Abstract
As our world is getting super-complex and human’s influence creates disastrous effects on our planet, it becomes vital to nurture design-specific, future-oriented knowledge and skills to establish a mediating environment. How can an interdisciplinary design curriculum support the evolution of future-oriented and sustainable ecologies encouraging creative collaboration inventing, rethinking, and recreating the world? This research explores a novel bachelor’s programme between multidisciplinary faculties of Computer Science and Design and Art to educate future information technology and design specialists together. It examines the qualities of Design interweaving with Computer Science merging into a next-level design culture. From a design researcher’s point of view an extensive document analysis from concept papers to project launch files provide insight on fundamental aspects of the programme’s curriculum to locate potentials for a learning environment advancing future-oriented knowledge and skills. Based on literature, a compilation of demanded and necessary design education and research subject matters is juxtaposed with the programme’s curricula. Illustrations were created to depict core principles of future-oriented design education and research. Key elements of the interdisciplinary design curriculum were determined and matched with formerly defined core principles. By describing the novel interdisciplinary bachelor’s programme Digital Ideation (DI) this study presents how design education and research could broaden its fields of action as well as its external perceptions. The study invites to reflect on alternative combinations with other disciplines or how design education and research could further emerge into the future-oriented discipline that mediates, facilitates, and leads creative collaborations to master the challenges that lie ahead.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2025.127
Citation
Maier-Hummel, M.(2025) The Ongoing Evolution of Design: New Life Forms, in Clemente, V., Gomes, G., Reis, M., Félix, S., Ala, S., Jones, D. (eds.), Learn X Design 2025, 22-24 September 2025, Aveiro, Portugal. https://doi.org/10.21606/drslxd.2025.127
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Full Paper
The Ongoing Evolution of Design: New Life Forms
As our world is getting super-complex and human’s influence creates disastrous effects on our planet, it becomes vital to nurture design-specific, future-oriented knowledge and skills to establish a mediating environment. How can an interdisciplinary design curriculum support the evolution of future-oriented and sustainable ecologies encouraging creative collaboration inventing, rethinking, and recreating the world? This research explores a novel bachelor’s programme between multidisciplinary faculties of Computer Science and Design and Art to educate future information technology and design specialists together. It examines the qualities of Design interweaving with Computer Science merging into a next-level design culture. From a design researcher’s point of view an extensive document analysis from concept papers to project launch files provide insight on fundamental aspects of the programme’s curriculum to locate potentials for a learning environment advancing future-oriented knowledge and skills. Based on literature, a compilation of demanded and necessary design education and research subject matters is juxtaposed with the programme’s curricula. Illustrations were created to depict core principles of future-oriented design education and research. Key elements of the interdisciplinary design curriculum were determined and matched with formerly defined core principles. By describing the novel interdisciplinary bachelor’s programme Digital Ideation (DI) this study presents how design education and research could broaden its fields of action as well as its external perceptions. The study invites to reflect on alternative combinations with other disciplines or how design education and research could further emerge into the future-oriented discipline that mediates, facilitates, and leads creative collaborations to master the challenges that lie ahead.