world as complex environments or ecologies consisting of multiple people, products and systems which are entangled, unpredictable and interdependent, what does that mean for design? To find out, we have to look at the big picture. Because we operate in an entangled world, we must unravel things to understand the role of design and the impact it has. To find the meaning of design in a broader sense. Instead of looking at the direct intended uses of design, this elective course zooms out to look at the larger picture, to see how it affects people and the whole ecology where our designs will land. But also, the other way around, how our culture and society influence the way we think as designers. Learn to analyse, or study this entangled world by exploring concepts that are rooted in anthropology and sociology. Things like identity, power, gender, and more. This requires an open mind and reconsidering our own values and way of thinking. Looking at our world as an outsider, with a sense of curiosity and asking critical questions. This course will give a better understanding of design and how it fits into the big picture as well as present practical tools for those who want to design with culture & society in mind.

“I hope this class helps people discover the relevance of the subject that we explore and that they are inspired to develop their own view on what design can mean in a larger context in society.”

Semester 6 Position yourself as a designer The final year of the bachelor’s programme is devoted to personal development and freedom of choice. For example, in this semester you can choose a minor within your own faculty, at another Dutch university, or you can even go abroad for six months. After this six-month period, everyone returns to the faculty and there is once again room to take electives. These can broaden your knowledge and skills and are chosen based on your own interests. Once you finish your electives, it’s time for the Bachelor Final Project. During this project, you choose the route you want to take. You pick the case, design process, and methodologies to use. The knowledge and skills you have gained over the last five semesters are utilised and highlighted in the Bachelor Final Project. This is one of the last opportunities you have, before you graduate, to learn new things.

student work showing the disassembly of a computer mouse and it’s priority parts, credit: A. Spruit.

Design for the Circular Economy by Ingrid de Pauw In nature, there is no such thing as waste. Think of a tree and how its leaves grow and fall, but they become nutrients for something else. That’s the core idea that inspires the circular economy. So how can we design products in the way that nature does? This course prepares students to play a key role in designing out waste and transitioning to a circular economy. Transitioning from a linear to a circular economy is about more than designing a product, it’s about designing an entire system. This course provides knowledge and tools for designers to help companies make that transition. Learn the intricacies of how business models influence what you can do in design. Explore how to include repair, refurbishment, remanufacturing and eventually, recycling in the design process. Understand how to extend the useful life of products, capture value and design out waste. Dive into real-world cases to study circular business models. Explore recovery strategies and how they bring value in the circular economy. Apply this knowledge as you analyse and deconstruct an existing product in order to propose a redesign based on circular economy principles. Develop both a theoretical and practical understanding of how to address the business and design aspects of going circular, preparing to be an agent of change in a more sustainable future. “I’m really proud of the fact that this course presents state of the art tools and will provide students with the knowledge they need to start helping companies design for the circular economy. They get the chance to explore and apply the tools they learn, putting them into practice. It’s very hands on and inspiring.”

Reimagining Mobility by Eui Young Kim Human beings are travelling all the time. Sometimes we move with a purpose, to get from point A to point B and sometimes we just need to move. What role can mobility play in relation to society? In this course we try to envision meaningful mobility solutions that harmonise people and different transportation modalities, reimagining the future of mobility. This elective course aims to answer what role mobility can play in defining the way we travel in our society. Learn how to explain and debate the novel ways that future mobility solutions interact with stakeholders in the mobility eco-system. Analyse and evaluate different transportation modalities like autonomous driving, public transportation, air travel, and micro mobility. Create a new mobility solution in the future context. And learn how to select and apply different design methods across the iterative design innovation process. Discover how to play with both emerging technologies in the mobility sector and emerging user needs and market trends to reimagine future mobility experiences. Develop skillsets to analyse real-world mobility problems and design new mobility concepts for people in transit from the individual to the societal level. The knowledge and skills gained in this course can be applied to mobilityrelated projects and may inspire some to pursue further studies or a career in mobility. “I’m excited to run this course as mobility is one of the three societal challenges in which our faculty aims to continue taking a lead. I want students to learn how to understand the different technologies available to deal with future mobility solution development and also how to be good at understanding the values, needs and wants of users which may not have come yet.”

