87665 VC Project: Socially Responsive Design
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Subject level:
Undergraduate
Result type: Grade and marksRequisite(s): 87832 VC Design Studio: Design Practice
Description
Teamwork, professionalism and a human-centred approach to design form the basis of this subject. As members of design teams, students take part in live projects, responding to the needs of a community-based organisation as their client and developing outcomes inspired by research in a contemporary global context. This subject allows students to refine their design practice and learn to work collaboratively at a professional level. Typical project work includes team and project management, client briefings, empathy research, user testing and product sourcing and specification. Design projects are developed iteratively, regularly critiqued in peer groups and assessed through a series of formal presentations to the client and peer group.
This subject is offered at a crucial time in the third year of the course where the general focus is on the design profession. It provides students with an authentic work experience in which they develop ethical values and socially responsible attitudes as part of becoming a professional designer. The subject involves working with a wide range of 'not-for-profit' community organisations, providing design assistance where limited funding would normally disallow it.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
| 1. | Engage with the social and cultural dimensions of design |
|---|---|
| 2. | Analyse and synthesise a client context |
| 3. | Critically reflect on practice |
| 4. | Communicate work through oral, visual and written presentation |
| 5. | Work collaboratively with peers to respond to a client brief |
| 6. | Generate and apply creative design concepts in response to design contexts |
| 7. | Apply sensitivity to craft in visual processing |
| 8. | Work collaboratively with other disciplines/stakeholders |
| 9. | Utilise appropriate research methods |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:
- Work cooperatively and professionally as part of a team, initiate partnerships with others, take a leadership role when required, and constructively contribute to peer learning. (C.1)
- Communicate ideas effectively in a variety of ways, including oral, written and visual. (C.3)
- Create designs that respond to their context in formally or conceptually innovative ways. (I.1)
- Advance ideas through an exploratory and iterative design process. (I.2)
- Independent development of high level technical and craft skills for the production, presentation and documentation of work. (I.3)
- Employ a range of qualitative research approaches including practice-led visual and material exploration and social and participatory methods. (R.2)
- Analyse, synthesise and formulate complex ideas, arguments and rationales and use initiative to explore. (R.3)
- Reflect and engage in self-critique and critical thinking. (R.5)
Teaching and learning strategies
The subject is structured into weekly 2-hour tutorial sessions from 1–3pm on Thursdays with 1-hour lectures from 10am–11am. Please check the program in this outline for dates.
The PBL (problem based learning strategy) continues to underpin the learning experience. At this level of study, students are presented with self-directed learning options through project choice. Professionally specific visual communication problems are briefed and examined through a number of case studies which introduce students to the role and responsibility of professional designers practising in specialised areas (publishing, corporate identity, television graphics, animation, web design etc). Authentic experience of professional practice is gained by undertaking live projects directly exposing students to the role and responsibility of professional designers and the issues surrounding team work and client relationships. Activities for this subject are structured according to the following:
Lectures introduce key principles and dimensions of professional work practices in visual communication, through case studies situated within broader social and cultural contexts. They will add to your understanding of and give your work meaning in a contemporary global setting.
Tutorials. Students work in small groups with a community client to define the project brief and work to fulfill the project aims to the client's satisfaction. Teamwork, client liaison, the ability to understand and rationalise complex issues, costing analysis, research, professional design skills and presentation are all part of this rich engagement with these worthwhile organisations. Students will be expected to engage in a professional way in group and individual tasks, advised by a supervising lecturer.
Pre-work. The program includes pre-work sections each week that describe what you need to do to prepare for and bring to lectures and tutorials. Learning activities variously engage students in secondary research, online discussion, peer-group critique on work in progress and client presentations. At the end of each session, please read the Pre-work section for the next session.
This full six-credit point subject requires between 9 and 12 hours of work per week (including class contact hours). Therefore, please take this into account in your project planning.
Content (topics)
- Professional Practice
- Critical thinking
- Industry focussed research
- Rebriefing and Strategy
- Client Liaison
- Workshop development
- Teamwork
- Project Management
- Presentation skills
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Brief and detailed strategic plan
| Intent: | This is an authentic assessment task providing you with an opportunity to meet real-life clients, extract and amend project briefs and devise a design strategy. The task mirrors professional practice by requiring you to research your clients' backgrounds, liaise with clients and studio leaders, and obtain clients' sign off on the final briefing document. | ||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 2, 4 and 9 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.): C.1, R.2 and R.3 | ||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed | ||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 35% | ||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Community Project
| Intent: | This assessment task requires project groups to present the results of their collaboration on the project, including liaison with the client, production of a prototype and visual presentation (slides, video, pdf etc) of the outcomes. Its purpose is to emulate professional collaboration in the production of socially responsive design. The group project will allow you to explore the client brief developed in task 1. You will work as a group to develop a design project. The project will be evaluated on the basis of your response to the needs of your community based organisation and the level of professional practice and presentation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 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.): C.1, C.3, I.1, I.2 and I.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 55% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: PEP Report
| Intent: | The Professional Experience Program (PEP) is a compulsory work experience component introduced to students in the Autumn Semester of their third year. A written report of the PEP experience forms 10% of the assessment for this subject. | ||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 3 and 7 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.): I.3 and R.5 | ||||||||||||
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||
| Weight: | 10% | ||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
The DAB attendance policy requires students to attend no less than 80% of formal teaching sessions (lectures and tutorials) for each class they are enrolled in to remain eligible for assessment.
Other resources
The Generic Faculty Subject Information Booklet will be available in both hard copy and electronic format. Hard copies will be placed outside the Student Centre (Level 4, DAB Building) for the first two weeks of each semester and teaching period. The electronic version of the booklet will be continuously available via UTS Online and the DAB website www.dab.uts.edu.au/courses/subjects