Experiences with interdisciplinary based design teams

Within most academic settings design courses are taught in isolation. Typically each separate academic unit or department teaches its own version of design that is for the most part very narrow in scope and presentation. Such approaches overlook the interdisciplinary character of the design process and are not representative of the type of design experiences students will encounter in industry. In the latter setting, a team will generally consist of individuals with very diverse backgrounds and experiences. The purpose of such an arrangement is to make the design process as inclusive as possible. In this paper, we describe the development of an interdisciplinary-based design approach that addresses the above concern.