In this course you'll learn how to identify, interview, analyze, design for, and test with real people to measurably solve their problems.

User experience (UX) design is a research-informed practice which identifies groups of users with shared characteristics, defines and prioritizes their problems, and formulates metrics to evaluate the eventual success of a designed solution. Through prototyping and testing, the solution is improved with the goal of reaching the established metric. This complements more artisanal forms of design by elevating users’ needs above the designer’s, and creating objective means for evaluating the design’s success.

User interface (UI) design solves users’ problems with software. You’ll prototype two- or three-dimensional digital experiences, testing and refining them before presenting your UX and UI processes in a final presentation.

You may incorporate physical, auditory, or olfactory elements in your solution, but software is the main focus. We may touch on visual identity and branding in pursuit of more cohesive interfaces.

Requirements: Laptop, Figma account.

Elective

Cut through the hype and excitement surrounding generative AI by understanding for yourself what these tools can and cannot do. Through this course students will learn to understand, design, and build with generative AI. The class is a mix of theory and hands-on work. Students develop practical skills in designing, building, and testing with generative AI. Readings and discussions address key concepts in AI, their ethical implications, foundations in human computer interaction and human AI interaction, and design implications for creators. Students will experiment with bringing generative AI into their existing creative practice including writing, two-dimensional designs, illustrations, 3D, and product design. No previous experience with either the theory or use of AI is required but students will need to learn to use the tools through course tutorials and independent work.

Elective

Innovate and explore the world of soft goods (goods made with fabric, from handbags and stuffies to kites and blankets) without the slow limits of learning to harness sewing machines. Rouge Fibers throws out the rulebook on made-well and favors fast and rough experimentation with hand-stitching, heat welding, fusing, gluing, and weaving. We will emphasize iterative practices, focused on innovating with material and form, to create one-of-a-kind soft goods. 

In- class demos and workshops will equip students with techniques from traditional weaving and hand-sewing to darning and felt-forming. Students will create and fuse unconventional materials such as paper, non-wovens, bio plastics and natural fibers. Students will learn a variety of non-sewing construction techniques and introduce unconventional fastening methods of our own. 

For final projects, students will begin by defining their own design values, then learn how to incorporate them into their materials development and designs. The first 2-week project will be to create new materials, and joinery techniques, with an emphasis on novelty and innovation. Then, students will use these materials and techniques in two long-term design projects, one values-driven, and one fitting a niche market. Students will both work up from their design values towards a soft object and back down from a niche market-need to a market-fit product. We will learn how to present these works to honor the designers’ innovations. 

No major requirement or prior experience required, only a curious mind and desire to explore.  Students who have taken the Soft Goods class will be invited to advance their existing skills and learn new techniques.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $150.00

Elective

Dear Student,

No matter what professional design direction we choose, we will work with people. This studio is about cultivating a people-centric design practice. Public engagement is about listening, and is
an intricate process that informs decisions and approaches towards change.

We will begin by co-creating our studio’s space, and practice intentional methods for
collaboration and critique. Our first projects will be to find the tools and spaces where we already engage with people. We will learn about concepts like the ‘user’, then interrogate and integrate them meaningfully into our work through understanding our positionality, exercising question design, interview protocols and survey best practices.

Larger projects in this studio will include a collaboratively curated experience for our ID
community. We will practice prototyping with smaller sketch models, and at full scale with power tools and found materials. Assignments will be based on creating presentations, short videos, sketches, models and mapping tools. We will learn more about the city of Providence and other communities through case studies, documentaries, field trips, archives, walks and conversations with people. This studio is about finding unconventional connections by studying existing public engagement, learning about its historically complex and problematic contexts and systems, and ethnographic practices, and by designing intentional and inclusive experiences for people.

Sincerely,

Ayako Maruyama
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors were first conceptualized as story-based empathy-building devices by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, a renowned scholar in the field of sociologically engaged inclusive literature.

Windows represent the possibility of looking into another world, or another person’s experience. Mirrors represent the ways in which we might see ourselves reflected in the content or characters of a story. Sliding glass doors are emblematic of opportunities to not only view, but to step inside and inhabit an experience from a new perspective. In this course, we will delve into critical analysis through content, form, and practice in order to delve into the possibilities of multidisciplinary, multi-sensory storytelling. Through research, experimentation, prototyping, designed objects, facilitated experiences, and immersive environments, students will learn how to tell their own stories, advocate for stories that may be unheard, and imagine stories that we can aspire to.Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors were first conceptualized as story-based empathy-building devices by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, a renowned scholar in the field of sociologically engaged inclusive literature. 

