The Keynote Presentation: THE IMPORTANCE OF DESIGN

SUMMARY OF KEYNOTE

There is a clear business-case for using rigorous Design Process and Creative Thinking tools in early stage innovation can be even more effective for industry for multiple reasons: more innovative & appealing products, simpler manufacturing, quicker responsiveness, and shorter product-development timescales. All of which leads to greater product resilience, customer satisfaction, less aftersales resource and ultimately better profitability

Although its meaning has become quite nebulous the word Design derives from Latin designare; scheme, plan, mark out, devise, choose, designate, appoint. The designer is literally “one who schemes” and creates the vision for others to follow.

Traditionally Britain has a culture that believes in amateurism and that anyone ‘creative’ could design something nice. There is often a tendency to view design as a sort of marketing tool used in the selling process to package and communicate the product offer. However in a contemporary world – whether Porsche, Dyson or Apple – if aiming to offer globally outstanding product then excellent thoughtful design is essential to achieve success.

Professional design exists within a wide bandwidth of disciplines including: industrial, architecture, interface, product-styling, graphic and fashion. Designers tend to specialize in specific fields such as: automotive, built environment, luxury, strategic, branding, or web design. For example industrial designers are trained and experienced in product innovation and industrial fabrication. They are skilled at collaborating successfully within technical teams throughout the product development process; they tend to think rigorously and in the long term. However with buying seasons twice a year the more intuitive fashion designer is obliged to follow an entirely different schedule.

The choice of which discipline is appropriate for a specific task, and when & where in the innovation process is best applied significantly impact on the outcome of a project. What is the scale and impact of the challenge – do you need a nurse or a neurosurgeon, or perhaps a more of a generalized practitioner?  Whatever the choice of designer, both talent and experience can count for a lot and some are better than others.

The one thing that all designers should have in common is that they employ their creativity and experience to create the maximum Value (as in perception of fair exchange), whilst using available resources as efficiently as possible. Another way of looking at it is that value consists of brand, design and quality, divided by cost.

Key Message: Outstanding design can leverage excellence and success from your business; do not leave it too late, design is not just the marketing graphics & logos, wrappers & websites, posters & packaging – although it is part of it, this comes towards the end of the process. Design needs to be the first thought as well as the last.

Conference Introduction

The 17th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education was hosted by the Loughborough University Design School in partnership with the Design Education Special Interest Group (DESIG) of the Design Society and the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED). The conference brings together representatives from Education, Design Practice, Industry and Government agencies that have an interest in developing new approaches and direction in Design Education. The conference provides a forum for participants to discuss current educational issues and to identify new approaches, address new challenges and shape new directions for design education.
This year’s conference theme concentrates on the growing expectation surrounding Design Teaching, Research and Enterprise.  The conference aims to reflect on the expectations of academics, students and industries concerned with the discipline of design and promote informed debate to explore, navigate and manage expectations and delivery.

Conference Aim

The E&PDE conference will bring together representatives from education and industry whom have an interest in sharing new perspectives on design education. The conference will provide a forum for educators, practitioners and students from product development, engineering and industrial design, together with industry to discuss current educational issues and the nature of design education now and in the future.
“Great Expectations: Design Teaching, Research & Enterprise” is this year’s conference theme. The challenge for Higher Education Academics to meet the expectations placed upon them, to succeed in design teaching, design research and the fostering of relationships with Industry toward collaborative design practice, places increasing demands on individuals.
Those to be educated, referred to as customers by some, provide the challenge of addressing ever-increasing expectations regarding the learning experience itself and their aspirations upon completion. Industry expects graduates who have been fully educated and primed to make immediate contributions without extended training post-graduation.
Design Research, when compared with research from established disciplines, has reached adolescence with significant challenges in both academic and practice contexts that need addressing.
Great expectations indeed and opportunities abound, but exploration and informed navigation will be required to manage expectations and delivery.
The aim of this year’s conference will be addressed through the following topics:

• Informing Design & Engineering Pedagogy with Research & Enterprise
• Design & Engineering Pedagogical Practice
• Benefits of Collaboration in Design & Engineering
• Promoting Creativity and Innovation in Design & Engineering
• Technology Integration, Application & Knowledge Transfer
• Design & Engineering Metrics & Assessment
• Ethics & Social Issues
• Globalisation & Mobility of Graduates
• International Collaboration
• Infrastructure & Learning Environments
• Bachelors, Masters and PhDs in Design & Engineering
• User Experience in Design
• Project/Problem Based Learning
• Industrial Steering of Design & Engineering Education

In keeping with the inclusive ethos of the E&PDE conference and to broaden the opportunities to link design and business by creativity and innovation other stream proposals are welcomed. We invite you to send your proposals for other relevant topics to [email protected]

 

How to get to Loughborough

The conference will be held by Loughborough University.

Details of conference accommodation may be found in EPDE_2015_accommodation.

 

Deadlines

• Submission of Abstracts (max 500 words) – 24 November 2014
• Notification of Successful Abstracts – 19 December 2014
• Submission of Full Papers – 23 February 2015
• Notification of Accepted Papers – 17 April 2015
• Deadline for submission of final paper and paper summary for publication – 18 May 2015.
• Deadline for Author Earlybird Registration – 25 May 2012
• Conference – 3 and 4 September 2015

 

Paper Submission

General Instructions

All paper handling is done with a conference management system (CMS). The submission system will accept paper uploads at the following deadlines:

• 23 February 2015 – First full submission of paper.
  • Prepare your full paper using the full paper template which will be available in the downloads section and submit in Word format via the Conference Management System (CMS). Please leave out names and affiliations of the authors as well as the contact details in this version.
• 18 May 2015 – Submission of final paper and paper summary for publication.
  • The final paper and paper summary templates will be found in the downloads section. Remember to add the author names and affiliation to the final paper. The paper summary should be no more than one page long and will be published in printed format.
  • Both the final paper and the paper summary must be uploaded separately to the CMS.
  • You must also complete and submit a copyright release form so that your paper can be included for presentation at EPDE15 and publication in the conference proceedings.  The form will be available in the download section and must be signed and submitted to the Programme Committee before May 18.  Submission can be done by post, or via fax or by email of a scanned version.

Downloads

>>EPDE_2015_accommodation

>>EPDE15 Final Paper Template

>>EPDE15 -Word_Paper Summary Template_FINAL

>>EPDE15-Word_Instructions_Full_Paper

 

Registration

Online register for E&PDE15 will open through the Conference Management System (CMS) in April 2015. The link below will take you to the CMS. After having logged in (or created a new registration) select conference registration from the menu items and then follow the instructions.

Conference Fees

£	Two-day conference fee including book of abstracts, electronic copy of full papers, lunches, conference supper and reception, excluding accommodation
£	Two-day conference fee including book of abstracts, electronic copy of full papers, lunches, conference supper and reception, excluding accommodation for booking and payment prior to May 2015
£	Two-day conference fee including book of abstracts, electronic copy of full papers, lunches, conference supper and reception, excluding accommodation for Members of IED and Design Society
£	Copy of Full Paper Publication
£	Cost of conference Dinner for Guests

Would you like to order the past conference proceedings? We have following proceedings available:

Year	Number of copies
2008	9
2009	1
2010	4
2012	9
2013	10
2014	25

Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about the E&PDE15 conference, please contact;

For all queries relating to papers, programme and registration;

Judith Grace
Education & Training
Institution of Engineering Designers
Courtleigh
Westbury Leigh
Wilts BA13 3TA, UK

Tel: +44 (0)1373 822801

Fax; +44(0)1373 858085

Email: [email protected]

 

For queries relating to local organisation e.g. travel and accommodation;

 

Conference Organising Committee

Guy Bingham, Loughborough University
Darren Southee, Loughborough University
John McCardle, Loughborough University
Karen Roxborough, Loughborough University
Andrew Weeks, Loughborough University
Erik Bohemia, Design Education Special Interest Group (DESIG) of the Design Society
Ahmed Kovacevic, Design Education Special Interest Group (DESIG) of the Design Society
Judith Grace, Institution of Engineering Designers
Brian Parkinson, Institution of Engineering Designers