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Discover the IDE Bachelor

Design is in our DNA. Since the dawn of time humans have been using their hands and brains to shape the world around us. From the most basic Stone Age tools, to the most sophisticated of smart phones. Design has the capacity to change the world and improve human life. But as the pace of technological change increases and the complexity of problems grows, design must not only keep pace, but also anticipate and shape the future world.

On this page you can discover how the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering rises to the challenge and prepares the designers of tomorrow.

Besides the pilars people, technology and organisation, the renewed Bachelor programme is redesigned around two principles:

  • Always Designing
    People learn how to design by continuously doing design. Therefore the backbone of the curriculum is design projects for every semester of the programme, which tackle different complex challenges. In the design projects IDME is integrated. This is a learning line, in which you will explore and embrace your role as design engineer in order to become a self-conscious designer.  
  • Adopt an active learning attitude
    An eagerness to keep on learning is fundamental for a designer. Our teaching methods aim to stimulate an active learning stance, while students are challenged to take responsibility for their own learning process and development.

Even though these points are at the core of IDE, each semester will have a different emphasis. Curious to find our more about these themes and the content of the courses? Click onto the semester pages and discover IDE!

Want to read more about why and how to enrol? Click here!

Semester 1 >

Semester 1

Introduction to IDE

Welcome to the Industrial Design Engineering’s (IDE) bachelor’s programme. In the first design project, you start with small projects to learn about the different aspects within the field of design. After these mini projects, you design a product within clearly set boundaries. In the parallel courses, you learn the basics of the three pillars of design – people, organisations, and technology. Next to this, you get to know how we see design within our faculty, what our visions is and how complex the field of design has become.

By framing the domains, the complex field of design becomes manageable. The more you learn, the more you see these pillars are interconnected.

Design Project 1 – Diving into Design

Let’s unpack design. What is design really about? As a designer, what motivates you, what are you curious about, what challenges you, what scares you? Through experiential learning, this course will lay the foundation for the bachelor’s programme, creating an understanding and a context for what is to come.

Understanding Product Engineering

When you look at an object, what do you see? The exterior is what meets the eye, but this course aims to explore what’s behind, underneath or inside. To take a physical object and do a product autopsy, with the goal of developing an understanding and appreciation for how products are made.

Understanding Design

Design is all around us, not just in objects, but in everything that we see or do. It’s ambitious to try and understand what it really is. This course offers an introductory encounter with the field of design. It’s a sense-making exploration to provide a framework and a toolkit, preparing students for their studies and beyond. Welcome to Design 101.

Understanding Organisations

Organisations are somewhat like trees, with trunks and branches that extend in different directions. By understanding the trunk, designers can begin to grow new shoots and branches. That means helping to shape organisations creatively and responsibly by devising new key collective goals and designs to address the challenges of our time.

Understanding Humans

Design for humans, with humans, and from a human perspective. In order to design well for people, it is essential to understand them. This course is an exploration through personal experience of building an understanding of human theory. By getting to know yourself you can better understand others and apply this in design practice.

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Semester 2

Product-service systems

After the first products are designed in Semester 1, it’s time to take the next step. This includes exploring the digital side in Semester 2.

By quickly going through design iterations, product-services are  designed. The knowledge taught in Semester 1 is  expanded upon in the parallel courses in this semester. The interaction between people and digital technology will play a central role in this.

You also learn how to conduct research for design projects and how to create value with a product-service for a user and an organisation. By the end of the year, you will have taken your first steps towards embracing complexity.

Design Project 2 - Designing Product Services

These days digital technologies are everywhere. Designers need to understand them in order be leaders in creating innovative solutions. This course is about agile design and innovation approaches in the context of digital product service systems. It’s about looking to the future and creating impact and value in a responsible way. Let’s get digital.

Digital Interfaces

Technology is a hungry beast, fed by more and more products becoming technology enabled and connected over time. The interface of product service systems is where humans and machines (or technology) meet by interacting. By understanding human-computer interaction, designers can mediate the user experience and find solutions to challenges both great and small.

Research for Design

Human-Centred Design is a process that begins with investigating users, their needs, and the systems around them. Research is an integral part of the process, which helps establish a well-defined problem so that you can design the right solution. And good research requires curiosity, open-mindedness and an eye for what’s going on in the world around.

Understanding Values

Design is never neutral. There are always (un)intended consequences that can be social, ethical or political in nature. This course aims to bring awareness of how to deal with the complex global issues the world is facing. Helping students to master the different nuances and start embracing them. Learning to design with intent and a sense of moral responsibility.

Intelligent Products

Programming is not just for computer scientists any more. Being a designer in this rapidly evolving digital world doesn’t mean you need to be a software developer. But, learning basic digital knowledge and skills will prepare you to fully and confidently engage with stakeholders throughout the product development process.

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Semester 3

Sustainable Impact

At the start of the second year you develop your first product-service within a system. Following this, you create an innovative design from a sustainability perspective to improve the system. This semester highlights how the pillars of people, technology, and organisations are always connected.

