The design brief: inquiry into the starting point in a learning journey

Abstract

The paper reviews an assessment regime for its capacity to engage university learners, enabling them to design radically new business offerings. We explore the effect of the briefing approach on defining the customer/offering match. This study is framed by participatory action research, where data draws on two distinctive module deliveries: one where the design brief asks learners to generate the offering first and then shape the customer segment. The second one supplies an archetype and asks learners to define customer first and then develop the offering. Our analysis reveals that learners' engagement with the design brief prompts an emergence of five patterns of learners' responses, leading to conclusions that the nature of design brief elements has an impact in shaping the overall learning. Moreover, going from customer to offering appears to generate better iterations between the two, overall leading to learners' engagement with the process not simply seeking an outcome.

A study on the link between design brief structure and stimulus fidelity to optimize novelty and usefulness

“…This can be due to the briefs giving details on the product's importance and health benefits to the users (Koronis et al, 2019). As such, students likely prioritize user needs over the need to meet the brief's requirements, which may explain the positive effect on Usefulness (Ryd, 2004;Sadowska and Laffy, 2017). Contextual briefs motivate designers by communicating the higher management's vision, explaining how the design project meets market demand, and helping designers empathize with user needs/difficulties and see the broader societal benefit of their work (Guay et al, 2000).…”

Artificial intelligence in design education: evaluating ChatGPT as a virtual colleague for post-graduate course development

“…This task would involve students responding to a simulated industry design brief. Responding to design briefs is not only a necessary industry skill within almost all design disciplines (Phillips 2014), but is also a useful pedagogical device in its own right (Sadowska & Laffy 2017). Indeed, in both authors' experience as design educators, design briefs comprise a significant majority of design course assignments.…”

A social science mixed-methods approach to stimulating and measuring creativity in the design classroom

“…In the context of education, educators who aim to nurture students' creativity are particularly interested in crafting DBs that encourage creative project outcomes across various undergraduate levels, as highlighted by Sadowska & Laffy (2017) and Raghunath, Koronis, & Silva (2020). Therefore, the investigation of various conditions in which the DB and external stimuli, such as physical objects, may influence the creativity of students' design outputs within a studio environment becomes a key area of focus.…”