Product Design - BA(Hons)

The core of the course throughout all three of your years will be the Design Studio modules, where your new skills and knowledge will be applied to diverse projects that solve human centred problems through design practice. Intensive one-to-one tutoring with tutors and practising designers will bring leading edge thinking and practical guidance to your work.

Year one

Your first year will lay a foundation in the skills for a professional designer, through tutorials and design projects including: 3D design, sketching, concept generation, presentation skills, CAD skills, practical workshop skills and gaining an understanding of people and their complex emotional relationships with products.

You will study the following compulsory modules:

• Product Design Studio 1
• Design Communication
• Objects and Experiences
• Graphic Design
• Design in Context.

Year two

In the second year, you will develop an understanding of human-centred design, co-design and innovative design processes, advanced CAD, materials and manufacturing, and advanced form and aesthetics development.

You will study the following compulsory modules:

• Creative Product Design Studio 2
• Product CAD
• Engineering for Designers
• Aesthetics and Product Language
• Materials and Processes.

Optional placement year

A quarter of students undertake a placement year working in the design industry. We will provide you with assistance to develop your portfolio and CV in order to gain the placement and will then support you as a mentor while on placement.

Final year

Your final year will involve you in working on a range of studio based projects, often with real companies (Brabantia, Dremel, Bloodhound and Piper Moto), on real briefs, to tight deadlines. This will then culminate in an individual major project to research, design and develop a product, along with a portfolio of wider projects to market you in an area of the product design or the diverse creative technology industry, where your passion for design will continue to grow.

You will study the following compulsory modules:

• Individual Project Product Design
• Product Design Studio 3
• Design Research Methods
• Design Futures.

In addition, you will study one optional module from the list below:

• Industrial Placement
• Design in Practice.

The University continually enhances our offer by responding to feedback from our students and other stakeholders, ensuring the curriculum is kept up to date and our graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need for the real world. This may result in changes to the course. If changes to your course are approved, we will inform you.

The design lecturers for this course all began teaching at UWE Bristol after years of professional practice within the design industry. This gives the teaching an emphasis on professional practice that will prepare you for a career in design.

The Product Design degree places considerable emphasis on hands-on project based learning.

For more details, see our full glossary of learning and teaching terms.

Assessment is based predominantly on project work and the presentation of a portfolio of design and development studies. Four modules use assessment including conventional examinations.

For more details, see our full glossary of assessment terms.