Qualification dates| Start | End |
|---|
| 03 Oct 2026 | Jun 2027 |
We encounter designed products daily: appliances, chairs, clothes, buildings, medicines, robots, vehicles and much more – look around you. Design is central to the creation of all these products. Designers and engineers often work closely in teams to translate ideas into useful and required products. Knowledge of the design process is critical for successful engineering – this module combines study with practical work and introduces the essential skills, knowledge and practices of design.
The module is presented in three blocks. Each block focuses on a different phase in developing a designed product.
Block 1 – Exploring designs and designing
The first block provides a general introduction to design. You’ll look at the relationship between people and products and explore the human, cultural and engineering factors that influence the creation of designs. Block 1 will help you develop critical and inquisitive thinking skills when, as an engineer, you observe designs around you.
Block 2 – Design for people
Next, Block 2 focuses on the early stages of the design process and how research and evaluation of user and market requirements inform it. You’ll learn how to discover people’s capabilities, preferences, and behaviours to shape new products. This block will help you develop user research and planning skills.
Block 3 – Creative designing
The final block focuses on the creative strategies designers use to address design problems – particularly strategies for idea generation in the early design phases. It also teaches some of the core theories of creativity. Block 3 will help you develop your creative thinking skills.
All three blocks will contribute to developing your ability to think and communicate engineering ideas through drawing and modelling. They will also give you the skills necessary for researching, planning, and developing a design project by examining various products such as chairs, bikes, music players, kitchen gadgets, and buildings.
The spine of the module is the module website. The core module materials include three printed books (one per block), a modelling workbook, and several audiovisual materials and resources on the module website. Reading is accompanied by practical activities online and offline. Central to the module is an online virtual design studio, where you will upload images of your practical work for discussion with your tutor and fellow students. You will also be able to view and discuss your fellow students' design and engineering work.
You need to have the study skills obtained either through OU level 1 study or by doing equivalent work at another university.
Beyond basic literacy skills, nothing more specific is expected other than a curiosity about objects, why they are as they are, and how they might be different and better. We don't assume that you can already design, or even draw competently. We'll teach you the concepts and skills you need, but if you already have some skills, you'll develop them further.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
marking your assignments and offering detailed feedback to help you improve providing individual guidance, whether that’s for general study skills or specific module content guiding you to additional learning resources facilitating online discussions between your fellow students in the dedicated forums.
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:
3 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs)End-of-module assessmentYou’ll have access to a module website, which includes:
a week-by-week study planner course-specific module materials audio and video content assessment details and submission section online tutorial access access to student forums.
Additionally, the website includes:
access to our OpenDesignStudio, a platform for sharing your work and exchanging comments with other students software downloads.
We also provide physical:
module books a modelling workbook a paper pack.
a device to take digital images of your work (e.g. a phone/digital camera or scanner) access to a printer a device to take digital videos of your work (desirable, but not essential).
Primary device – A desktop or laptop computer with at least 8 GB of RAM and a quad-core processor (2.4 GHz minimum speed). It’s possible to access some materials on a mobile phone, tablet or Chromebook; however, they will not be suitable as your primary device. Peripheral device – Headphones/earphones with a built-in microphone for online tutorials. Operating systems – Windows 11 or the latest supported macOS. Internet access – Broadband or mobile connection. Browser – Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are recommended; Mozilla Firefox and Safari may be suitable. Our OU Study app operates on supported versions of Android and iOS. Software – Any additional software will be provided or is generally freely available.
The OU strives to make all aspects of study accessible to everyone, and this Accessibility Statement outlines what studying T218 involves. You should use this information to inform your study preparations and any discussions with us about how we can meet your needs.
To find out more about what kind of support and adjustments might be available, contact us or visit our Disability support website.
Design for engineers (T218) starts once a year – in October.
It will next start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2026.
Back to previous page