Product Design Course Research Articles

An Investigation into the Adoption of Digital Design Software in the Curriculum of Interior Design

The internet, progressed technology tools and software are prominent evidence of the digital revolution that has influenced the methods of teaching, especially in interior and product design courses. The revolution is the need to fully equip students of design institutions with Digital Design Software (DDS), but the hand drawing skills (HDS) are also required to understand the basics of drawing. The objective of the research is to evaluate students’ preferences regarding hand drawing and DDS, their command on DDS, and professional demand of DDS after academics. The interior design course is about drawing and designing ideas. It seems to be a contradiction when involving both hands and digital skills. This is a quantitative research in which structured questionnaire was asked to the final year students in three institutes of Interior Design. These institutes are selected, since the students are skilled in using Auto CAD, 3D Max, Adobe Photoshop, Sketch-up. The questionnaire used a Likert ranging from (1-5), 1 strongly agree, 2 agree, 3 neutral, 4 disagree and 5 strongly disagree. There were 90 respondents, the results show that most of the students were comfortable to use DDS and they consider DDS more convenient than hand drawing. The students consider DDS more effective than Hand Drawing Skill (HDS) and they know how to accurately use DDS in interior design. The tasks can be completed speedily, easily, and as handy as can be presented any time anywhere and finally making the students more market-oriented in their practical field after academics.

Establishing Picture Databases for Image Boards: An Example for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability Images

Recently, more importance has been attached to consumers’ emotional feelings in the course of product design. Designers must convey positive emotions, such as surprise and affection, to consumers through their designs. For this purpose, image boards have been frequently used in design to position product emotional feeling and arouse design ideas. A large number of pictures are often needed for constructing an image board. However, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to find appropriate pictures and the pictures that are finally collected may not reflect the expected image of consumers. Therefore, this study aims to take Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) as an example to build a user-driven database for image boards. In this research, 16 LOHAS representatives were identified and recruited by using a lifestyle questionnaire to collect, and then screen out 50 proposed pictures relevant to the image of LOHAS. Since image boards are usually used by designers, in order to include their ideas, another 16 pictures were selected by the invited experienced product designers to create a comprehensive pool of 66 proposed pictures. Design experts were asked to select six key image adjectives, which included healthy, environmentally friendly, sustainable, natural, simple, and ecological for describing images of the LOHAS, from the vocabulary pool collected by general respondents, LOHAS representatives, and designers. Next, 219 LOHAS subjects were required to carry out a semantic differential assessment of each of the 66 proposed pictures with the six key images, and then two types of analyses on the collected data from the semantic differential assessment. Through mean analysis and grey correlation analysis, the recommended pictures representing LOHAS or six key adjective images were selected. The research results put forward three database application models. The results of this study are expected to be used by designers, users, manufacturers, and educators to help improve product design efficiency in the future.

Application of TRIZ Method in a Product Design and Development Tertiary Technical Education Course

Application of TRIZ Method in a Product Design and Development Tertiary Technical Education Course

NETRA Model at Rajarambapu Institute of Technology (RIT): Transform Engineering Campus into Product Innovation Centre – Journey so far

