Introductory description

This module fosters student's development in becoming designerly agents for change through engagement with their local and regional communities. Social Design understands design as an ethically driven philosophy seeking to make improvements to the lived experiences of people, communities, and the environment. It is underpinned by the principles of co-design/co-creation and working in partnership to identify, investigate and resolve design problems.
Students will learn a range of approaches to participatory design, social action and entrepreneurship through investigating philosophies, methodologies, and case studies. Through this they will develop a toolkit of techniques and their appropriateness to specific situations. Key to this is being able to understand a social context as a complex interaction of people, artefacts, systems, and economies.
During this module, students will have a relationship with a specific community context and over a period will develop collaborative research into the environment and factors which are shaping that community and propose co-design approaches to address the needs arising from that research.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Intro to Social Design. Live briefing by local community.
Ethics and research in social design - participation vs co-design?
Towards social- environmental impact - The civic and systems change.
Intensive tutorials - project development. Induction and practical work (fabrication labs, workshops and print).
The compassionate crit and pitch development.
Final pitch with showcase.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• 1. Co-create and develop a research and development process to identify and address a social need.
• 2. Understand theories and methodologies of social design theory and practice.
• 3. Understand design ethics and sustainability and incorporate these into professional design practice.
• Document an understanding of appropriate community research and co-design methods.

Indicative reading list

https://rl.talis.com/3/warwick/lists/55BF48A1-DFC9-FEE0-9055-98B59692A1CA.html?lang=en&login=1

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

Students will be undertaking research on a multi-stakeholder level and will be testing their concepts with a target audience. This module will introduce them to an ethics form in the introductory part of the learning journey.

Interdisciplinary

This module is entirely interdisciplinary as all modules in Design Studies - direct links to UX, UI, service design, anthropology, spatial studies, design thinking, digital ethnography, and critical studies - just to name a few.

International

This module will provide an international array of contributors and authors to encourage students to undertake holistic learning from multiple perspectives.

Subject specific skills

Accessing, evaluating, synthesising and applying knowledge for specific community design challenges. Participating in group discussions, design activities and reflections. Facilitating and leading group discussions, design activities, reflections. Doing design studies (descriptive, analytical, creative). Communicating design studies in a range of formats, synchronously and asynchronously, to a wide range of audiences. Creating and using a personal portfolio of studies, notes and reflections. Understanding and applying appropriate and ethically considered methods when researching and co-designing with communities. Delivering a professional design pitch to a target audience. Developing rapid and refined prototypes to support design proposal and implementation. Curate and exhibit work for discourse and dissemination.

Transferable skills

All of the above are transferable. In addition, advanced digital skills including collaborative whiteboards, setting up and running online collaborations, visualisation and planning tools, project management tools.