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70 509 Strategic Design
Passed foundation level (BA-level) courses at AHO or equivalent, 180 ECTS.
A third semester Master course (only available for students in their final year). The course has interaction- and service-design as its starting-point, but is open for all design fields. Students are required to document advanced design skills in their chosen specialisation/field through a portfolio.
You upload the portfolio here before 10th May: https://nettskjema.no/a/147817
Recommended prerequisite knowledge
The course builds on the design skills and methods learnt across the previous Foundation and Master courses. In “Strategic design” students and teachers integrate and push these skills and mindsets to create rich, reflexive projects that address societal issues through design. For students who want to take part in this course a strong sense of curiosity, experimental outlooks, societal engagement and independence is therefore recommended.
This is an advanced Master course about ‘strategic design’ and will introduce the students to how design methods and tools can be used to address societal challenges. Through this course students will learn about theories and methods from the field of strategic design and get practical experience from applying these in design projects. The course is led by Einar Sneve Martinussen, associate professor at AHO, and guest professor Dan Hill, director of strategic design at Vinnova. Over the last decade, Dan Hill has been an important contributor to the field of strategic design and describes the approach as follows:
70 509 Strategic Design takes the core principles of contemporary design practice – user research and ethnography, agile development, iterative prototyping, participation and co-design, stewardship, working across networks, scales and timeframes – and then it points this toolkit at ethical concerns, addressing systemic change within complex systems, and broader societal outcomes.” Dan Hill (2019)
This course has a focus on strategic design in the broader context of societal development. Students will get to apply and expand their skills and mindsets as designers through practical, exploratory projects that work with a range of societal issues - including sustainability, power and equity, policies for urban- and societal-development, innovation and knowledge, welfare and public services, and citizen participation. Alongside these practice-led projects the course will offer a rich selection of theoretical and inspirational lectures and seminars. A particular focus for this year’s course is exploring social infrastructures for everyday life, meaning the structures that enable social life and participation in society. We will re-examine the potential of traditional social infrastructures, such as libraries, schools, public pools, parks or markets. We will also explore and conceptualise a broader understanding of social infrastructure that could include nature, technologies, digital services, social relations and cultural experiences. Through the projects in the course students will use design methods to develop strategic interventions in the world today, as prototypes and pilot-projects, as well as designing future scenarios. The course brings together research-initiatives at AHO with ongoing projects in the public sector. Collaborators and cases for 2021 are not confirmed yet, but will likely include projects dealing with gender and urban planning, innovation in the public sector, and designing for learning and knowledge-sharing in society.
The ‘Strategic design’ course is a part of D-Box, the National Centre for Transforming Public Services (a collaboration between AHO, BI and DOGA), and is organised together with the research-group Digital Urban Living and guest professor Dan Hill. Key partners and collaborators from these research-groups and networks will be involved in the course, including Einar Sneve Martinussen, Ted Matthews, Jonny Aspen and Kai Reaver. This course builds in part on the series of courses organised by Digital Urban Living over the past years, and will continue our exploration of many of the themes addressed in here, including digital society, sharing culture, inclusion, futures and trust.
KNOWLEDGE
Students will:
- Get an overview of research, theory and projects within the field of strategic design.
- Gain an understanding of issues faced by designers working with societal challenges.
- Develop a critical framework for analysis, evaluation and discussion of design-work in the field of strategic design.
SKILLS
Students will:
- Practice using their design skills as a part of a strategic design methodology, including prototyping, communication, scenario-building and iterative processes.
- Design interventions with a focus on both engaging experiences and strategic outcome.
- Expand their repertoire of practical and theoretical design skills.
GENERAL COMPETENCE
Students will:
- Gain a stronger ability to explore and understand connections between design and society.
- Develop the ability to conceptualise and communicate possibilities and solutions in the context of societal challenges.
- Further develop design competencies such as curiosity, experimentation and critical reflection.
The course has two core components: a series of thematic seminars that run throughout the semester, and a series of design-projects. The seminars will be run by teachers and external guests and address a series of themes that will inform the development and discussion of the design-projects. The design-projects will be run with external partners and the students are expected to develop, and in part organise, these projects with a high degree of independence and professionality. The majority of the work will be done as pairs or groups, as well as through collaborations across the whole class. Projects typically have multiple presentations throughout in order to allow students to see and comment on each other’s work. Co-learning with and from other students is an important part of the course, and it is encouraged that the majority of the time is spent working in the class studio in order to develop an inspiring and encouraging design-environment.
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe) | Individual | Pass / fail | The students will be assessed on the quality of submitted design projects and presentations throughout the course. The student must submit all assignments in the course to receive final assessment. Attendance at all presentations is also expected. Other aspects that is evaluated are active participation i class, independence, professionality, co-learning and collaboration with others. |