MSc Product Design

MSC PRODUCT DESIGN

DUNDEE.AC.UK/DJCAD

DUNCAN OF JORDANSTONE COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN THE CREATIVE HUB AT THE HEART OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design is one of the few art and design institutions in the UK that is part of a world-class university. We help our students locate themselves in the contemporary art and design landscape and acquire the skills and knowledge to succeed in a fast changing world.

Our research pushes the boundaries of art and design practice and involves partnerships with researchers from many other areas of the University including computing, philosophy, life sciences, medicine and other disciplines.

International partnerships and collaborative projects with researchers, government agencies and industry extend our reach and the impact of our research across the globe. Our research explores and addresses major themes including sustainability; innovation through design; and improving health and wellbeing.

We engage with science, develop cultural narratives, explore 21st century issues such as sustainability and create products, concepts and content for the digital economy.

THE UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE – PROGRESSIVE AND DYNAMIC The University of Dundee is an established university that attracts top-class international students from across the world.

Offering high-quality teaching and world-leading research in a compact and friendly campus with an unrivalled position in the heart of the city centre, only minutes from the spectacular River Tay – it is little wonder that we have been ranked No. 1 in Scotland in the Times Higher Education Student Experience Survey for the past six years.

The University of Dundee is: • Ranked in the World’s Top 20 Universities under 50 years old by the Times Higher Education 50 under 50, 2015 • Ranked in the World’s Top 20 for Overall Student Satisfaction in the 2014 International Student Barometer (ISB) survey of EU and international students • Top 5 in the UK for satisfaction with the Students’ Union in the National Student Survey 2014.

Our students also enjoy the benefits of studying at a university consistently placed in the UK top 10 for graduate employment.

DUNDEE – A CREATIVE & CULTURAL CITY Dundee was awarded UNESCO City of Design status in 2015, an honour we are proud to hold. The prestigious title has seen Dundee join other UNESCO Cities of Design such as Montreal, Buenos Aires and Beijing, and has become the first and only UK city to receive the award. A small, friendly city located in the heart of Scotland, Dundee is at the forefront of the life sciences sector, boasts a dynamic digital media industry and enjoys a vibrant design and creative industries culture and environment, boasting a Repertory Theatre, a Science Centre, and a large public Leisure Centre.

With a population of 150,000 Dundee is big enough to feel cosmopolitan but small enough to remain friendly.

It is a place you can settle into quickly, but has all the cultural and leisure activities you would expect in a much larger city. Dundee is known as Scotland’s student city with the highest proportion of young people in full-time higher education.

The cost of living here is estimated to be 15% cheaper than the UK average.

Dundee has more hours of sunshine, the purest air quality and more green spaces than any other Scottish city.

We even have a beach for relaxing on those sunny days!

From traditional museums to contemporary galleries, Dundee has numerous cultural offerings.

The city will also soon be home to the V&A Museum of Design Dundee.

Due to open in 2018 and central to a £1 billion waterfront development, V&A Museum of Design Dundee will be an international centre of design for Scotland - the first ever design museum to be built in the UK outside London.

The University of Dundee has creative partnerships within the city, across the UK, and worldwide with various academic and artistic research organisations and individuals.

MSC PRODUCT DESIGN Our MSc Product Design programme will prepare students for working in the most exciting global industries where designers meet with creative technologists.

The programme has established a world-class reputation across industry, research and teaching.

We have strong connections to the UK and the international design economy – with tutors collaborating on research and industrial projects with successful design consultancies that operate across the world.

Our unique learning philosophy is to work with students to develop socially relevant design responses in a world where digital technologies are changing the way we live our lives. Ultimately, we are exploring how humans and technology co-evolve and how design and storytelling can shape our future experiences.

Our approach is simple: we work collaboratively with creative technologies through playful thinking and making. We see these changes taking place locally and globally, from the hacking and making cultures of major cities like Bangalore in India, the startup digital economy of the bay area of San Francisco, to the emerging technology-led social hubs of Stockholm in Sweden.

