Dr. C. Thomas Mitchell has served as a faculty member in the Indiana University Department of Apparel Merchandising and Interior Design since 1988, and was named as the department’s chair and director of its Design Studies Group in July 2006.
A tenured associate professor, Dr. Mitchell is among the nation’s leading thinkers and educators on the experiential and perceptual effects of design, and user-responsive design processes. His research and publications focus primarily on how design can be applied for greater user functionality and responsiveness, and how design thinking methodologies can help organizations redefine their approaches to product development. He is the author of four books and numerous articles on these topics, most notably Redefining Designing: From Form To Experience, selected as one of The New York Review of Books Reader’s Catalog “Best Books in Print.” Mitchell is also a frequent speaker at academic, industry and corporate conferences worldwide.
Dr. Mitchell is a leading advocate of creating a stronger design community on the Bloomington campus. In addition to his teaching and service responsibilities, he is the co-founder and co-facilitator of the Indiana University Design Thinking Forum, which sponsors educational forums for Bloomington’s design students and faculty; and lead facilitator of the Indiana University Design Studies Initiative, which is a new effort that encourages greater cross-pollination and interaction among the campus’ individual design programs through course offerings, forums, design studios, projects, digital presentation technology applications, field experiences and career counseling. He also serves an adjunct faculty member in the School of Informatics.
Dr. Mitchell received his undergraduate degree in architecture with high honors from the University of Tennessee, and his masters and doctorate degrees from the University of Reading in England.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Friday, February 9, 2007
Design Process for Indiana University's Interior Design Program
Design Process for Indiana University’s Interior Design Program
Below is the process that will be used in the teaching of all Indiana University Interior Design Studios. All processes will begin with research leading to an “architectural” concept that guides the layout of the space with relationship to the program. After completion of this, and only after, may theme or metaphor be used to articulate the space.
Concept Development Process:
Concept: A plan or intention; a conception
1. Do research on building type – including floor plan analysis of successful examples.
2. Develop client profile based on the brief and including the criteria for design success – what absolutely must be accomplished in the new design for the client if it is to be successful.
3. Develop programming diagrams – adjacency matrix, bubble diagram, and zoning diagram. Zoning diagrams are to be zoned on some progressive criteria – security, public to private, natural to artificial light.
4. Look at bubble and zoning diagram in relationship to the base floor plan for the space being designed for.
5. Develop a concept in relationship to the results of programming and the floor plan. Students look at these things together and evolve a concept, e.g. centralized scheme, radial scheme, assymetrical balance. There’s an intuitive leep, yes, but then there’s a relationship between programming and concept development. A minimum of three concepts should be developed – these should be critiqued to arrive at a single synthesis of the best ideas in each of the three.
6. At this stage the use of architectural precedents could also be usefully employed. Further, the pattern language should be used in every case to ensure the students think about the interactions of space and events (and meaning). The seven principles of Universal Design could also be used in a meaningful way to guide the development of a responsive design.
7. Develop multiple schematic designs, more or less to scale, in softline form.
8. Build physical models of important aspects of the spaces with furniture. This will give the students a sense of 3D reality. In the near future Sketchup will be used from the concept development stage to develop a sense of the 3D feel as well.
9. Only once the design has been evolved in this way should CAD – a design documentation tool – be used.
Below is the process that will be used in the teaching of all Indiana University Interior Design Studios. All processes will begin with research leading to an “architectural” concept that guides the layout of the space with relationship to the program. After completion of this, and only after, may theme or metaphor be used to articulate the space.
Concept Development Process:
Concept: A plan or intention; a conception
1. Do research on building type – including floor plan analysis of successful examples.
2. Develop client profile based on the brief and including the criteria for design success – what absolutely must be accomplished in the new design for the client if it is to be successful.
3. Develop programming diagrams – adjacency matrix, bubble diagram, and zoning diagram. Zoning diagrams are to be zoned on some progressive criteria – security, public to private, natural to artificial light.
4. Look at bubble and zoning diagram in relationship to the base floor plan for the space being designed for.
5. Develop a concept in relationship to the results of programming and the floor plan. Students look at these things together and evolve a concept, e.g. centralized scheme, radial scheme, assymetrical balance. There’s an intuitive leep, yes, but then there’s a relationship between programming and concept development. A minimum of three concepts should be developed – these should be critiqued to arrive at a single synthesis of the best ideas in each of the three.
6. At this stage the use of architectural precedents could also be usefully employed. Further, the pattern language should be used in every case to ensure the students think about the interactions of space and events (and meaning). The seven principles of Universal Design could also be used in a meaningful way to guide the development of a responsive design.
