Why Do You Design?
Is it to help solve problems? Or maybe to improve your community? JWU’s Product Design program will help you understand the need for designing with a purpose. You’ll learn to integrate technology and art through design to provide relevant solutions creating products that meet the needs of clients.
And as you grow in the field, you’ll start making information-driven decisions to solve world issues or improve your neighborhood, as well as to propose the next generation of connected products, high-tech systems and user experiences.
Some of the classes you’ll take in our Product Design program include:
- Introduction to 3D Design
- User Centered Design
- Emerging Design Technology
You’ll learn to incorporate research, analysis, systems thinking, collaboration and design thinking into your own creative process that will be applied across industries, materials and software tools.
Then you’ll move to studios of increasing complexity, where you’ll work on real-world problems with a variety of clients from the Providence area. It’s the perfect way for you to learn firsthand about user behavior, goals, motivations and needs. In your final year, develop an independent design investigation and explore an area of interest that will truly set you apart as a design professional.
“That’s one of the most important things to keep in mind. ‘What is it that the customer wants the design to be?’ And ‘how does my design solve a problem?’”ALI ALJASSAS '17
Making a Difference: Meet Professor Jonathan Harris
To Associate Professor Jonathan Harris, making a difference to improve the community where he lives matters. As an industrial designer, he sees possibilities where others might only see problems, and he uses his creativity to come up with solutions.
Harris’ passion earned him, and a team from the Horsley Witten Group, a first-place win, and a $10,000 prize, in a design competition with the goal of finding a way to reuse the Crook Point Bascule Bridge in Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood. In this video, Harris discusses the project and what it means to him:
Read more about Harris here.
REVEAL Design Senior Showcase
Each spring, JWU Graphic Design and Product Design seniors celebrate the success of their time at JWU by showing off their incredible work to the JWU community and the public at the REVEAL Senior Showcase.
In this video, students Noah Fye, Emma Jones and Dayna Brown (all '23) take you on a tour of the Bowen Center Gallery and share some of their favorite graphics, branding and packaging designs from an impressive group of senior designers:
This program is available in Providence.
For an explanation of the career outcomes rate and other information, visit JWU Student Consumer Information.
Your Product Design Questions, Answered
What does the Product Design program look like at Johnson & Wales? We asked Associate Professors Jonathan Harris and Walter Zesk to provide their insights about this program — here’s what they had to say.
Product Design prepares students to create new products and services. In the past, products were physical objects and students studied industrial design to build their understanding of materials and manufacturing processes. Today, new products typically incorporate physical and digital components and often integrate into broader product ecosystems (think app store). Integrated product design prepares students to work in a variety of fields designing these types of products.
In our core design studios, you’ll develop your own projects often working on real-life problems and working with stakeholders outside the classroom. Alongside these classes, you’ll build out your technical skillsets learning industry standard CAD software, basic material science, principles of ergonomics and system design. You’ll be able to focus on individual areas of interest culminating in a project of your own proposal.
So many areas of interest can be a good match for Product Design. From art, design, engineering or anything that has to do with systems, to social psychology and behavior economics. If you want to make the world a better place, and you like to make stuff and understand how things work or why the system/object operates, this program is a good match for you.
No particular subjects are absolutely necessary, but you should be comfortable with uncertainty. If you like to make things, are naturally curious and aren’t afraid of hard work, you’re likely to do well in this program.
Product Design students come from all different backgrounds and bring a wide variety of skillsets to the table. Because there are so many different ways to approach a design problem, we do not have a single “type” of successful student. The most successful designers (as students and professionals) are those that really care about making life better for their users and have a high tolerance for failure (great designs never work the first time). Also, these students are driven to improve themselves and their process, looking for extra opportunities and experiences.
No, but there is a ton of overlap. Both disciplines rely on understanding end users and a having the commitment to deliver a great experience for them. Additionally, you will learn graphic design basics in order to improve your presentation skills, and will have opportunities to work in design teams with graphic designers.
Most likely, but we are defining that extremely broadly. If you are working on an engineering team developing schematics for a submarine you are designing a product. If you are launching your own restaurant and designing the experience guests have, you are designing a product. This is the idea of integrated product design; the actual product does not have to be a discrete physical object.
Apple, Google, Uber, Facebook, Reebok, Ideo, IBM, Amazon, E Ink, Electric Boat, Raytheon, Ximedica, Hasbro, Fidelity, CVS. Any company that cares about differentiating their user’s experiences is hiring product/experience designers.
- Experience Design
- Human Factors
- Internet of Things
- Design Value Index
- Human Machine Interface
- Additive Manufacturing
- User Persona
We collaborate across the university, including interdisciplinary work with JWU’s College of Business, College of Food Innovation & Technology, College of Engineering & Design, and the Occupational Therapy doctoral program. And we are always expanding the list.
AutoCAD, Rhino 3d, SolidWorks, Parametric Design tools (may be Grasshopper, Revit, Dynamo etc.). This list is dynamic; we will adjust as industries adjust.
Yes! That is the core of the design approach we teach. Here is a 3-step summary:
- You’ll learn to study people to understand their needs.
- You’ll develop and test prototypes to meet those needs.
- And you’ll converge on product requirements and product concept based on that testing.
Yes, constantly! In a variety of materials using a variety of tools.
You might find it listed as Product Design, Experience Design and Industrial Design.
Special Event: Open House
Campus is open for you! Take a student-led walking tour and meet with Admissions, Student Financial Services, Faculty, Residential Life and more. Learn more about academics and meet professors and the college dean, too.
