Abstract

Design education by its nature separates design process and practice into distinct fields of study. As society changes and the technologies and contexts of design practice expand to meet the challenges of the next generation, new design disciplines and pedagogies are emerging. The stratification of design fields of study create an identity crisis for the long-established and generalist practice of product design. This paper seeks to frame the history and practice of product design to allow for a new understanding of what we are training our students to accomplish out in the world and how they can understand their relationship to related fields of study. By reframing the icons of the field as they relate not only to processes and people but also to the society as a whole, we can see a thread of progressivism in the objective of shaping everyday experiences. Given an understanding that technologies, resources and economies change and evolve throughout one’s lifetime, it is important to train emerging product designers to focus on how the design process does more than produce salable objects, it shapes the future of society.