A truly multi-disciplinary approach in learning Product Design

The true limitation in designing and developing products which actually work on the ground requires multi-disciplinary knowledge. Generally, so happens, that an engineer can not think from a designer’s perspective and vice versa. On top of that, in engineering again there are a lot of subdivisions like mechanical, electronics, IT, robotics and so on. Also, design itself has numerous sub-divisions like styling, ergonomics, aesthetics, human factors, UI, UX and so on.

Generally there are multi-disciplinary teams in a design firm, but that does not solve the problem at student level, where they do not have that many resources, but the core problem here is that they do not even know that they need such teams!

A reasonable solution in that case is to be “jack of some and master of one” so at least the learner knows what he or she is looking for, and to tell a good design from a bad design. Another better way of thinking, is to look from a perspective of “Design Engineering” rather then just “Design” or just “Engineering”.

An overall conclusion that can be made from this line of thinking is to not “classify yourself” as an engineer or designer, but rather be a “researcher” on his/her way to make the user truly happy, by satisfying his/her hidden needs and desires.