Design education is too important to be left to designers

IF 3.2 1区工程技术 Q2 ENGINEERING, MANUFACTURING

Design Studies Pub Date : 2025-03-04 DOI:10.1016/j.destud.2025.101301

Dan Formosa

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Abstract

Design can be a powerful force for change. The industrial design profession and its education system however have been slow to escape a decades old model that focuses on things more than people. Topics covered in design education today are far too much like those taught 50 or more years ago. The stagnancy is especially surprising because the profession bases its reputation and worth on its ability to innovate for the companies or organizations enlisting their services, with many designers claiming they take a human-centered approach to their work.

The wave of interest in recent years to spur creative thinking has relegated design to a scripted methodology that to an extent has suppressed creative thinking. It celebrates process rather than knowledge.

Given current practice it is unlikely that inclusivity, or design-based innovations in topics such as healthcare, human behavior or sustainability, will be fully realized. At its core a designer's education should include psychology, physiology, biomechanics, social responsibility and other human-centered topics. Curriculums should also include courses in research methods and statistics, critical components to understanding people in a data-driven world. Redefined curriculums can redefine the profession.

It's not clear that the profession or its education system will transform significantly anytime soon. Without placing knowledge about people at its core design will continue to be determined by professionals outside of the design profession. With a legacy that can be difficult to shift, the solution can be the creation of an entirely new discipline in design, one that's centered on people.

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来源期刊

Design Studies 工程技术-工程：制造

CiteScore

8.60

自引率

20.00%

发文量

审稿时长

40 days

期刊介绍： Design Studies is a leading international academic journal focused on developing understanding of design processes. It studies design activity across all domains of application, including engineering and product design, architectural and urban design, computer artefacts and systems design. It therefore provides an interdisciplinary forum for the analysis, development and discussion of fundamental aspects of design activity, from cognition and methodology to values and philosophy. Design Studies publishes work that is concerned with the process of designing, and is relevant to a broad audience of researchers, teachers and practitioners. We welcome original, scientific and scholarly research papers reporting studies concerned with the process of designing in all its many fields, or furthering the development and application of new knowledge relating to design process. Papers should be written to be intelligible and pertinent to a wide range of readership across different design domains. To be relevant for this journal, a paper has to offer something that gives new insight into or knowledge about the design process, or assists new development of the processes of designing.