Academia 360°

BUILDING EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN EDUCATION

In this column, we are building upon our experiences serving on the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) jury where we witnessed innovation in design thought, application, and manufacturing and had many fruitful discussions about design and all its facets with our fellow jury peers. We are curious to know what design excellence means for stakeholders in the academic environment. Below we highlight the voices of educators and students from different parts of the country in their response to a simple prompt:

“When thinking about design education excellence, I think about the importance of growth, practice, community, and resources. These components go hand-in-hand, guiding us students to reach our desired goals and full potential. As we work together to set each other up for success, our growth needs to be fostered by safe, adequate, and open-minded studio environments, relevant course offerings, dedicated faculty, and a commitment to not only ourselves but those around us as well.

Design education doesn’t end in the classroom but should continue throughout all facets of the educational institution. This includes consistently advocating for student needs and acting on concerns, as well as facilitating introductions for professional relationships, community action, and future employment opportunities where students can continue to grow and learn through their chosen design practice.”

—Dara Benno, S/IDSA, Masters of Industrial Design Class of 2022, Rhode Island School of Design “2020 has impacted our education system drastically: For educators, they not only have had to shift the way they teach to keep the students engaged but also have had to update the materials they’re teaching to make it work for the virtual format. For students, they have had to rethink how they can get the most out of their design education experience while adapting to the new learning format as well.

Interestingly, we have started to see some shifts in the learning experience and outcome from this interruption. More and more students have started to use design thinking to tackle more societal issues with a systemic approach by understanding the root cause of the problems they’re solving for, instead of only designing to resolve surface-level matters. Not only has this change provided students with more opportunities to figure out the issues they care about the most and the areas of focus they want to have as designers, it has also given the design educators a chance to restructure their courses and revise their class materials to allow their students to explore their passion and purpose during their design education.

While 2020 has passed, we still and will always have many challenges ahead that need to be addressed in a more systematic and timely approach. We as designers can be the forces of change. Design education has a huge impact on shaping the next generation of designers’ way of problem-solving. Because systemic issues are by design, we as designers have a tremendous responsibility to use our skills purposefully to create the future we want to live in. To me, this emphasis on problem-solving through a more systematic approach is design education excellence.”

—Danielle Chen, IDSA, designer, Huge, and adjunct faculty, Drexel University

“Excellence in design education is when students thrive in an environment where empathy, inclusion, and respect empower them to tackle complex problems, explore multidisciplinary viewpoints, and learn from trial and error. It happens when students are valued for their strengths and given the opportunity to explore, imagine, and address ethical solutions to real-world problems. It is attained when students appreciate diverse cultures, consider the user context, and leverage evolving technologies.

It is important to support equity in design, harness the potential of all students, remove evaluation biases, and encourage students to have discourse about diversity. Excellence can be achieved when teachers and students work collaboratively toward an inclusive learning experience that embraces constructive feedback and enables mutual growth.”

—Sana Behnam, PhD candidate in the College of Design, North Carolina State University

“Design education excels in environments where there is thoughtful consideration for the voices included in decision-making conversations and where intentions are set to positively impact the environment and the general welfare of communities. When setting up an educational environment, it is imperative that the classroom is a safe and inviting space that encourages fruitful conversation, constructive criticism, and creative thinking. It is important to include a range of different voices, from students who come from diverse backgrounds to mentors who have work experience in a range of different industries.

Productive collaboration between students occurs when each individual is open to learning from one another and brings their unique experience and talent to the table. Productive mentorship between students and professors thrives when teachers prime courses with foundational knowledge of concepts, encourage conducting thorough research and use of available resources, and foster an environment of curiosity, creativity, and innovation. Excellent design education builds passionate students who are willing to go the extra mile to create products that positively impact the world while challenging conversations around design to be more inclusive and ethical.”

—Stephanie Park, S/IDSA, Department of Industrial Design Class of 2022, Rhode Island School of Design “A funny idea was brought up to me as a freshman. One of my professors at the time suggested an alternative to a design way of thinking. ‘A design way of being,’ coined in-house by Mike Glaser, was the resounding chorus during my time at Drexel Product Design, and it lay at the heart of everything we did. As students, we were made to revere the power of design and recognize its influence on everything from the room we were sitting in to the infrastructure of nations. We marveled at the role of the designer as a purveyor of new realities and the tantamount responsibility that comes with it. We began to see ourselves as players and movers, curators of our own lives and of the future we wished to live in.

