Key Takeaways

• This report identifies AI/Machine Learning and sensory design technologies as two emerging trends that represent a challenge for educational institutions deciding how best to incorporate them into their course curricula.
• Of the two, the potential of AI/Machine Learning technologies is perhaps best understood and the Carnegie Mellon College of Art provides a good example of how they have been incorporated into classroom learning.

•  Sensory design technology is in its very early stages and we did not find any educational institutions that incorporate it in their design courses.
• Its nascent life-cycle stage represents an opportunity for educational institutions to become a 'first mover' in the field by being among the first to incorporate it into their teaching programs. Samsung is commercializing this technology.

Introduction

What Do We Mean by Design?

• To avoid confusion, we make cleat at the outset that by 'design thinking' we mean 'human-centric' thinkingy.
• In the context of work, McKinsey urges companies to cultivate a culture of customer-centricity if the expect to deliver best-in-class customer experience. Outperformers adopt design thinking, consider the customer in every decision they make, and enable all employees to clearly articulate the value of building customer/user experience (CX/UX) skills and capabilities.
• A McKinsey study of 300 public companies that analyzed 2 million pieces of financial data and 100,000 design ;actions' over a 5-year period found that those with the strongest commitment to design and the most adept execution of design principles had 32% more revenue and 56% more total returns to shareholders.

 

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Trend 1 - Incorporate AI & Machine Learning into Course Curricula

• Earlier this century, virtual reality and UI/UX were emerging trends in the world of design. Now they are established domains with thousands of practitioners working as specialist designers.

• These technologies are selected because they are assuming the significance VR and UI/UX enjoyed earlier this century and because they are expected to drive design in the decades ahead.

• Golan Levin, professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry says the CMU College of Art has started to integrate machine learning into its curriculum. Coding is now a foundational requirement for art and design students.
• CMU offers hybrid undergraduate degree programs in computer science and art where students major in both fine art and machine learning, allowing them to explore how these technologies can be used for artistic inquiry.
• Students can gain an initial understanding of the power of machine learning for free online by accessing experimental web projects like the Teachable Machine, an experimental web project by Google. This tool makes creating machine learning models fast, easy, and accessible to everyone.

• These new technologies are already being commercialized. For example, Adobe Sensei is an artificial intelligence and machine learning platform offered by Adobe. It uses AI and machine learning to make it easier for designers to create, collaborate, customize images, make informed decisions, and target marketing campaigns for better results. It allows designers to make edits quicker and with greater precision. It also allows them to find the right content with smart search and achieve more photo realistic effects.
• A video describing demonstrating this technology is available here.
• Adobe Sensei powers a functionality in Adobe Target known as Automated Personalization. It can analyze a company's customer information bank in real-time to discover the recommendations, services, and experiences that will best resonate with each customer, individually.
• “People think of artificial intelligence as delivering experiences that are very robotic and strictly defined, but it’s actually the opposite,” says McLaughlin. “With Adobe Sensei, we’re drawing a direct line from customer intelligence to personalized experiences that are valuable, and relevant.

• In addition to the CMU College of Art and Adobe, the value od AI and machine learning technology is acknowledged by respected industry leaders such as IBM, Coco Cola, Marriott International, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Harvard Business New Review, the Head of Digital Decisioning and Analytics at Sky UK, Japan Airlines, Swisscom, Ben & Jerry's, Land Rover, US Census Bureau.

Trend 2 - Sensory Design

•  Sensory design is another emerging trend in the field of design. This technology is in its very early stages and we did not find any educational institutions that incorporate it in their design courses.

• It involves adopting a more sensory comprehensive approach to design, beyond mere visual imagery alone, to include touch, taste, sound, and smell to heighten user engagement.
• This technology is selected because it is at a nascent stage and represents an opportunity for educational institutions to become a 'first mover' in the field.

 

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• The approach aims to facilitate a total or comprehensive sensory experience of a product. It involves measuring a users' opinion of a product in terms of tactility, appearance, and if relevant, taste, sound, and smell.
• If this trend takes hold, logos and infographics made by graphic designers in the future may, for example, include a tactile component.
•  Smartphone manufacturers have been begun developing screens that warp and distort to make images on screen more engaging or experiential.
•  Haptic technology (aka kinaesthetic communication or 3D touch) refers to a range of technologies that can create sensory experience for users as a result of them touching an object or product. The experience may be created by applying forces such as vibrations or motions to the user.
• Haptic devices incorporate tactile sensors that measure forces exerted by the user on the interface. Examples of haptic devices already in use include steering wheels, game controllers, and joysticks.
• The word haptic is from Greek and means 'tactile, pertaining to the sense of touch".

