Designing for the community - The Defiance College approach

Defiance College is a four-year, liberal arts-based college located in Defiance, Ohio, USA. The culture of the college is characterized by a relentless emphasis on service learning. The college´s core curriculum emphasizes critical reasoning, problem solving and communication skills development, focused on addressing world issues. The college is also home to the McMaster School for Advancing Humanity, a unique research program serving as a focal point for teaching, service, scholarship, and action to improve the human condition, both locally and internationally through the application of community-based research. Recently, a new major in Design has been established that focuses on creating objects to inform, assist, facilitate and benefit the daily lives of people. In the 3D concentration of the major, students fabricate objects close-to-hand using human-centered design principles informed by industrial design. Through the McMaster School, students majoring in Design will be afforded rich opportunities to perform need-driven design for underserved communities. This paper explores several such potential applications. It is intended to facilitate dialog and identify opportunities for collaboration with others in academia and industry.