Design Innovation MA, MSc

What you'll study

You will learn from the most influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators, exposing you to the latest theories and developments from across your discipline.

Modules

Our Design Innovation MA/ MSc covers a wide range of topics; to give you a taster we have expanded on some of the modules affiliated with this programme and the specific assessment methods associated with each module.

To complete the MA/MSc Design Innovation students must complete 8 x 15 credit modules (4 in the first semester and 4 in the second semester). In the first semester 3 modules are compulsory with the option to choose your final 1 module from another Institute. In the second semester all 4 modules are compulsory. All students must complete a Dissertation worth 60 credits.

• Compulsory
• Optional

Identity, Culture and Communication

Identity, Culture and Communication

The module focuses on developing skilled communication strategies and principles for working in cross-cultural contexts. Key theoretical concepts of `identity', ‘otherisation' and ‘representation' will be introduced through lectures and seminars in order to explore the complex interrelationships between identity, culture and communication. You will bee expected to collect and analyse data from the Interdisciplinary Project module to be used for the case study assignment.

The module aims to answer the following important questions: What is culture? How are cultural identities constructed? How do cultural stereotypes impact on communication? How are meanings negotiated? And how are these questions related to working as a contemporary designer?

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module you should be able to:

• Understand the complex interplay between identity and culture and demonstrate these concepts through application to a relevant design context
• Analyse communication events, written texts and visual images to explore how culture and power relations work to produce particular meanings and communicate this in an appropriate language and report structure
• Discuss the concepts of identity and culture outlined in the course
• Apply outlined key concepts when undertaking the analysis of communication strategies observed within the student project teams.
• Develop and communicate ideas in a coherent sequence
• Use appropriate language and report structure
• Reference and attribute correctly
• Provide critical peer feedback
• Work in cross-cultural teams
• Use concepts from the module to inform their professional practice

Assessment

100% Coursework consisting of:

• 50% Individual Assessment
• 50% Individual Report

Design Innovation Project

Design Innovation Project

The Design Innovation Project is designed so that you develop and gain experience in using key skills that will enable you to work successfully with various organisational project team members in the face to face and distributed product development process. The module will prepare you to develop as culturally competent project leaders.

The aim of this module is to provide you with skills for working in design innovation work teams.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module you should be able to:

• Develop strategies to plan and execute a project across distributed collaborative teams
• Understand the impact of distributed project teams on project management
• Develop and gain experience in using distance communication
• Explore cultural issues and concepts with exchanges and project evaluation
• Develop skills in generating and ev aluation of project briefs
• Demonstrate increased awareness of cultural issues and concepts
• Develop strategies to make a contribution diverse project teams
• Use distance communication tools
• Provide critical feedback to peers
• Articulate a project brief and project review criteria
• Use digital communication tools
• Develop teamwork skills
• Develop the means to implement and communicate the strategy to a 'client'
• Communicate effectively, with colleagues and a wider audience, in a variety of media
• Solve problems in creative and innovative ways

Assessment

• 30% Design Process Diary
• 30% Reflective Article
• 40% Project Deliverables

Design Thinking

Design Thinking

The aim of this module is to enhance your ability to use design approaches and tools for identifying and implementing human centred innovation opportunities. You will be expected to deploy knowledge learned in this module into parallel running Collaborative Project module.

The module will include teaching on the following topics: visualization, using imagery to envision possible future conditions; journey mapping, assessing the existing experience through the customer's eyes, using customer oriented data collection techniques; value chain analysis, assessing the current value chain that supports the customer's journey; mind mapping, generating insights from exploration activities and using those to create; design criteria; brainstorming, generating ideas; rapid concept development, assembling innovative elements into a coherent proposition that can be explored and evaluated; rapid ‘prototyping', expressing a new concept in a tangible form for exploration, consumer testing, and refinement; consumer testing and storytelling.

Learning Outcomes

The module will introduce you to a systematic design-based approach aimed at identifying and implementing user centred innovation opportunities.

On completion of this module you should be able to:

• Identify when and how to use range of Design Thinking tools
• Select appropriate tools to inform project development
• Appropriate use of the Design Thinking tools in a parallel module
• Develop communication skills in diverse teams;
• Developed a systematic approach to tackle complex projects
• Apply tools in a project context
• Work with variety of stakeholders
• Understand how to tackle 'wicked' problems
• Be able to deliver a succinct presentation to communicate key facts

Assessment

• 80% Report
• 20% Presentation

Dissertation

Dissertation

The Dissertation module will equip you with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on your own research project.

You will have the choice of three dissertation pathways:

1. A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
2. A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
3. An Internship within an organisation during which time students will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

By undertaking a dissertation at master's level, you will achieve a high level of understanding in your chosen subject area and will produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss your research in more detail.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The importance of project planning;
• The importance of a clear hypothesis or research question;
• The ethical implications of research;
• The relevant empirical data and methodologies for data collection or knowledge assimilation for the subject area;
• Methods of data analysis and their suitability for the intended data;
• The areas of expertise or publications of the major individuals or organisations in the subject or business area;
• The previous research or current knowledge in the specific subject or business area;
• Theoretical perspectives relevant to your chosen topic;
• The most effective methods of presentation for data or knowledge;
• Developing a clear, coherent and original research question, hypothesis or business problem in a suitable subject area;
• Synthesising relevant sources (e.g. research literature, primary data) to construct a coherent argument in response to your research question, hypothesis or business problem;
• Analysing primary or secondary data collected by an appropriate method;
• Critically evaluating data collected in context with previously published knowledge or information;
• Engaging in critical debate and argumentation in written work;
• Applying principles of good scholarly practice to your written work;
• Performing appropriate literature searching/business information searching using library databases or other reputable sources;
• Planning a research project and producing a realistic gantt chart demonstrating your intended timelines;
• Synthesising information from appropriate sources;
• Demonstrating rational use of research method tools;
• Selecting and using appropriate investigative and research skills;
• Demonstrating effective project planning skills;
• Finding and evaluating scholarly sources;
• Engaging in critical reasoning, debate and argumentation;
• Demonstrating effective report writing skills;
• Recognising and using resources effectively;
• Successfully managing a project from idea to completion;
• Demonstrating commercial awareness or the impact of knowledge transfer in a business or research environment

