Course Title: | Design Fundamentals |
Course Number: | ENGR-AD 323 |
Course Category: | Engineering Elective |
Course Credit: | 4.0 points |
Course Weeks: | 14 weeks |
Contact Hours/Week: | Day 1, Project Colloquium: 155 min |
Day 2, Lecture: 75 min | |
Day 3, Laboratory: 75 min | |
Prerequisite: | recommended: ENGR-AD 110 J |
The course »Design Fundamentals« is designed for engineering students to learn the fundamentals of “good design“ – how to be innovative, while keeping the design useful, aesthetic, understandable, unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, detailed and environmentally friendly, and at the same time focusing on essential aspects. A hands on course about Design in the context of History, Methodology and Function serving the specific needs of engineers in the fields of user-experience, user-interaction and design and innovation in general. The course has four components: a lecture, a case study presentation, a lab and a project colloquium. In the lecture, short crash-courses are presented on specific topics, which are deepened by case study presentations. The lab sessions provide tools to quickly and deeply expose students to new subject matter. During the project colloquium, student groups present their project results and receive feedback in open discussions.
The objectives of the course are:
There are three modes of delivery: 1. Lecture, 2. Project and 3. Laboratory.
During the Lecture students are introduced to relevant Design topics in the field of Engineering. In the context of the lectures students will present a case study underlining current topics. The aim of the Project is to develop, throughout several iterations, a presentable prototype of a product that can be produced in a limited series (Bricolage). While the focus in Spring Semester 1 lays on concept development, the focus in Spring Semester 2 lays on the design and development of prototypes. During the development of a prototype the students face different project phases. Weekly presentations and ethical discussions of cases provide the groundwork for students to prepare written case analyses and accompanying 5-minute oral presentations. In the Laboratory sessions Project Management tools and tools of Rapid Prototyping are presented; to deepen the knowledge, practical exercises are accomplished together with hands-on techniques during Lab-sessions. This will help the students to process their project relevant tasks and assigned homework. Readings from the textbooks are assigned weekly.
The following learning outcomes are anticipated upon completion of this course.
Students will be able to:
Any 2 missing classes will result in (-) minus point automatically.
Students will be graded as follows.
I. | Case Study presentation | 10% |
II. | Project relevant Research | 20% |
III. | Project Idea/Concept Development | 20% |
IV. | Development of Prototypes | 20% |
V. | Presentations (Elevator Pitch, presentation) | 15% |
VI. | Documentation of Project | 15% |
Total | 100% |
Supplemental Materials:
Spring Semester 1
Week 1. | Design as a Concept – Introduction to Design Thinking |
Book: Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design (p. 196 ff.) | |
Week 2. | Design and History I. – Retrospective, The Bauhaus |
Book: Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design (p. 17 ff.) | |
Book: The World as Design (p. 85 ff.) | |
Week 3. | Design and History I. – Retrospective, The Bauhaus |
Book: Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design (p. 37 ff.) | |
Week 4. | Design and Methodology I. – Semiotics and Design |
Book: Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design (p. 83 ff.) | |
Book: The World as Design (p. 28 ff.) | |
Week 5. | Design and Methodology II. – Developments in Design Methodology |
Book: Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design (p. 108 ff.) | |
Week 6. | The Function of Design I. – Communication, Formal-Aesthetics |
Book: Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design (p. 148ff.) | |
Week 7. | The Function of Design II. – Marking, Symbolics, Product Semantics |
Book: Design: History, Theory and Practice of Product Design (p. 164 ff.) |
Spring Semester 2
Week 8. | 20 rules for engineers building a presentation |
Week 9. | 20 interaction-design hints for engineers |
Week 10. | 20 product-designs engineers should know |
Week 11. | 20 graphic-design rules for engineers |
Week 12. | 20 interface-design rules for engineers |
Week 13. | 20 designers engineers should know |
Week 14. | 20 architects engineers should know |