Meaning Driven Materials Selection in Design Education
Year: 2009
Editor: Norell Bergendahl, M.; Grimheden, M.; Leifer, L.; Skogstad, P.; Lindemann, U.
Author: Karana, Elvin
Series: ICED
Section: Design Education and Lifelong Learning
Page(s): 69-80
Abstract
The shift towards more intangible aspects of materials in design practice has not been adapted to the design education system yet. In informal discussions with design students across years, we saw that students find it difficult to integrate their technical material knowledge with design practice. This may be because materials are still taught as a separate (and technical) domain for design activity and because material knowledge is usually transferred without considering user experiences and user contexts. Developed in Delft University of Technology at the Department of Design Engineering, Meaning Driven Materials Selection (MDMS) is a method which aims to encourage designers to systematically involve meaning considerations in their materials selection processes. This paper presents the results of a workshop which was conducted with 140 third year bachelor design students in Greece for the aim of testing the usefulness of a MDMS in design education.
Keywords: materials selection, meanings, design education