Designing for one: how designing for one enriches the student design process

Designing for one is a form of design participation in which a designer works together with one individual. The result of this interaction is a bespoke design that is responsive to the needs, abilities, preferences and situation of the individual. Applied with design education, this research sought to understand the ways this approach impacted a) student learning, b) the generation of empathy and c) the traditional design educational space. This study involved six methods of inquiry for examining the impact of designing for one on the student experience: four Student Module Cases Studies, one expert design educator workshop with 21 participants, 28 student interviews, seven expert design educator interviews and included mapping (a method used within the workshop), observations and post analysis thick descriptions. In terms of student learning, the study identified seven key learning experiences that students had when designing for one, with the most prevalent being: Process (the students developed knowledge about the design process, research methodology and the act of designing), Design Skills (they learned about and applied specific skills related to their discipline), Soft-Design Skills (they developed understanding regarding using and incorporate soft-skills into their design process) and Interaction (they identified the value of the interaction between themselves and their participant). Regarding empathy, the study identified 11 factors that influence the forming of an empathetic relationship between designer and participant, resulting in a set of empathy factors that can be referred to when seeking to build relationships within design participation. In terms of impacting the routine design space, the study identified 11 variables that design educators can use to disrupt a traditional educational setup with the most important variables identified being participation with real users (bringing students in contact with real users) and the location of the module situation (taking the ‘classroom’ off site into a situation of use). By purposefully placing students within these individual situations of an ‘other’, the result is a form of design participation that emerges from the orchestrated relationship and the exchange. The result of this thesis, then, is the offering of designing for one as pedagogical approach that increases levels of complexity, planning, research and collaboration serving to complement existing design educational practice.