The Programme will provide you with: • An ideal launch pad for entering the fast moving and exciting world of creative technology • An ability to make highly resolved product prototypes that explore and harness socially relevant design responses, thereby challenging the way people and society interact with creative technologies • An ability to interact and cocreate with others, enabling you to become a leader in helping industry and society navigate the incredible opportunities and challenges that lie in our imminent futures

• The tools and techniques for embedding cutting-edge technology into products • An internationally leading educational environment building on research and industry relationships, so ensuring a market readiness and entrepreneurship at the highest level • New perspectives and frameworks on problem-finding/ solving, prototyping, design thinking and making, drawing upon an integral theoretical approach • The professional expertise and experience to work in crossdisciplinary teams to address contemporary real world issues

Our research has attracted a number of substantial grant awards, including a £1.1m UK government award to explore new ways to connect disadvantaged communities to the digital economy; a three year research project to investigate how codesign and wearable technologies can improve the mobility and wellbeing of older people in care homes; and a Digital R&D Fund for the Arts to investigate information sharing and big data analytics.

I LOVED HOW PRODUCT DESIGN WAS PART OF THE GREATER ART SCHOOL. ALL THE FACILITIES WERE OPEN TO ME – IT DIDN’T MATTER WHAT DISCIPLINE I NEEDED TO WORK IN. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED LIVING IN DUNDEE. IT’S JUST A BIG VILLAGE. EVERY TIME YOU WALKED ACROSS CAMPUS, YOU’D BUMP INTO SOMEONE YOU KNEW. IT HAS THAT STRONG COMMUNITY FEELING. NAVID GORNALL CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST, AT AGENCY OGILVY & MATHER

COURSE OUTLINE THE MSC PRODUCT DESIGN IS TIMETABLED FOR FULL-TIME STUDY OVER 12 MONTHS OR PART-TIME OVER 24 MONTHS (HOME/EU STUDENTS ONLY).

KEY TO OUR PHILOSOPHY IS A RESEARCH DRIVEN AND INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO LEARNING AND TEACHING. THIS MEANS THAT STUDENTS ARE TAUGHT MODULES IN BOTH DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY. WHERE POSSIBLE, STUDENTS WILL ALSO COLLABORATE WITH INTERNAL RESEARCH SCHOLARS AND GROUPS, AS WELL AS EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS AND PRACTITIONERS.

Semester 1 will cover core skills for people, design and technology and modules will be delivered in block mode over 3/4 weeks, consisting of the following: • ACCELERATOR (20 CREDITS) This module aims to accelerate students’ learning around the core values of the programme enabling them to fast-track a shared studio community that will build a common platform for understanding their journey through the remainder of the programme.

• CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES (20 CREDITS) In this module students will gather new theoretical and practical understanding of what it means to be a creative technologist. Through learning how to tell stories about and with

technology, students will gain a deep understanding of how open hardware and software platforms can be used as prototyping tools within socially motivated design projects. This will most likely include open hardware platforms, such as, Arduino, Raspberry Pi and Electric Imp. The module is also closely aligned to Duncan of Jordanstone’s Make Space facility.

• CHANGING POPULATIONS (20 CREDITS) In this module students will learn about the human lifespan and their changing capabilities and experiences in the context of design. Students will also be introduced to different design research methods to help understand and empathise with the people for whom they are designing.

Semester 2 enables students to evaluate their skills and design ability in the context of a research and development project. The following modules will be taught in the conventional distributed pattern of delivery over 11/12 weeks: • PROTOTYPING: INSIGHTS TO INNOVATION (20 CREDITS) This module will introduce students to the “conventional” and “unconventional” use of prototypes and methods of prototyping in academic and commercial practices and to be able to differentiate the two in problem finding/solving situations. In addition, the module will explore the expanded notion of prototyping, paying particular attention to evolutionary technobiological systemic prototyping.

• INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROJECT (40 CREDITS) Students will work as a team alongside internationallyleading researchers to address a specific brief set by an external problem holder. Skills developed in Semester 1 will be utilised to gather insights and requirements and prototype solutions.

