ENGLISH

 Research
 Fields

Education Objectives

Curriculum Features

College Course and Credits

 Course map

Introduction

The objective of the Department of Industrial Design, National United University (NUUID) is to breed young people to acquire necessary professional competences for entering various fields related to product design and to make contributions that benefit our society.

Our curriculum emphasizes a balance between design theory, practical skills, and analytic methods, all essential for being a product designer. The curriculum is characterized by a series of design project courses, from the first to the final semester. Design projects for each grade carry their distinct objectives, which are aimed at elevating the students gradually to full pledged graduates.

All design projects share three elements defining the character of our department – common product design, cultural product design, and innovation/entrepreneurship. Various optional courses are available to support the objective, which are categorized by design science and technology, craft workshops, real and digital model making, marketing and management, and art and humanities.


Research Fields

Our department has nine full-time faculties, specialized in various research fields of design. The fields include: 

1.Human Factor Design

User Interface design, usability assessment, human factors engineering, cognitive psychology, life-style study, interaction design, culture & fashion study 

2.Design Education

Design methodology, design career counseling, gender study, design-led science education 

3.Product Design & Management

Design management, design for branding, design marketing, service design, entrepreneurship for local cultural creative industries, IPR and innovation

4.Computer aided design

CAD & manufacturing, augmented reality, software design


Education Objectives

  1. To enable the students to design, plan and analyze to the entry level of a professional designer
  2. To enable the students to innovate and invent based on the thinking of intellectual property rights
  3. To enable the students to serve the industry immediately after graduation
  4. To enable the students to view things with humanity and global perspectives

Curriculum Features

Three elements guide our departmental development – common product design, cultural product design, and innovation/entrepreneurship. Accordingly, seven core competences are defined for our curriculum to educate our students with. They are:

1. Design Collaboration and Team Working 

Modern industrial design demands the team work in various fields. Our department meets this demand with small-group teaching, student families, design competitions, class exhibitions, and extracurricular activities held by our student association.

2. Design Communications

Design communication skills include expressing design concepts in forms of oral presentations, written texts, sketches and drawings. Our department empowers this competence by combining the daily student presentations and design competitions.

3. Form Making and Aesthetic

Although the education of industrial design is still focused on the skills of manual drawing, a modern industrial designer shall be equipped with the skills of mechanism simulation, material stress analysis, and vivid animation after turning the graphic design into the 3D one. To develop the skills of computer drawing, our department provides a complete course scheme from visual expression to digital design and helps the students to acquire various CAD licenses. Further, abundant courses related to design history and appreciation are provided to enhance the sensitivity of perceiving beautiful things.

4. Applying Knowledge of Science and Technology

The product design is user-oriented, while the design procedure involves all kinds of scientific knowledge, such as analysis of consumer behaviors, analysis of human factors engineering & ergonomics, color scheme, mechanism analysis, and product marketing. As the modern and future products require trans-disciplinary knowledge integration, an industrial designer shall have broad and insightful understanding of technology and a stringent scientific attitude at the same time.

5. Design Planning and Management

The diversified design curriculum enables students to understand the process from the project initiation through the product design and manufacturing processes to effective marketing and project management. This goal is achieved by design project courses in higher grades, design project management and marketing, and design research methods.

6. Creative Problem Solving

Good skills alone cannot deliver good products. Design and innovation need a high degree of creativity. Our students are required to complete their own projects, encouraged to take part in design competitions of various levels, and educated about systematic innovation. Through the required courses in general education and our courses for breeding basic design literacy, our students are kept in touch with knowledge from various fields and various regional cultures from various regions – raw materials for creative design.

7. Global View as Well as Understanding Local Culture

The globalization of the design industry and the development of Taiwan’s own brands demand the industrial designers to have global views as well as the communication in English. On the other hand, bringing Taiwan’s industries to the world demands the understanding of the local industries and culture. In recent years, our department has actively improved the English curriculum and incorporated the industry-academic cooperation in our curriculum for the interaction between our students and the local industries.