We hope that you are interested in this work and might consider adapting it for use in your design teaching. Each iteration of the seminar had modifications that were based on what we learned from the previous iteration. The next time we teach the seminar, it will be no different, as we learned some important things when we taught the seminar in 2022. Some of the changes that we will consider making the next time we teach the seminar are here:
In the winter 2022 iteration, the “Good designers do x” lens was presented in week 8, the final lens before learners did their ideal design signature. The placement as the final lens was due to the history of pulling the seminar together. Early in the quarter, Cindy decided it was important to present students with research from other scholars in the field, resulting in her sending out a query to colleagues in the engineering design education and the design research communities to respond to the prompt, "When you talk to someone and say “Good designers do ‘X’”, what are the top things you list?" In the span of four weeks we heard back from 27 colleagues and the responses were absolutely inspirational! People included concepts that were broad and deep and very reflective. The students resonated massively with the list and it was very inspirational for their postcards, which you will see in week 8 in the materials on this website.
As we currently work on developing a workshop with this material, we have come to realize that in presenting the three lenses -- good designers do x, the many models of design, and Cindy's design expertise research -- it is better to first introduce "good designers to x" so participants start with a broader notion of design. This is the order we would implement in the next version of the seminar.
It can be intimidating to think about what you would do in an ideal situation, and the concept of an “ideal” design signature for a final assignment was a bit challenging for some students. For example, some students mentioned that the phrase “ideal” felt too set in stone or final and were more comfortable with the idea that their design signature would continue to evolve overtime. They had a good point, because as we discuss in the seminar, design signatures can vary for different attributes of design projects. What would an ideal design signature be that could cover all the cases? The intent of the assignment is to get people to reflect on who they want to be as designers and create a memory aid for themselves so that those concepts will arise in the future when they're in the midst of doing design. Therefore, we have thought about renaming the final assignment. Some of the options are: aspirational design signature, future design signature, design signature memory aid, potential design signature, ongoing design signature.
We hope that you take the bits and pieces of this work that may be inspiring for you and adapt them to whatever situation you are teaching in. We would love to hear how it goes for you!
