If graduating design students are to fulfill the potential of the discipline, it is
essential that design education extends beyond the classroom to engage
with other disciplines. Design Thinking has emerged as a key mechanism to
engage design with business and other disciplines. Consequently, designers
are operating in more strategic roles in many organizations that recognise
the opportunities that are associated with integrating design as a core
organizational activity.
This paper describes how the Product Design programme at AUT University
has responded to the need to expose postgraduate students to a range of
professionals with expertise in different disciplines through the development
of an authentic learning ecosystem. It also describes the opportunity
identified to educate businesses and organisations about the principles,
processes and methods of Design Thinking, and maximising the learning
educational benefits of this situation, through these interdisciplinary
collaborations.
Three learning and teaching strategies have been proposed and implemented:
1. External interdisciplinary relationships through external projects;
2. Design Thinking Participatory Workshops for businesses/organisation; and
3. Industry mentoring.
This paper specifically outlines the background and the theoretical
perspectives behind these strategies. In particular, the paper explores how
the application of these strategies is not only providing unique authentic
Learning from others: Enhancing a Postgraduate Product Design programme
through interdisciplinary industry collaboration 2
learning opportunities for students, but is also assisting in the transformation
of a number of New Zealand organisations. We discuss the design and
development of each of the strategies, including the approaches used and
the role of the postgraduate students. The paper then presents the results of
some of these activiites and evaluates them from student and industry
perspectives.
DesignED Asia 2012 Conference
