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Design Concepts & Problems | DES 200
University of Wisconsin–Stout Design Concepts & Problems is a sophomore-level studio class in design methodology that helps prepare students to develop capacity for managing ambiguity at the front end of the design process. In this class, students are presented with complex, systems-based problems requiring thoughtful, interdisciplinary solutions. They are challenged with communicating the complexity of information, identifying methods of fabrication and making, and exploring new avenues of creative problem solving. In addition to final, designed artifacts, students have major checkpoints where they present research, ideation, conceptual and intermediary prototypes, and present their development via process boards, slideshow presentations, and multi-page process books. |
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EDUCATIONAL BOARD GAME
Project length: 6.5 weeks Texts: A Theory of Fun for Game Design (Raph Koster) The project highlights to the right come from sophomores Sam Bretey (industrial design), Alex Dvorak (game design & development), Kacie Shull (interior design), and Dan Wagner (industrial design). Their final concept, Plunder & Perils, is a board game that was developed as a teaching tool for geography, and secondarily, history and economics, using the theme of Caribbean piracy as a vehicle for the subject matter. Students followed a research and development process that included background and subject matter research, ideation and concept development, paper prototyping, playable prototyping, playtesting, iterative revision, and finished with production of a final game prototype.
Sam Bretey, Alex Dvorak, Kacie Shull, Dan Wagner
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GEOGRAPHIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
Project length: 6.5 weeks The project highlights to the right come from sophomores Michelle Sandquist (entertainment design), Karly Rauner (graphic design), Matt Schultz (industrial design), and Colin Walker (industrial design). Their final concept, the Kiatu Drum is a 3-in-1 pedal-operated drum inspired by African dance, drum circles, and raw materials. Students followed a research and development process that included technical and contextual research, ideation and concept development, paper prototyping, playable prototyping, iterative revision, and finished with production of a final instrument prototype. Materials included Brazilian hardwood, hand-tanned deer hide, hemp rope, and cowry shells. Subject matter expert Dr. Aaron Durst presented on the history, classification, and technology of musical instruments, and Dr. Erika Svanoe was brought in to consult on acoustics and the technical development of tools for soundmaking.
Michelle Sandquist, Karly Rauner, Matt Schultz, Colin Walker
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MINIATURE GOLF BY DESIGN
Project length: 6 weeks Inspired by pop-up mini golf art installations such as Walker on the Green, this project tasks students with designing a miniature golf course that also serves as a tool to educate or raise awareness about an important societal problem. Working in teams of 4 or 5, students are pushed to consider not just construction, but gameplay, experience design, data visualization and information graphics.
Two sections of Design Concepts & Problems joined forces to install their projects as a 12-hole miniature golf course in a pop-up exhibition on the quad in front of the Applied Arts building and Micheels Hall. Course was played by dozens of students crossing the quad between final exams. photos by Alex Greene Rachel Bergmann, Bonnie Breyer, Kelley Burke, Karen Carpenter
Project presents the issue of coral bleaching, an ecological issue that occurs when ocean waters are too warm, too cold, or under undue stress from outside factors. Haley Uetz, Ashley Weiss, Jenna Welke , Mariah Zegers
Using data sourced from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, project presents the issue of driving fatalities using locations of actual driving fatalities along the I-94 corridor between Madison and Menomonie, Wisconsin. Shannen Domecq, Matti Gerlach, Sarah Haughn, Jesse Vaselaar
Using historical reference, this hole presents the issue of animal abuse in the entertainment industry, citing the biographies of real performing animals. |
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THE UNCOMFORTABLE
Project length: 2 weeks This project is inspired by the work of architect and designer Katerina Kamprani. Students are tasked with familiarizing themselves with Kamprani's ongoing art project, The Uncomfortable, and producing a contribution of their own. The project introduces the concept of empathy as well as user-centered design philosophies by forcing students to consider a worst-case scenario of product use. Students are pushed to consider product semantics by thinking of how the objects are quickly read and understood by the viewer: if the uselessness or discomfort of their concept isn't easily understood just by looking, it wouldn't fit with Kamprani's project.
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