U/I - U/X interfaces are applied towards several digital graphic formats: smart phone ios/Android; tablet/watch; Windows OS/Mac OS; or custom sized interfaces for products like ATM machines or car dashboards. The instructor's professional design practice currently focuses on UI/UX design and future forecasting towards corporate strategies to best take advantage of the digital transformation many large corporations are being faced with at this time. Students learn methodologies and tools around smartphone app design development. Areas of design process include: research and app concept definition; conduct low-fidelity brainstorming and exploration around the users; future forecasting through speculation of user stories; journey mapping explorations; develop app aesthetic, develop navigation systems; develop app branding; and at the end build high-fidelity prototypes incorporating app navigation interaction. No prior knowledge of UI/UX development is required. Students build working prototypes of cellular interfaces that function and navigate. Coding experience is not necessary for this course and will not be taught. Students that have coding experience that may use those skills for app prototypes developed along with Adobe XD.

Requirements: a laptop running Adobe Creative Suite and a RISD student Adobe Cloud.

Elective

U/I - U/X interfaces are applied towards several digital graphic formats: smart phone ios/Android; tablet/watch; Windows OS/Mac OS; or custom sized interfaces for products like ATM machines or car dashboards. The instructor's professional design practice currently focuses on UI/UX design and future forecasting towards corporate strategies to best take advantage of the digital transformation many large corporations are being faced with at this time. Students learn methodologies and tools around smartphone app design development. Areas of design process include: research and app concept definition; conduct low-fidelity brainstorming and exploration around the users; future forecasting through speculation of user stories; journey mapping explorations; develop app aesthetic, develop navigation systems; develop app branding; and at the end build high-fidelity prototypes incorporating app navigation interaction. No prior knowledge of UI/UX development is required. Students build working prototypes of cellular interfaces that function and navigate. Coding experience is not necessary for this course and will not be taught. Students that have coding experience that may use those skills for app prototypes developed along with Adobe XD.

Requirements: a laptop running Adobe Creative Suite and a RISD student Adobe Cloud.

Elective

Cut through the hype and excitement surrounding generative AI by understanding for yourself what these tools can and cannot do. Through this course students will learn to understand, design, and build with generative AI. The class is a mix of theory and hands-on work. Students develop practical skills in designing, building, and testing with generative AI. Readings and discussions address key concepts in AI, their ethical implications, foundations in human computer interaction and human AI interaction, and design implications for creators. Students will experiment with bringing generative AI into their existing creative practice including writing, two-dimensional designs, illustrations, 3D, and product design. No previous experience with either the theory or use of AI is required but students will need to learn to use the tools through course tutorials and independent work.

Elective

Innovate and explore the world of soft goods (goods made with fabric, from handbags and stuffies to kites and blankets) without the slow limits of learning to harness sewing machines. Rouge Fibers throws out the rulebook on made-well and favors fast and rough experimentation with hand-stitching, heat welding, fusing, gluing, and weaving. We will emphasize iterative practices, focused on innovating with material and form, to create one-of-a-kind soft goods. 

In- class demos and workshops will equip students with techniques from traditional weaving and hand-sewing to darning and felt-forming. Students will create and fuse unconventional materials such as paper, non-wovens, bio plastics and natural fibers. Students will learn a variety of non-sewing construction techniques and introduce unconventional fastening methods of our own. 

For final projects, students will begin by defining their own design values, then learn how to incorporate them into their materials development and designs. The first 2-week project will be to create new materials, and joinery techniques, with an emphasis on novelty and innovation. Then, students will use these materials and techniques in two long-term design projects, one values-driven, and one fitting a niche market. Students will both work up from their design values towards a soft object and back down from a niche market-need to a market-fit product. We will learn how to present these works to honor the designers’ innovations. 

No major requirement or prior experience required, only a curious mind and desire to explore.  Students who have taken the Soft Goods class will be invited to advance their existing skills and learn new techniques.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $150.00

Elective

Dear Student,

No matter what professional design direction we choose, we will work with people. This studio is about cultivating a people-centric design practice. Public engagement is about listening, and is an intricate process that informs decisions and approaches towards change. 

We will begin by co-creating our studio’s space, and practice intentional methods for collaboration and critique. Our first projects will be to find the tools and spaces where we already engage with people. We will learn about concepts like the ‘user’, then interrogate and integrate them meaningfully into our work through understanding our positionality, exercising question design, interview protocols and survey best practices.

