Generalist designers, specialist projects: forming multidisciplinary teams that work

Designing interactive media is a highly dynamic activity with many projects involving extensive use of technology and collaborating with information technology experts. Digital media design students therefore need to be prepared for a volatile technological future and need to learn to work with others. However, few educators provide a rationale for managing multidisciplinary teams in undergraduate design education in terms of size, team building processes or, determination of skills, abilities and knowledge of students. Multidisciplinary teamwork can be messy when undergraduate students are thrown into the deep end of teamwork. It is suggested that collaborations between students from different disciplines need to be managed not only during the collaborative design process but also during the formation of teams. Being satisfied with the placement in a multidisciplinary team would allow students to focus on the acquisition of new and specialised skills and apply those skills as part of a functional team to a project. This research therefore explores what team building strategies will build effective multidisciplinary teams in undergraduate design education. Two team building strategies (structured educator-led and semi structured Speed Dating) were developed and trialled in two digital media design subjects over a period of three years. Design students have provided feedback via an online survey. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed to explore the degree to which students were satisfied with team placement and the effectiveness of activities that were developed to support the team forming process