Design for Life Experience: Food

Designers give shape to objects, and objects shape the life of people.

This Industrial Design class, taught by Marco Susani, is a hands-on design studio, focused on designing complex, functional, mass-manufactured consumer products, using the same methods that would be applied in a professional design studio.

By defining the shape, the functions, and the interaction with an object, students define the shape of an experience, they consider the user’s ‘life with the object’, and they build their designs around the ‘story’ that the object will tell, and the values that the object will propose to its user.

The brief of the project is to design a collection of small kitchen appliances.

In the research phase, students analyze the food preparation experience at home, looking at 1. users and their profile, 2. product functions and use, and 3. context, the space of the kitchen and dining room.

Then, student teams select one product each, design its physical shape, and select materials, colors and finishes.

Later, students design the product’s user interface: buttons, knobs, displays, and they define the sequence of use, the storyboard of the interaction between the user and the product.

Finally, they review all designs as a brand language exercise, revisiting the design to fit with the brand coordination of a hypothetical company, including developing concepts of branding, packaging, digital experience, service, and retail.

Instructor:

Marco Susani