You will expand your technical knowledge, which will allow you to create more dynamic designs. In addition to this, you learn the important role data plays in the design process, how people learn to look to the future, and how to take aspects of sustainability into account.

You learn about the impact designers can have on the world and how students can make independent choices in the fourth semester.

Design Project 3 - Designing System Interventions

Design is no longer simply about making stand-alone products. Nowadays, products become part of complex product systems and services involving multiple stakeholders. Changing one thing in a system is like a chain reaction; it effects the system on all kinds of levels. This course explores how the role of the designer changes when designing...

Sustainable Impact

Get ready to leave behind the idea that design is only form and function with no other consequences. All products have environmental and social impacts, which can no longer be ignored—considering them is increasingly crucial for all human endeavours, especially manufacturing, business and design. This course opens your eyes to the environmental and social impacts of the products you design, and then gives you tools to improve them.

Data

Data is intertwined in many aspects of everyday life. It is connected to people, things and organisations, forming a data ecology. Think of this course as a sort of safari through ‘data-land’, observing the various sources and uses for data. In the end, discover how data plays an important role as a material in the design process.

Envisioning the Future

What will the world look like in five, ten or even fifty years? Design is by nature a future oriented activity. This course offers a better understanding of how design changes the world in very material ways. Open your eyes, explore different ways of thinking, and create your own vision of the future.

Product Engineering

Products around us are becoming increasingly complex, with more electronics in them. They can seem like black boxes – we know what they do, but not how they do it. This course explores the dynamic behaviour of products, looking inside to see how they work. And it aims to show that understanding complex products doesn’t have to be complicated.

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Semester 4

Follow your own path

By the time you begin your fourth semester you will have a solid grasp of the complexity of the design field. In this semester, emphasis is placed on social themes.  The goal is to change the system by designing interventions for social problems. The focus is on one stakeholder, as well as the other parties involved. You’ll learn that it is important to reflect upon your own position within design processes.

In addition to the design project, there are elective courses that deepen the knowledge in four themes: People, Organisations, Technology and Skills. This way you can choose courses that fit your personal interests. The electives run alongside the design project and because not everyone takes the same courses, you’ll learn from each other. You’ll notice that this broad knowledge can play an important role in your development as a designer and the development of your project.

Design Project 4 – Design for Society

Design can actually make the world a better place. But when it comes to tackling complex societal issues with networks of stakeholders, how does it work in practice? This course challenges students to think about their role as designers and how they can contribute to effecting positive change in society.

Electives Organisation

Business Model Design

This is not about business as usual. When it comes to design, what are business models, how can they be designed and what challenges and opportunities do they present? This course aims to inspire new ways of thinking about business model design, encouraging you to choose innovation over copy and paste.

Strategic Brand Management

There’s a lot more to branding than most people think. In fact, brands define and guide the strategic direction of organisations, drive innovation, and even influence the marketplace. And designers play a valuable role in cultivating a meaningful brand that resonates with customers and sets it apart from the competition.

Codesign in Services

Designing services calls for a different way of doing things. Instead of designing for people, it’s about designing with people. This course focuses on codesign, engaging stakeholders from the very beginning in actively cocreating new service concepts. As a designer, it’s about understanding how and when to use this participatory approach, as well as understanding the value it brings to an organisation.

Electives Technology

Machine Learning for Design

Few technologies throughout human history have had a transformative impact on society. Machine learning, a form of Artificial Intelligence, can be one of them. If designers want to help shape a better future, they should master this technology. This course seeks to make that possible.

Materials & Manufacturing

Imagine using a starch-based material to make an edible lunch box. Or designing a bio-based cover for a tablet. Why not use a corn starch-sand mixture to make a flower pot or a mussel shell composite to 3D-print a ceramic lamp? This course examines the use of bio-based materials, making new materials through the re-use of waste streams.

Mechatronics

Building a bridge between the physical and digital world, mechatronics integrates mechanics, electronics and computing. It can be found in a simple electric kettle that automatically shuts off at a certain temperature or a high-tech drone that sends images to a smart phone. This course explores using synergy to create smart, affordable, reliable and versatile consumer products in a human-centred way.

Electives Skills

Mastering Research Methods

Scientific reasoning is crucial in today’s society. So, for designers, developing scientific literacy is a vital tool. This course aims to unlock a curiosity towards understanding the value of arguments and information. To trigger enthusiasm for scientific research. Teaching you to use new wings while falling down a rabbit hole of information.

Leadership & Project Organisation

Realising design project goals takes more than being a good designer. In the real world, knowing how to work with teams, collaborate with stakeholders, and organise and manage a project is essential. Throw yourself into an immersive experience to develop strong leadership and organisational skills and find out what kind of leader you will be.

