Generation Z: exploring personalities, interests and influences in young designers
Generation Z: exploring personalities, interests and influences in young designers
Product designers - whether students or professionals - are a diverse group of individuals with mixedabilities in a variety of skills. As an integral element of design education at undergraduate level, designprojects in particular appear to highlight this diversity of characteristics. At Bournemouth Universitythe level 5 and 6 design projects have proved noticeably enlightening in differentiating betweenstudents’ innate strengths and weaknesses. As a result, a number of personality types were identified;the Doers; the Dreamers; the Ideators; the Negotiators; the Visionaries; and the Whatevers.Personality analysis tools such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the NEO PersonalityInventory have become established in the workplace, and attempts have been made to apply suchsystems to the design studio. In addition, the identification of individual learning styles – andcorresponding teaching styles – has become a core feature in education. This paper investigates whetherthe identification of defined personality types and traits within project-based product design educationis justified, and to what extent such characteristics may be affected by external influences. Drawing ona survey conducted with undergraduate students at levels 4, 5 and 6 - as well as design professionals –the interests, inspirations and aspirations that may help to shape designer personalities are explored, andthe results shed new light on the emergent characteristics of tomorrow’s designers. In a world in whichthe role of team players is becoming more important, the authors discuss the differing student strengthsand weaknesses reflected in the survey, and whether a greater understanding of the influences andambitions of Generation Z could help to address the current and future skills shortage in product design.
Institute of Engineering Designers; The Design Society
Conrad, Franziska
ee74a7c3-1c1c-43b0-8a2f-f2284e704dbd
Underwood, Gary
cd267507-0634-44ca-90af-680fcd31b721
13 September 2019
Conrad, Franziska
ee74a7c3-1c1c-43b0-8a2f-f2284e704dbd
Underwood, Gary
cd267507-0634-44ca-90af-680fcd31b721
Conrad, Franziska and Underwood, Gary
(2019)
Generation Z: exploring personalities, interests and influences in young designers.
Bohemia, Erik, Kovacevic, Ahmed, Buck, Lyndon, Brisco, Ross, Evans, Dorothy, Grierson, Hilary, Ion, William and Whitfield, Rober Ian
(eds.)
In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, Strathclyde University, Glasgow: Towards a new innovation landscape.
Institute of Engineering Designers; The Design Society.
6 pp
.
(doi:10.35199/epde2019.54).
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Product designers - whether students or professionals - are a diverse group of individuals with mixedabilities in a variety of skills. As an integral element of design education at undergraduate level, designprojects in particular appear to highlight this diversity of characteristics. At Bournemouth Universitythe level 5 and 6 design projects have proved noticeably enlightening in differentiating betweenstudents’ innate strengths and weaknesses. As a result, a number of personality types were identified;the Doers; the Dreamers; the Ideators; the Negotiators; the Visionaries; and the Whatevers.Personality analysis tools such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the NEO PersonalityInventory have become established in the workplace, and attempts have been made to apply suchsystems to the design studio. In addition, the identification of individual learning styles – andcorresponding teaching styles – has become a core feature in education. This paper investigates whetherthe identification of defined personality types and traits within project-based product design educationis justified, and to what extent such characteristics may be affected by external influences. Drawing ona survey conducted with undergraduate students at levels 4, 5 and 6 - as well as design professionals –the interests, inspirations and aspirations that may help to shape designer personalities are explored, andthe results shed new light on the emergent characteristics of tomorrow’s designers. In a world in whichthe role of team players is becoming more important, the authors discuss the differing student strengthsand weaknesses reflected in the survey, and whether a greater understanding of the influences andambitions of Generation Z could help to address the current and future skills shortage in product design.
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Published date: 13 September 2019
Venue - Dates:
21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, , Glasgow, 2019-09-12 - 2019-09-13
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Local EPrints ID: 457795
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/457795
PURE UUID: 1b3ed086-5543-4bce-a0c8-cb5bc9117454
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Date deposited: 16 Jun 2022 17:02
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:13
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Contributors
Author:
Franziska Conrad
Author:
Gary Underwood
Editor:
Erik Bohemia
Editor:
Ahmed Kovacevic
Editor:
Lyndon Buck
Editor:
Ross Brisco
Editor:
Dorothy Evans
Editor:
Hilary Grierson
Editor:
William Ion
Editor:
Rober Ian Whitfield
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