Overall objectives:

1 - This course aims to: -Explore the social, economical and environmental contexts to stimulate and develop new responses in the design environment. Students are meant to achieve a high level autonomy in their creative and design processes, to be able to establish a personal language and to choose for the best communication and technical means which deem appropriate in response to the design problem. -Understand the design practice as a critical, ethical and responsible response to the context through theoretical and practical exploration of contemporary currents and Design thinking. -Train towards an aesthetic, political and social awareness as integral agent of society. -Contribute through analysis and study of the best contemporary practices to the construction of a more holistic and strategic design approach, both in thinking and doing, in relation with the environment and World.

Syllabus:

1 - The Design Process: models and tools for the research, reflection, ideation phases. The HCD Human-Centred Design methodology & toolkit, and Service Design tools as "how to": -observe the societal contexts, interact with these to map and analyse problems, needs, emotions, motivations, behaviours; -dialogue with different stakeholders, and collect information and/or co-design with them; -create tools and lo-fi prototypes to test the design solutions and iterate until the final decision. Design for Social Innovation: from observations and reflections on social sustainability cases, to the concepts of Design for Well-being and Design for Sustainable Development.

Literature/Sources:

MUNARI, Bruno , Das coisas nascem coisas , Col. Arte e Comunica?o. Ed. 70
R. BUCHANAN , 2008 , "Introduction: Design and Organizational Change" in Design Issues , MIT Press
IDEO , 2014 , Human-Centred Design Toolkit, 2nd Edition , IDEO

Assesssment methods and criteria:

Classification Type: Quantitativa (0-20)

Evaluation Methodology:
Exposition and explanation of the theoretical contents to support and integrate the practical activities. Learning-by-Doing translated into engaging with local and real problems and opportunities, and meeting real viability and feasibility levels to prototype new design solutions. Active and Collaborative Learning to build a culture of sharing and knowledge-skills support. The evaluation is continuos and based on the realization of assignments of the projects. The course is based on 2 to max. 4 quantitative, each with a maximum weight of 50%. This UC predicts an autonomous effort around 10h per week.