Windows represent the possibility of looking into another world, or another person’s experience. Mirrors represent the ways in which we might see ourselves reflected in the content or characters of a story. Sliding glass doors are emblematic of opportunities to not only view, but to step inside and inhabit an experience from a new perspective. In this course, we will delve into critical analysis through content, form, and practice in order to delve into the possibilities of multidisciplinary, multi-sensory storytelling. Through research, experimentation, prototyping, designed objects, facilitated experiences, and immersive environments, students will learn how to tell their own stories, advocate for stories that may be unheard, and imagine stories that we can aspire to.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Design is often seen as neutral, sleek, and detached—but what happens when we reclaim it as a tool for protest, liberation, and authentic self-expression? In this social design course, we reject the sterile in favor of the deeply personal, exploring how our identities and lived experiences shape the way we create. We break down barriers between art and design, 2D and 3D, institution and student body, working across disciplines to foster a design practice that is engaged, intersectional, and community-driven. Through a three-part exploration—self, personal community, and wider community—students will develop both an individual project and a collaborative project of substance with a local community partner. Discussions with institutional leaders, Rhode Island-based artists, designers, and changemakers will deepen our understanding of how design can be leveraged for social impact.

This SEI-tagged course provides a space to engage with social justice topics such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and human rights in a collaborative and supportive environment. We center historically marginalized voices, welcoming QTPOC and those who have struggled to integrate their lived experiences into their creative work. Here, design is not just a profession—it is a practice of care, resistance, and transformation. Whether you are an artist, activist, or simply someone looking to make meaningful work, you will find a space to explore, create, and connect.
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Mainstream games, such as Monopoly and Settlers of Catan, normalize extractive relations while
creating bitter competition between players. Meanwhile tools used in “community engagement” and “participatory design” in architecture, design, and planning fields create illusions of choice and public approval by gamifying public processes. This studio asks, how can games encourage a different set of relations and be a medium through which folks of all ages can practice care, collaboration, and learning at the grassroots level?

After examining their positionalities and analyzing existing board games, students will work in teams to develop their own semi-cooperative board games. The game development process will be introduced in stages as students critically discuss how design can both help and/or harm people with relevant personal, social, and political perspectives. Deliverables will include concept sketches, worldbuilding stories, rulebooks, zines, physical crafted prototypes and components, and student-organized playtesting sessions. Students must consider how to align their design decisions with their core values and goals, how to source materials ethically and sustainably, and how might their game be played and produced in community - all while ensuring the game is playable and fun!
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Why did ancient Peruvians use knots to write numbers? How did Persians traditionally make ice without electricity? In this studio, we will examine these and other questions by recreating traditional technologies and examining different forms of knowledge from around the globe, in order to open the door for other viewpoints in our design practice.

We will begin the semester by exploring different cultural understandings of concepts like time and safety. After recreating some of these traditional technologies, we will then respectfully build new objects based on these ancient approaches.

In the second half of the semester, we will examine the specific cultures and subcultures that we each belong to and design new objects and technologies that spring from these different ways of being.

This studio will involve lots of hands-on exploration and thinking through making – please come with a curious and open mind and be ready to have some serious fun!
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Have we considered what it truly means to critique? This course explores the role of critique, dissects real-life cases and challenges existing methodologies to foster more just and equitable ways to look at design. We'll closely examine how professionals, clients, and stakeholders present and evaluate design work to critically reflect on methods within ID for ethical and inclusive practices. Engaging in workshops, role-playing, and discussions, students will reshape their understanding of design and critique, fostering decolonized, equitable, and empathetic approaches. By the conclusion of the studio students will have designed and developed tools and models for public and private critique. Students will be equipped with enriched perspectives and a comprehensive toolkit of critique and discussion methodologies that are continuously applicable in future practices.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

The ability to conceive and prepare for different future(s) is a vital human capability. Designers are frequently commissioned by multinational corporations, government agencies and cultural institutions for foresight and strategy work. But in times of uncertainty we all have to be futurists. This special topic studio will introduce students to the tools and techniques of foresight practice and discursive design. We will also examine afro-futurism, decolonised futures and participatory design to see how these practices are being used by communities and cultures rarely supported in futures practices. Students will finish the semester with designed objects and written products that support more resilient futures thinking.