Additional Comment

• An established trend that represents a serious challenge for paid design courses is the growing number and enormous popularity of free online design courses.
• A list of 10 free online design courses is available here.

Research Strategy

Key Takeaways

• According to the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), the growing trend for inclusivity and accessibility in design education and the design sector, in general, involves the mindset of designing for all users to the greatest extent possible, regardless of their age, size, ability, disability, or race.
• In 2021, Dr. Eric Moore, an educator and an internationally-acclaimed expert in the field of universal learning design, contributed to a discussion on "helping higher educational institutions build with more inclusive design practices from inception", and explored linkages with accessibility, equity, and inclusion.
• According to Carrie Sownie in 2021, ethical design revolves around "designing great products alongside your morals and beliefs and the principles of your business. What you create, whether a website, a marketing campaign or a product, affects real people and those effects can create ripples."
• Anaconda in its "2020 State of Data Science Survey" from over 100 countries revealed that about 22% and 27% of data practitioners consider the infringement on user privacy and social impact aspect associated with artificial intelligence and machine learning as the biggest problem that needs urgent attention. Also, a global research publication by Accenture in 2020 for over 30,000 customers indicates that 66% and 62% of consumers are attracted to brands that are transparent and, offer strong, authentic ethical values respectively.

Introduction

1. Universal Design for Inclusivity and Accessibility

• According to the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), the growing trend for inclusivity and accessibility in design education and the design sector, in general, involves the mindset of designing for all users to the greatest extent possible, regardless of their age, size, ability, disability, or race. Thus, the Center for Excellence in Universal Design describes universal design as "the composition of an environment so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability, or disability."
• These are designs that conform to low physical effort, have tolerance for error, perceptible information, simple and intuitive use, flexibility in use, size and space for approach and use, and can be put to equitable use. These constitute the 7 universal design principles propounded by a working group of product designers, architects, engineers, and researchers with environmental design backgrounds.
• This trend is driven by market crossover success, increasing market reach, enhanced customer satisfaction and retention, compliance with legal and ethical standards, positive public image, and increasing expectation of consumers.
• Examples of organizations participating in this trend, advancing conversations, consultancy, and training in the growing need for universal design for inclusivity and accessibility include the Center for Accessible Environments in the United Kingdom, Japan's International Association for Universal Design, the CAST Centre for Universal Design for Learning, Ireland's Institute for Design and Disability, and the Center for Universal Design, College of Design, North Carolina State University in the United States.
• In 2021, Joshua Kim in his article published on Inside Higher Ed, titled; "Universal Design for Learning After COVID-19", said, "the immediate post-COVID-19 opportunity to prioritize universal learning design (UDL) on an institutional level is an opportunity not likely to come again." As a result, pro-UD organizations and institutions alike are contributing to the increasing demand for universal designs in academic institutions of learning as well as in the world of work, including the Universal Design for Learning at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, and the Dartmouth's universal design in education.

 

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• In 2020, Blackorby and Marino in their peer-reviewed article projected universal design as an opportunity in times of the Covid-19 crisis, highlighting the role of UD for learning in education redesigning. According to McKinsey's 2020 research that analyzed over 2,000 tasks in 800 occupations in 8 eight countries, only 20-25% of the workforce in advanced economies could work from home between 3-5 days per week, representing a 4-5 times increment in the need for remote work. Thus, issues of universal design for inclusivity and accessibility in education and the corporate environment remain key to achieving pre-pandemic outcomes.
• According to Wold in 2022, "with equity, diversity, and inclusion at the forefront of many conversations, we are seeing a continued push toward non-gendered or private spaces, including restrooms and locker rooms, in addition to access to career-ready curriculum (CTE, Industrial Tech, etc.) to provide students with a more well-rounded experience and better prepare them for careers following graduation."

• In 2021, Dr. Eric Moore, an educator and an internationally-acclaimed expert in the field of universal learning design, contributed to a discussion on "helping higher educational institutions build with more inclusive design practices from inception", and explored linkages with accessibility, equity, and inclusion.
• In 2021, Stephanie Moore in a study revealed that "universal design emerged out of a collective effort across various disciplines to develop design standards for making buildings and physical infrastructure more broadly accessible to as many users as possible."

2. Growing need for Ethical Designs

• According to Carrie Sownie in 2021, ethical design revolves around "designing great products alongside your morals and beliefs and the principles of your business. What you create, whether a website, a marketing campaign or a product, affects real people and those effects can create ripples."
• The drivers for ethical designs are "culture, society, and politics, as status quo shifts for the normalization of what is considered ethical." Constant changes in the world occasionally shift the ways of doing things and demand for principles bordering on adherence to ethical standards increases correspondingly; ethics in the triple bottom line (protecting people and the planet while making a profit). These ethical principles hinge on usability, accessibility, transparency and persuasion, privacy, sustainability, focus, and user involvement, among others, ultimately feeding into the achievement of respect, human experience, efforts, and human rights principles.