Abstract Statement: Our engineering students must work in interdisciplinary domains, understand customer needs and solve real problems and build proof-of-concept (POC) and prototype products in four years. This process of product based learning must be developed from first year itself and sustained through-out four years in entrepreneurial eco-system. Motivation: With rapid advancements in Industry and pace of Industry 4.0 revolution, Engineering Education must enhance project based learning (Project BL) methodology to product based learning (Product BL). Our engineering students must work in interdisciplinary domains, understand customer needs and solve real problems. Our motivation is to transform engineering campuses into Product Innovation Centers. Statement of Methods: The product orientation starts in the first year of engineering with innovative engineering exploration course. This course is a unique Activity Based Learning Process. All engineering discipline students apply concepts to solve real time multidisciplinary problems. A specially designed Learning Studio and Thinkering Lab enhances learning outcome and students demonstrate their projects in an exhibition. The entrepreneurial talent development also starts in first year by an industry expert designed and delivered hands-on entrepreneurship development course. This elective course is delivered with the outcome of developing students for their own start-up incubation after graduation or before. In the second year, students enhance their product skills-set either through elective product design course or continue to enhance ideas from first year in the Thinkering Lab. In the third and fourth year, we have unique concept of “Living Labs”. Under Living Labs, students develop proof-of-concept and proto-type products under the guidance of Industry experts in interdisciplinary and entrepreneurial environment. We have two platforms in institute, one is IOT and another is Autonomous Electric Vehicle (AEV) platform. In IOT, three departments; Electronics, Computer Science and IT students work together in SMART campus, Agriculture, Healthcare domains to develop IOT prototypes, install them in customer environment for field trials and have at least one key customer. All products have end to end loop taking data from sensors, storing them into cloud and driving output sensors after analytics. In AEV, all seven departments - Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Automobile, Electronics, Computer Science and IT are involved for their student’s final year Capstone project and built prototype partial Automated Electric Car. The objective of AEV is to provide students interdisciplinary industry environment at the institute and develop product mind-set, quality and customer orientation. After ideas are validated, prototypes are built, students with entrepreneurial mind-set are encouraged form start-up in campus Technology Business Incubator (TBI) and mentored by Industry Experts for start-ups. In summary, product based learning in all four years in interdisciplinary environment under the guidance of industry experts enhances learnings and jump start students to face industry life while in campus itself. We have two Industry Experts in our Institute working with our students, faculty and TBI. Results: The results described here are for one year. We have all 450 first year students completed engineering exploration course and demonstrated 120 mini products in an exhibition. In IOT, we have 15 students, demonstrated 5 products with one start-up formed by students/faculty together. In AEV, we have 50 students, worked on 8 projects and demonstrated working proof of concept of partial autonomous Electric Vehicle. Our Technology Business Incubator has 7 start-ups and received Maharashtra State Innovation Society Rs5Cr funding.

Project-based learning in an engineering-design course – developing mechanical- engineering graduates for the world of work

This paper explores the use of project-based learning as an effective pedagogy to integrate institutional curriculum in a mechanical engineering design course and the skills demands for the world of work. Current engineering education institutions produce engineers who are great scientists – knowledgeable in engineering science, mathematics and analytical techniques, and research, but are nonetheless mediocre in the design of components, processes, or systems. In this paper we argue that the engineering education design curriculum, through project-based learning, offers students the opportunities to experience engineering design the way it is practiced and simulated in industry. Data for the study constitutes analyses, using three categories: knowledge, skills, and values, of the students’ performance in a mechanical engineering product design course. Students were required to: Design a 21/2 axis Basic SCARA ROBOT (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) for a given application. A survey from graduate students working in industry shows that that project-based learning, enabled them to effectively function in an industrial atmosphere where designing products were the mainstay. In addition, a one-way ANOVA test shows that there were strong associations observed in the development of skills between: knowledge and skills (p = 0.001); and skills and values (p = 0.0008).

Solution-Based Learning Implementation in Design Course

Student participation is a key success in almost every learning process. It is believed that concept-level of understanding could be achieved only if students are actively involved in the learning activities. The concept of student centered and active learning is usually adopted in order to improve student participation. Problem Based Learning is one of popular methods used in this paradigm, in which students learn both thinking strategies and domain knowledge of a subject through the experience of problem solving. In addition to this current well-known learning method, this paper introduces a new approach so called Solution Based Learning in which students learn about a subject by analyzing solutions that has been given by some experts. Basically, the concept urges students to analyze the way of thinking of the experts on why they could give the solution like this and that. Students then may adopt the thought or criticize it in a positive manner. In order to see its viability and applicability, this new concept has been implemented in Product Design and Development Course as a case study. Based on the process performance analysis, it is shown that the proposed approach is able to improve student participation, to make class more active and to improve the overall student understanding of the subject of study

An innovative experiential and collaborative learning approach to an undergraduate marketing management course: A case of the Philippines

This paper proposes a collaborative approach with the Computer Science Department and Product Design Course to conducting Marketing Management (MM) in the undergraduate program to achieve the skills critical to the 21st-century. These skills are collaboration and teamwork, creativity, and critical thinking and problem-solving. This study aims to present a case of innovative experiential learning in teaching an advanced MM course by bringing in students from other programs (collaborative learning) and working with real-life clients (experiential learning). Instead of the traditional teacher-centric lecturing and the use of case studies, this proposed approach is student-centric learning (i.e., students were tasked to identify the needs of the real-life client and offer an innovative solution). Ninety five percent of the MM students found the new method to be effective in terms of: applying theory in real life situation, improving their ability to identify needs and opportunities, developing actual products/services based on the identified needs, working with an interdisciplinary team, enhancing their interpersonal skills, developing their leadership skills, improving their communication skills, and encouraging them to keep learning. Areas for improvement are also discussed in the paper.