Unlike learned skills, which fade if not put into regular practice, a design way of being is not so easily reversed. Once one grasps the mindset of design, the entire world shifts into a new realm of possibilities. The lines between life and design, work and the world, imagination and reality blur. But hardly into obfuscation—on the contrary, out of it. It is through this lens that we begin to see problems differently in order to solve them strategically. True design excellence is understanding that every experience, every iota of information, and every mental faculty comprise our capability as designers, and it does well to maintain all of them.”

—BreAnna Bechtold, S/IDSA, Product Design Class of 2021, Drexel University

“Excellence in design education is so multifaceted. At its core, design education must be inclusive, future-oriented, systemic, and ethical. My approach as an undergraduate ID program director and educator is to inspire students to imagine new possibilities and to have the technical skills to articulate those visions in the form of valuable and impactful products, services, spaces, and experiences. An excellent design education goes beyond skills. It should nurture attitudes, curiosities, and mindset. At the end of the day, it’s really about a well-balanced approach to creative thinking and critical thinking so that future designers can play integral roles in both identifying and solving problems that need to be solved.”

—Raja Schaar, IDSA, Assistant Professor and Program Director Product Design, Drexel University, and co-chair, IDSA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council

“Excellence in design education is about developing educational experiences that support all students and all faculty in discovering, learning, contributing, challenging, engaging, and imagining future possibilities for our profession. We need to provide students with proficiency in a range of technical, social, and cognitive fields of knowledge, the ability to work collaboratively with multiple disciplines, and the capacity to harness diversity in these efforts. Delivering a constantly widening body of knowledge while meeting students’ varying interests and needs requires flexibility, adaptability, and collaboration. It also requires empathy for the many challenges students face.

Design education, however, has been exclusionary and inflexible. Making design education accessible and inclusive to those who seek to enter the profession and reimagine what, where, and how design is taught is now more important than ever. Faculty have a responsibility to identify and mitigate barriers and biases in the admission process, the student experience, curriculum development, and the skill sets we value in our students. Equally as important is to revisit the faculty experience and the recruitment and promotion processes for women and underrepresented minorities. Design education has played a major role in widening disparities, and we have a responsibility and the opportunity to lead change.”

—Carolina Gill, IDSA, professor of industrial design and co-director of the Health Centered Design Lab, North Carolina State University “Outstanding education occurs in an environment where students’ sparks of curiosity are nurtured, where knowledge is not only shared but consistently challenged to push the boundaries of the status quo. Both educators and learners must co-create this safe learning environment for students to practice independently, collectively, freely, and critically. Designers must be compassionate advocates for people; we should lead with our hearts. By cultivating an understanding of the diverse and fluid world we live in, we become the voice of the vulnerable and empathetic stewards of communities.

This practice starts in the classroom through accountability to each other and establishing relationships that last a lifetime. As teachers, our mission is to provide diverse contexts and tools to help students become critical and flexible thinkers capable of navigating numerous factors and influences they will encounter. We must teach students the tools to make their visions visible to themselves and others so they can lead and create better futures and take a seat at the table. We also need to instill the power of art to touch people profoundly. Design is art, and we must not forget that. Finally, we cannot achieve a true sense of design education excellence until we make design education more accessible. We must diversify our field to bring a broader perspective and represent the communities we are designing for and with. We all have a lot of work to do.”

—Ayako Takase, IDSA, associate professor and graduate program director, Rhode Island School of Design

The common theme we see is that community and empathy matter as much (if not more) as the physical and technical aspects of design education. Excellence is what continues to propel the design profession forward to adapt to changing times while driving discovery and innovation.

In talking about design excellence, we cannot ignore the disparity in meaning for different stakeholders in the design profession. For some, it is related to objects, experiences, and services, while for others it is related to communities, systems, and institutions. More than ever, there is a need for inclusive processes, harmony, and ethical considerations in the design curriculum and environment to form the holistic learning and teaching experience students and faculty alike seek.

Action item: Cross the aisle and strike up a conversation with someone about excellence in design education and how we could build in flexibility to propel an adaptive design landscape. Share your experience with us on Twitter or send us an email. Follow us on Twitter @academia360_ID and join the conversation using the hashtag #ACADEMIA360_ID.

—Aziza Cyamani, IDSA, and Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness, IDSA, with contributions from industrial design students, educators, and teaching professionals. acyamani2@unl.edu; verena@iastate.edu