 

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• Some notable inhibitors to the clamor for ethical designs include the complex nature of ethical designs, lack of time and financial muscle to see the ethical design through, whose responsibility it is to ensure designs are ethical, and the general inconvenient tag associated with them.
• In 2020, the World Economic Forum in partnership with Deloitte and the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Santa Clara University has been advancing conversations around ethics by design as a comprehensive approach to responsible technology use. According to Jarod Lanier, a partner architect at Microsoft said, "I don’t think technology by itself improves people’s lives. Unless there’s commensurate ethical and moral improvements to go along with it, it’s for naught. In 2020, the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy published an article to highlight issues on ethics and its role in the growing use of artificial intelligence and robotics, raising critical questions about their designs, application, and associated risks.
• According to PEW Research, about 68% of industry experts in 2021 declared that "ethical principle focused primarily on the public goodwill not be employed in most AI systems by 2030", including Amy Webb, CEO of Future Today Institute, and Stowe Boyd, Consulting futurist expert in technological evolution. Additionally, Prof. Marcel Fafchamps, Senior fellow at the Center on Democracy, at Stanford University, said, “AI is just a small cog in a big system. The main danger currently associated with AI is that machine learning reproduces past discrimination.” In 2021, Stephenie Moore in a publication adds saying that, "the design models we have are not the design models we need," and that ethics in design presents an opportunity to "see design models anew and reconsider design practices."
• Moore in 2021 adds that "complicating matters, many schools, and universities purchased proctoring software, which introduced additional ethical issues around student privacy, discrimination, and data rights, and that College decisions to reopen in Fall 2020 were largely unrelated to COVID-19 infection and mortality rates; rather, politics and fiscal concerns about the impact on enrollments played a larger role in decisions on reopening."
• Anaconda in its "2020 State of Data Science Survey" from over 100 countries revealed that about 22% and 27% of data practitioners consider the infringement on user privacy and social impact aspect associated with artificial intelligence and machine learning as the biggest problem that needs urgent attention. Also, a global research publication by Accenture in 2020 for over 30,000 customers indicates that 66% and 62% of consumers are attracted to brands that are transparent and, offer strong, authentic ethical values respectively. A European Union report corroborated by the Ellen McArthur Foundation indicates that about 80% of the environmental impacts of products can be catered for at the product design phase, leading to calls for responsible production and product redesigning calls amidst doubts from industry experts.

Research Strategy

Key Takeawys

• Machine learning aids in improving student outcomes by changing the way educational institutions track student performance and detect problems. Personalized learning techniques enabled by machine learning would allow educators to customize learning paths for individual pupils. Universities are using ML to improve the campus experience and help self-service capabilities.
• The sensory design would aid in preventing sensory overload. Combining music, pictures, and moving user interface elements might be fun, but it can also backfire. Introducing sensory features while a user is looking for information or engaging with material may be distracting. Sensory aspects might be misleading, depending on the situation. They should boost UX rather than overwhelm it in either case.
• The growing trend for inclusivity and accessibility in design education and the design sector in general, according to the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), involves the mindset of designing for all users to the greatest extent possible, regardless of their age, size, ability, disability, or race.
• Many factors contribute to the ethical design being overlooked or ignored. Some may argue that it is inconvenient, too complicated, or that time and money are in short supply.

Introduction

Trend 1 - Incorporate AI & Machine Learning into Course Curricula

•  Change is an inevitable factor, and design technology has grown from simple graphic software to complex graphic software and concepts like Figma and UI/UX.
•  This technology has further evolved to use Artificial intelligence and machine learning. Machine learning is a “field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed”
•  Machine learning is already driving the next decade of digital product design in the same way smartphones defined the previous decade. ML consists of an algorithm that analyzes patterns in existing or previous data and makes future predictions, enabling designers to stay on trend and cope with an increase in demand.

•  Machine Learning aids in the automation of time-consuming, repetitive operations that defy the boundaries of human labor cost and attention span.
•  Machine learning might be able to provide a new sort of expert system that complements and aids people. In the case of design, The computer may suggest a different layout or color palette that aligns with the designer's efforts.
•  Machine learning is also helpful in providing insight into how users are classified. The designer may then use this understanding to examine data on a group-by-group basis. Different design aspects can be tested in groups or rolled out to a specific group.
•  Machine learning aids in improving student outcomes by changing the way educational institutions track student performance and detect problems. Personalized learning techniques enabled by machine learning would allow educators to customize learning paths for individual pupils. Universities are using ML to improve the campus experience and help self-service capabilities.
•  Outside of the classroom, AI applications can assist students in sharpening their talents by helping them work on weak areas. They provide one-on-one experiential learning without the teacher being present at all day hours to answer questions.