Larger projects in this studio will include a collaboratively curated experience for our ID community. We will practice prototyping with smaller sketch models, and at full scale with power tools and found materials. Assignments will be based on creating presentations, short videos, sketches, models and mapping tools. We will learn more about the city of Providence and other communities through case studies, documentaries, field trips, archives, walks and conversations with people. This studio is about finding unconventional connections by studying existing public engagement, learning about its historically complex and problematic contexts and systems, and ethnographic practices, and by designing intentional and inclusive experiences for people.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors were first conceptualized as story-based empathy-building devices by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, a renowned scholar in the field of sociologically engaged inclusive literature. Windows represent the possibility of looking into another world, or another person’s experience. Mirrors represent the ways in which we might see ourselves reflected in the content or characters of a story. Sliding glass doors are emblematic of opportunities to not only view, but to step inside and inhabit an experience from a new perspective. In this course, we will delve into concept, form, and practice in order to analyze and critique objects, systems, and practices that surround us within the built environment. Through making, research, and experimentation, students will engage with essential critical concepts including restorative history, decoloniality, representation, and advocacy as they pursue projects that help us to envision designed experiences that are more just.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Juniors take two 3-credit Special Topic Design Studios in the Fall semester. Juniors choose one 3-credit option from the Content category such as Packaging, Typography, Play, or UI/UX, and the other option from the "Process" category such as Casting, Soft Goods or Prototyping. Students will gain multiple competencies by utilizing techniques and methodologies through practice and process. Each studio meets once per week.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Mainstream games, such as Monopoly and Settlers of Catan, instill competition among players while also normalizing capitalist and settler-colonial relations with the world. Meanwhile tools used in “community engagement” and “participatory design” in architecture, design, and planning fields make attempts at community collaboration yet are unable to hold institutions accountable. After introducing students to current participatory design practices, the studio asks what if we could design games to enhance grassroots collaborative processes held by and for the community ? Students will develop a set of specifications for game rules and components that build collaboration, imagine just relations, source materials ethically and sustainably, and challenge the systems in which public design projects are conducted. Participants in this class will learn with one another by analyzing existing games, learning about both injustices and liberatory practices from histories of BIPOC communities, prototyping their own games, and playtesting them on campus.
Key words: Participatory Design, Community Engagement, Game Design
 

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Have we considered what it truly means to critique? This course explores the role of critique, dissects real-life cases and challenges existing methodologies to foster more just and equitable ways to look at design. We'll closely examine how professionals, clients, and stakeholders present and evaluate design work to critically reflect on methods within ID for ethical and inclusive practices. Engaging in workshops, role-playing, and discussions, students will reshape their understanding of design and critique, fostering decolonized, equitable, and empathetic approaches. By the conclusion of the studio will have designed and developed tools and models for public and private critique. Students will be equipped with enriched perspectives and a comprehensive toolkit of critique and discussion methodologies that are continuously applicable in future practices.
Keywords: Designing Critiques, Feedback methods, Ethical Approaches, Design Methodologies

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Juniors take two 3-credit Special Topic Design Studios in the Fall semester. Juniors choose one 3-credit option from the Content category such as Packaging, Typography, Play, or UI/UX, and the other option from the "Process" category such as Casting, Soft Goods or Prototyping. Students will gain multiple competencies by utilizing techniques and methodologies through practice and process. Each studio meets once per week.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Historic and contemporary industrial design legacies are contributing to changing our climate, threatening our ecosystems, and harming our non-human relatives. Human centered approaches to design and sustainability will not get us out of this planetary catastrophe. Many global Indigenous nations have urged western countries to shift their worldviews from individualistic to kin-centered as a way to prevent planetary disaster. What does this mean for industrial design which plays a major role in how our species interacts with the Planet? How can our design systems embody kinship? These questions will be the guide for our thinking as we seek to imagine and create systems and infrastructures that center the wellbeing of many species within an ecosystem, and conceive design interventions that support trans-species co-habitation of the world around us. This course will exercise students’ imagination as we engage what habitable structures could be that might welcome the insects, the rodents, the cats, the dogs, the birds, the plants, and so on. Students will engage a range of texts, media, guest speakers, and non-human observation activities to nourish their understanding of trans-multi-species design. Students will look at how other species design and exist in trans-multi-species kinships as well as other human groups who have been including other species in their systems. The course will result in students making habitable structures that take up the tasks of being trans-multi-species inclusive. Students will leave the course with an understanding of how the emerging future can be grounded in kinship designs, doing away with human exceptionalism. 
Key Words: Human Centered Design, More than human design, Design for Adaptation, Design for Kinship, Planetary Design, Global Indigenous Designs Thinking.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Juniors take two 3-credit Special Topic Design Studios in the Fall semester. Juniors choose one 3-credit option from the Content category such as Packaging, Typography, Play, or UI/UX, and the other option from the "Process" category such as Casting, Soft Goods or Prototyping. Students will gain multiple competencies by utilizing techniques and methodologies through practice and process. Each studio meets once per week.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

As software integrates into every aspect of our lives, digital product design has more impact than ever. While most interface patterns are mature and commoditized, generative AI models offer new possibilities for human-computer interaction. In this exciting time, designers must adapt and shape the frontier of AI-driven computing.

Students will learn standard methodologies and tools for digital product design while experimenting with AI-assisted processes to execute their ideas into working prototypes. They will develop unique creative perspectives through projects, ultimately creating an interactive digital product. The instructor's professional practice in digital products, experimental AI interfaces, and programming will guide the course.

