VIRTUAL: Learning. Life. Work.

Abstract

For many enthusiasts seeking to enter the world of design, the typical route is to enrol on a design-related programme in a higher education institution. The initial aim of a design programme is to introduce students to the fundamentals of design and the important considerations in the creative process. Once the fundamentals have been introduced, programmes will take different directions relating to the programme’s particular specialism. Regardless of the many design pathways, one of the fundamental elements of a design education is the introduction of the design process, which is a creative, analytical and exploratory journey that is common across all design subjects. Since it is known that emotions shape the way in which people experience the world and is therefore an essential consideration for designers intending to engage with their target audiences, we ask how educators incorporate such considerations into their teaching of the creative design process. From the findings generated by eight expert interviews with academics in leading institutions in the UK, we found that there was a flexible and intuitive approach to teaching the design process which placed little emphasis on the emotional response of the intended users. Furthermore, it was apparent that the concept of emotional design did not register with participants, nor was there any indication that there was a specific approach to covering the importance of emotional considerations explicitly and systematically in the teaching of design. These findings contribute to the field of design in two ways: first, it provides an indication of how the design process is taught at several universities in the UK; two, it highlights how the role of emotions, as a means of informing and appraising design output might be limited in its coverage within the literature and therefore the curriculum.