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

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

As first described by Donald Winnicott, play takes place in a “transitional space between the inner and outer reality which enables creative action… a transitional reality in which one can experiment with different ways of relating to the external world.” This class aims to make this abstract space literal as we analyze and design objects, spaces, and activities conducive to play, especially adult play. Through this process, we will also explore our own relationships to play and learn how playing can invigorate our creative practice as artists and designers. 

Rather than focusing on traditional consumption-maximizing models of toy design, this class focuses on designing for explorative, embodied, and open-ended play. The process will be highly iterative, and the end project will prioritize creating objects and activities that facilitate truly playful states more than creating a refined, marketable item. Purely digital game development will be discouraged in this class. Students outside are invited to bring in skills from their own art and design practice while learning principles of industrial design, such as user testing and rapid prototyping, through the lens of play. 

We will learn how to test for playfulness and read a variety of literature that frames and defines play and playful objects. We will co-create a trusting classroom environment, for part of designing playful objects and experiences is that we play test them and become (re)comfortable with playing. This may involve acting, dancing, moving, and thus a degree of trust and vulnerability will be required. 

Activities will include a field trip to Tillinghast Place for outdoor play space mapping and in-class contact improvisation and movement workshop.

With a focus on practical application, Prototyping Studio delves into the intersection of design thinking and user-centered innovation. Students will learn how to transform their ideas into tangible working prototypes that can convey meaningful design decisions, leveraging diverse perspectives and methodologies to enrich their approach to creative problem-solving.

In this intensive Wintersession course, students will go through the prototyping journey of CAD (computer aided design) modeling, 3D printing, physical modeling and soldering to bring their ideas together.

This course offers a hands-on exploration of functional prototyping. Through workshops, projects, and critiques, students from all disciplines will dissect, re-imagine, and redesign everyday items.

This course is for industrial design graduate students in their final year to work independently on their graduate thesis. The instructor serves an advisory and support role in all projects. Students must submit for instructor agreement, a written proposal for work planned and the criteria for evaluation. Course meetings are arranged individually, and/or with the group as needed.

Elective

Turning an idea into a sustainable reality requires a fundamental understanding of business, but the frameworks that guide business principles overlap, complement, and enhance design principles. This course seeks to educate students to understand business as a critical design factor- a defining constraint or liberating perspective along the same lines that other design principles are taught. The guiding principle is that design and business are inextricably linked: Design work is intrinsically linked to business and will always be at the service of business, fulfilling the need for an enterprise (profit or non-profit) whose business model is critical to its survival. Design will find new channels, new outlets, through a more complete understanding of business needs and how businesses see opportunity. Design can and should be considered as critical strategic input for business. The objective of Business Principles: Design and Entrepreneurship is for students to understand basic business vocabulary, to explore how design vocabulary and design processes overlap, complement and enhance business vocabulary, and to understand how design thinking skills can be used to identify and execute business opportunities.

Elective