Before you start designing yourself, we would like to tell you about some of the basic principles that are the basis of the way we teach design in Delft.

In this course you have the opportunity to go through and experience a design process in a number of steps. From understanding the context of use to idea generation to prototyping and testing your concept. To tie these steps together, we have defined a theme within which you will be designing something. Our intention is that the theme will give you focus during the design process. In addition, because all participants in the course are working within the same theme, it will be easier to compare and discuss your results.

What is a design theme? A design theme is an application domain for which you design a new product. Design themes can be related to a certain sector (e.g. healthcare, or mobility) or to a product category (e.g. mobile phones, or automotive). In this course, the design theme is focused on a human activity, namely: people’s ‘Morning Rituals’. Morning rituals encompass people’s activities and experiences from the moment they get up in the morning to the moment they arrive at work or school. You will be designing something that will improve the morning rituals of people.

What are morning rituals about? How should you use the theme during the exercises? Why did we choose the theme of morning rituals? Please watch the video on the next page to find out more about the design theme of the course.

We have already seen some discussions on the course forum about this topic. We think that is great, so please keep doing that!

Learning how to design comes with experience. That is why we offer you design exercises in this course. So, for each phase of the Delft Design Approach that we teach, we offer you one or more exercises. We also offer you three ways to reflect on your own work after each exercise:

Benchmark video’s. After each exercise two students from Delft – Koen & Iris – will show you how they did the exercise themselves. They will give you pointers on how they went about the exercise and will offer their reflections on key issues. Each benchmark video also contains reflections from a professional designer from industry who is an expert on the topic. With these benchmark video’s we offer you the opportunity to reflect on your own work by comparing it to the students’ work and the reflections of the professional designer. To do so, you start by watching the benchmark video that is related to the exercise. Then, you can compare your own work using the self evaluation tools provided.

In the video below, Koen & Iris – the two students from Delft – will explain what you can expect from the benchmark video’s each lecture.