Course programme
Course details
On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, demonstrators, technicians and research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry.
Year 1
Core units
Design Projects and Prototypes 1: This covers a series of design projects for which you'll use your expertise from the other units of the programme. You'll design and make products that are attractive to the targeted market, backed with good scientific and design principles.
Materials and Processing: Learn about important properties of metals, plastics, ceramics and composites and why and how they're picked for product design. Energy and other environmental issues of materials and their processing are also covered.
Design Media: Present two and three dimension drawings, renderings and designs using manual and computer visualisation techniques. You'll learn how to professionally present your design media in an industrial situation.
Technological Principles: How basic scientific principles can help generate ideas and prove solutions. You'll learn about a range of mathematical, algebraic, physical and technological principles for developing solutions to design problems.
User-Centred Design: The psychology and physiology of your design users. By considering user capabilities and limitations, and likes and dislikes, you can make your designs more usable and pleasurable.
Contact hours
The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during the first year of this course. You will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical sessions. Your independent learning could include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments.
Learning and teaching: 353 hours
Independent learning: 847 hours
Non-credit bearing learning and teaching: 28.5 hours
Year 2
Core units
Design Projects & Prototypes 2: You'll be encouraged to create more complex and innovative design solutions for functioning prototypes. Your projects will cover needs like functionality, human interaction, branding and design for manufacture.
Manufacturing & Production: You'll learn about modern manufacturing processes for competitive product development.
Visualisation Tools: Learn about applied 3-D modelling techniques to support your design visualisation, realisation and presentation. You'll learn to support your design process by using computer, physical modelling and presentation skills, and colour, texture and light using computer and manual techniques.
Management & Commercialisation for Technical Projects: An introduction to business and management. You'll learn to identify and use a company's strengths and evaluate opportunities for competitive products. There will be a focus on consumer marketing, decision making, intellectual property rights, product liability and financial and management accounting.
Applied Technology: The physical laws that govern product design and manufacture. You'll learn about a range of physical and technological principles for the design of components, structures, machines and products.
Contact hours
The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during the second year of this course. You will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical sessions. Your independent learning could include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments.
Learning and teaching: 291 hours
Independent learning: 909 hours
Non-credit bearing learning and teaching: 28 hours
Year 3 (Placement)
You will complete a minimum 30-week industrial work placement which can be carried out anywhere in the world. You'll get an opportunity to include a period of academic study during this time. The placement year offers a chance to gain experience and make contacts for the future.
You'll choose a BA (Hons) or BSc (Hons) option during your placement year. The BSc option has more focus on the technological areas of design, while the BA option has more focus on the humanistic and contextual issues of product design.
Year 4
Core units
Design Projects 3: The most important part of the BA and BSc option, you'll design an individual project. You'll creatively solve product design issues and present a project report, and use scientific, analytical and technological principles to make functional design solutions.
Design Prototypes 3: This unit is linked to the Design projects 3 unit. You'll make functioning prototype that's an accurate representation of your individual design project.
Business Development: Covering the importance of strategic management in the business development process. You'll raise your entrepreneurial spirit and business decision-making. This will enhance your capacity to recognise and capitalise on competitive and innovative opportunities in a changing business environment.
Humanistic Design Studies: Design aesthetics and how to use these and other human considerations in your designs. You'll use a user-centred design methodology throughout your design lifecycle.
Contact hours
The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during the final year of this course. You will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials, workshops and practical sessions. Your independent learning could include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments.
Learning and teaching: 672.5 hours
Independent learning: 527.5 hours
Non-credit bearing learning and teaching: 60 hours
Programme specification
Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.
Download the programme specification for BA (Hons) Product Design.
Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.
