In this module, you’ll explore how design can be used to respond to some of the most pressing challenges facing society and the environment. Rather than focusing only on the design of products, you’ll examine the many ways design thinking can help people understand complexity, work collaboratively, generate new opportunities and create positive change. Throughout the module, you’ll engage with the work of designers who use creative methods and tools to address social, technological and ecological issues, and you’ll begin to see how these approaches might connect with your own interests and ambitions.
The module opens with a short introduction that sets the scene, introduces the idea of design for impact and briefly reviews the history of the design profession to show how new types of design work are emerging. From there, you’ll move through four blocks of study and practice, each focusing on a different role that designers take on to respond to complex challenges and design for impact. Each block includes real-world examples alongside a design guide to help you with your own project. Together, these blocks build your understanding, while also helping you develop your own practical and reflective approach to design.
Block 1: Design as sense-making
You’ll begin by studying and practising the role of a design researcher, learning how designers work with people, places or organisations to help them understand complex challenges and create ideas for responding to them. Using a range of design methods, you’ll learn to uncover these challenges and generate insights and ideas that make a difference in people’s lives, places, and to the planet.
Block 2: Design as collaboration-making
In this block, you’ll study and practice the roles of system designer, co-designer and design enabler, exploring how design can foster collaborations to address difficult issues. You’ll look at design not only as a collaborative activity in which designers work with others, but also as a way of creating collaborative systems involving people, technologies, and the natural world.
Block 3: Design as venture-making
In Block 3, you’ll study and practice the roles of design entrepreneur and design innovator, examining how design can be used to support innovations and ventures that aim to solve complex problems. You’ll consider design as a venture-making activity - a practice bringing together people, technologies and other resources around a shared purpose to create social or environmental value.
Block 4: Design as systemic change-making
The final block examines the role design can play in shaping systems and supporting longer-term change. You’ll study and practice the role of systemic change designer, exploring how designers can work with complexity, interconnection, and wider patterns of influence, and how design methods can contribute to more systemic responses to social and ecological issues. This brings together much of what you have learned across the module while encouraging you to think more broadly about the reach and responsibility of design.
By the end of the module, you’ll have developed a richer understanding of design as a creative and critical discipline, driven by the need to make positive social and environmental impact. You’ll also have built experience in applying design across a range of contexts, preparing you for work in areas where design can make a difference.
This module will enable you to:
This module develops design skills that are valuable across a wide range of careers and sectors, whether you work independently or within organisations in the private, public or third sector. You’ll build critical, creative and practical capabilities that can be applied in areas such as technology, health and wellbeing, education, social innovation and environmental work.
As well as developing your understanding of design thinking, you’ll strengthen your ability to frame opportunities, work with others, understand users and support innovation. You’ll also use a capability framework to recognise and develop your own strengths, helping you apply your design skills with confidence across different roles, teams and career paths.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You’ll have access to a module website, which includes:
Additionally, the website includes:
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
T240 is a compulsory module in our:
T240 is an option module in our:
Design for impact (T240) starts once a year – in October.
It will next start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2033.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
| Start | End | Register by | England fee |
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| 03 Oct 2026 | 30 Jun 2027 | 10 Sep 2026 | £4,088 |
There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.
If your income is not more than £25,000 or you receive a qualifying benefit, you might be eligible for help with some of these costs after your module has started.
There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.
If your personal income is £25,000 or less, or you’re on certain benefits, you could qualify for a grant and OU top-up funding to cover 100% of your course fees. Apply online at the same time as you register on your module.
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We know that sometimes you may want to combine payment options. For example, you may wish to pay part of your tuition fee with a debit card and pay the remainder in instalments through an Open University Student Budget Account (OUSBA).
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For more information about combining payment options, contact an adviser.
Please note: your permanent address/domicile will affect your fee status and, therefore, the fees you are charged and any financial support available to you. The fee information provided here is valid for modules starting before 31 July 2027. Fees typically increase annually. For further information about the University's fee policy, visit our Fee Rules.
