BA Industrial Design (Hons) undergraduates from Cohort AY2021/2022 onwards can pursue interests in any of the following areas of Specialisations:

Design Futures & Critical Inquiry
Develops empathetic leaders of innovation who enhance the human experience through exploration and provocation. This design visionary will project speculative futures that machines cannot envision through disruptive thinking and demonstrate high-level inquisitiveness about design ethics, appropriateness, and intended and unintended consequences.

Learning Outcomes

1. Contextualise & Critique: Critically analyse and evaluate contemporary design challenges within their broader social, cultural, economic, environmental and philosophical contexts, demonstrating an understanding of the interconnectedness of systems and stakeholders.

2. Envision & Communicate: Formulate a vision and articulate it through to a design proposition that challenges paradigms, disrupts conventional thinking, and inspire new viewpoints.
   
   
3. Iterate & Synthesise: Engage in rigorous and open-ended design processes that embrace experimentation, iteration, and critical reflection to synthesise research, analysis, and ideation into impactful design propositions.

Product Innovation
Develops innovators who possess design-led thinking and relevant creative skills that are synthesised with engineering or technology. These designers apply their creativity to user and business focused benefits through design thinking, while achieving commercial success through developing tangible or virtual products.

Learning Outcomes

1. Proof of Concept & Testing: Every project must have a working model and be tested like a real product to show it works.

2. Economic Viability & Adoption: Projects should be practical and financially sustainable, designed to meet real needs so they get used and kept by people after they are made.

3. Expert Collaboration: Focus on handing off ideas to the right technical experts for development instead of trying to do everything personally.

4. Technical Performance & Market Positioning: Ensure projects perform well technically and stand out or compete effectively in the market against existing solutions.

5. Commercial Value & Real-World Application: Projects should have clear commercial value and be practical for real-world use, even if they are standalone and not part of a bigger system.

Social & Service Transformation
Develops creators to meet the growing needs of innovation focused organisations and service economies, tackling complex social problems and fluid challenges through insightful problem framing, effective research investigations, and visual facilitations. The over-arching goal is to develop user-centred solutions through co-creative approaches.

Learning Outcomes

1. Holistic Understanding of the Customer Journey: Develop a holistic understanding of customer experiences using various user research methods. Design for an end-to-end experience by effectively orchestrating multiple touchpoints.

2. Alignment with Organisational Goals & Strategies: Map out the end-to-end service process, including frontstage and backstage activities. Align design efforts with organisational goals and strategies to ensure viability and sustainability of solutions.

3. Ecosystemic Approach: Apply systemic thinking to understand the broader picture and interconnections within a service ecosystem. Identify relevant stakeholders and establish new collaborative networks for co-producing services.

4. Facilitation & Communication: Facilitate multi-disciplinary collaboration and develop skills to effectively communicate service design concepts and solutions.

5. Ethics & Sustainability Consideration: Integrate ethical considerations into the research and design process. Understand the impact of solutions to ensure they are environmentally and socially responsible.