Discovering Concept-Space to Improve Student Experience and Teaching in Design Projects

Design is an art that combines technical challenges, learning and creativity. The activity is challenging for many students, who struggle to frame and understand the complexity of their project. To add to the challenge, the work done and the vision in the team is only partially shared. Unsurprisingly, it is hard to teach. This paper presents concept-space; a novel way to build and organize design information, from problem understanding to solution elaboration and validation. It is conceived as both an efficient workspace and a graphical communication medium to help process the complex and fuzzy nature of design. This study uses a SoTL approach to evaluate concept-space when used in multidisciplinary capstone design projects. Final questionnaires and focus groups with 26 students and 6 teachers were used to collect data after using concept-space for a full semester. The study provides strong support that concept-space is a serious asset to help students learn design and to help teachers teach design.