Spruce, J., 2012.

DEVELOPING THE DESIGN CURRICULUM

Over recent years there has been an increasing understanding by UK business of the role that design can play in enhancing competitiveness and innovation, there is also a growing recognition by government of the value that design can add to the economy. Statistics estimate design to be worth in excess of £11 billion to the UK economy each year. Aligned to this is the growing discourse surrounding the appropriate development of UK Design Education, with many Industry commentators calling for universities to be more proactive in developing curriculum content that focuses attention on topics such as the socioeconomic drivers for design, employer engagement and improved commercial awareness. Design graduates are increasingly being called upon to not only possess high level design skills, but have a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between design and the business context in which it operates. The design industry is also changing. In a context of increasingly fluid contemporary design practices, traditional roles for design are being challenged. For example, for many years designers have been taught to create artifacts. Design is now moving beyond the artifact into a realm where tangible touch-points form only a part of the practical engagement designers are required to consider [Kolko 2010]. In many ways educators are not moving with the times and changing their curricula quickly enough to be ahead of this change curve. As Sudick [2010] affirms, 'Design was about creating artifacts and we've moved past that to now creating contexts in which activities happen and in which people participate collectively'. This paper considers how design curricula may be developed to better meet the challenges of rapidly changing contexts in which design and designers are operating.