Abstract:

The learning processes through project practice represent for design students the basis for structuring their theoretical and reflective thinking, in the cultural and design dimension. A phenomenological approach characterizes every Design action: through the creation of artefacts (tangible and intangible) and the study of the corresponding design process, a new theoretical and critical vision is generated.
This paper presents the activity carried out in a 2-days workshop, organised within a B.Sc. Course in Product Design. 54 students joined the class and worked in groups. Starting from the identification of the project concept, they have to produce a moodboard that anticipates solutions regarding materials, colours, finishings and shapes, for the new product development process. The moodboards here presented aren’t inspirational ones. They represent the general overview of the project, presenting how it works, its design language through shapes, colours, materials, details and finishings. A sort of guide that should be used for everyone involved in the design process. It allows students to go deep in the styling and general appearance of the solution, into the main meanings of the design concepts and in how to make the project more effective in its communication process, providing a sufficient level of detail on the different elements developed in the project.
The workshop has two objectives. Firstly, to initiate a dialogue between lecturers and students on the methods, tools, and other factors to be considered to implement meta-design research in product development (e.g., from the analysis of users, products and markets, through the definition of a concept and brief, to the definition of a list of product requirements). Through a project-based approach, the lecturers presented the activities starting with theoretical and practical examples on the identification of the attributes and requirements of the concept, and the construction of the moodboard.
The second objective is about giving the students the opportunity to experience (learning by doing) how to design a moodboard and the differences between inspirational boards and moodboards, and their role and importance in the different stages of the development process. From a methodological point of view, this didactic experience is characterised as a learning by doing approach, structured as follows. Through frontal lessons, the lecturers introduce the moodboard as a tool to develop the project: they present and discuss specific examples from different project experiences, coming from both the research and the design practice in different fields, such as car design, furniture, product design. Students are asked to define their concept through a short paragraph. Then, students work in teams to develop and design the moodboard; through revisions and dialogues with the lecturers, they refine the project. At the end, students present and discuss the resulting moodboard with the whole class. Through this didactic experience, its methods, and its results, we intend to argue how, due to its nature, the designer - in progress or in being - must strengthen the role of mediator between cultures and disciplines related to the project, from the artistic to the technical ones. The designer must assemble and connect different disciplines and knowledge - artistic, technological, environmental, socio-cultural, and political - to reflect critically and consciously in the design of new artefacts.

Keywords:

Moodboard, product design, learning by doing, phenomenological approach, conceptualizing.