Knowledge Base Repository
In addition to research papers, the Design Society is developing several valuable resources for those interested in the study of design. These include a repository of PhD theses, a library of case studies and transcripts of design activities, and an archive of our newsletters. Please note that these resources are accessible exclusively to Design Society members.
A PRELIMINARY COMPARISON OF DESK AND PANEL CRIT SETTINGS IN THE DESIGN STUDIO
Pradel, Patrick; Sun, Xu; Oro, Bruno; Nan, Wang
Type:
Year:
2015
Editor:
Guy Bingham, Darren Southee, John McCardle, Ahmed Kovacevic, Erik Bohemia, Brian Parkinson
Author:
Series:
E&PDE
Institution:
Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
Section:
Learning Paradigm
Page(s):
544-549
ISBN:
978-1-904670-62-9
Abstract:
‘Desk Crit’ has been described as the most important critique setting for teaching design. This
approach has been shown to be beneficial in providing different perspectives on design problems to
students and bridging to professional practice. However, some issues may be envisaged in this style. In
this paper, we try to address these issues by adopting a panel based critique setting named ‘Panel Crit’
in a second year product design studio. The ‘Panel Crit’ setting is then compared with the ‘Desk Crit’
setting through a questionnaire and a structured interview with 16 students. The survey protocol is
based on an evaluation of teaching survey and consists of 12 close-ended and three open-ended
questions. The protocol compares the critique styles across four dimensions: communication, learning,
feedback and satisfaction. The preliminary results reveal the effectiveness of a panel-based critique in
providing unambiguous feedback, avoiding multiple presentations and increasing time efficiency
during studio sessions. However, our results confirm previous research findings which highlight the
importance of ‘Desk Crit’ in conveying fundamental design skills, introducing students to design
practice and showing practitioner’s approaches to design problems. We believe our findings could
contribute to the understanding of how critique settings impact student’s learning experience in design
studio.
approach has been shown to be beneficial in providing different perspectives on design problems to
students and bridging to professional practice. However, some issues may be envisaged in this style. In
this paper, we try to address these issues by adopting a panel based critique setting named ‘Panel Crit’
in a second year product design studio. The ‘Panel Crit’ setting is then compared with the ‘Desk Crit’
setting through a questionnaire and a structured interview with 16 students. The survey protocol is
based on an evaluation of teaching survey and consists of 12 close-ended and three open-ended
questions. The protocol compares the critique styles across four dimensions: communication, learning,
feedback and satisfaction. The preliminary results reveal the effectiveness of a panel-based critique in
providing unambiguous feedback, avoiding multiple presentations and increasing time efficiency
during studio sessions. However, our results confirm previous research findings which highlight the
importance of ‘Desk Crit’ in conveying fundamental design skills, introducing students to design
practice and showing practitioner’s approaches to design problems. We believe our findings could
contribute to the understanding of how critique settings impact student’s learning experience in design
studio.
Keywords:
