The diploma at the Institute of Design is the final project in the Master programme. The Institute takes a broad approach to the design profession that includes products, services, systems and interactive experiences. The education brings together aesthetics and technology, creativity and design methods, culture and research. The programme has roots in Industrial Design, but today also includes Interaction Design, Service Design and Systems Oriented Design. This is reflected in the width of our students’ diplomas, and the broad range of themes that they address.

The diploma concludes our five-year Master in design and is done in the final semester. The diploma is a self-initiated and self-organised project that takes place over 18 weeks. The students develop and define their own project-descriptions (the diploma programme) in a pre-diploma’ course, in the semester leading up to the diploma. During the diploma project the students have a main supervisor at the Institute, but can also seek additional input and guidance form across AHO and externally. Diplomas are typically done as individual projects, but can also be done in groups.

The diplomas at the Institute of Design are characterised by variety and breadth. The diploma projects are typically initiated and developed by the students, and they are free to explore different themes and formats. These can be creative explorations, product development and theoretical projects, or collaborations with commercial companies, public services or researchprojects. Diplomas can also be discursive design projects that seek to raise questions or challenge societal or cultural issues. Often our diplomas are ‘hybrids’ that bring together different methods and actors, or span across our different design specialisations.

The purpose of the diploma is multi-layered. The students have to bring together what they have learned throughout their education to define and develop their own project. A challenge here is how the project is followed through, how it is developed and how it is executed as a design project. In the scope of the Master, the diploma is a relatively large project that demands that the student is self-driven, organised, structured and creative. At the same time, the diploma is a possibility for the student to explore his or her own identity as a designer, to research topics she or he finds interesting, or to challenge the students acquired skills and methods. The diplomas should therefore be understood holistically as projects where the students get to choose their own themes, approaches and processes, but where the challenge is also about organising and developing the project itself. Defining and developing the scope and plan for the project is done both in the project-description (diploma programme), as well as throughout the process.

It is important to note that in doing a holistic evaluation of the diplomas, the focus should be on the project itself rather than how closely it follows the initial description or diplomaprogramme.

Technoform is an advanced course in industrial design dealing with the interaction between new technology and advanced form generation. The course builds on the legacy of industrial design both in Norway and Scandinavia, aesthetic approaches are explored in a cultural context within a technological frame. This is approached through two extensive iterations. First an incremental viable solution that builds on and refine solutions already available. Then a more radical proposition within the same theme that requires an even more creative and inventive process. The outcome of the course will be physical products.

Interaction Design 1 - extends the students skills in the world of interaction design, focusing on core skills and materials used in designing physical and digital interactions. The course embraces and explores the creative opportunities made possible by recent developments in physical computing, sensor technologies and mobile devices, to consider physical everyday objects (embedded with switches, sensors and microcontrollers) as augmented interfaces for controlling digital experiences.

This is a practice-led course, starting with a series of short workshops dealing with a range of physical interaction technologies and approaches that lead into larger projects. Students will have the opportunity to work with Arduino microcontrollers, smartphones, Processing code and a broad range of sensors for prototyping and design-testing. The practical aspects of the course will be complemented by a series of lectures/talks and workshops by a range of practitioners and specialists in the field.

This semester allows Masters level students to develop and practice the key competences of service design within projects together with professional partners and in real service design settings. It aims to reflect on the methodologies related to service design in a real context, where projects are intended to be desirable and viable.

The course has two main sections, both developed by means of projects. The short project is intended to be an applied introduction to the concepts, methods, and resources used for the design of services; the second one is a broader project for a partner (a private company or a public organization), where the students will work as professional Service Design consultants.

The course’s orientation is essentially practical, it builds on the idea that the best way to develop skills is by means of projects and practical experiences, and by exposing the students to different experiences and feedback from multiple observers.

The course is suitable for all design topics including architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture. The course has two main themes to choose between but even individual programming is possible. The course is well suited as preparation for the diploma.

 Design for a complex world

Designers today are confronted with an increasing complexity. Constantly new fields and tasks are opened up for designers, and the importance of design increases. Designers address complex socio-technical problems, both in the development of solutions and processes. To be better prepared for this development, designers must learn to handle greater complexity, understand larger contexts, learn more about the consequences of our choices, both for businesses, customers, individual users as well as society and the environment.

 Systems thinking

A deeper understanding of complex processes is called systems thinking. In Systems Oriented Design (SOD), we have developed an approach to systems thinking that is especially developed for practicing designers. It is the designerly approach to systems.

SOD is part of a larger movement with many approaches called Systemic Design (systemic-design.net). This movement was started by SOD teachers here at AHO and other people mainly from Canada, India, Italy and the US.

