84905 Product Design Honours Project Conceptualisation
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 12 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.
Description
This subject draws from the research conducted in 84908 Integrated Product Design Honours Project Research and Development A to activate methodologies conducted through the conceptualisation of tangible designs for real-world application. As integrated product design practice increasingly operates beyond the confines of conventional manufacturing systems, it becomes the responsibility of the designer to innovate across multiple modes of practice to offer new experiences and more responsible product interventions. The subject requires abstraction and experimentation of research findings through a series of conceptualisations, led by prototyping methods to innovate and test novel interactive experiences, embodiments and materiality that challenge existing product design conventions. Concepts generated are to be suitably contextualised for realisation in Spring session.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
| 1. | Create designs that innovate meanings and experiences. |
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| 2. | Integrate and develop product design practices, values and outcomes that engage audiences in a wider cultural dialogue. |
| 3. | The ability to manage a complex product design project responsibly and professionally. |
| 4. | Ability to engage with, and integrate alternative points of view as part of responsible product design practice. |
| 5. | Demonstrate professional visual communication and presentation of design process and outcomes for all deliverables. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:
- Commitment to exploring ideas and new ways of working (A.1)
- Professional and effective visual communication skills (C.2)
- Demonstration of versatility, curiosity and imagination (I.2)
- Ability to self-manage, including task initiation, allocation of time and realisation of outcomes (P.3)
- Evaluation, development and application of multiple research methods appropriate to the project (R.1)
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject includes active and collaborative learning experiences where ongoing feedback is provided weekly in all on-campus engagements. It is therefore imperative that students prepare for and attend all on campus engagements according to the Program.
This subject uses an enquiry-based learning strategy that involves students researching and developing their own solutions to complex design challenges. The subject uses design professionals as mentors to ensure that all content and tasks are relevant to current professional practice in a global context.
Learning resources will be provided in forms such as videos, book chapters and academic papers. Prior to each studio students will be required to review the learning material and prepare a written reflective account on how the material will be applied to their project, for the mentor each week. The knowledge provided is information on the prototyping of human-product interaction, product experience and metaphor in the rationalisation of research conducted in Honours Project: R&D A. The subject requires students to demonstrate the ability to bridge the gap between what is and what is possible. The weekly studio topic and where to find resource materials is listed in the Program. In studio students will work collaboratively with their peers and a mentor on their design projects. At the beginning of each studio the studio leader and the group will discuss the challenges they are facing with their projects in connection to the weekly studio topic. The studio leader will be reviewing the work weekly and will provide feedback verbally. It is the students responsibility to record any feedback provided in studio. Students will be expected to actively participate in collaborative peer review feedback exercises. Students will also be supported by the level 2, Faculty Workshop in the construction of presentation models and prototypes.
Grades on final design submissions will be provided through Re.View.
Content (topics)
This subject addresses the following issues and topics:
- Translation of socio-cultural research through design exploration.
- Framing of conceptual proposals with a focus of innovating experiences.
- Adopting a practice-oriented research methodology to develop tangible outcomes.
- The design and construction of prototypes to investigate radical innovation.
- Record and prepare prototypes and scenarios to clearly define design intent.
- Meetings and presentations that demonstrate week-by-week progress.
- Investigation of the use of metaphor and meaning in products.
- Build on communication skills for the progression of process and the final concept design.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Exploration
| Intent: | A series of activities conducted in studio to support exploratory enquiry and to develop a collective understanding between students and studio leaders of the nature and type of design outcome expected at Honours level. The activities also serve to help students investigate the unique meaning and value of the physical artefact in terms of its socio-cultural impact, and how it is ultimately defined by influencing trends, individual attitudes, experiences and rituals at a sensory level. | ||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 2 and 4 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): A.1 and R.1 | ||||||||||||
| Type: | Presentation | ||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed | ||||||||||||
| Weight: | 25% | ||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Prototyping
| Intent: | The development of the concept proceeds through an intensive prototyping phase to investigate, test and refine two primary elements concurrently: the three-dimensional form of the design and the technical nature of the interactive experience. A basis for this phase is best summed up by a quote from Achille Castiglioni, "My method is to 'take out' over and over again, until I find the main design component - a minimum sign (segno), a minimum shape required by the function. I want to be able to say: I can't do less than this." Using the data gathered in the subject - Honours Project: Research and Development A - students create prototypes to identify the core innovation and its best representative form, free from unnecessary features. | ||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 3 and 4 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): P.3 and R.1 | ||||||||||||
| Type: | Presentation | ||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||
| Weight: | 30% | ||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: Design concept
| Intent: | Throughout the session, students must work with the studio leader in the development of their research and the conduct of the project. At the end of session an evaluation of the project and the concept design outcome (the hypothesis) is conducted with specific concern for your demonstrated understanding of design as a part of doing research. The Conceptualisation subject supports you in the rationalisation of research for product design outcomes. You are to prepare a presentation of your final concept that specifically describes the proposed novel design function, aesthetics, interaction and context; supported by research. Additionally a refined experience prototype with an appropriate level of functionality and styling must be supplied to evaluate the status of the project for continuation next session. | ||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2 and 5 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): A.1, C.2 and I.2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Presentation | ||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 45% | ||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |