An Instructional Model for Social Design Education - A Design Project for Stray Animals - Including Production-Based Learning Approach

Oct 15, 2026

Social design education has become a key component of industrial design education, driving the need for new teaching methodologies. The study introduces a social design teaching toolkit that merges social design thinking with product development processes to create design solutions for stray animals using a production-based learning approach. The nine-phase toolkit was tested in a 7-week Product Design II studio, with 35 second-year students and project observations plus questionnaires to assess learning outcomes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages32

Reading Time1 h 21 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background of social design education

Animal welfare in design curricula

Need for practice-based methodologies

Study toolkit and implementation

An Instructional Model for Social Design Education: A Design Project for Stray Animals Including Production-Based Learning Approach H. Güçlü Yavuzcan, Gazi University, Turkey Damla Şahin, Gazi University, Turkey Barış Gür, Venn Design Ltd, Turkey Özden Sevgül, Gazi University, Turkey Cemil Yavuz, Gazi University, Turkey Abstract Social design education has become a significant part of industrial design education, thus new methodologies are required and being developed. One of these societal problems is animal welfare and human interaction with stray animals that is not a common topic amongst previous studies. This study presents a toolkit for social design teaching, combining social design thinking and product development processes to generate and realise design solutions for stray animals with a production-based learning approach. The toolkit consisting of nine phases under two processes was implemented into the secondyear ‘Product Design II’ 7-week studio project at Gazi University. A total of 35 sophomores taking the course offered during the second semester of the 2017/2018 academic year, participated in housing and feeding stations for a stray animals design project. To analyse the appropriateness of the toolkit, the submissions and process of the project were observed and evaluated by instructors and post-project questionnaires were employed to both instructors and students. The results revealed that this toolkit for social design education combining design thinking and product development processes improved industrial design students’ competencies and learning outcomes. Key words social design, design education, teaching toolkit, animal welfare, production-based learning Introduction The traditional definition of industrial designer as a creative genius or stylist has been changed since Ulm School’s scientific approach in design and World Design Organization’s (WDO) and Industrial Designers Society of America’s (IDSA) new designer definition (IDSA, 2018; Roth, 1999; WDO, 2015) . Industrial designers now are perceived as problem solversand value creators through developing a deep comprehension of user need to design not only products but also systems, services, and experiences (IDSA, 2018; NASAD, 2017-2018; NCSU, 2018; NJIT, 2018; WDO, 2015) . Comprehending user needs is no longer limited with needs of one user or a group of users, there is an emphasis on needs of society as a whole, the impact of design on society as a component of a system. The values that designers create are economic, social and environmental (ASU, 2018; WDO, 2015) . Since the publication of Papanek (1972), Design for the Real World, drawing attention to the impact of design on the environment and society,“social design” has begun to be a widely discussed term in the field of design research. Papanek (1995) argued that the design profession serves consumer society and capitalism. He supported that designers should use their professional skills for addressing and solving social problems, as well. Similarly, Manzini’s (2014; 2015) social design examples such as carpooling and community garden summarize that social design should meet social needs holistically without focusing only on financial profit. As it was realized that design and designers could significantly influence the development and transformation of society, a variety of methods and models are discussed teaching social design in design education. Margolin & Margolin (2002) argue that social design could not be learned by conventional methodologies like design for the market. Instead, they suggest a “social model” that indicates the ways product design could meet social and environmental needs. Based on this interest in social design, although there are few, some design schools or institutes included social design issues in their curricula or in their projects. It is seen that animal needs are generally ignored; only a few design schools incorporate animal wel

FAQs

What does the study propose for social design education?

It presents a teaching toolkit that combines social design thinking with product development processes to generate design solutions for stray animals using a production-based learning approach.

How was the toolkit implemented in the university project?

The nine-phase toolkit was applied to a second-year Product Design II 7-week studio project, involving 35 students who participated in housing and feeding station design.

How were the results evaluated?

Instructors observed and evaluated student submissions and project processes, and post-project questionnaires were administered to both instructors and students.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by PakDamar76