Design for Use: A Case Study of an Authentically Impactful Design Experience

The design process is often introduced with project-based learning employing “authentic” or “real world” design projects. This paper explores the educational potential of a design project with authentic outside-ofthe-classroom impact. Students designed and built single-burner alcohol stoves that were used to cook meals on a four-day wilderness expedition. Half of the students used stoves that they designed and built for themselves, experiencing the impact of their own decisions. The other half of the students designed stoves that were used by classmates, experiencing the responsibility of designing for an external user. There was no difference in the style of stove chosen or the technical complexity of the stoves built between the two groups of students. Stoves students made for self-use were more likely to be reported as working in the wilderness than stoves made for an external user (Fischer’s exact test, p=0.012). However, there was not a significant difference if we only consider stoves as “working” when used to cook food regularly while on the expedition (Fischer’s exact test, p=0.401). Interviews revealed differences between the motivation expressed by students, the challenges experienced, and the understanding of the perspective of the user. An unexpected finding was that students often did not believe the stove would be used for the full four-day expedition. We find that the authentic integration of use into the learning environment may help increase students’ understanding of human-centered design principles. keywords: human-centered design; project-based learning; authentic;