Semester 3 provides students with the studio environment to undertake a major project in an area of professional interest chosen by them. Students will demonstrate their ability to realise a project to masters level. To help kickstart projects, the module will be frontloaded with presentations and group activities closely aligned to the Small Society Lab at Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA).

• STUDIO PRACTICE: INDEPENDENT PROJECT (60 CREDITS) This module aims to provide students with an extended opportunity to demonstrate their ability to self-manage their own learning and for them to develop highly resolved product prototypes that explore and harness socially relevant design responses. Students should use this module to help position themselves for a professional career in product design or creative and high-tech industries.

QUALIFICATION: MSc Product Design COURSE LENGTH: 12 months (fulltime) or 24 months (part-time) START DATE: September

THE COURSE TOPICS AND SKILLS TAUGHT ARE EXTREMELY RELEVANT AND IN MANY WAYS AHEAD OF THE GENERAL INDUSTRY PRACTICE AND UNDERSTANDING. EVEN 3 YEARS INTO MY CAREER I STILL FIND MYSELF QUOTING MSC PRODUCT DESIGN PROJECTS, BRIEFS AND TECHNIQUES LEARNED IN REFERENCE TO CURRENT COMMERCIAL PROJECTS. JACK CHALKLEY HEAD CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST AT THE KNIT AGENCY IN LONDON

TO APPLY YOU NEED: • Honours degree at 2.1 or above in a creative or technical discipline (e.g. product design, industrial design, engineering, architecture, computer science etc.), although applicants with other qualifications or relevant professional experience will also be considered.

• For applicants whose first language is not English, evidence of a suitable English language qualification (IELTS or equivalent) is required. As the requirements for English language may change in accordance with government guidlines, please refer to the University of Dundee website for details of the current requirement: www.dundee. ac.uk/study/international/ englishlanguagerequirements/

At time of publication, the IELTS requirement for this course is 6.0 overall with a minimum of 6.0 in writing and a minimum of 5.5 in each of the other 3 components.

FUNDING AND SCHOLARSHIPS We offer a small number of awards which may entitle applicants to a discount on tuition fees. In addition, funding opportunities may be available to UK or international students. Please see our website for more details: www.dundee.ac.uk/study/ international/scholarships-fees/

OUR CORE VALUES • We value social awareness and impact.

• We value the creative use of technologies.

• We value products that envision the future.

• We value integrative thinking and participatory action.

• We value research driven and trans-disciplinary ways of working.

WHY STUDY AT DJCAD? SCOTTISH UNIVERSITY OF THE YEAR The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016

• The opportunity to study in a research led teaching environment at the top rated art school in Scotland and to collaborate with internationally renowned disciplines from other areas of the University of Dundee.

• One-to-one tutorials and small group seminars allow study in a specialist area of interest in a stimulating environment.

• Dundee is the only city in the UK to hold the prestigious title of UNESCO City of Design that recognised the huge contribution the city has made to design worldwide.

THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOME SECRET CULTURAL ELIXIR INJECTED INTO THE WATERS OF THE TAY AROUND THE TURN OF THIS CENTURY, BECAUSE THE CITY OF DUNDEE IS CURRENTLY FIZZING WITH CREATIVE ENERGY. JOURNALIST JAN PATIENCE

SCOTTISH UNIVERSITY OF THE YEAR The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016

DUNDEE

FOR MORE ENQUIRIES ABOUT THIS PROGRAMME PLEASE CONTACT: TRACEY DRUMMOND Postgraduate Secretary Telephone: +44 (0) 1382 388219 Email: djcadpostgraduate@dundee.ac.uk FRASER BRUCE MSc Product Design Course Director Telephone: +44 (0) 1382 388101 Email: f.s.bruce@dundee.ac.uk DUNDEE.AC.UK/STUDY/PG/PRODUCT-DESIGN/

The University of Dundee is a Scottish Registered Charity, No. SC015096