Cross-border and Reconstruction: Exploration of Teaching Mode of Integration of Sculpture Art and Product Design

Inter-disciplinary integrated teaching method can integrate the teaching staff of sculpture art and product design courses, complement knowledge in teaching, provide students with various learning experiences, develop students’ cross-border design thinking, and carry out reconstruction and innovation of sculpture art or product design. This article starts from the collaborative participation of sculpture and product design teachers in teaching, intends to renovate the traditional teaching mode, explores inter-disciplinary teaching, and provides ideas for teaching reform.

Research on Ideological and Political Teaching of Product Design Course for Industrial Design Major

The main purpose of curriculum ideological and political teaching is to form synergy effect of curriculum system. With the main channel of classroom teaching, ideological and political theory courses and other courses are taught together. Based on the related literature research and research, this paper analyzes the nature and characteristics of industrial design. The course combines the relevant contents of the ideological and political theory course and product design research, so as to strengthen the value orientation and correct guidance of students in the teaching of professional courses.

How to integrate ergonomics into product design through the user centered design approach

Ergonomics/Human factors (HFE) is little considered in the engineering design practice and design methodologies do not adequately present the use of HFE. The aim of this paper is to propose a systematic for the integration of HFE into product design, based on the user-centered design approach. Thus, an overview of the systematic is presented, as well as the suggestion of methods and support tools for each phase of the design process. In order to verify the applicability of the systematic it was done an expert evaluation of the systematic and an experiment was carried out in the engineering education, in two classes of the product design course in a Brazilian University in 2016. The results showed that the students of the study group developed a better knowledge about HFE and its use in product design, besides the probability of using HFE in the product design went from low to high after the experiment. Presenting this information in a systematized way together with the design process allows students to be more likely to use it, to understand it better and know how to use it.

A Comparison of Haptic Sketching and Digital Sketching

This article compares and contrasts the use of haptic and digital sketching in the design process. It investigates the preferred sketching method of final year design students. In addition, it examines the relationship between effective communication and the use of haptic and digital sketching. A case study involving ten final year students studying product design courses at Nottingham Trent University was undertaken. The text explores the current literature and identifies the benefits of using the two methods. The inclusion of digital sketching tutorials in the undergraduate curriculum is discussed as well as the option of replacing haptic with digital sketching. The study concludes that while a wider survey with students from other design courses would be useful, the results provide strong evidence that final year students currently prefer haptic to digital sketching as an essential part of the design process.

Enhancing creativity through Biological Stimuli during new products ideation

The development of new and innovative products consists in a competitive advantage, allowing companies to overcome competitors, maintain or even increase its market share. As the product development cycle is shortening, a greater effort is required at the ideation of new technologies and products. In this context, the bio-inspired design has been receiving attention as a creativity strengthening method. However, the majority of methods and tools proposed in this field present biological stimuli in the form of literature extracts, requiring a great cognitive effort from the design teams in abstracting principles to generate ideas. In this paper a systematic approach to biological stimuli development is presented, as well as its contribution during the ideation process. An experiment was conducted on the context of a product design course. As result, it was evidenced that the biological stimulators contributed to the increase of the ideas' utility and variety, favoring the innovation process.

Elderly’s Family Life Supplies - Innovative Chinese Checkers Game Board

The product design course for industrial design students was implemented in our university which spans 9 weeks. Throughout the creativity rules and field study, students achieve high standard on problem identification and concept generation. The prototype test with elderly in design projects is helpful to make students with deeper understand user demand, which in turn enhance the concept further. Traditional Chinese checkers are redesigned using special checkers with different height or shape and specific rules to increase user interest and game diversity. Game is more challenging due to location weighting on score calculation to planning its strategies. Redesign Chinese checkers game board include reconfigurable board and several shape checkers. Checkers has 3 parts: standing ring body, the base body, both support the side holding structure. The body shows slightly concave to facilitate the fingers hold. The upper portion of the body is provided with different shapes extension section which can be engaged with base body. Player move the checker to the opposite target area. When one of player moved all the checkers to the opposite target area; they shift to the scoring calculation stage. The participant may develop specific strategy to gain higher score by maximized weighted checkers into its target block regions.

