Design didactics

Design didactics is a subject didactics for the subject "design". It deals with teaching and learning about "design". Since this subject does not generally exist as a school subject, design didactics mainly focuses on tertiary education (vocational training, adult education, university). Although design professions have been taught since ancient times (e.g. architecture), design didactics, like design science, is a discipline in the making.

Conceptual levels of design

When communicating design, the different terms of design must be taken into account. In vocational teaching, the concept of design as a professional discipline is of course in the foreground. Increasingly, however, design is also understood and taught across disciplines (just like in design science) as a way of doing things, see Design Thinking . This understanding of design is the dominant one in the Anglo-Saxon culture. In the context of such a design term, the teaching of design as a transdisciplinary action affects many areas and thus in turn professions.

Development of design didactics

The development of design didactics in relation to art education at universities (formerly academies or art schools) was analogous to the development of design / art. The difference lies in the fact that art education in its broad-based activity in schools has a field in which design content is also conveyed. The practice of design theory feeds itself to a large extent from art education: working in classes and the teaching form of artistic group and individual discussions as well as learning in the project, on the object play the central role. Where design didactics is recognizable as a scientific discipline, it applies methods and results from other scientific disciplines or takes their knowledge and experience into account. The development of the discipline between art and science runs parallel to design science, as can be seen, for example, from many of the same protagonists.

Reference sciences are first of all the history of design and the history of culture in general, whereby the history of architecture and art are to be emphasized, as well as pedagogy, psychology, general didactics, social sciences, neurobiology, epistemology and educational research. Of course, all design disciplines are related subjects, but from their self-image (yet) not sciences.

There are also close parallels between the teaching of design and related subjects, such as B. Construction in engineering in the case of industrial design or media informatics in the case of media design.

Relationship to art education, design education and the Werkbund

Although art education extends to design and architecture, especially in the school sector, the goals of art production and design production are different. Since design communication should take this into account, design pedagogical initiatives have been set up in the school sector (in particular upper school and vocational schools). Also here (in school) the teaching of design meets the renewal of craft lessons through Anglo-Saxon influences, and this is how design education emerges .

The Werkbund (Link to Deutscher Werkbund as a pioneer) represents a special role for design didactics and pedagogy and at the same time evidence of the different motives of design and art communication . The so-called Werkbund dispute shows the tension between the different goals of typification (series production) and individualization (Single piece). Back then (1914) there was no design subject, the forerunner profession of pattern draftsman mainly related to textile products and the first industrial designers were recruited from architecture (example Peter Behrens ). Nonetheless, this discussion is a prototype of the still unresolved relationship between art and design and the misunderstandings in teaching the subjects.

Nevertheless, the Werkbund achieved great merits in the mediation of design (as one would say today), because it aimed to "refine commercial work in the interaction of art, industry and craft, through education, propaganda and a closed position on relevant issues". The Werkbund does not only work theoretically, but on site, e.g. B. in institutions such as the Werkbund Werkstatt Nürnberg .

Areas of responsibility

The purpose of design didactics is to guarantee the further development and quality of teaching as well as to provide insights into the development of courses and universities. Here, design didactics has to take into account the inconsistencies in design training by different schools . If profile formation in other subjects has only been recognized as positive since the end of the 90s, design education has always been characterized by its own profiles of the various schools, here in the sense of the term school as a school of thought . On the one hand, this tradition stems from the strong characters of the teachers in relation to a relatively new and poorly established medium. On the other hand, the communication good design itself focuses on innovation and speculation in contrast to classical sciences, which are more familiar with unifying and normative discourses about their communication object (“What is?”). After all, the different origins of the schools of craft (craft art school), art (academy) and technology (engineering school) will remain formative for a long time.

Design didactics also has to contribute to the recruitment and training of design teachers as part of the course and university development. The professionalization of the teachers is a particular issue here.

Didactic principles

In general, there are different models for teaching and learning design (as the core of the design discipline). As mentioned above, part of the design training takes the form of design work. These are mostly designed as projects, often practical or simulating in practice. The conveyance of content is neither well structured nor examined, but is based on the model of master classes (artistic group and individual discussions). Theoretical content is conveyed in seminar form, less often as a lecture. Most of the theoretical parts in design are considered “auxiliary sciences”, as the content is borrowed from related disciplines such as engineering, art history, computer science, psychology, marketing, etc.

literature

• Kai Buchholz, Justus Theinert: Design teachings. Ways of German design training . Arnoldsche, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-89790-272-5 .
• Hans Höger: Design Education . Milan 2006, ISBN 978-88-86116-87-9 (not available, book review on designdidaktik.de ).
• Marion Godau , Burkhard Remmers: Discover design. The Werkbund goes to school. Creativity, design and sustainability in the classroom . kopaed-Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-86736-021-0 .

Web links

• Topic group design didactics of the German Society for Design Theory and Research eV DGTF
• GKG eV Society for artistic design teaching in university education

Individual evidence

1. ^ Philip Zerweck: Design as a professional discipline . In: Hans Kaspar Hugentobler, Claudia Mareis, Franziska Nyffenegger, Ulrike Reichhardt, Philip Zerweck (eds.): Design science and design research: An introductory overview . Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, Lucerne 2010, p. 8-10 ( online ).
2. ↑ Hans Kaspar Hugentobler: Design as a way of acting . In: Hans Kaspar Hugentobler, Claudia Mareis, Franziska Nyffenegger, Ulrike Reichhardt, Philip Zerweck (eds.): Design science and design research: An introductory overview . Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, Lucerne 2010, p. 11-16 ( online ).
3. ↑ Horst WJ Rittel: Thinking Design: transdisciplinary concepts for planners and designers . Ed .: Wolf Reuter, Wolfgang Jonas (=  Board of International Research in Design, BIRD ). Birkhäuser / De Gruyter, Basel 2013, ISBN 978-3-03821-450-2 .
4. ↑ J. Christopher Jones, DG Thornley (ed.): Conference on design methods: Papers presented at the Conference on Systematic and Intuitive Methods in Engineering, Industrial Design, Architecture and Communications, London, September 1962 . Pergamon Press, The MacMillan Company, Oxford, New York 1963.
5. ↑ Hasso Plattner Institute HPI School of Design Thinking
6. ↑ Examples of this are the conferences and publications called E & PDE - Engineering and Product Design Education of the Design Education - Special Interest Group (DESIG) of the Design Society Homepage of DESIG ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved November 10, 2013. 
7. ↑ see declaration by the Designwissen.net initiative
8. ↑ L. Burckhardt (Ed.): The Werkbund in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 1978.
9. ↑ 1914: the "Werkbundstreit" ( Memento of the original from November 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
10. ↑ to the deontic question "What should be?"
11. ↑ Models for teaching / learning to design. Lecture notes Introduction to the basics and methods of planning and design by Prof. Dehlinger. Accessed November 10, 2013.
12. ↑ One of the rare scientific publications on this is: Konrad Baumann: How designers teach - a qualitative research on design didactics (PDF; 8.1 MB) Dissertation at the Vienna University of Technology at the E187 Institute for Design and Effect Research, 2004.
13. ↑ Can be found in almost all curricula, example module descriptions - communication design of Halle Castle ( memento of the original from November 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 185 kB), page 3; "Module name: Basics of visual design 1 (...) Course content: Practical exercises in home and studio work with group and individual discussions, evaluation and presentation". Retrieved November 10, 2013.