Product Design - what is it?
A Product Designer creates or improves products and services in order to satisfy the user?s needs ? individual or industrial.
The range of products and services that a Product Designer works in is very broad: from sporting goods to packaging, from small domestic devices to transport vehicles, from the corporate identity of a company to an innovative service to improve the quality of life of old people, etc.
Degree in Product Design - is it for me?
During the course students will explore a wide range of areas of knowledge and will develop skills to be Product Designers in multidisciplinary teams. They will acquire knowledge in areas as diverse as technology and design, management and marketing and on consumer behaviour. They will understand the importance of ergonomics and know which materials to use. They will be trained in electronics and computers and will get used to adopt an analytical work.
Sustainability and environment will be key words in their projects. Through interdisciplinary projects they will learn together, as a team, they will develop technical and professional skills and they will get used to cooperating with specialists from other areas as this is the way they will work in their future professional career. In addition, project based education will help them learning: students will recall what they applied rather than what they only heard!
Programme of studies structure
The programme is based on active learning ("learning by doing"), a strong integration of different disciplines, in direct communication between students and teachers, the development of professional skills (teamwork, communication, project management, social responsibility, etc.) and a strong connection with professional practice.
The programme lasts for three years, each organized into two semesters. Projects, inherent to the programme, combine theory and practice, teamwork and intense contact with faculty staff and with other ongoing research projects at the University.
These projects provide interdisciplinary training provides students with general knowledge in the core subject areas of design and expertise in complementary topics, required for product development.
The development of technical skills is provided in areas similar to those found in the Product Design programmes in European universities:
- Design / Product Design / Design;
- Management;
- Applied Psychology / Consumer Behaviour ;
- Engineering / Technology.
Some of the projects will take place, desirably, together with students from other courses, e.g. Engineering or Social Sciences, making it truly interdisciplinary!
On the 6th (last) semester an individual project will be developed, carried out for a "real customer", to put all they learned throughout the course into practice and to show that, in addition to know what teamwork is, students are equally capable of performing projects with individual responsibility!