The role of user research in design process in product design education

Building product usage scenario of products, building product-user relationship, thinking like users and empathizing with users are the most frequently encountered problems in project-based studio courses in current undergraduate education of Industrial Design and Industrial Product Design departments in Turkey.In this research, undergraduate second and third year programs of Industrial Design departments of 13 different universities in Turkey are examined. Learning outcomes, contents and objectives of the product design courses are compared and contrasted. Thus the similarities and the differences are obtained. Consequently, the two main reasons for the ignorance of user research during design process are; the absence of theoretical courses about user research and the absence of practical and supportive reflection of these courses on product design studio courses. Application of these concepts in design process could be one of the solutions for current problems. As a result of this study, integration of the new methods such as; participatory design, co-design and collaborative design approaches to design process in product design education is suggested. Besides, the importance and the necessity of user participation experience are emphasized. Keywords: Design education, design process, user research, participatory design, co-design

Research and Practice on the Teaching of Fashion and Technology Product System Design

With the advantages of the integration of the arts and technology of BIFT, this paper discussed the method of application-oriented talents in Arts and Engineering. With the teaching reform of the product design course as the breakthrough point, the teaching idea of integrating the science and technology with the fashion element was embodied in the curriculum teaching practice, and the systematic teaching model of the fashionable technology product was constructed. Through the training of engineering students' artistic accomplishment and scientific and technological innovation ability, and supplemented by discipline competition-oriented, the formation of professional teaching, discipline competition to promote the benign mode was established. The preliminary exploration of art and science interdisciplinary personnel training was discussed in the paper.

Can Game-Based Learning Enhance Engineering Communication Skills?

Research problem: The enhancement of communication skills among engineering students has been a focus within the engineering curriculum for many years. Despite this emphasis, continual published reports document that engineering graduates are not well versed in the areas of written and oral communication when they graduate and transition into industrial-based positions. This study focuses on examining whether game-based pedagogy could serve as a potential tool for enhancing the written and oral communication skills of engineering undergraduates. Research questions: (1) What is the relationship between communication game exposure and oral and written communication skills achievement in engineering students? (2) Do engineering students' perceptions of their oral and written communication skills development associated with participation in communication games align with their achievement in these areas? Literature review: This study examines the ability of games to enhance engineering student communication skills by using the lens of activity theory. This communication theory was chosen because it describes how the creation of a piece of communication goes beyond traditional features such as grammar and syntax to include grappling with the objective or goal of the work, the system within which the product must be completed, and the methods selected to subdivide the work. These same constraints were imposed on the students within this study, in which they were assigned a technical design report and infomercial (or elevator pitch) to assess their oral and written communication skills. Methodology: Three groups of a sophomore-level Introduction to Chemical Product Design course compared non-games, games, and games-plus instructional methods. Student design reports and infomercials were scored by two analysts using reliable and validated rubrics. Team-based performance scores for each of the three sections were compared to determine whether any resulting differences in communication achievement were associated with the incorporation of game-based activities within the classroom. Students' perceptions of their communication skill development were measured through survey instruments and focus groups. The focus group data were content-analyzed by the same two analysts using a coding scheme developed from an emergent qualitative analysis of the focus group data. Results and conclusion: We found that the use of game-based pedagogy within engineering classes can enhance oral and written communication skills even though this method of instruction is not always perceived by students as relevant to their achievement in these areas.