•  Artificial intelligence solutions are in high demand in the education sector because of the proliferation of smart devices and the quickly rising digitization trend across many sectors.
•  The paucity of skilled professionals, high investment costs, and an increase in the threat to data security owing to the increased frequency of cyber-attacks are all projected to stymie the growth of artificial intelligence in the education industry.

Trend 2 - Sensory Design

• As earlier stated in the future of working and learning trends part 1 and 2, Sensory design is another emerging trend in design. This entails including touch, taste, and smell in the design process in addition to visual consumption.
•  Touch, sound, smell, taste, and the body's wisdom are all activated by sensory design. Regardless of our sensory skills, the sensory design enhances everyone's ability to receive information, explore the world, and feel joy, wonder, and social relationships.
• Sensory design technology is still at its early stage and hasn't been adopted by educational institutes.
•  Sensory learning spaces are designed to calm or stimulate students, and students can completely participate and engage in learning experiences in sensory learning spaces.

•  The sensory design would aid in preventing sensory overload. Combining music, pictures, and moving user interface elements might be fun, but it can also backfire. Introducing sensory features while a user is looking for information or engaging with material may be distracting. Sensory aspects might be misleading, depending on the situation. They should boost UX rather than overwhelm it in either case.
•  The sensory design may lead to different product strategies. Many businesses provide one-time features to build publicity, but gimmicks quickly lose their allure. Designing with your senses isn't a gimmick. It's a design project based on human cognition's scientific reality. As a result, it should be an early part of a product's strategic vision.
•  Smartphone manufacturers have begun designing screens that twist and distort visuals to make them more interesting or immersive.
•  Haptic technology, also known as kinaesthetic communication or 3D touch, refers to a group of technologies that allow consumers to have a sensory experience by touching an object or product. The user may be subjected to forces such as vibrations or motions in order to produce the experience.

•  The major driver of this technology is the fact that It is still in its inception, but it offers educational institutions the chance to be "first movers" in the industry.
• An inhibitor to researchers in the field is the expanding number, and the great popularity of free online design courses is an established trend that poses a severe challenge to paid design courses.

Trend 3 - Universal Design for Inclusivity and Accessibility

•  The growing trend for inclusivity and accessibility in design education and the design sector in general, according to the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC), involves the mindset of designing for all users to the greatest extent possible, regardless of their age, size, ability, disability, or race.
•  Universal Design suggests a dynamic and growing approach to the creation of accessible, understandable, and usable settings for as many people as possible.
• Accessible means that a person with a disability can obtain the same information, interact with the same people, and use the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and integrated way, with substantially equivalent ease of use.

•  Universal design aims at increasing market search by creating a design that is accessible, usable, and appealing to the widest possible audience. This has a number of implications, one of which is a wider market reach.
• It enhances customer satisfaction and retention, thereby increasing sales as a satisfied customer will tell other people about a satisfying product or service.
• A company that uses a universal design approach to make a beneficial contribution to society is likely to gain a reputation for having a high level of corporate social responsibility.

• A major inhibitor is the pressure to prepare people for success on standardized tests.

Trend 4 - Growing need for Ethical Designs

•  Ethical design, according to Carrie Downie in 2021, relies around on "Designing amazing goods while keeping your business's values and ideals in mind. What you make, whether it's a website, a marketing campaign, or a product, has real-world consequences, and those consequences can cause ripples."
•  Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors, and Satisfaction are the five key components of usability, according to Jakob Nielsen. Designers also have a moral commitment to developing intuitive and safe goods.
•  Many ethical design concepts are influenced by the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and center around respect for human rights, effort, and experience.
•  Aral Balkan and Laura Kalbag's "Ethical Hierarchy of Needs" pyramid depicts the foundation of ethical design and how each tier of the pyramid rests and is dependent on the layer underneath it to ensure that the design is ethical.

•  There are several long-term benefits to ethical design that may strengthen the brand and product of those engaged.
•  By adhering to sustainable business practices, several companies have earned financial rewards.

•  Designers having strong beliefs and moral principles is the major driving force in practicing ethical designs. The sense of responsibility to the environment, humans kindness, and society at large is the major core of ethical designs.
•  Many factors contribute to the ethical design being overlooked or ignored. Some may argue that it is inconvenient, too complicated, or that time and money are in short supply.
• Establishing who is responsible for ensuring that the design is ethical Whose responsibility is it: the boss, the clients, the manufacturer, the government, or the consumer? Probs another problem

Research Strategy