Undergraduate Conceptions of the Engineering Design Process: Assessing the Impact of a Human-Centered Design Course

Abstract

Throughout their education, engineering design students not only learn the design process, but also form and refine their conception of engineering design. Building on the results from a study of practicing engineers’ conceptions of design, we present survey results from engineering students enrolled in Mechanical Engineering 110 (n=51), an upper-division human-centered design course. We compare the students’ initial conceptions of design from before the course to those after the course. In particular, we look at how the course affects their perceived importance of specific design skills, and their level of agreement with a series of statements on the nature of design. We also compare the students’ conceptions of design after the course to those of practicing engineers from a previous study. The upper division engineering students showed a remarkable similarity to the results of the practicing engineers with a few notable exceptions. Our results show that after the class, more engineering students identified synthesis as among the more important skills, and brainstorming as among the less important skills than before the class. Although the upper division engineering students before the course agreed with the practicing engineers in the idea that design is solution-led, this perception changed after taking the human-centered design course which emphasizes the importance of user research in the design process. Introduction The role of engineering design educators is to guide engineering students in the development of their conceptions of engineering design and the design process. These conceptions of design connect to each designer’s Design Identity, “sets of beliefs, attitudes, and values about design”. This can include how a designer defines characteristics of good design, the design process, designers’ responsibility, the role of evaluation in design, and how that identity views and interprets alternate perspectives. These perspectives on engineering practice ultimately play a role in critical collaborative practices, such as shared understanding and team conflict. There are several different ways to describe varying conceptions or approaches to design. In Sanders’ map of design research (Figure 1), the horizontal axis “describes the mindsets of those who practice and teach design research,” identifying “two distinct cultures of design research,” while the vertical axis indicates how designers go about the process of design, either as a Design-Led process or a Research-Led process. Fallman describes three different perspectives on design: conservative, pragmatic, and romantic. Each of these perspectives is described by influences from different disciplines, and the philosophical mindset behind each approach.