University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Systems thinking and connecting the silos of design education

Benson, Eric; Park, Hyuna

Content Files
DS76_045.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/126073

Description

Title
Systems thinking and connecting the silos of design education
Author(s)
  • Benson, Eric
  • Park, Hyuna
Issue Date
2013-09-05
Keyword(s)
  • Design Education
  • Systems Thinking
  • Liberal Arts
  • Interdisciplinary
Date of Ingest
2025-02-28T20:36:00-06:00
Abstract
While the design industry is a complex and multidimensional landscape, the current design curriculum lives in stark contrast: linear and compartmentalized. University product design curricula are mainly insular, where studio art is separated from liberal arts courses, despite their close physical and theoretical proximities. While this separation allows students to effectively attain proficiency in skillsets relevant to the product design discipline, students do not learn how liberal arts education can complement their design knowledge. These silos of practice stand in opposition to the type of creative processes and collaborations necessary to help solve the issues that humanity faces today. Wicked problems1 like climate change must be discussed in design education. The solutions to these problems mandate collaboration with other disciplines such as anthropology and/or engineering. This article is a proposal for new research examining how a liberal arts “integrated” design education may enhance the design students’ systems thinking abilities. A more effective design curriculum will need to employ a systems thinking methodology, so a project can be viewed as a part of an entire system of connected concerns. This mode of thinking would not render the designer a generalist, but instead one that is always seeking to collaborate and explore outcomes outside of their typical artifacts. This article will also examine how the current product design education is structured and, despite the differences in the teaching and learning environment of liberal arts courses are different from studio art courses, they could and should work together effectively.
Publisher
The Design Society
Series/Report Name or Number
DS 76: Proceedings of E&PDE 2013, the 15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
conference paper
Language
eng
Copyright and License Information
  • Eric Benson
  • Hyuna Park

Owning Collections

Research and Publications - School of Art and Design PRIMARY