Hypothesis

Design Thinking: It's Value, Use and Need in Undergraduate Education

In the past undergraduate design education mainly focused on four or five basic principles of design: composition, typography, form, color, and drawing. These were then imprinted into your personality with the intent to help you communicate messages and ideas and eventually become a professional designer.

But with the emergence of the information age and computer technology, came commoditization and outsourcing. As a result the technical skill set of designers were no longer highly valued. What was once a commodity, was so easily replaced with a cheaper source of labor.

Therefore design education had to evolve from just being a practical form of learning into a more conceptual and analytical process of problem solving. This has opened the door for design students to become more than just skilled craftsmen and technicians but also multi-dimensional design thinkers.

In the future there will be a growing need for such design thinking and the design students who practice it. Because corporate companies will be looking for talented individuals who are empathetic, can tell a story, create and give meaning to their products while connecting to the consumer.