Evaluation of ‘Design Conceptor’ Education, a Methodology for Developing Design Concepts
Choi, A. Y. (2015). Evaluation of ‘Design Conceptor’ Education, a Methodology for Developing Design Concepts. Journal of the Korean Society of Design Culture, 21-2, 623-635.
Korean Society of Design Culture (KSDC)
Abstract
The concept achieves a central role in the design study process. The concept is an essential element that delivers a design form as a critical element, and it provides a message that a design needs to express.
The researcher recognized the purpose of the study and researched for a concept development methodology for design. The purpose of this study seeks a systematic design concept development method that is necessary for design education and education method that raises logical thinking and develops a method that can be utilized logic and language factitively for designers who lack logical and linguistic oriented thinking.
The study began in the year 2005 to the first and third-year students in visual communication design major from two universities located in Gyeonggi-do. The result implied that ‘Design Conceptor’ education methodology insists design education effectively and, furthermore, it implemented in the design courses to help students understand the concept better since the year 2006. With a positive result, this study aimed its effectiveness in different cultural backgrounds. So, in the year 2014, the study was tested on students from a university in China.
Through the research methodology, the study found 1) ‘Design Conceptor’ education changes the students’ concept development ability; 2) ‘Design Conceptor’ education changes the students’ problem recognition ability; and 3) ‘Design Conceptor’ education changes the students’ thinking ability. The detailed explanations for the study results are listed below.
First, the subjects wrote concept statements with a variety of selected human issues. And they wrote more concept statements with limited time. This result analyzed that ‘Design Conceptor’ education helps the students an ability to generate more and better ideas.
Second, the subjects recognized the design problem as a low-strength record. They use better sentence structure and more words in their concept statements. This result analyzed that ‘Design Conceptor’ education helps the students an ability to recognize the design problem.
Third, through ‘Design Conceptor’ education, the students have a better perception of the problem, and they have a better understanding of the design concept.
The result of the study shows that the students changed from writing general design direction and design style ideas as their concepts to writing useful concept statements based on connotative contexts.
Keywords: Concept, Design Concept, Design Education, Design Methodology
