DEVELOPING RESEARCH INFORMED PRODUCT DESIGN RESOURCES TO SUPPORT TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE USE OF SKETCHES, DRAWINGS, MODELS AND PROTOTOYPES

The use of sketches, drawings, models and prototypes lie at the heart of teaching and learning in product/industrial design education. Whilst numerous text books are available to support the development of technique, particularly in sketching and drawing, their contextualisation within the product development process remains problematic. This paper presents three case studies in which academic research in the use of design representations was translated into open access resources through print production, video, web, app and PDF download. The areas of research focused on the impact of emerging technologies and supporting communication/understanding through the use of design representations. The case studies discuss Digital Industrial Design (a web-based resource for entirely digital modelling methods); CoLab (a designer/engineer web-based collaboration tool); and iD Cards (a tool to support communication and understanding using a graphic design solution embedded as an iPhone/Android app, pdf download, physical cards, video). The paper concludes that whilst considerable effort may be required to translate academic research into resources for the educator community, this step performs an essential role in terms of access, validation and impact.