Computer-Aided Design

The words entrepreneurship and innovation usually bring to mind an outcome. Perhaps a new company or a novel design. But what about the behaviour that leads to those innovations, bridging the gap between ideas and realisation? Let’s demystify what this means and gain a deeper understanding by exploring design-driven entrepreneurial behaviour within organisations.

Electives People

Culture & Society

Design does not take place in a vacuum. In fact, designers operate in an entangled world. If we look at the world as complex environments or ecologies consisting of multiple people, products and systems which are entangled, unpredictable and interdependent, what does that mean for design? To find out, we have to look at the big picture.

Experience, Motivation & Behaviour

Why do people do what they do? Understanding this is critical when it comes to creating impactful designs. It starts with comprehending how things work inside the mind and how external factors influence people. This course explores human behaviour, motivation and experience from a psychological perspective, helping designers to influence and support people towards certain behaviours.

Human Factors & Ergonomics

Humans and their interactions in sociotechnical systems are complicated. So, when designing for human use, understanding the relationship between people and technology and environments is crucial. Through a scientific and systems approach, this course explores human complexities from a physical, cognitive, perceptual, and organisational perspective and teaches how to apply this in the design process.

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Semester 5

Minor

During the 5th semester, students will do a minor. You can choose to stay at IDE, follow a minor at another faculty of the TU Delft, broaden your knowledge by following a minor at a different university, or even go abroad.

The link below will bring you to the minor page of Industrial Design Engineering.

Minor IO

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Semester 6

Position yourself as a designer

The final year of the bachelor’s programme is devoted to personal development and freedom of choice. For example, in this semester you can choose a minor within your own faculty, at another Dutch university, or you can even go abroad for six months.

After this six-month period, everyone returns to the faculty and there is again room for electives. These can deepen and/or broaden your knowledge and skills and are chosen based on your own interests.

Once you finish your electives, it’s time for the Bachelor Final Project. During this project, you choose the route you want to take. You get to choose the case, the design process, and the methodologies you want to use. The knowledge and skills you have gained over the past five semesters will be utilised and highlighted in your bachelor final project. Next to this, this is the last opportunity to learn the last new things.

Bachelor Final Project

This is your chance to show what you’ve got, to express yourself as the designer that you are. The bachelor’s final project is a culmination of three years of learning and experiencing which you apply to solving a real-world challenge. It’s about demonstrating your journey of being, belonging and becoming.

Biomechanics of Product Use

The musculoskeletal system is basically the mechanics of a person. And people are as different on the inside as we are on the outside. By understanding anatomy and what goes on inside the human body, designers can account for physical factors when it comes to product innovation. It’s technical but with a human touch.

Design Engineering Contest

Building a robot to compete in a challenge sounds like fun. But what if you have limited resources and time? This course is a simulation of a real-life design engineering experience. How to make something work with what you’ve got. It’s about nitty-gritty, nuts and bolts creative engineering but also about the roles people play in a team.

Identity & Portfolio

Like a voyager searching for treasure, this course is an adventure of sorts. A journey of self-awareness as you discover your identity as a designer. Identity is a valuable asset that can be used as a source of inspiration, a compass that guides you in creating a portfolio that not only presents your work but who you are as a designer.

Design Analytics

What does it take to make an existing design even better? Design is a perpetual process. This course is not about creating something, but instead begins by exploring what happens after the first iteration. Through the design analytics process, learn to observe and analyse interactive products and services to find creative ways of improving their design.

Design for the Circular Economy

In nature, there is no such thing as waste. Think of a tree and how its leaves grow and fall, but they become nutrients for something else. That’s the core idea that inspires the circular economy. So how can we design products in the way that nature does? This course prepares students to play a key role in designing out waste and transitioning to a circular economy.

Reimagining Mobility

Human beings are travelling all the time. Sometimes we move with a purpose, to get from point A to point B and sometimes we just need to move. What role can mobility play in relation to society? In this course we try envision meaningful mobility solutions that harmonise people and different transportation modalities, reimagining the future of mobility.

Design Communication & Visualisation

Being able to visualise something that does not yet exist is crucial for designers. Because in design, ideas are communicated through drawings and visual representations. This course teaches skills and techniques aimed at creating and communicating designs. It’s about building visual literacy and helping you develop a signature for yourself as a designer.

Form & Senses

When it comes to design, there’s definitely more than meets the eye. This course explores how senses other than sight, like hearing and touch, play a role in designing products. Discover how sound design, texture design and light design can influence form and create a multi-sensory user experience.

Design Didactics

Just as there is no single way of learning, there is no universal way of teaching. But when it comes to teaching design, didactics can help with finding the best method for different situations. It’s about adjusting the knowledge and the theory to the student that is in front of you. And in this course, it’s students teaching students.

Health

Understanding your target group is critical in design. It can be extra challenging when designing for healthcare as the landscape is a complex system of stakeholders with unique perspectives. This course will help you navigate and understand the complexities involved, challenging you to find your own perspective as a designer in the field of healthcare.
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