DE7050 - Responsive Design Innovation Studio

As part of the Responsive Design Innovation Studio, you will learn by taking on several design projects as part of a team. A project may run for several weeks, a number of days or even just a few hours. In most cases your projects will include an external collaborator who provides the context and will help you understand the design brief. Within the frameworks of Design Thinking and Frame Creation you will be coached by the academic team to help you undertake research, develop ideas, facilitate co-creation, prototype your proposals and communicate your work to a specific audience. This coaching will provide valuable feedback and guidance to help you better understand responsive design, develop your practice and improve your project outcomes.

In each studio, project practice is complemented with critical discourses introduced through active seminars. Using inspiring and challenging materials academics lead and facilitate discussion helping you engage with a topic and its context. Critical discourses provide a space to express your understandings about a topic, unpack these with tutors and peers and develop critical perspectives. In the Responsive Design Innovation Studio critical discourses relate to ‘who and what matters in design innovation’, ‘what are the advantages and challenges of technological innovation’, ‘who is the designer’, ‘is innovation always good’, and ‘does money make the world go around’?

Regular feedback provided by peers, academic tutors and collaborators alongside your studio practice will help you track your progress and make improvements. Written feedback will be provided in response to your assignment submission at the end of the module. The assignment and this feedback will help you consolidate your learning to date and carry it forward into the next part of the programme.

This programme welcomes and encourages diversity. You will join students who have different academic, professional, personal and cultural histories. We believe this is vital for a thriving collaborative design studio culture. In this module you will be supported to recognise the different learning and working styles of different people, what it takes to work well in a team and how to deal effectively with different kinds of conflicts in team dynamics.

In some design briefs it can be unclear at the outset what is required and what the steps are to be successful. This is often the nature of the challenges you are taking on and why a design process is iterative. You explore, experiment, try things out, learn and adapt. This can be exciting. It can also cause uncertainty and doubt. You will be supported in this process and your tutors will be available to talk about this and help provide context and tools to help you progress and navigate uncertainty with design innovation.

You will be part of a community and you will find your tutors easy to access. You will see them regularly throughout each week according to your timetable. Often, your tutors will be working in or near your studio space or using shared spaces with you outside of timetabled sessions. If, however, you wish to contact a tutor you can do so, and your tutors will let you know the most effective way to do this. Each student is assigned a guidance tutor, you can contact them if you are having difficulties with your studies and there will be a meeting scheduled with them in each block where you can talk privately with them about how your studies are going.

It’s important that you have clear information about what to expect in the module and what is expected of you. A detailed briefing at the start of the module and a module guide will help you understand how the module will run and what the expectations are. You will see your tutors throughout each week of the module where there will be opportunities to ask questions and gain support. Digital platforms allow you to engage in discussions and share relevant resources with the studio members (your peers, tutors and collaborators). These platforms also provide the means to contact your tutors directly.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
• Utilise knowledge about design innovation processes, practices and resources.
• Understand the relative importance of concerns and priorities in a number of responsive design innovation contexts.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
• Engage creatively in reflective practice exploring contexts to frame design innovation challenges and develop appropriate responses.
• Communicate your design innovation practice clearly and to a professional standard.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):
• Utilise curiosity and creativity to explore the potential of a responsive innovation context.

This is a pass/fail module.

Formative assessment will be provided through weekly contact with peers and tutors, and through in-depth project review and debriefing sessions.

Summative assessment will review a 4000-word portfolio of practice. The portfolio will present a reflective commentary alongside a collection of responsive design innovation projects. This portfolio will highlight a developing understanding, underpinned by theory, of design-led innovation practice and your developing capabilities as a multidisciplinary professional.

Although this is a Pass/Fail module, written summative feedback will be provided to highlight the strengths of your assignment submission and its areas of improvement. This feedback will make clear how you performed against the assessment criteria. All MLOs will be assessed through your portfolio of practice.

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Challenge the brief, question assumptions and nurture fragile ideas in pursuit of a better world!

Responsive Design Innovation uses the unique qualities of design to facilitate new knowledge co-creation for, and in, specific real-world contexts. You will learn how to harness design’s simultaneously critical, analytical, generative, synthetic, and visionary powers to respond to need and create opportunities for positive change.

Working with your peers in multidisciplinary teams you will work on a number of external partner projects, each of which offers different opportunities to capitalise on the unique blend of disciplinary knowledge and practices in your team. You will be supported by a multidisciplinary team of academic experts, researchers and key partner professionals.

Some of these projects will be high-intensity, rapid, workshop-based activities, whilst others will be longer and more in-depth reflecting the dynamic environment of a practicing innovation agency upon which this studio is modelled. Your emerging knowledge and understanding of responsive innovation will be assessed through a portfolio of practice.