Many of the environmental and social impacts of products, services and systems are determined at the design stage. This SMU-X course teaches students to design for sustainability, using systemic, circular, regenerative and behavioural design approaches to cocreate solutions with industry or community partners. Working on a live design brief, student teams will map systems and stakeholders, uncover user insights, ideate, prototype and test concepts, and translate them into viable sustainable business designs. Along the way, students will build practical design capabilities (design research, systems mapping, co-design, prototyping and behavioural design) while contributing to more liveable, inclusive and sustainable communities.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Map complex sustainability challenges using systemic design tools (e.g., systems maps, stakeholder maps, life-cycle thinking) and reframe them as design opportunities.
- Apply human-centred and participatory co-design methods to uncover user and stakeholder insights.
- Prototype and test sustainable products, services or systems using circular, regenerative and behavioural design principles.
- Translate validated design concepts into sustainable business designs that create economic, environmental and social value.
- Collaborate in multidisciplinary design teams to co-create and present solutions with a real client.