MIE440H1: * Design of Effective Products

0.50
25.6L/12.8T/25.6P

Products should be used as intended to be effective. Thus, a primary goal is to better align designer intention and user behavior. More specifically, sustainability-minded products should be technically efficient, but also support people to use them more sustainably. Finally, many products and systems nudge people to behave in ways contrary to the user's best interests. To address the above, the course focuses on design that increases intended product use, and pro-social / pro-environmental behaviors. For projects, students will develop, prototype and test concepts that aim to increase desired behaviors. Methods relevant to the design of all products include: identification of unmet/underserved user needs through lead users; roles of function and affordance in effective products; fixation and cognitive biases as obstacles to creativity; concept generation methods (e.g., Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ/TIPS), use of stimuli and analogy); configuration design methods (e.g., design for transformation, manufacture, assembly, reuse, repair, and recycling).

MIE221H1 or instructor permission
42.7 (Fall), 42.7 (Winter), 85.4 (Full Year)