Aligning industrial design education to emerging trends in professional practice and industry

Processes of creating wealth through commercial new product development have changed in recent years. This is having an effect on the business of industrial design, particularly in the UK and the West in general. The article identifies several drivers for change. The potential impact of these changes on the UK university-level product design education and specifically, the employability of product design graduates are discussed. Activities by the authors to address the educational impact of the changes are also described. These cover curriculum development, new module teaching and learning and areas of academic research. It is proposed that the university-level industrial design education should become more evidence-based and be more user-focused. Of most importance is the proposition that industrial designers might take the role of becoming accomplished 'opportunity identifiers' rather than solely 'problem solvers'.