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Acquiring materials knowledge in design education

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Abstract

Product material choices affect how a product will be manufactured, how it will function, and how it will be experienced. Thus, understanding materials is essential for designers in many regards. However, materials used in designs are subject to ongoing changes in availability, processing methods, price and attributed meanings. Furthermore, new materials are constantly being developed. Therefore, designers continuously need to acquire new materials knowledge (i.e., internalisation of facts, information, and skills) to be able to produce designs that utilise available material possibilities and achieve the desired user experiences. However, although this topic has been dealt with to some extent, a detailed classification of approaches for how designers can acquire materials knowledge is absent in the literature. To provide designers and design educators with a structured basis for understanding/teaching materials knowledge acquisition, this paper develops a framework that defines twelve distinct ways for designers to acquire materials knowledge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management, University of Southern Denmark, Universitetsparken 1, 6000, Kolding, Denmark

    Anders Haug

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  1. Anders Haug
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Correspondence to Anders Haug.

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Haug, A. Acquiring materials knowledge in design education. Int J Technol Des Educ 29, 405–420 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-018-9445-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-018-9445-4

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