Impact of a change of environment on autonomy and design exploration

Gareth Loudon, Steve Gill, Paul Wilgeroth

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This research explored how a change of physical and social environment might affect a product design student's ability to learn new design skills and to explore new design ideas. To do this, we took a group of product design students away to the remote island of Tiree in the Hebrides of Scotland for a 6-day trip as part of the Tiree Tech Wave - 'A hands-on making and meeting event exploring the edges of technology'. We then compared the findings to theories about how environments can affect creativity, including design exploration. Overall the research trip highlighted that the relaxed and inspiring atmosphere created by the physical and social environment, together with the freedom and autonomy given to the students, resulted in students being extremely productive while there. However it also highlighted that this did not necessarily result in more design exploration. This was partially due to the constraints on the resources available but also because of freedom given to the students.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education
Subtitle of host publicationDesign Education - Growing Our Future, EPDE 2013
Pages868-873
Number of pages6
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Event15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education: Design Education - Growing Our Future, EPDE 2013 - Dublin, Ireland
Duration: 5 Sept 20136 Sept 2013

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education: Design Education - Growing Our Future, EPDE 2013

Conference

Conference15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education: Design Education - Growing Our Future, EPDE 2013
Country/TerritoryIreland
CityDublin
Period5/09/136/09/13

Keywords

  • Autonomy
  • Creativity
  • Curriculum
  • Design exploration
  • Education
  • Learning
  • Learning environments

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