Pilot case

Design Bits

Online introductory course about the Design process.
Abstract image on blue background with wavy shapes

Pilot leader

Andrea Bandoni

Schools

School of Arts Design and Architecture

Timeline

Jan 2020 – Oct 2020

Overview

This is a proposal of a digital self-study design course aimed for non-design students. All Aalto students will have the possibility to acquire up-to-date information about design from the start of their career.

By completing the course each student will have basic knowledge about why design matters so much today, how it can be applied to the different areas, and the main design methods and tools that are being employed in business nowadays to generate value. The content will include topics such as design thinking, user centered approach, co-design, design inside companies, among others. Cases and examples (preferably from Aalto and from Finland) will illustrate the theory. This course will also encourage and indicate other existing courses in Aalto University for students to deepen their knowledge in design.

The main innovation is to communicate clear and relevant design content in a digital format to an audience composed by people who are completely new to the subject. The identity and content of the course will be tailored having our final users, their interests and their abilities in the center of the project development. Learning will be made easy by online sessions with the right timing to keep student engagement, and a user-friendly format that can be conveniently accessed.

In the future, we would like the material to be of open access. The implementation of this course claims the leading position of Aalto University in the field of Design by offering exciting, inspiring content about the current design world, which helps a broad audience to have a realistic and consistent overview of the area. The growth of interest in design and design thinking will open up possibilities for transdisciplinary collaboration that will benefit Aalto and the society as a whole.

Platforms and tools

Website programming: HTML, CSS (tbc)

Design: Adobe pack (tbc)

 

Pedagogical methods

– On-line exploratory method: the learning will be customized to the extent that it is a self-study material, and each viewer chooses when/where to study as well as the content sequence, and if they want to explore links and extra material.

– Content based learning: The self-study material includes readings, graphics, audios or videos, study cases and exercises. There will be also feedback tools.

People

Andrea Bandoni
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design
Pilot leader

Turkka Keinonen
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design
Pilot Supervisor

Paulo Dziobczenski
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design
Content Developer

Tua Björklund
Design Factory
Content Supervisor

Jamini Kavoori
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design
Illustrator

Olena Mohylna 
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design
Web designer

Molly Balcom Raleigh
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design
Content developer

Miranda Kastemaa
School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design
Web developer


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