Curriculum
The curriculum at Advanced Product Design Programme is set to follow a gradual increase in complexity along the study program, following the values of Scandinavian design by having both a people and user-centred approach throughout the research, ideation, validation and design phases.
The studies are a combination of courses and practical term projects that combines theoretical, skill-based and creative phases and stages into one. The main content of the programme are listed below.
Skills and techniques
The first 5-week period in the Advanced Product Design Programme starts with a short joint introductory project, where students from different UID programmes work in groups with a creative assignment. Students from all over the world are currently enrolled in our Masters programmes and this first exercise promises a unique creative mix and cross-cultural enrichment.
After this introductive exercise the students at the Advanced Product Design Programme are introduced to many of the basic tools and workshop facilities that they will be utilizing throughout their two years of study. In parallel the students will be working with a form semantic exercise which includes intensive ideation sketching and form sculpting using materials such as clay and foam.
CAID
During the CAID course students attend lessons on digital surface modelling where the state-of-the-art Autodesk Alias is taught. Visualization tools like Opticore and Hypershot are also introduced. The 4-week course consists of lectures and practical training carried out in the computer lab under the guidance of an authorized teacher.
Design for User Experience / People-Centred Design
The first major project focuses on a specific user group, often involved in a professional workplace. This involves studying and analysing the workplace and the users' daily lives there. This research material forms the basis of a problem identification phase in search of design opportunities. This is concluded with the exploration of a number of product or system solutions. Each student is encouraged to choose one of these identified problem areas and develop a solution for it. This method of understanding and designing for professional users gives the student a first-hand user experience and insight, and thus the products are often custom-made for this particular user group who are often involved in the design process with further research and mock-up solutions.
The second aspect of this first project is the introduction of a slightly different design method than many have learned earlier. After the problem identification phase the students are asked to produce design briefs, which are statements of intention and include research, conclusions, goals and wishes, and a time plan. They are also introduced to a system of sketching logs, which provide an excellent basis for contact with the users, consultants and tutors. A tradition at the Umeå Institute of Design involves high-quality presentation models, and the students are given guidance in model building, and the models are a required part of their final presentations. The project is concluded with a written report that incorporates the design brief, sketch log material, final results and conclusions.
Industrial Sound Design
This creative course includes experiments and exercises designed to investigate the topics of sound, imagery, action, form and interaction. Lectures are given in the area of sound design, and training is provided in relevant software for creating and treating sound and visual effects.
The course is concluded with a project assignment in which students design a product emphasizing a coherent form- and sounds-language, which incorporates light, visual form and temporal qualities. At the final presentation results are presented as high-fidelity and media-rich demos, illustrating the product experience where the interaction between the product and user are shown as realistically as possible. This course usually offers the possibilities for joint cooperation between students from the Interaction Design and Advanced Product Design programmes.
Product Analysis and Parametric Modelling
As the course title implies, our students focus on intensive form and product development during this block. This course is divided into four phases.
The first phase includes a short intensive course in solid modelling, as a useful complement to the previous surface modelling course, using SolidWorks software, with differentiated tutoring with a number of small exercises.
The second phase concerns product analysis in which a product is disassembled and analysed. A visual report is produced, with full scale drawings of the various parts carried out in SolidWorks. The different production methods and materials will also be documented in the report, as well as sketch proposals for the improvement of the product.
The third phase involves the development of the product improvements through the use of SolidWorks with the purpose of creating files for prototype production using the school's rapid prototyping equipment.
The last of the four phases includes the finishing of the rapid prototyped models and assembly with the existing components of the initially analyzed product, in order to create a full-functioning prototype of a new product.
Strategic Design
On the basis of a chosen company with a clearly definable brand or corporate identity, the students investigate the company's history, brand, products, core values, brand personality, etc as a group exercise. This phase results in a presentation and initial report describing the design strategy of the chosen company. During this phase there will be lectures and tutoring by professionals in the area of strategic design.
In the second phase of the project, the students work individually, on the basis of one of the design strategy reports from the first phase. The students are asked to identify a design opportunity and design a product that respects the characteristics of the company's design identity described in the individually produced design brief. This can involve supplementing existing product lines, or developing completely new ones.
Visual Design Prototyping
During this creative course, the students will, with the use of "visual storytelling", create an explanatory time-based visualization of the intended usage and designed interaction between a user and a product. With the increasing possibilities of adding computer-based technology to both existing and new types of products, either for functional, informational or emotional effect, the design experience of a product's functionality and visual expression in a temporal context is becoming an increasingly important and natural part of the professional designer's area of expertise.
Industrial designers often have, as a natural part of the development of the concept and physical design of a product, imagined, considered and sometimes even designed the principals for the interaction between the user and the product, either with physical, audio, or visual feedback and communication, but have often lacked the tools and skills of visualizing these product characteristics in a time-based media. The purpose of this course is to bridge between the imagination of the next generation of designers with new powerful ways for displaying and "telling the story" of their visions.
Emerging Technologies
The first phase of this project deals with the investigation of an emerging technology to gain an understanding of the potentials and possible areas for applications and potentially innovative products solution. This again involves a preliminary theory and research phase and brainstorming for applications and design opportunities. During the last few years, this has focused on the area of service robotics or autonomous service devices. This is a fairly new area that is under rapid expansion. At the moment most of the product solutions on the market have been produced by engineers from a predominantly technical viewpoint, and often lack the functional and emotional aspects that can be added by an industrial designer. In most cases the resulting products are solutions that have not been seen before.
Creative Form Workshop
The last course in the third study term, before the students start their individual MA degree project, is dedicated to a form course with Ad Hoc themes. Previous years the course have often hosted international guest tutors representing an alternative approach to form and product design and development, introducing either academic and textual methods or more hands-on "building stuff first, ask questions later" philosophy. Project themes over the last years have been: "Convertibles", "From Pathfinding to Pathbreaking" and "Kinetic Features in Product Design".
