1. Designing a design curriculum

The Diploma in Product Design & Innovation (PDI) is a course offered by the School of Engineering at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

The PDI curriculum was designed on the principle that a good product is one that looks good, works well and sells well. A good product (e.g. mobile phone, printer, kettle, chair, vacuum cleaner or car) must be attractive, functional and marketable. This concept forms the foundation of the PDI curriculum.

The curriculum thus integrates the three important disciplines of product design: Arts, Engineering and Business. It focuses on the design process and methodology, from the conceptualization of creative ideas to the realization of innovative designs with quality design folios, mock-ups & models; computer models & presentations; and drawings & documentation for mass production.

The principal approach of PDI

Students graduate from the diploma with a design portfolio, complete with working prototype and business plan. They participate in overseas and local internships and immersion programmes at product design companies and institutions, and have access to facilities such as rapid prototyping, laser cutting and computer numerical controlled machines

2.  Learning how to design

We believe that learning to design is something like learning to play a sport such as badminton, soccer or volleyball. The students are the players and the lecturer is the coach. The students need to practice designing, repeatedly, to hone their skills, knowledge and attitude; and the coach’s main role is to observe, evaluate and guide the students in order to continuously improve their design abilities.

Learning to design is about understanding the design process and the associated factors. There must not be too much emphasis on the results at the end of the design process.  “Exploration” and “experimentation” are the key words. The lecturer’s role is to encourage the students to generate new and creative design ideas, instead of designs that have already proved to be working.

Are all designs successful? Inventor Thomas Edison once said:

"I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."

Therefore, in design and innovation, mistakes are okay, except the designer must learn from them and pursue a better solution.

3.  Teaching design: Variety! Variety! Variety!

One of the key success factors in teaching design is to use a variety of teaching and learning approaches. That is, besides the traditional modes of lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions, projects and assignments, there should be other appropriate ways to engage the students in learning. These include talks and seminars by practising designers, visits to design companies and design exhibitions, participation in design competitions, exchange programmes with other institutions, and so on. 

Variety in teaching and learning approaches helps to avoid boredom and provide freshness in learning among the learners. More importantly, as different students have different preferred modes of learning, variety in learning approaches will satisfy every student in some ways.

The following sections outline some of the approaches we have used, and the outcomes.

4.  Involve the students and make it real

a. Experiential Learning

“Tell me, I will forget. Show me, I may remember. Involve me, I will understand.”

This proverb speaks of the power of involvement in the experience of learning. In PDI, learning via involvement is a key feature in the programme.

Wheelchair exercise in the Ergonomics and User-Centred Design module

For instance, an exercise in the Ergonomics and User-Centred Design (EUCD) module required the students to design a wheelchair.

In order for the students to fully understand user needs and subsequently write the design specifications for the wheelchair design assignment, they were required to first sit and move around on a wheelchair and carry out some given tasks just like a real wheelchair user.

The tasks included getting to a meeting room and borrowing a book from the library.

Visually-impaired exercise in the Ergonomics and User-Centred Design module

In another similar exercise, the students were asked to write the design specifications for a product designed for the visually impaired. In this case, the students were grouped in teams of two.

Each student took turns being blind-folded and they experienced the problems faced by the visually-impaired. The students needed to carry out some given tasks such as buying a cup of coffee from the canteen, or delivering a letter to an office.  

At the end of the exercises, the students had a more comprehensive understanding of the needs of the target users of the products (i.e. wheelchair users and visually-impaired), and a more deep knowledge of the principles of user-centred design.

b. Field Trips: In the Product Form and Aesthetics (PFA) module, in order for the students to understand the contemporary design styling and trend in product designs, they were taken on a field trip to  Orchard Road. As they visited various shops, the students were required to study and sketch various products that were on sale. They then had to propose their own improvements to these products and present their findings.   

Field trip exercise presentation in the Product Form and Aesthetics module

c. Workshops by Experts: Another way to involve students in learning was to engage practising designers to give guest lectures or conduct design workshops for the students. Such sessions provided opportunities for the students to learn from the experiences of different designers. Following are pictures of a design workshop conducted by designers from the James Dyson Foundation.

Design workshop by James Dyson Foundation

d. Design Competitions: Another practice-oriented learning experience for PDI students was their involvement in various design competitions, In such competitions, a local sponsoring company provides some prizes for the best three to five designs. The advantage for the company is they see many new design concepts for their product range.

3D CAD images in the Singapore Mint souvenir design assignment

For instance, in the Product Form & Aesthetics module, the Singapore Mint sponsored the souvenir design competition assignment.

Design poster in the CyberInc mini computer design assignment

In the Ergonomics and User-Centred Design module, CyberInc sponsored the mini computer mouse design competition assignment.

In these design competition assignments, students work according to the company’s real-life design requirements, and the students had the chance to interact and learn from the company’s designers or engineers. In general, students are very motivated in such design competition assignments.

In addition, the compulsory three-month internship allows each PDI student the opportunity to understand the design process and factors in real-life design projects.

e. Other approaches: Other learning designs that have been used in the PDI curriculum include critique sessions and off-campus project exhibitions.

5.  What have the students designed?

With the help of the many practice-oriented ways to engage the students in learning as described in earlier sections, the students have produced many innovative designs, and some are shown in the following figures.

Water Skate – enablesthe user to walk or skate on water

Ice Stirrer – to cool drink without diluting it

Money Cleaner – preventing infection by killing germs on coins and notes

6.  How did the students respond?

Feedback from the students on the various innovative applied learning approaches in PFA, EUCD and PDAI modules is very positive.

Surveys and focus group discussions were conducted at the end of each semseter to assess the effectiveness of the teaching strategies employed, and students’ receptiveness to these approaches. The feedback provides good input from students, enabling us to work towards continuous improvement of the curriculum and to gauge the effectiveness of the various modes of teaching and learning.

Appendix A gives a summary of the survey results conducted for PFA and EUCD for the past semesters. Response to Question 2 in the survey clearly shows that the students have found the off-campus exercises to be extremely useful. In general, the module lectures, exercises, assignments and projects are appropriately structured to meet students’ expectations. Through the modules, they are able to understand more about consumers’ expectations and needs.

Focus group discussions have also been conducted to get students’ feedback on the innovative teaching and learning approaches adopted for the course.

Appendix B shows the positive outcome of these discussions.

7. Conclusion

Involving the students in every possible way in a variety of different learning approaches is key to the teaching of the Product Design and Innovation modules. Learning to design is like learning to play a new sport game – one has to actually play the game and practice constantly in addition to knowing the principles of designing. The favourable feedback of the students and their innovative design work indicates the approach used in the course has proved to be on the right track. The PDI course team believes in, and carries out continuous improvement and constant refinement to the approach in order to engage the new batch of students in learning every year.

Authors

Dr Tan Ah Kat

Richard Lim

Tan Ah Kat is Deputy Director and Richard Lim Chiok Ngee is senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering Division, School of Engineering, Ngee Ann Polytechnic.