Understanding Design

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.”