VIRTUAL: Applying Education

Abstract

Historically structured around notions of gender socialization, the design industry has inherent biases. Prejudices in the design sector not only perpetuate stereotypes through the products and services it produces but can exacerbate social inequalities. Guided by technological advancements, the changing world has the potential to widen the digital divide, sideline diversity, and bring about unique ethical challenges worsening inequalities in design and society as a whole. Critical design pursues to increase awareness of complex social, cultural, philosophical, or ethical issues through expressive design outcomes. This paper seeks to reflect on student engagement with, and outcomes of, a critical interdisciplinary student project exploring issues of Diversity in Design through the lens of 4IR. 2nd-year university students from stereotypically ‘opposed’ disciplines were tasked to use ethnographic methodologies to deepen their understanding of diversity within their design disciplines through pre-and post-project personal reflections, desktop, and field research. The project required students to analyse and respond to findings through the development and presentation of Critical, Speculative or Afrofuturistic design outcomes, positioned in the digital age. This paper reflects on the students’ engagement with the project, through an analysis of the pre-and post-project reflections and the success of a selection of project outcomes. Qualitative analysis of the project outcomes revealed that students’ perception of diversity specifically related to gender and culture significantly impacts how they design. The pre-and post-project student reflections indicate that following Critical design approaches not only offered new opportunities to respond to social issues but also highlighted the importance of understanding and acknowledging diversity in design practice and education and equipping designers with skills and critical insights for the changing world of work.