Educating Industrial Designers: Design Intent Part Two

Abstract

Educating future industrial designers presents many challenges. Students must learn to be comfortable identifying problems, work within global systems, and articulate their ‘design intent’ within the product development process. As educators, we ask: how does what exists in a student’s mind’s eye makes its way through the circuitous development process and into potential production–and remain clear to the people who use it? The degree to which a student considers the full scope of product development influences whether their ‘design intent’ is sustained or diluted along the way. Building on our companion chapter, ‘Practicing Industrial Design: Design Intent Part One’, we elaborate from the perspective of seasoned design educators on: (1) terminology related to design intent; and (2) pedagogical strategies and tools that cultivate and transfer design intent within the design process. This chapter begins to describe, illustrate, and define design intent as it’s embedded into teaching and learning industrial design.

Keywords: Design Intentions, Design Process, Design Rationale, Product Development, Teaching & Learning, Users

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1007763