BA (Hons) Product Design (Full Time)

Learn how to apply your design skills to products we use in everyday life on this challenging and stimulating course.

Course overview

From motorcycles to mobile phones, from sunglasses to skateboards, product designers are responsible for creating products which are attractive, desirable and satisfying to own and use. Taking a product from concept to the marketplace is an immensely absorbing and interesting process.

This course concentrates on the relationship between products and the people who use them. Ergonomic issues are explored and students’ sensitivity in aesthetic issues is heightened.

However imaginative the product concept, unless the material is correctly specified and an appropriate manufacturing method is selected, the design may never make it to production, or survive the demands of service. Lectures in these crucial areas enable you to design with confidence and in the knowledge that your ideas are not just fantasy concepts, but are workable solutions fit for their purpose.

A unit exploring ‘futures’ in the final year allows students to really push their creative thinking by exploring design solutions to address potential future political, social and technological scenarios.

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Industrial focus

Tutors have valuable industry experience which is vital when relating projects to the ‘real world’. The course has strong links with industry, and an Industrial Forum exists to advise on the content and currency of the course to ensure that graduates continue to meet the needs of employers.

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Course content

Year 1

Six core units:

• Design Skills
• Design Projects – Introduction
• Design Projects – Application
• Commercial Studies
• Technical Studies
• Design in Context (Historical). 

Year 2

Four core units and four options:

• Design Studies
• Design Projects – User Interface
• Design Projects – Industry - option
• Design Projects – Themes - option
• Design Projects – Manufacturing
• Manufacturing Studies
• New Product Development - option
• Curriculum Plus - option.

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Year 3

Four core units:

Design Projects – Futures
• Design Projects – Integration
• Research Exposition
• Major Project.

Why choose this course?

• A highly relevant course based on current industry demands.
• Excellent links with employers from a broad section of the industry.
• Course focuses on developing communication through drawing and presentation, and techniques to enhance creative thinking, both of which have been identified as desirable skills by employers.
• University investment in advanced manufacturing

Assessment

A mix of practical projects, written assignments, case studies and presentations.

Key career skills

IT, creative thinking, presentation, project management, visual communication, evaluation and problem solving.

Projects/work experience

Opportunities for involvement in live projects and/or national competitions.

Graduate profile

Chris Butler
Design Researcher, Seymour Powell

Chris now works for SeymourPowell, one of the UK’s leading design consultancies. He specialises in finding relevant user-centered insights to help inform the innovation and design process. This means that he gets to spend a lot of time nosing around people’s houses and lives! "My projects have taken me from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, India, China and beyond. I am privileged to be able to travel to unlikely destinations to observe and understand how products fit into people’s everyday lives. Then I get to help turn that research into products! Southampton gave me a solid platform of skills from which to progress. My design training helped develop my eye for user need and how design can solve problems, and marketing enabled me to communicate these benefits to others. The blending of these two disciplines is integral to the work I do today". Chris added. "I enjoyed the small class size and opportunity to develop my design skills while understanding the importance of building links between design solutions and practical industry needs. My practical workshop skills also landed me a job in a model-making studio in Sydney, which was great too."

International Collaboration

• Shanghai University of Engineering Science (SUES)
• Tsinghua University, China
• Milan Polytechnic University
• Norges Klatreforbund University, Norway.

Partner Affiliation Network

The Partner Affiliation Network is a group of companies aligned to each course area in the School of Design with the purpose of supporting a range of activities to help students engage with employers and gain relevant industrial experience. This is achieved through live project work, design competitions, work placements and guest speaker programmes.

All students studying on this course programme will have the opportunity to work with industry.

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