If you have questions about the studio please do not hesitate to contact Charlie Cannon via email. cccannon@risd.edu.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Modern surroundings embody every aspect of our lived spaces, from the material surroundings of the clothes we wear, the objects that we cherish to the immaterial surroundings of networked mediated spaces (eg. Zoom, IG, AltspaceVR). The drive to simulate physical reality has led to more intuitive computational environments that more closely resemble the experience of the world around us yet is counterbalanced by the recognition of unpleasant effects of digital technologies such as anxiety and fatigue and the need for environments supportive of physical and mental health.  This course offers students an opportunity to learn CLO3D, an apparel and soft goods simulation software, in concert with other 3D capture and modeling tools, to explore the possibilities for the design of sensory surroundings, both material and immaterial. Readings and presentations on visual haptics, somatic therapy and neuroaesthetics will provide a theoretical framework to ground these material explorations. Textile skills (eg. sewing, knitting, embroidery), while not required, will probably lead to more meaningful explorations.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

This course is intended to introduce basic sewing skills and soft goods construction techniques in bag making and soft product design. Students will learn how to operate standard industrial sewing machines and create three-dimensional products from flat patterns. Fabric and notion selection for product performance will be taught as students learn to prototype and create final models of bags and soft products. Access to a portable sewing machine is suggested, as the eight industrial machines will be shared. You will be given some basic sewing supplies but can purchase additional materials based on your preferences.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Building off Metals I, this course equips industrial designers with essential metalworking skills to fabricate prototypes, simple tools, and functional hardware components. Techniques taught are designed to be useful both in a full metalworking studio and in a smaller more sparsely equipped studio. We will be working with brass, steel, and tool steel for each student to fabricate their own metal-marking scribe, an adjustable-angle pocket bevel, and a functional hardware component of their own design.

Through step-by-step instruction, we will understand the working characteristics of metals, mastering layout and marking techniques, and executing fundamental fabrication processes—including cutting, drilling, filing, sanding, silver brazing, and heat treating. 

Participants will gain confidence using a range of tools, from hand tools like hammers and files to shop equipment such as drill presses, band saws, stationary sanders, and oxy-acetylene torches.
By the end of the course, students will have not only refined their metalworking skills but also developed a deeper understanding of material properties, craftsmanship, and the integration of metal components into their design work.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Emergent Forms is a studio that invites students to explore form through a hands-on, material-driven design process. Working with a range of materials—each with its own structure, resistance, and expressive potential—students create prototypes as tools for thinking, testing, and discovery. The course encourages close observation of how forms evolve in nature—through movement, tension, repetition, and structure—and how those principles can inform human-made design. Through iterative making, students develop an understanding of space, proportion, and meaning, while also learning to understand themselves through design, reflect on their process, and communicate ideas with intention. Projects may range from tabletop objects to small furniture, giving students opportunities to work across scales while developing a personal design language—one that grows from curiosity, material sensitivity, and the intelligence of making.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

In a time of unprecedented biodiversity loss and ecological change, this studio course will challenge students to rethink traditional human-centered design approaches and imagine a world where designers can actively contribute to the protection and survival of the flora and fauna around us. As a result of human activity, it is estimated that one in four species are at risk of extinction – but is it possible that we can halt these losses through creative design solutions?

Together, we will envision a more symbiotic relationship between humans and nature. We will investigate already existing interventions for threatened species and better understand how designers are tackling these challenging issues. We will study critical topics such as habitat loss, decline of bird and pollinator populations, and shed light on often-overlooked animals that play significant roles in our ecosystems. Through observation, research, and insights from guest speakers and field trips, students will begin to develop and prototype their own design projects that may include the creation of analogous habitats in urban environments, pollinator-friendly support systems, or protective interventions that allow for coexistence between humans and animals. Completed projects will reimagine what design can do in a more-than-human world!
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

