Managing Constraints in Design Projects to Encourage Making, Iterative Design and a Deeper Learning Experience

Design education has been challenged by the need to teach students design, when being a designer has proved difficult to define and articulate. The solution adopted by design educators has been to dismantle the design process into smaller, easily managed segments, such as manufacturing and ergonomics. This approach has largely been successful and graduates make the transition from academia to professional practice with relative ease. Recently however, design has expanded beyond its traditional borders into new areas such as experience design and digital manufacturing, this requires new learning products which is resulting in an overcrowding of the curriculum. Furthermore, increased student numbers in programs like Integrated Product Design, where model-making in workshops is fundamental, is placing additional pressure on delivering efficient and effective learning experiences. This paper will present a case study from the Integrated Product Design program at the University of Technology Sydney where subjects have been re-structured in response to these pressures. The subjects involve the design of an object and the making of functional prototypes using technologies both internal and external to the university. Fundamental to this re-structure has been the management of contextual factors through the use of constraints and the demonstrated engagement with the iterative process