Industrial Design Research- areas of study

Opportunities exist for self-financed students to engage in research and practice based
Masters by Research and PhD. Opportunities include:

Designing a product service system for diabetics to self manage their condition

By WHO estimates there are 171 million Diabetics, slated to go up to 235 million by 2030. Of these 60 million are in India and China. Diabetes is a big problem and the work of Project Diabetes at RMIT has been to focus upon individual diabetics’ ability to self manage their condition to improve their quality of life. The project has till now developed Products, Services and product service systems aimed at different social groups and categories of individuals. The project offers a research opportunity for a designer interested in community orientated practice.

Designing a program and service system to amplify spending habits and reduce consumption

Spending habits is a field work driven project that uses people’s oral narrative and a visual documentation of their homes to build a cultural profile of people’s consumption practices. These profiles provide the context for intervention and performance projects to transform collective consumption practices. The project offers an opportunity for research in urban culture, sustainability and performance orientated design practice.

Designing a system to grow the community of ethical consumers in Melbourne

Ethical consumption is a growing area of practice. One aspect of this is when people give things up such as becoming vegetarian. While sustainable consumption is a well researched area – the area of people giving up specific kinds of consumption is neglected and not considered a significant contributor to the sustainable discourse. The projects aims to make ‘giving-up’ significant using group processes and the internet. The project has initiated a global campaign called Renounce to build this movement. The project offers an opportunity for a candidate interested in sustainability and community mobilization.

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Designing and developing the Green Map system for Melbourne

Staff at RMIT Industrial Design are listed as the map makers for Melbourne. Called the hometowns project – the green map system project is one of developing graphic products and internet based information on sites of significance in Melbourne. The ambit of the project is wider than the simply environmental – and focuses upon working with schools and local communities to develop the intelligence about sites. The project offers design and community work opportunities for a designer interested in sustainability issues.

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Designing the car of the future

Sustainable transportation is a strong theme in the program – both at the product and systems levels. The project ‘car of the future’ looks at the future of personal transportation within the context of urban centres like Melbourne. The project offers opportunities for design and systems development for candidates with a strong interest in design and technical aspects of car design, and with a strong interest in future studies and sustainability.

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Studying design education and developing a model for the future

Design education relies on a mix of practices with a heavy emphasis on studio teaching. The approach of students and university systems to the educational event and the long courses varies and is constantly evolving. Additionally the nature of the workplace is diverse and changing too. All this impacts upon the curriculum, teaching practices, learning and collective educational system. The project offers opportunities for a candidate interested in the history and future of design pedagogy.

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Working with China

The purpose of this research is to develop methodology for contemporary Industrial Design practice to benefit Australian designers and design practices working with manufacturers in China. Industrial design practice in Australia – both; in-house design, which is design that happens within manufacturing companies, and consultancy, which is design that is done for clients both in Australia and overseas – deals with China on a day-to-day basis. In the former the dealings are with vendors located in China and in the latter the work is done either on behalf of local manufacturing clients or for Chinese manufacturers. Yet despite the China-focus of the profession there is little, if any, attempt being made to rethink the way products are designed and developed. Moreover design theory and practices currently employed do not meet the complex demands of such cross-cultural patterns of enterprise. The project offers opportunities for a candidate interested in researching design practice and the context of manufacturing and design in China.

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