Dare to Design Studio

This is a DfI programme design studio.

Dare to Design Studio (D2D) is about getting comfortable outside of your comfort zone. In this studio students will be challenged to dare to design; to take ownership of an individual, self-guided, and self-executed design process targeting a topic of their own choosing. This level of freedom can be daunting, but dealing with this freedom is exactly what students will learn to get comfortable with in D2D.

Key activities in the studio involve immersion into a context, studying people's perspectives and interactions within that context, and framing challenges at hand (cycle 1). Based on insights obtained in context, students will conceptualize, prototype, and evaluate designs that establish new and meaningful interactions while being mindful of the co-evolution of problem and solution (cycle 2). Continuously reflecting on their design path will enable students to steer their own design process, argue convincingly for design decisions, and demonstrate a final design that integrates into their chosen context (cycle 3).

This studio emphasizes the academic approach to design, building a grounded design rationale based on original designerly inquiry and reflective practice. As such, students put context mapping, framing, conceptualizing and formgiving into practice using human-centered design theory and methodology.