7. Develop multiple schematic designs, more or less to scale, in softline form.
8. Build physical models of important aspects of the spaces with furniture. This will give the students a sense of 3D reality. In the near future Sketchup will be used from the concept development stage to develop a sense of the 3D feel as well.
9. Only once the design has been evolved in this way should CAD – a design documentation tool – be used.
Friday, January 26, 2007
The Importance of Design Studio Instruction
Traditionally the design studio has played an important role in the development of generations of designers – in architecture, interior design, product design, and other fields. Students would spend long hours in the studio setting which became a home away from home for many. Comfortable chairs, cots, and refrigerators are regular features of design studios. In such settings, students worked in a “guild like” way under the direction of an instructor (“master”) who conveyed his or her experience in a practical way. Design students learned by doing – and they often gained as much through interaction between students as their projects evolved as they did from their instructor.
The value of this form of education was highlighted after the move to computer-aided designing. Whereas before students worked in a collaborative way through physical models and sketches – evolving a design – when CAD began being used as a design tool the design development process was often “shut down.” Students arrived at designs individually, in their heads, and jumped straight to the design documentation phase. The result? Designs devoid of richness and development. Such designs, further, often reflected a lack of an understanding of the process of interaction and use. In other words, with CAD as a design tool you get nothing of quality, precisely.
From this experience – shared in many design fields – the importance of collaboration, making the design process explicit, evolving design through a series of visualization techniques, and testing it through prototypes before commiting to design documentation is clearly demonstrated. Further, this experience suggests that other fields that may not yet have a studio culture, such as Human Computer Interaction Design, might benefit from adopting the studio approach as the method of attaining the richest, most responsive results. Even immaterial experience can be embedded in forms that act as catalysts to interaction. The design studio – viewed this way – is an essential context for the future of all forms of design, not simply a relic of history.
The value of this form of education was highlighted after the move to computer-aided designing. Whereas before students worked in a collaborative way through physical models and sketches – evolving a design – when CAD began being used as a design tool the design development process was often “shut down.” Students arrived at designs individually, in their heads, and jumped straight to the design documentation phase. The result? Designs devoid of richness and development. Such designs, further, often reflected a lack of an understanding of the process of interaction and use. In other words, with CAD as a design tool you get nothing of quality, precisely.
From this experience – shared in many design fields – the importance of collaboration, making the design process explicit, evolving design through a series of visualization techniques, and testing it through prototypes before commiting to design documentation is clearly demonstrated. Further, this experience suggests that other fields that may not yet have a studio culture, such as Human Computer Interaction Design, might benefit from adopting the studio approach as the method of attaining the richest, most responsive results. Even immaterial experience can be embedded in forms that act as catalysts to interaction. The design studio – viewed this way – is an essential context for the future of all forms of design, not simply a relic of history.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Getting Started
It's taken me a while to get started blogging, but I've been inspired to do so by my academic mentor John Chris Jones, the founder of the Design Methods movement, and his "informal writing experiments" on his Softopia site (www.softopia.demon.co.uk).
In addition, much of my previous design writing has been negative in tone -- critical of what I've viewed as a overemphasis on aesthetics and an underemphasis on user interaction and meaning. I've chosen this format to be positive -- to write on those designs that I like -- and to try to articulate what makes a successful user experience.
Among the topics I'll address are "my favorite things" in design. Some of these are commonly discussed in this context, like Apple Computers, and others are perhaps more ideosyncratic: Brian Eno's Ambient Music and Visual Art, Audi cars, Mont Blanc pens, Patagonia clothes, Specialized Bicycles, and TAG-Heuer watches.
Preliminarily I can say that all of these offer refinement, attention to detail, elegance, and are a pleasure to interact with -- as well as being functional. They all feature a sort of minimalist innovation that is particularly satisfying.
Please visit this space as the pieces appear and please, too, share your thoughts and experiences of what makes design not just "work" but, more, enrich and enliven you life.
In addition, much of my previous design writing has been negative in tone -- critical of what I've viewed as a overemphasis on aesthetics and an underemphasis on user interaction and meaning. I've chosen this format to be positive -- to write on those designs that I like -- and to try to articulate what makes a successful user experience.
Among the topics I'll address are "my favorite things" in design. Some of these are commonly discussed in this context, like Apple Computers, and others are perhaps more ideosyncratic: Brian Eno's Ambient Music and Visual Art, Audi cars, Mont Blanc pens, Patagonia clothes, Specialized Bicycles, and TAG-Heuer watches.
Preliminarily I can say that all of these offer refinement, attention to detail, elegance, and are a pleasure to interact with -- as well as being functional. They all feature a sort of minimalist innovation that is particularly satisfying.
Please visit this space as the pieces appear and please, too, share your thoughts and experiences of what makes design not just "work" but, more, enrich and enliven you life.
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