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A Review of Sustainability within Product and Industrial Design Courses in British Universities

Matthew Watkins

Email: M.A.Watkins@lboro.ac.uk

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Introduction

Investigating effective methods for Sustainable Product Design Education in British Universities.

Reviewing existing teaching and learning to identify and disseminate best practise amongst universities in the UK that teach industrial or product design.

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Focus of Presentation

Recent online survey into the teaching of Sustainability on Product and Industrial design courses taught within British Universities.

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Sustainable Design

Sustainable Design

Okala (IDSA, 2005)

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Methodology

A list of universities that teach Product or Industrial design was compiled from UCAS.

Contact details of lecturers were sourced through the institutions website or by contacting the relevant departments directly.

A personal invitation with a link to the survey was emailed to lecturers in 40 universities.

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Methodology

The questionnaire contained 15 questions:– 3 were administrative – 9 were multiple choice, for quantitative analysis– 3 were open ended qualitative responses and

these were analysed using coding and clustering techniques.

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Questionnaire Response

38 lecturers responded, representing 29 universities.

Completed responses represented 24 different universities, 60% of all those contacted.

A number of academics expressed their wishes to be informed of the outcomes.

A few were also willing to be involved in further research.

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Sustainable Design

Academics were first asked to define sustainable design.

Responses were typically detailed, personal and data rich.

This data was analysed using coding and clustering techniques.

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Sustainable Design

50% of the respondents identified an appropriate definition for sustainable design.

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Design Requirements

Academics were asked to select from a list of design requirements those taught on their courses.

State whether each requirement could, should or is taught under the umbrella term of sustainable design.

Results show that many already teach such requirements through sustainable design.

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Design Requirements

64

63

1 0 13 3

1 13 2 1

3 4

2 53

6

33

31

44 4

43 4

4 3

16 1412

16

19 22 2117 12

20 2114 17

21 1814

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Design

for t

he a

ged

Design

for b

ehav

iour

chan

ge

Design

agai

nst c

rime

Design

for d

isass

embl

y

Design

for t

he e

nviro

nment

Design

for m

anufa

cture

/ass

embly

Ecodes

ign

Emot

ional d

esign

Emot

ionally

dur

able

desig

n

Ethics

of d

esign

Inclu

sive

design

Produ

ct s

ervic

e sy

stem

s

Respon

sible

desig

n

Susta

inab

le d

esig

n

Syste

ms d

esign

Univers

al de

sign

Is

Should

Could

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Course Structure

60% teach sustainable design in at least two years of their undergraduate programs as well as on postgraduate courses, where applicable.

40% teach sustainable design in only the final year of undergraduate or postgraduate studies.

Sustainability was covered on a wide range of 3D design courses, with no apparent distinction between BA and BSc routes.

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Course Structure

How sustainable design content is taught

0 5 10 15 20 25

Though generic courses outside of the design department

Though individual lectures, unrelated to design project work

Through a lecture series, unrelated to design project work

Through a single design project based module specificallyfocussing on sustainable design module.

Discreetly throughout all design projects.

Other

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Staff Expertise

Respondents level of confidence in sustainable design

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

That of a specialist Have a full workingknowledge

Familiar and cangrasp the basic

concepts

Limitedunderstanding

No understanding

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Staff Expertise

Academics personal education needs for sustainable design

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Would appreciatededicated training

Would finddetailed

resources andguidance helpful

Require guidanceon the

consideration ofsocial and ethicalissues in design

Could do with arefresher of thebasic concepts

No needs Other

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Collaboration

None43%

Other7%

With other universities25%

Conferences or seminars

11%

Other departments within the same

institution7%

Specialist centre for sustainable design

7% Only a quarter cited

informal connections with other universities.

Almost half had no opportunities for collaboration.

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SUSDESIGNTEACH0%

JISC Mail groups14%

Other20%

Sustainable Design Network

14%

O2 mailing list2%

Design Research Society

24%

Not Applicable14%

@yahoogroups.com0%

PHD-DESIGN Index7%eco-

innovation_network5%

Collaboration

Networks used to connect with academics outside of their department.

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Curriculum

Academics were asked to select their preferable method for teaching sustainable design:– A specialist optional module– A compulsory module– Integrated throughout the core design curriculum

as an aspect of good design

97% of the agreed that it should be integrated into the core design curriculum.

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Limitations of the Questionnaire

Of the 11 respondents incomplete responses: 6 stopped at the definition of sustainable design Suggesting either a lack of confidence in their

knowledge or that the question was too demanding.

1 respondent was persuaded via email to skip this question.

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Limitations of the Questionnaire

4 stopped at the design requirements question. Possibly because this question required

additional information not to hand. However the questionnaire did permit

respondents to save and completed at a later date, a feature used by some academics.

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Conclusions

50% of the respondents have a correct understanding of sustainability.

High survey response rate, over 40% or the academics emailed responded.

Survey represents over half of all the universities in the UK that teach product design.

Suggesting the teaching of sustainability within product design is widespread in the UK

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Conclusions

Considering the social aspects of sustainable design:– 96% agree inclusive design is or should be taught– 92% agree ethics of design is or should be taught

Academics who had previously cited a solely environmental definition evidenced teaching of the social aspects of sustainability.

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Conclusions

High awareness of and support for sustainability: 70% claim they had at least a full working

knowledge of sustainability. 97% support the integration of sustainable

design within the core curriculum as an aspect of good design.

Suggesting a high interest in sustainable product design.

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Further Work

Interviews are being conducted with 9 leading academics in sustainable design within UK.

Investigating best practise within sustainable design, such as the most appropriate teaching style as well as appropriate subject content.

Conclusions derived from these interviews will be disseminated to universities involved in this survey.

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End

Thank you, all for listening

Feel free to ask any Questions….

My webpage will be updated with future outcomes: http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~cdmaw/index.htm