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Öhrling, Therese Elisabeth; Normark, Jörgen; Nilsson, Åsa Wikberg

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Design Engineers are capable of changing inequality through a design approach and design solutions. Therefore we as design teachers should consider it our responsibility to educate students to recognise inequality as a dimension of emphasising with potential future use and users. We believe that there is a current societal need for educating our design engineer students about such matters, in order to create more sustainable societies. Norm Creative Design is described as design approaches that include critical thinking of current use and users, with special emphasis on challenging current norms. Thereby, Norm Creative Design challenges current inequality to explore broader what-if scenarios for innovative solutions ranging from radical and critical designs to inclusive design solutions. This paper exemplifies how Norm Creative Design approaches are implemented in a course at Industrial Design Engineering [IDE] at Luleå University of Technology [LTU]. In design projects the students discuss how norms and examples of unawareness can exclude and discriminate people. The students are also provided with a number of design strategies for challenging norms which range from radical designs with a dual intent of thinking new and diverse, and stimulating discussions of ethics and discrimination, to inclusive design-for-all, including a diversity of people in the design solutions. The course outcomes includes students becoming broad need finders, and inclusive design thinkers, with skills in conceiving, designing, implementing and operating design based on a broad ethical and norm critical perspective. In our view, such skills should be part of teaching and learning activities in all design/engineering educations.

Keywords:

Norm creativity, design thinking, social sustainability, gender inequality, student project