Assesement

100% Coursework consisting of:

• 20% Literature review
• 20% Research proposal
• 60% Dissertation report/essay

Foresight and Strategy

Foresight and Strategy

As part of the Introduction to Foresight and Forecasting module, you will research methods for trends in forecasting, create scenarios and personas, create speculative designs, explore science fiction in film and literature, and understand making films to 'sell' concepts.

The aim of this module is to broaden your experience and skills as a designer to include knowledge of, and competence with, the deployment of foresight, forecasting and scenario writing to inform future design and business strategy.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

• Engage in research and analysis to gather key insights appropriate to the future strategy of a business, and propose design solutions which complement, inform and challenge that strategy, as appropriate
• Research techniques for future forecasting
• Persona and scenario development as techniques for generating insights
• Persona and scenario development as techniques for generating stakeholder buy-in
• Creating speculative and/or conceptual design solutions
• The role(s) of speculative design concepts with a business
• Use a range of techniques for generating key insights;
• Apply key insights to speculative and/or conceptual design solutions
• Use a range of presentation techniques such as storyboarding, video, UX simulation, rendering and animation, as appropriate to the design concept
• Present and document insights gained from research in a credible and convincing manner
• Present 'hard-to-grasp' concepts in a compelling and convincing manner
• Engage in critique of the work of others
• Gather and analyse research material relevant to the future strategy of a business
• Generate design concepts within the context of future business strategy
• Present concepts in a manner which is understandable to non-designer stakeholders

Assessment

• 100% Foresight and strategy scenario(s)

Meaning Making in Design

Meaning Making in Design

The module will locate design within broader cultural issues and practices of creativity and innovation. This module will use the Circuit of Culture and its five interrelated categories (i.e. Identity, Representation, Regulation, Production and Consumption) as framework to explore processes of meaning making.

The aims of this module are to build on concepts introduced in the Identity, Culture & Communication module and the Meaning Making in Design module. It aims to answer ‘What is culture?’, identify its meanings and practices, its production and representation, and show designers as cultural intermediaries.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module you should be able to:

• Demonstrate their understanding of how designers' practices are interwoven with elements of production and consumption of culture
• Cultural processes which form the culture of circuit
• Display the interplay of elements within the culture of circuit in construction of meaning
• Identify relation between design and culture
• Explain the key concepts of `culture, cultural formation and production in relation design
• Analyse complex cultural issues and evaluate design processes and products
• Collect data and analyse these using the key concepts discussed in the module
• Provide peer feedback
• Respond to peer feedback
• Develop understanding of culture as non-essential
• Understand interplay of elements in construction of meaning

Assessment

• Case study (80%)
• Peer feedback (20%)

Reflection and Action

Reflection and Action

This module will enable you to start planning for your major project by focusing first on generating a suitable topic to be explored. The goal is for you to arrive at a feasible, agreed major project plan. You will consolidate your prior learning and use it to develop a learning plan to complete their chosen study pathway.

The aim of the Reflection and Action module is to facilitate your reflection on your individual practices and values, and the shifts impacting on design discipline. You will gain a broad understanding of design theories and research in order to inform and shape their dissertation proposal to be developed in the dissertation module.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module you should be able to:

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to their own research and advanced scholarship and display evidence of understanding the requirements of focusing research ideas
• Understand what is a reflective practice and its role in design research
• Develop a feasible research direction
• Plan and pilot a research method suitable to the individuals dissertation
• understand the participatory and action research methodologies
• reflect, identify and agree a dissertation direction
• engage in a sustained piece of individual, academic research on a chosen research method
• articulate, carry out and reflect a feasible pilot project
• manage their time and resources effectively
• use initiative and take responsibility
• develop skills in pilot study planning
• display evidence of independent research skills

Assessment

• 10% Research Method Pilot poster
• 30% Presentation
• 60% Research Method Pilot Study Report

The Collaborative Project

The Collaborative Project

With a multi-talented group of students, you will work on a brief from a real company looking to solve a real social or business problem.

Together with your student team, you will research and build solutions to a business problem, supported by our project tutors, clients and staff. Previous clients include Foster + Partners, Speedo, The London Legacy Development Corporation as well as many other companies, start-ups and charities.

The Collaborative Project provides a means for you to engage in critical enquiry and to be exposed to project-based teamwork in multicultural and interdisciplinary settings. By undertaking this module, you will strengthen your cooperative and collaborative working skills and competencies, whilst raising your awareness and appreciation of cultural and disciplinary diversity and differences.

The Collaborative Project aims to provide you with a hands-on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice-oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions. Alongside the collaborative elements of the module, you will be provided with opportunities to network with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, which will give you the experience and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and potentially develop future employment opportunities.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

• Work effectively in diverse and interdisciplinary teams;
• Undertake and contribute towards a project-based development process;
• Apply critical enquiry, reflection, and creative methods to identify, frame, and resolve issues and problems at hand;