KonneKt: a modular game which can be played on windows of hospital isolation rooms. By Job Jansweijer for Prinses Máxima Centrum voor kinderoncologie.

Health by Armagan Albayrak Understanding your target group is critical in design. It can be extra challenging when designing for healthcare as the landscape is a complex system of stakeholders with unique perspectives. This elective course will help you navigate and understand the complexities involved, challenging you to find your own perspective as a designer in the field of healthcare. Get an overview of the healthcare system in the Netherlands by exploring relevant topics, developments and challenges in the field, like advanced health technologies, patient experience, digitalisation, and regulations. This elective course centres on building knowledge to prepare for designing products, services and interventions in the context of health. Create a patient journey map to gain an understanding of the complexity of the system and its stakeholders from a patient perspective. Explore the interactions of stakeholders during the journey and how that shapes the needs, wants and experiences of the patient. Hear from stakeholders active in the domain of healthcare to learn from their experiences and expertise. Read key publications (both scientific & non-scientific) preparing to engage in constructive dialogue with the stakeholders. Learn to develop and confidently argue your own perspective. Reflect upon what you learn, considering where you want to go as a designer and what kind of a role you might play in the complex field of healthcare.

“There are always some students who are actively involved in discussions while others not. It will be nice if we can create an atmosphere where engaging discussions can be facilitated. For students to not be shy or think something might be a stupid question, to be comfortable enough to actively participate in the dialogue.”

Identity & Portfolio by Marieke Sonneveld Like a voyager searching for treasure, this course is an adventure of sorts. A journey of self-awareness as you discover your identity as a designer. Identity is a valuable asset that can be used as a source of inspiration, a compass that guides you in creating a portfolio that not only presents your work but who you are as a designer. Imagine that the portfolio is a tool to communicate and express yourself as a designer, not a goal in itself. With that in mind, consider who you want to communicate with and what message you would like to convey about yourself. This elective course will guide you in creating an awareness about your identity as a designer. Explore the landscape of identity in both theoretical and pragmatic ways. Use the information and inspiration provided to formulate your own questions about what identity is. Understand who you are by profiling yourself in a sensitive, nuanced and open-minded way. Learn to engage in meaningful and intelligent dialogue by considering the different perspectives of the people you design for. Use that to communicate your position as a designer as illustrated through your work. Ultimately, this course helps you develop relational competences. And it’s a chance to reflect on your experiences, giving you a compass to navigate the choices you face on your journey to becoming a designer.

“What motivates me is the wonderful students I get to work with. I feel so privileged to be with them in this exploration. I also feel it is such a great adventure and to see what emerges from their work is beautiful.”

Entrepreneurial Innovation by Design by Frido Smulders The words entrepreneurship and innovation usually bring to mind an outcome. Perhaps a new company or a novel design. But what about the behaviour that leads to those innovations, bridging the gap between ideas and realisation? Let’s demystify what this means and gain a deeper understanding by exploring design-driven entrepreneurial behaviour within organisations. This elective course aims to connect a theoretical understanding of design-driven entrepreneurial behaviour with real experiences of people in organisations. Explore the idea of entrepreneurship by examining the human interactions and collaborations that are key for creating change and overcoming obstacles between idea and realisation. Build a mental model that can be used as a lens to observe behaviour within organisations. Consider the dynamics related to innovative organisational behaviour, taking into account the role of technology, people and organisation. And understand the role of the designer within the entrepreneurial innovation process. Use tools like Kolb’s experiential learning model and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to explore your own personality and develop a language to better understand the behaviour of others. Connect and map key behaviours to innovation processes. Examine case studies to learn the theory. Prepare to have a discourse with people in the trenches. Talk to them to make connections between theory and what happens in the real world. “I am proud to bring students the knowledge and understanding that took me 30 years to develop. The people dimension, the social interactive dimension of innovations, this been the consistent theme throughout my whole career. I think all design students need to know about this and I want to present it in such a way that it is relevant for them.”

