MAPD5900 Master's Project in Product Design Course description

Completion of all courses from the first three semesters of the master's programme.

For the oral exam, students do not have access to computers or other aids.

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student is capable of:

• different prototyping techniques
• user-centered design
• Research through Design
• sketching / drawing techniques, simple graphic design, shape and color use
• general design principles for good user experiences. Emotional design
• theories of communication, basic psychology, observation
• tools for making interactive prototypes (digital tools, Arduino, sensor technology)

Skills

The student is capable of:

• be able to work out ideas in teams and make decisions
• be able to produce interactive prototypes using simple means (paper) and more advanced digital tools
• be able to use knowledge of form, color and graphic design in designing products
• be able to describe goals for usability and user experience
• be able to perform user tests and use the results in further development of a product
• be able to use known evaluation methods (heuristic evaluation, cognitive walk-through)

General competence:

The student is capable of:

• working on the development of concepts for given issues
• testing ideas on users through early prototyping
• communicating ideas to other designers, developers, management, users and clients

The following coursework is compulsory and must be approved before the student can sit the exam:

• Three compulsory group assignments (workload assumes 3-5 students). They make up three deliveries that build on each other and that must be approved in order to pass the course.

Home exam. A final report which document the process and the production of a prototype. Builds upon the obligatory assignments in the course.

The exam result can be appealed.

In the event of resit and rescheduled exams, another exam form may be used or a new assignment given with a new deadline. If oral exams are used, the result cannot be appealed.

All.

A grading scale of A (highest) to F (lowest) where A to E is a pass grade and F is a fail grade.

A currently graded is put on the portfolio examination. The oral examination may adjust the final grade up or down a grade. In order to take the oral exam the portfolio examination must have been given a passing grade.

The examination result at the portfolio examination can be appealed against.

The examination result on the oral examination cannot be appealed against.

One or several internal examiners. External examiners are used regularly.