Collaborative learning by way of human-centered design in design classes

Abstract

The design classes are part of the bachelor curriculum of Brazilian Design. These classes are usually preceded by others that present the fundamentals and methodologies for product development. This paper adopted the human-centered design (HCD) for its potential to serve some of the needs and complexities of current projects and contexts. In order to foster rhetoric and multidisciplinarity among design students, collaborative learning emerges as an opportunity to practice design in a multidisciplinary way, due to the need to develop collaboration skills, as well as the transcendence of cognitive bias arising from individual activities. This article used knowledge construction processes in particular: the externalization and elicitation of task-relevant knowledge and consensus- building. Thus, the aim of this study is to propose an approach between design steps (taking HCD as the basis) and collaborative learning, based on their dimensions, in order to understand and address some of the current complexities and requirements of human, social aspirations and, consequently, projects. This approach demonstrates that the collaborative learning opportunity provided by the use of HCD can be driven by an adherence to the collaborative knowledge construction view. Real opportunities for the co-construction of new meanings stand out among the results of this approach, so that the learner can understand the complexities inherent to the design and to human beings, and can recognize and apply them in new and different situations.

Keywords: design education, human-centered design (HCD), collaborative learning, collaborative knowledge construction, design classes.