Stine Moons, Maud Gruyters, and Alexis Jacoby
The growth of systemic design as a discipline makes more and more design students choose a master’s thesis project in this field. This evolution is also visible at the department of Product Development in the faculty of Design Sciences at the University of Antwerp and brings specific challenges and opportunities for the department and for design education more broadly. To get a better idea of those challenges from the perspectives of the students and supervisors, they were asked to give their perspective on the guidance of systemic design master’s thesis projects (SDMTP’s), their evaluation, the personal growth of the students and their satisfaction with the process, the results, and the impact. The findings reveal that students struggle with a heavy analysis phase and the transition to synthesis and design. They find visualising complexity and storytelling challenging, as well as connecting with the actors of the system they design for. Secondly, it became clear that the guiding style of supervisors and the evaluation criteria for SDMTP’s need to be revisited. Lastly, this type of master’s thesis projects asks a certain maturity and resilience of the students, and they experience a significant growth process both personally and as designers in the world, questioning their own positionality and the impact they create in the context of their projects. This opens opportunities to rethink the educational program of Product Development, so it maximally prepares students to become the designers the world needs to tackle the complex issues of our time. This research highlights the possibilities and opportunities of systemic design education and is relevant for design education researchers and design educators embarking on a similar journey with their students.
KEYWORDS: systemic design, design education, masters thesis, co-creation