Product Design Applied to Formulated Products

Product development is a multi-faceted role that a growing number of engineers are tasked with. This represents a significant shift in career paths for those employed in the chemical and materials engineering disciplines, who typically were concerned with bulk commodity manufacturing. This paradigm shift requires the undergraduate curriculum to be adapted to prepare students for these new responsibilities. The authors present here on a product design capstone course developed for chemical engineering seniors at the University at Buffalo (UB), The State University of New York (SUNY). The course encompasses the following themes: a general framework for product design and development (identify customer needs, convert needs to specifications, create ideas/concepts, select concept, formulate/test/manufacture product; and (nano)structure-property relations that guide the search for smart/tunable/functional materials for contemporary needs and challenges. These two main themes are enriched with case studies of successful products. Students put the course material into practice by working through formulated product design projects that are drawn from real-world problems. The authors begin by presenting the course organization, teaching techniques, and assessment strategy. They then discuss examples of student work to show how students apply the course material to solve problems. Finally, they present an analysis of historical student performance in the course. The analysis seeks to identify correlation between related student deliverables, and also between the Product Design course and a prerequisite materials science and engineering course.

Usage of Alternate Assessment Tool for Enhanced Understanding of Product Design and Development Course at BMSCE

Product Design and Development is a discipline that is required for engineers of all domains. In simple terms, product design brings in the users(human element) way of making a product. It is proved that, application of product design concepts paves way for successful product development with optimum utilization of resources. Product design is a set of tasks which starts with Product/Problem identification and followed by project planning, concept generation,selection, testing, prototyping, manufacturing the product to be produced. This course is a department elective for the students of seventh semester mechanical engineering. This article focuses on usage of alternate assessment tools for the enhanced understanding of the subject by the student. The students were made to design a questionnaire for the topics assigned to them in the class, which varied from 4 wheeler automobile to smart phone. The intention of using alternate assessment tool was multifold; i) Market exposure for the student ii)Implementation of theory into practice iii)Satisfaction of learning a course iv) Preparedness of using the course in their career.

Using Process Design to Overcome Undesirable Consequences of Increased Product Complexity

This work closes a knowledge gap, which hindered the exploration of the relationships between complexity and quality in full. Recent decades are characterized by rapid technological progress, which has been followed by elevated product complexity. Many repercussions of this growing complexity have already been considered, but the work has not yet been completed and this study adds a significant contribution. While not the sole, the most straight-forward expression of product's complexity level is the number of components, which are assembled to make this product – the more components, the higher the complexity. In serial manufacturing processes, each item moves individually, but items are joined together, serially or in parallel, in assemblies. There, mutual effects exist – a single defective component suffices to disqualify a whole assembled unit! Surprisingly, few studies have considered the effects of defective items on the production process. Particularly, there appears to be no study that quantifies these mutual effects among components which arrive from different sources with different defect rates. Thus, this study appears to be a first attempt to analyze and quantify these effects. Evidently, the mutual effects among their components amplify assemblies’ defect rates dramatically, to the extent that defects due to common or random causes become significant. This hypothesis is supported by both the result of this study and field data from the industry.This is a price of advanced products – increased complexity which sets hurdles on the preservation of quality; a price that should be considered in the course of product design. However, the present analysis reveals that setting quality assurance activities just prior to assembly operations reduces the mutual effects among components. Consequently, process design can be used to overcome undesirable repercussions of increased product complexity, thereby increase the yield of the production process.

Outcome Based Education - Design Delivery and Assessment of Product Design and Development Course at Undergraduate Engineering Program

The implementation of Outcome Based Education (OBE) has been the focus of attention of technical institutions in India, often regarded as compliance driven instead of performance driven because of the mandatory requirement of NBA accreditation. Though the implementation seems very structured on paper, it involves daunting data collection process which results in lack of commitment among faculty members in ensuring success of OBE to reap the full benefits. This study reports the implementation of outcome based course design based on intended course learning outcomes (CLOs), planning the instruction delivery to get the intended outcomes to match learning preferences of students and assessment of course outcomes and measuring the attainment of outcomes as against the target for the continuous quality improvement. The New Product design & Development course offered as an open elective at seventh semester of undergraduate programme is chosen. A heterogeneous batch of 5 engineering programs has opted for this course, which is first time offered as open elective. The challenge lies in designing the curriculum to meet specific POs of five programs, designing the instructional delivery to address the students learning styles of different background and assessment tools and the attainment. The moderate target of 60-65 percent COs attainment target was kept and could be able to achieve about 55 percent attainment and this gap has given a lot of inputs for CQI of course design, delivery & assessment. The learning out of this course feedback has helped to improve the all aspects of course and look to a strong mapping with indentified program outcomes.