In many ways, biodesign introduces a fresh paradigm for our era. It’s design with/for biology! As such, biodesign promotes new forms of collaboration with living organisms, whether they are naturally evolved or lab-synthesized. Biodesign de-centers the dominant, yet limited, focus on humans that human-centered design championed at the turn of the century. It also eschews biomimicry, as it does not expect organisms to teach us or provide us with learning opportunities, nor serve us as merely models for emulation. Instead, its design tenets are biological principles that are observable in nature. Things grow and evolve, and are interdependent, so the products of biodesign are not thought of as ends in themselves. They’re part of a broader system or ecology that design aims to complement, or even enhance. As a result, biodesign projects are inherently complex, requiring multidisciplinary collaboration amongst specialists and generalists, including designers. This semester, we will explore biodesign across various scales, from molecules and materials to products and environments, while engaging with key pioneers in the field. No scientific background is required to succeed in this class.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Students learn to explore form with low fidelity hand sketching and high fidelity thinking. Hand sketching processes students learn provide a vehicle to explore different opportunities for forms, shapes, and structural systems. This drawing process helps narrow down and evolve the best ideas and form choices for a design need. After learning this drawing process, it improves a person’s ability to sketch by hand. Even for people that think they do not have the natural talent to hand sketch will gain confidence when learning this process. 

As far as design workflow, this drawing process is often beneficial before building ideas to CAD or other high fidelity design tools. Successful CAD work often starts with first having reference hand sketches that clearly define the structural systems, forms and proportions of an idea. Form is not an endless spectrum, when making decisions and developing ideas these hand sketching methodologies help people to explore form options in an organized and scientific manner. This type of drawing starts as a concept in the brain, and often the new object is not fully seen until it is drawn first, hence “draw and see”. Throughout the semester students use this process to generate ideas around self-selected product categories.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

In a rapidly changing world, industrial design faces the pressing challenge of sustainability amidst growing environmental and economic crises. Given the energy-intensive nature of glass production, rethinking its role in modern design has become essential. This course delves into the complexities of the glass recycling industry, exploring how waste glass can serve as a cornerstone in the transition to sustainable product design practices.

Using waste glass as the primary material, students will examine how circular economy principles can reshape product design by minimizing waste, maximizing resource efficiency, and extending the lifecycle of materials. Through this lens, the course will explore how designers can embrace local, circular solutions that reduce environmental impact while empowering local economies. We will also critically engage with the role of decolonization in design, addressing the deeply entrenched colonial frameworks of production and consumption that shape global industries today.

By the end of the course, students will have developed innovative product designs using recycled glass, reflecting on sustainability, circular economy principles, and the importance of decolonizing design practices.

Elective

During this course we will examine natural environments, systems, processes, and organisms with an intent to design a more circular, and less harmful human-planet experience. Students will embark on a creative and rigorous exploration and application of the deep biomimicry and biodesign methodology as a pathway towards innovative materials, products, manufacturing methods, services, and experiences.These materials and methods will be placed in context to support the Hyundai Motor Group’s theme of future structures, creating solutions that demonstrate our discoveries’ real world applications in the fields of mobility and manufacturing.A close partnership with the RISD Nature Lab and the ID Department will provide access to the expertise and equipment necessary to complete our research.This course features a series of guest lectures and demonstrations throughout the semester to provide insight into the different arms of the quickly expanding field of biodesign and regenerative design, as well as expert guest critics.

Note: The activities in this course are a continuation of Fall research conducted in the HMG sponsored course. SCI 1116 - The Language of Design in Nature is a prerequisite.

Elective

During this course we will examine natural environments, systems, processes, and organisms with an intent to design a more circular, and less harmful human-planet experience. Students will embark on a creative and rigorous exploration and application of the deep biomimicry and biodesign methodology as a pathway towards innovative materials, products, manufacturing methods, services, and experiences.These materials and methods will be placed in context to support the Hyundai Motor Group’s theme of future structures, creating solutions that demonstrate our discoveries’ real world applications in the fields of mobility and manufacturing.A close partnership with the RISD Nature Lab and the ID Department will provide access to the expertise and equipment necessary to complete our research.This course features a series of guest lectures and demonstrations throughout the semester to provide insight into the different arms of the quickly expanding field of biodesign and regenerative design, as well as expert guest critics.

Note: The activities in this course are a continuation of Fall research conducted in the HMG sponsored course. SCI 1116 - The Language of Design in Nature is a prerequisite.

Elective