Design Engineering Contest by Arjen Jansen Building a robot to compete in a challenge sounds like fun. But what if you have limited resources and time? This course is a simulation of a real-life design engineering experience. How to make something work with what you’ve got. It’s about nitty-gritty, nuts and bolts creative engineering but also about the roles people play in a team. In the real world of design, there are deadlines and you don’t always have the things you need to make something work. This elective course aims to provide an engaging experience that encourages smart engineering as well as teamwork. Embrace the idea that design is not just about drawing something, but it’s about making something that actually works. With a rule book and a basic toolbox, teams must build a remote-controlled robot that can complete a simple task like building a tower out of blocks. Work together to find unique engineering solutions to the challenge. Participate in an elimination style competition, going round by round with the other robots. Gain an understanding of the roles people play in a team, including your own. How do people contribute, how do they behave and what can they learn about themselves while working on an assignment in a team? In the end, some will win, others will fail, but everyone will learn. “I think this course is important because it’s real-life engineering, a perfect emulation for how design engineering in real life works. And even the people that lose in the first round still think it’s an amazing experience. They go through the same learning process as the people that win the contest. There’s not just one winner, they’re all winners.”

Surgical simulator for knee replacement training by Nitin Gurram, rewarded with a Red Dot Award in 2020.

Biomechanics of Product Use by Richard Goossens The musculoskeletal system is basically the mechanics of a person. And people are as different on the inside as we are on the outside. By understanding anatomy and what goes on inside the human body, designers can account for physical factors when it comes to product innovation. It’s technical but with a human touch. This elective course takes human-centred design to new depths by truly seeing the user from the inside. By learning about the musculoskeletal system, what’s under the surface, the mechanics of a person. It’s about blending engineering and anatomy from a design point of view. Learn the basics of anatomy. Comprehend the terminology in order to develop a language for working with people in medical disciplines. Explore modelling, from simple pen and paper exercises to more detailed methods using freely available software. Get a broader understanding of how to translate a problem through a case study by modelling to predict the effects of interaction processes on the musculoskeletal system. Imagine the complexity of the knee joint and how to design for surgery. Or imagine a shoe and what happens to the joints or muscles of the wearer while running. How can that shoe be improved from a design point of view? Gain valuable insights about biomechanics and how to improve the ergonomic quality of consumer products.

“Through this course, I hope students gain an understanding of how different people are inside, not just outside. And I hope they will be inspired to explore the world of healthcare in future studies, maybe even choosing the Medisign master’s track.”

Illustration by Kars Alfrink.

Design Analytics by Himanshu Verma What does it take to make an existing design even better? Design is a perpetual process. This course is not about creating something, but instead begins by exploring what happens after the first iteration. Through the design analytics process, learn to observe and analyse interactive products and services to find creative ways of improving their design. This elective course aims to provide a set of tools for designers to take an existing design and improve upon it. Learn to assess and understand the impact that a design has on users or stakeholders, whether it be cognitive, experiential or perceptual. Explore how to use this information to make actionable design guidelines which then help improve a design in the next iteration. Delve into the five-stage design analytics process. First, learn to diagnose gaps or issues in the current design in order to formulate a design research question. Then synthesise the problem and translate it into a user study or experiment. Conduct the study in a real-world environment. Analyse the collected data in order to be able to visualise and communicate in effective ways to the stakeholders. And finally, prescribe steps that can be taken to improve the product or service. This course provides valuable skills and knowledge that help designers develop into researchers.

“We want students to make a hypothesis, to ask crazy questions, to go out and test them. It’s a circle that kind of fuels a feedback loop. To be able to say I can see some results, I will fail some of the time but when I succeed it will be a great joy. That kind of exploration is very inspiring.”

Chiharu Shiota, Between the Lines, 2017

Form & Senses by Elif Ozcan Vieira When it comes to design, there’s definitely more than meets the eye. This course explores how senses other than sight, like hearing and touch, play a role in designing products. Discover how sound design, texture design and light design can influence form and create a multi-sensory user experience. This elective course goes beyond the visual experience by exploring how form giving can be different when the process involves sound, texture or light. Build an understanding of sensory perception when it comes to products. Learn tools to incorporate sensory properties in design. Develop skills for designing tailored sensory experiences. Create collages or mood boards as inspiration to understand, for example, what colours or what forms could be used in a design. Experience how technology also plays a role, through things like sensors, speakers and lights. Discover a new and exploratory design space. Consider if an object had a sound, what would it be like? If that sound had a texture, what would it feel like? And how would lighting the object influence the sensory experience? Put what you have learned into practice in both individual and group projects. Deepen knowledge and skills for form giving as well as experience design and learn how to create inspiration for your future design work.

