Impact of environment on autonomy and design exploration
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Author
Loudon, Gareth
Gill, Steve
Wilgeroth, Paul
Date
2013-09-05Type
Conference proceedings
Publisher
Design Society
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This research explored how a change of physical and social environment might affect a product design studentâ s ability to learn new design skills and to explore new design ideas. To do this, we took a group of product design students away to the remote island of Tiree in the Hebrides of Scotland for a 6-day trip as part of the Tiree Tech Wave â â A hands-on making and meeting event exploring the edges of technologyâ . We then compared the findings to theories about how environments can affect creativity, including design exploration. Overall the research trip highlighted that the relaxed and inspiring atmosphere created by the physical and social environment, together with the freedom and autonomy given to the students, resulted in students being extremely productive while there. However it also highlighted that this did not necessarily result in more design exploration. This was partially due to the constraints on the resources available but also because of freedom given to the students.
Journal/conference proceeding
International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education Conference;
Citation
Loudon, G, Gill, S. and Wilgeroth, P. (2013) ‘Impact of environment on autonomy and design exploration,’ 15th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education Conference. Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), 5th – 6th September. Bristol: Design Society, pp. 868-873
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10369/7431https://www.designsociety.org/publication/34819/impact_of_a_change_of_environment_on_autonomy_and_design_exploration
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