A Review of Digital Industrial and Product Design Methods in UK Higher Education

ABSTRACT

As the use of digital tools by industrial/product designers continues to increase, it is timely to explore the potential for a completely digital curriculum for undergraduate education. A survey study was carried out with 96 graduating students to collect data on the use of conventional and digital design modelling tools. Opinion was also sought from practitioners on the potential of employing entirely digital techniques during professional practice.

Results indicated that respondents tended to use a combination of conventional and digital design tools. Students were not familiar with the capabilities of some digital design tools that were commercially available and they were not fully exploiting digital sketching.

The paper concludes that opportunities exist for the development of learning and teaching in this area of the industrial/product design curriculum and that further research is required to better understand some of the key issues.

KEYWORDS:

• industrial design
• product design
• digital tools
• introduction

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noor Aldoy

Biographies

Noor Aldoy was awarded a PhD studentship by Loughborough Design School and the Engineering Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in 2007, following a BA in Design and Technology from the University of Sunderland and masters in Industrial Design from Loughborough University. Work within the Design Practice Research Group has focused on methods of digital industrial/product design and curriculum development for undergraduate study with outcomes being presented at conferences in Chicago and San Francisco. As a co-investigator in a Hewlett Packard Innovation in Education grant, recent research has been exploring the use of the Tablet PC as a tool for sketching during concept generation.

Mark Evans

Dr Mark Evans is a Senior Lecturer in industrial design with research interests in design methods, digital tools and practice-based research. A background in and passion for design practice has had significant impact on studio and research activity. Design consultancy has been undertaken for clients that include British Airways, Unilever, Boots, British Gas and Honda; with research funding from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), AHRC, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Hewlett Packard and the Royal Academy of Engineering. Research activity and professional practice has resulted in over 90 publications, membership of the AHRC Peer Review College and appointment as an International Scholar at MIT.