Designer as integrator: reality or rhetoric?

This research was developed from Bohemia’s doctoral study: Lean Manufacturing and its impact on the role of Industrial Designers in Australia (University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2002). The broader research aim was to investigate the impact of lean manufacturing on the role of the industrial designer in Australian manufacturing organisations. Thomas Walton, a former editor of the Design Management Review stated that: ‘Leadership is significant, especially as design becomes a more prominent component of management. It is perhaps for this reason that Borja de Mozota and her colleagues chose to include an analysis by Erik Bohemia that probes ‘the emergence of design as a source of new product ideas and as a potential partner for managing a product development group’, Professor Cooper, editorial chair for The Design Journal, summed up the significance of Bohemia’s research in this area, by stating ‘This study found that, contrary to existing thought, manufacturers reported that designers are not perceived as playing integrative roles. Lean manufacturers view designers as providing competitive advantage in areas such as perceived product value, increased market share and reduced product cost, more when they are employed rather than acting as consultants to an organisation. This is counter to current theory, especially in the US and UK, where most research indicates that designers add intangible value through their interactive and interpretive skills’. Additional research findings related to the research have been presented at several international conferences: Bohemia, E., ‘The difference between in-house and contracted industrial designers: an Australian perspective’, the Futureground, Melbourne, November 2004. Bohemia, E., ‘Designer as integrator’, and ‘Performance of Industrial Designers’, (two papers) at the 11th International Forum on Design Management Research & Education, Massachusetts, USA, June 2002

Internationalisation from home- global collaborative project based learning

This paper explores how cross-institutional project-based-learning facilitated by Web 2.0 ICTs supported cross-cultural and cross-institutional student peer learning experiences. The focus of this paper relates to the most recent project named ‘The Gift’ conducted through ‘The Global Studio’. At each institution the students formed small local project teams which were paired with teams of students from one of the other collaborating universities. Initial findings suggest the majority of students perceived this innovative initiative as having facilitated their learning, especially in the intended areas of development of virtual teamwork and communication skills. This paper focuses on initial findings with regards peer learning in relation to ICTs and cross-cultural communication

Dissemination of innovative teaching and learning practice : the global studio

This project aims to disseminate teaching and learning resources from an innovative programme called the Global Studio to the ADM-HEA community. The area of innovation developed in the Global Studio was to link student teams across the globe in ‘designer’ and ‘client’ roles in order to undertake a product development project. This built on and extended the learning philosophy of learning in and through doing provided in a more traditional design studio. Throughout the project students worked in geographically distributed work groups in order to provide them with experience in using skills that would enable them to work successfully in distributed design teams

From Tutor-led to Student-led design education: the Global Studio

“Tutor-led” design education has been argued to be a system where lecturers are at the centre of teaching & learning activities and where educators’ tastes strongly influence students’ outcomes. Design education has also been argued not to prepare graduates for working in highly complex professional capacities synonymous with the contemporary era. We argue the role of tutors in tutor-led design education to be a factor in this. The Global Studio runs Web 2.0 enabled industry sponsored international collaborations between students. One aim is to introduce learners to “complex project situations” and consequently to prepare them for contemporary working life. It is operationally different from “tutor-led” design education as lecturers are more “distant” in teaching &learning activities and students construct conversations and outcomes primarily via interaction with peers. Feedback from home-institution students suggests many individuals struggle with making decisions without “tutor-led design education” involvement from tutors. Given the on-going change in funding provision and the continuing dissolution of “normal” structures, universities are predicted to continue to undergo extensive transformation in their remit and the way education is delivered. We ask whether tutor-led design education is maintainable and whether educators and students are prepared for the consequences of change

Another way of thinking: creativity and conformity

This paper explores possible tactics for academics working within a context of regulation and constraint. One tactic we suggest is moving outside of a creativity/conformity binary. Rather than understanding creativity and conformity as separate, where one is understood as excluding the other, we discuss the potential of examining the relationships between them. We use the theme of ‘structure and play’ to illustrate our argument. In the first part of the paper using various examples from art and design, fields generally associated with creativity, we explore the interrelatedness of creativity and conformity. For example, how might design styles, which are generally understood as creative outcomes, constrain creativity and lead to conformity within the design field? Is fashion producing creativity or conformity? Conversely, the ways conformity provides the conditions for creativity are also examined. For example, the conformity imposed by the State on artists within the communist block and how this contributed to a thriving underground arts movement which challenged conformity and State regulation. Continuing the theme of ‘structure and play’ we provide a story from an Australian university which offers insight into the ongoing renegotiation of power in the academy. This account illustrates the ways programmatic government within the university, with the aim of regulating conduct, contributed to unanticipated outcomes. We propose that a relational view of power is useful for academics operating in the current higher education context as it brings into view sites where power might begin to be renegotiated

Issues related to conducting a global studio

The purpose of this paper is to initiate discussion and guide a proposed workshop on issues in crossinstitutional and cross-disciplinary design studios, with a focus on assessment. This paper overviews issues associated with the implementation and coordination of the Global Studio, a recent crossdisciplinary and cross-institutional teaching and learning collaboration conducted across three HE institutions. First, we outline the aims of the Global Studio. Then, we describe the initial planning and implementation of the Global Studio. Finally, we discuss some of the challenges faced by academics teaching on the course.We suggest that many of these challenges were associated with assessment

Designing with and for others

The paper argues that as designers are increasing designing with others and design for others it is important for them to be skilled in intercultural communication and be aware of the effects of their practices, including the ways others are represented in the objects they produce. We will use an international project to upcoming designers’ reflection on their practices while working with others and designing for others. We conclude that although the project provided them with an opportunity to experience working across cultures it is questionable as to whether they gained an understanding of the principles that contribute to enhancing intercultural communication

Design Process and Organisational Strategy: A Storytelling Perspective

This paper explores the relationship between design process and organisational strategy through a storytelling perspective by providing a literature review; firstly, in relation to society in general; establishing a contextual background to the research. Secondly, by relating this to a) how designers and design researchers examine storytelling within design process, and b) how organisational strategists theorise storytelling. Then finally, through comparing and contrasting the literature, unearth the relevancies of using a storytelling perspective and uncover opportunities for understanding how design process impacts organisational strategy. It is apparent that certain underlying principles in adopting a storytelling perspective when employing organisational strategy and design process coexist. Foremost are the human centred focuses; in particular building relationships and constructing identities. Concerning the approaches to storytelling, a shared desire to elicit emotional resonance with audiences exists in the use of characterisation. During collaboration between designers and organisations, stories resulting from the design process will incontrovertibly have the potential to impact that company’s peoples. Examining collaborations between designers and organisations from the perspective of storytelling could lead to a deeper understanding of the impact design can have in an organisation, particularly along the themes of a sense of community, constructing meaning and affecting change within organisations

Boundary crossing : negotiating learning outcomes in industry-based student projects

In order to prepare upcoming Industrial Designers to be able to operate successfully in increasingly complex work settings, the Industrial Design program at the University of Western Sydney is teaming up with industry to provide final year students with industry-based projects. The introduction of Industry-Based Projects into the final year research projects have disrupted many set ways the traditional student projects have been run in the past. Industry-Based Projects have brought to light a number of important issues associated with the assessment process and views held by academics about desired student project outcomes and assessment that were left lying dormant in the past. This paper explores the challenges academics faced negotiating student outcomes and assessment while supervising Industry-Based Projects