Read more on
www.systemsorienteddesign.net

www.systemic-design.net

Focus theme 1: Design for very complex systems, public sector, services and organizations

The public sector is facing major challenges in cross-sectoral work between directorates and departmental sectors to improve the ability to create holistic public services and to simplify and improve internal procedures. These issues are addressed in the project Stimulab initiated by the Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (DIFI) Read more here

https://www.difi.no/stimulab

As a master student in this focus theme, you will work with DIFI and DOGA, and one or more design offices that are contracted to carry out projects. In addition you will collaborate with our PhD candidate, who is related to the project.

Focus theme – autumn 2018: Design for Democracy

We continue our theme, design for democracy for the fourth year. Design for democracy is at the forefront of an international movement based on initiatives by Ezio Manzini and Victor Margolin. Design for democracy has a relatively long history starting with designing election situations. However, there has been a long development where democracy today is better understood in all its nuances. We have previously worked with participation (Tønsberg Municipality), workplace democracy (Gjensidige Forsikring and UDI), and involvement (Dagens Næringsliv). This year we will focus on finding ways to draw political and strategic discussions from being based on singular issues to focussing on holistic thinking. We will seek to cover both public and private fields in the choice of partners. Read more and see previous projects here:

http://systemsorienteddesign.net/index.php/projects/design-for-democracy

Who should take this course?

This is the course for you if you wish

- to take up a challenge to work with very complex problems,

- to develop the designers' abilities of holistic thinking,

- to have a strategic role in your future work as a designer.

- to combining multiple perspectives and diversified views, as well as conflicting interest, such as sustainability while maintaining profit, or working with dialogues while maintaining diversity

- getting better at handling different perspectives, interests and values

The course is open to all students at AHO and it endeavours to think in transdisciplinary perspectives and to develop new perspectives or take positions that are not covered by the AHO disciplines. Examples include organizational design and design for action (action design) or entirely new perspectives.

 If you are in doubt, don’t hesitate but contact birger.sevaldson@aho.no

Transform is an advanced course in industrial design dealing with new tools for developing, prototyping and conveying design solutions. Primacy is given to new contexts and themes that rather require radical than incremental solutions. The course is organized around two extensive main iterations and phases. The first phase is based on a foresight a few decades ahead and then, as a second phase, the result of the first phase is back-casted in time and transformed by design to a more contemporary context. The outcome of both phases will be physical products conveyed by both digital media and physical models.

The course focuses specifically on the active use of various forms of physical and digital prototypes that supports the innovation process. Traditional sketching and model building will therefore be blended with explorations, 3D modelling, video-sketching, VR and other forms of conveying a rich variety of different design concepts. Independent of which technology is used, emphasis will always be on the core competences traditionally found in industrial design.

The second part of the interaction design programme focuses on the complex connected world we now live in, where visual interfaces are increasingly prevalent (from mobile phones to large public information systems and presenting designers with fascinating, complex and highly relevant challenges. The course explores how these interfaces can be effectively integrated into networks and spaces; the information they contain and the messages they impart; and how we, as users, engage and interact with them.

New digital technologies, and the internet in particular, have changed the ways of production and consumption of information. The internet itself has undergone a sea-change in recent years, from primarily static and closed systems to infrastructures where openness, information sharing, collaboration and creativity are key ingredients. 

Massive information datasets and structures need to be presented in dynamic, user-friendly and accessible ways, allowing for easy navigation, providing an overview as well as detailed analysis. These sophisticated design challenges will be explored in a range of workshops and projects.The course will provide students with appropriate practical skills, design methods and design thinking tools, enabling them to tackle advanced screen-based design issues, and leading to the creation of engaging, informative and effective interfaces. The semester is a compilation of several smaller modules and workshops to introduce the students to the new and more screen specific methods, processes and tools that will form the core of the term. This will be followed by one final project, where students will develop more in-depth conceptual frameworks.

The course focuses on honing existing Service Design knowledge and competencies through practice by direct access to the schools focus areas of research whilst actively contributing to their development.

In addition undertaking this form of learning through contributing to research, the students will develop their ability to reflect on their own design practice within the rigorous framework of research practice.

These research focus areas are:

1. Innovation in healthcare. This is carried out through C3. It has a focus upon process, and service design labs.
2. Innovation in methods and tools: Developing tangible tools for highly experiential services and ritual service design.

By working with these areas students will practice what they have learnt in Service Design I and/or GK5 and GK6 by applying these design skills through ‘research-by-design’ to ongoing research projects with in-house researchers together with their external partners.

The PreDip course aims to help students to develop a solid launch pad for their diploma projects, one that will allow them to start their design/research process from a knowledgeable and critical position and with a clear plan.

The choice of theme is primarily in the hands of each student, and the direction in which this subject is to take is mainly the result of consultations between each student and their supervisor, the institute leader, and the course staff.

The course is organized in two main phases. The first phase focus both on the individual student’s own skills and interests and the choice of the actual theme of the project. This first phase will be presented and assessed at a midterm-presentation (after app. 1 month). The second phase deals with designing the actual project with a feasible project proposal as its main and final delivery.