Teaching Industrial Design Criticism

This paper presents a methodology that allows students to learn criticism as a conceptual tool. Expertise is built up incrementally through the utilisation of lectures, seminars, debate and student presentations. I intend to show how this method can facilitate productive thought about many aspects of design, therefore fostering a more mature approach to criticism than many undergraduates may otherwise achieve. This is brought about through considering together the aspects of a design that third year undergraduate students will already know or can readily infer about a product. They are not required to accommodate much new knowledge, but are shown a way of rearranging aspects of their existing knowledge of diverse subjects such as design history, design theory, materials and manufacturing technology and ergonomics in order to allow critical thinking to take place. The methodology can also be further adapted to allow for criticism of various types of design commentary. Various methods of assessment are proposed, and the most effective ways of both facilitating critical thinking during assessment and judging the development and quality of that thinking are discussed.