“I will be proud when students inherently think of these other senses. That they understand that there is a dependency between different sensory experiences. The dominance of visual experience is there, but other sensory experiences are very complimentary. I want them to understand what materials they can use and what sounds they are interested in and really create and inspiration space for themselves.”

Design Didactics by Jelle Zijlstra Just as there is no single way of learning, there is no universal way of teaching. But when it comes to teaching design, didactics can help with finding the best method for different situations. It’s about adjusting the knowledge and the theory to the student that is in front of you. And in this course, it’s students teaching students. Whether your aim is to teach or not, this elective course will help deepen your own understanding of the design process, design techniques and methodology. This is done by focussing on the principles of didactics and how to create education related to design and the design process. Explore different learning styles as well as how to align learning goals, activities and assessments. Delve into the essence of competencies, how to give feedback, and how to deliver effective instruction in front of a group. And learn about coaching styles, conversation skills, and how to help students reflect. Through experiential learning, students will put what they learn into practice as they support teachers in Design Project 2. As teaching assistants, students engage in a deeper way with the learning process. The course makes students aware of their own learning process by exploring the learning process of others. It makes design students more reflective, more empathetic and verbally competent. And it may inspire some to become the design teachers of the future.

“The students make me proud because they are very good at what they do. I hear from other students about how much they are helped by the didactics students because they are closer to the students and understand them better. I’m proud to pass on the knowledge of didactics, but it’s broader than that. It’s a set of soft skills that can help engineers a lot in their professional life.”

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JACQUELINE BLOK 4284321

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DP 5: Bachelor Final Project by Stefan Persaud, Gonny Hoekstra & Sine Celik This is your chance to show what you’ve got, to express yourself as the designer that you are. The bachelor’s final project is a culmination of three years of learning and experiencing which you apply to solving a real-world challenge. It’s about demonstrating your journey of being, belonging and becoming. The bachelor’s final project is both an ending and a beginning of sorts. It’s a chance for students to show who they are and what they want to become as designers. Working with a real client, design a solution showing that you can execute what you learned in terms of design process and design techniques over the last three years. Select a project that will allow you to demonstrate your skills and strengths as well as the preferences you have developed. Although each group of 16 students works together with two coaches, this intensive 10-week course culminates with an individual project. This time it’s up to you to design a solution that you think fits best. At the end, it’s about being, becoming and belonging. Being is demonstrating skills and knowledge in the present. Becoming is giving a glimpse of where you want to go in the future. And belonging is about being part of the tribe, a community of designers. “We think this course is about being part of a design tribe. In a tribe, everybody understands what is happening. Of course, you work for yourself, but never alone.”

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Colophon Text: based on interviews by Heather Montague Graphic design: Joy van Gogh Design and editorial advice: Sylvia Mooij, Gabrielle Ribbens, Julia Candy Images: staff portraits have been sourced from TU Delft. All other images have been credited where they appear in the booklet, with the exception of royalty free stock images, provided care of Unsplash or Pexels. Cover photo: Ruben Es Print: Drukkerij Edauw & Johannissen. First edition, June 2021 Copyright: © TU Delft, 2021

Discover Industrial Design Engineering 2021 | Brochure Bachelor IDE | TU Delft

Articles inside

Sustainable Impact

Data

Envisioning the Future

Product Dynamics

DP 3: Designing System Interventions

Semester 3

Understanding Values

Research for Design

Digital Interfaces

Digital Product Development

DP 2: Designing Product-Services

DP 1: Diving into Design

Understanding Product Engineering

Understanding Organisations

Semester 2

Understanding Design

Understanding Humans

Creating change & impacting the world

Semester 1