Course content
This course will give you all the technical and industry skills you will need to design and develop products from conception through to development, testing and launch.
We offer Product Design degrees through three distinct pathways: Product Design BA, Product Design BSc, and Product Design Innovation BEng. Which pathway you choose depends upon your interests, the subjects you have previously studied and what you want to do with your degree when you graduate.
The Product Design BSc shares many of the modules that comprise the Product Design BA course, but has a distinct lean towards science and technology. This course has a balanced content of artistic and creative modules with technology, mathematics and science.
Product Design is an applied subject and our course is based around applied workshop learning; seminars with demonstrations; practical and lab work. We don’t do lectures!
Each academic year of the BSc Product Design degree centres on a two-semester long design-practice modules. Design-practice challenges start with a design brief, to which you must apply the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) cycle.
In your first year of study, you will take part in a team CDIO challenge with other students from the product design cohort. You will also study design in the context of user centred design, sketching and drawing, computer aided design; prototyping; and applied design technology.
The second year CDIO challenge is an interdisciplinary team challenge, where you will tackle your design brief with students from engineering cohorts. The second year of study introduces topics that are more advanced, which include manufacturing techniques & technologies, human interaction with devices, consumer culture and modules on designing with mechanics and electronics.
In the final year, you will work on an individual design project and present your work technically to other designers and to a non-specialist audience. The course contains diverse modules required to provide you with the breadth knowledge and skills needed for a career in product design. The final year of study includes professional studies that’s prepares you for work, competition design, a significant research report on an area of design, which interests you and options to select from a range of design topics which allow you to follow your interests.
Our facilities
The Engineering and Design Department will be based at our new Engineering & Digital Technology Park (due for completion in 2018). It is the UK’s first purpose built facility for delivering engineering and design courses through the problem-based learning, CDIO approach. With cutting edge teaching labs containing brand new equipment and apparatus, you will enjoy world class facilities including:
- A large, double height space for delivering our unique, exciting and rewarding design and build experiences
- Practical project-orientated engineering workshop and teaching facilities
- Dedicated electronics and mechanics laboratories
- Fabrication laboratory
- Specialist 3D printers
- Facilities to teach Computer Aided Design
- 300 square-metre television production studio, with auxiliary 100 square-metre special effects room
- 400 square-metre media operation centre
- Media editing and finishing suites
- Hands-on educations spaces for partnerships with schools and colleges
- Co-working spaces and IT suites
The Engineering & Digital Technology Park is based on our Bognor Regis Campus, located just 600 metres from the beach and next door to the leafy and tranquil Hotham Park.
Where this can take you
Because product design degrees combine creativity with technology and provide a broad knowledge of production methods and materials, they are suitable for many areas of employment including:
- Manufacturing
- Research and development
- In-house design departments
- Design consultancies
- Project management
- Packaging design
- Retail and exhibition design
- Marketing
Our inclusion of specific business and enterprise units will provide you with a rounder set of skills than your Product Design knowledge alone, providing you with the know-how to set up your own practice, if you so wish, and enabling you to stand-out in the competitive jobs market.
Indicative modules
Level 4 (First Year):
SEMESTER 1
- Design Technology
- Visualisation Techniques & Methods
- Computer Aided Design l
- Design CDIO Team
SEMESTER 2
- Design Technology
- User Centred Design
- Assembly & Prototyping
- Design CDIO Individual I
Level 5 (Second Year):
SEMESTER 1
- Materials & Manufacturing
- Product Design in Consumer Culture
- Computer Aided Design II
- Interdisciplinary Design CDIO Team
- Design CDIO Individual II
SEMESTER 2
- Environmental Design
- Electronics and Electrical Systems for Product Design
- BSC Design Project
- Interdisciplinary Design CDIO Team
- Design CDIO Individual II
Level 6 (Third Year):
SEMESTER 1
- Design Feasibility CDIO Report
- Product Design Competition Project
- Advanced CAD for Project work
SEMESTER 2
- Individual Design Project CDIO
- Individual Design Project CDIO
- Professional studies
OPTIONAL MODULES (SELECT ONE EACH SEMESTER)
- Diversified Design
- Design with Advanced Materials
- Leadership & Developing Teams
- Small Business Enterprise
International English Studies
Teaching and assessment
The course is delivered through seminar/workshops; tutorials; computer labs; physical labs and project practical time. There is a split of about 50% of time in seminars and tutorials and the remaining 50% in labs, practical and project work. In addition to scheduled learning activities, you are expected to plan your time to allow intensive self-study.
Your degree classification is based on 100% Coursework, Project Work and Laboratory work. Depending on your choice of final year options, there may be some examination base assessment.
This is an exciting time to join a brand new Engineering and Applied Design department. Our intention is to ensure that our newly formed Engineering and Product Design courses are fully accredited with The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and The Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) respectively. We will be working closely with both, and our students, to ensure our courses gain accreditation with the intention that we will back date accreditation for those graduating in 2021.
Additional Costs
Additional Costs
Working with industry
Our Engineering, Creative Science and Product Design degrees offer a practical approach to learning based on a syllabus designed in partnership with local businesses. This ensures that graduates are ready for work and are highly employable in these competitive industries.
The Engineering and Digital Technology Park will offer students the chance to develop practical expertise alongside local businesses. It will include a large multi-purpose engineering laboratory which is also open to local companies, incorporating a workshop, prototype manufacturing facilities and collaborative co-working spaces.