By course's end, students will have hands-on experience with an end-to-end digital design process, integrate AI into their workflow, and develop a distinctive portfolio piece showcasing their adaptability and creativity. Prior coding experience is not required, but students will learn using AI assistants like ChatGPT.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

The course investigates the structural dynamics of practice-related organizational processes via two- and multi-dimensional proportional systems, progressively evolving and adapting modules, using symmetries, rhythms, series and patterns.    

The purpose of this visual research is to systematize the total design process, from the selection of consistent visual vocabularies and color schemes, to framing the interconnecting bridges for the visual work, as well the organization and control of content components to facilitate comprehension of communication systems (wayfinding, diagramming, identifies and signage, etc.). Studio work is supplemented with theoretical lectures and handouts on aspects of systems design. Some knowledge and competency in beginning typography and the language of two-dimensional design is helpful.  

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Juniors take two 3-credit Special Topic Design Studios in the Fall semester. Juniors choose one 3-credit option from the Content category such as Packaging, Typography, Play, or UI/UX, and the other option from the "Process" category such as Casting, Soft Goods or Prototyping. Students will gain multiple competencies by utilizing techniques and methodologies through practice and process. Each studio meets once per week.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Our physical experiences lead us to expect the user interface as a tactile and grounded reality that fulfills our intuitive expectations for how things should work in the virtual world’s interactions, inputs, and consequences. Considering this “Material Design” and Gestalt-grounded philosophy, this course will focus on prototyping a mobile app interface, coding an open-source W3CSS framework-based website for variable screen resolutions, and critical use of neural network generative technologies, utilizing tools of artificial intelligence such as text to speech, generative image production, prompt engineering, and web software tools for developing video content and communications. These combined pursuits allow for exploration of the most current technologies available to designers for realizing their visions as tangible assets.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Juniors take two 3-credit Special Topic Design Studios in the Fall semester. Juniors choose one 3-credit option from the Content category such as Packaging, Typography, Play, or UI/UX, and the other option from the "Process" category such as Casting, Soft Goods or Prototyping. Students will gain multiple competencies by utilizing techniques and methodologies through practice and process. Each studio meets once per week.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

In this class you will learn the specialized and nuanced vernacular of time-tested, highly descriptive, and straightforward explanatory illustrations. These techniques excel at conveying complex ideas, quickly troubleshooting issues and allow for visual discourse across language barriers and career fields.
This course will cover the exploration and explanation of a variety of engaging sketch techniques, useful tricks of the trade and insight on how to gauge and facilitate the level of detail and information necessary for a variety of real-world industry situations.

During this course the student will be imparted with an essential cross-curricular skillset that can be used effectively across the vast and varied 21st century career landscape. Students with a basic grasp of drawing fundamentals are preferred for this course. We will engage in regular group critiques of student work, and will focus on the quality of execution, the ease in which information is delivered, and experimenting on new and unique descriptive sketch techniques.

Those taking this class are expected strive toward distilling the art of storytelling into a purely visual format.

Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Preference is given to Industrial Design Students.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

In a rapidly changing world, industrial design faces the pressing challenge of sustainability amidst growing environmental and economic crises. Given the energy-intensive nature of glass production, rethinking its role in modern design has become essential. This course delves into the complexities of the glass recycling industry, exploring how waste glass can serve as a cornerstone in the transition to sustainable product design practices.

Using waste glass as the primary material, students will examine how circular economy principles can reshape product design by minimizing waste, maximizing resource efficiency, and extending the lifecycle of materials. Through this lens, the course will explore how designers can embrace local, circular solutions that reduce environmental impact while empowering local economies. We will also critically engage with the role of decolonization in design, addressing the deeply entrenched colonial frameworks of production and consumption that shape global industries today.

By the end of the course, students will have developed innovative product designs using recycled glass, reflecting on sustainability, circular economy principles, and the importance of decolonizing design practices.

Elective

During this course we will examine natural environments, systems, processes, and organisms with an intent to design a more circular, and less harmful human-planet experience. Students will embark on a creative and rigorous exploration and application of the deep biomimicry and biodesign methodology as a pathway towards innovative materials, products, manufacturing methods, services, and experiences.These materials and methods will be placed in context to support the Hyundai Motor Group’s theme of future structures, creating solutions that demonstrate our discoveries’ real world applications in the fields of mobility and manufacturing.A close partnership with the RISD Nature Lab and the ID Department will provide access to the expertise and equipment necessary to complete our research.This course features a series of guest lectures and demonstrations throughout the semester to provide insight into the different arms of the quickly expanding field of biodesign and regenerative design, as well as expert guest critics.

Note: The activities in this course are a continuation of Fall research conducted in the HMG sponsored course. SCI 1116 - The Language of Design in Nature is a prerequisite.

Elective