DESIGNING IN A CROSS-CULTURAL CONTEXT: AN ANALYSIS OF BRAZILIAN, ITALIAN, JAPANESE AND TURKISH STUDENTS’ DESIGN METHODS

DS 95: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2019), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. 12th -13th September 2019

Year: 2019
Editor: Bohemia, Erik; Kovacevic, Ahmed; Buck, Lyndon; Brisco, Ross; Evans, Dorothy; Grierson, Hilary; Ion, William; Whitfield, Robert Ian
Author: Nichetti, Claudia (1); Bertoletti, Roberta (1); van der Linden, Julio (1); Bohemia, Erik (2); Kaygan, Pınar (3); Bernardes, Mauricio (1)
Series: E&PDE
Institution: 1: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; 2: Academy for Design Innovation Management, United Kingdom; 3: Middle East Technical University, Turkey
Section: Cultural 1
DOI number: https://doi.org/10.35199/epde2019.32
ISBN: 978-1-912254-05-7

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the relationship between the methods and processes used and the solutions proposed by design students by five universities from four countries involved in the Global Studio 2018. Developed since 2007, the Global Studio is an annual project that aims to provide design students with skills to work in cross-cultural projects through the exchange of experiences among students of different countries and cultures. During the project, students are challenged to act as clients and designers among themselves and with simultaneous schedules. The project is developed by teams of students during subjects of their courses, under supervision of their professors and sometimes with participation of postgraduate students acting as facilitators. In 2018, students from Brazil, Italy, Japan and Turkey were involved and the theme proposed was to design solutions for local mobility, with an interest in the ways people travel in different parts of the world. In this edition a group of PhD students by one of the universities followed the project and developed participant observation and document studies. In this context, this study focused on how the methods and processes undergraduate students used have influenced the solutions they developed. Therefore, records of processes and methods as well reports and comments produced by the students were analysed. To support the analysis of the methods used and the solutions developed by the students, parameters synthesized in four stages were established. In stage 1: objectives of the project, justification, definition of target audience, and definition of methodological approach. In stage 2: methods and techniques used for analysis (potential users and market, competing products, and urban context), for assessment of technology, and for verification of patents and technical standards. In stage 3: methods and techniques used for requirements and restrictions definition, for generation and evaluation of design concepts, and for design solution definition. Finally, in step 4: production detailing (functionality, technical specifications, materials and processes, surface) and after sales (packaging, logistics, installation, maintenance and discard). These parameters were used to verify what was considered by the students in the development of their solutions. Results allowed to identify to what extent the use of adequate methodologies by the students impacted positively or negatively on the solutions of each project. Differences among teams reflect design methods approach adopted by each of the universities and presents effects of teams experiences and preferences (this may explain differences among teams by the same university). Due to the methodological approach and how this study was performed, it was not possible to identify differences among students of the same team or the same university.

Keywords: Design methods, Cross-cultural project, Global Studio

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