RESEARCH SKILLS AS BASIS FOR INDUSTRIAL COLLABORATION IN DESIGN EDUCATION

The Changing role of the design profession requires a broad set of techniques from the practitioner. The designer is no longer just a professional who knows how to build representations for artefacts, more than before he must also understand to perform as a mediator of interdisciplinary teams or as a researcher in adjacent disciplines. The design practice, when it is concerned with strategic product development is linked to innovation techniques, which derives from human factors as well as from information sciences or engineering. Therefore it remains the responsibility to the Design education to foster the curiosity for different approaches of design. Designers have to come up with knowledge for methodological design approaches for problem understanding and problem solving. In order to ensure the ability for research and leadership in design, design education has to develop new models of teaching and learning.