The field of design has changed drastically during the past few years, and the UW’s School of Art has created a design program to prepare students to work in this integrated field. While students have traditionally chosen between visual communication design and industrial design (both focus on studio work), the design studies program strives to create students who have a broad knowledge, not only of design practice, but also of the ideas and issues that surround it.

Students are encouraged to take classes in business, creative writing and information management to help them understand how the people they will be working for think and speak.

“Designers have to work in collaborative teams and be sympathetic to the values and methods of the rest of the team,” program coordinator Douglas Wadden said.

He pointed out that many traditional designers have their own set of things that are important to them, and can sometimes develop tunnel vision when working on a project.

Wadden hopes the design studies major will help prepare students to work in a “more fluid landscape,” where they will need to draw from multiple fields to create solutions.

While designing the course, those involved sought to correct common problems they found in the traditional design programs.

“We asked, ‘What are the deficiencies? Do they write well? No,” Wadden said. “Or they just don’t see that as a necessary skill set.”

He emphasized that verbal and written communication are essential to the design process because designers are always working with other people.

This program is still in its infancy — the first class will graduate from the program in June. Changes have already been made to the organization of the program.

“We respond on a live, active basis,” Wadden said.

The success of the program will not be determined until June, when the senior class turns in their capstone projects. Other design programs have been around for decades, and it is easy to show students what is expected of them. Wadden pointed out that the newness of the program could be hard on students because expectations are still being defined, but it also gave them options.

“At first, it just seemed like a good option that would allow me to choose my classes and combine both industrial and visual communication design,” said Alleson Goldfinger, a senior in the design studies program. The program also allowed her to focus on design theory and research so she could develop skills as a problem solver.

“It opens up my career options to more than just designing in front of a computer,” Goldfinger said.

Wadden believes the training this program provides will allow students to work in many different fields and management positions.

“I am interested in design research, brand strategy and user testing,” Goldfinger said. She hopes to understand what makes design effective and practical.

As part of her design studies major, Goldfinger has been taking a lot of CHID classes.

“I think they present material in an interesting way, in that they combine philosophy, history, science and the arts,” she said. “I’ve tried to approach design from a similar standpoint and look at it in a very holistic way, so that I can make my designs very pragmatic to both the client and the user.”

The multifaceted approach to design is appealing to Goldfinger.

“Approaching a problem in many ways allows you to come as close as possible to a good solution. If you instead only look at one facet of a problem, your solution will be very one-dimensional.”

Jaclyn Knapp decided on the major because — though she had a strong aptitude for industrial design — she was more interested in visual communication design. The idea of synthesis appealed to her, as it did to Goldfinger.

Knapp has focused on interaction design, “because in the spectrum of design it falls where ID and VCD meet.” The majority of her elective classes have been in marketing and business and she hopes to “seek job opportunities where [she] can develop my skills in interaction design and hopefully one day get into management.”

Nothing can be done individually in today’s workforce and design studies recognizes the need for workers who can draw from a range of experiences and disciplines.

“One of the most beneficial things I have learned from my design studies classes is the importance of looking at things from many standpoints,” Goldfinger said. “I think this is a very practical lesson and use this approach to problem solving all the time, for much more than design.”