Leading to a Bachelor of Science Degree in Industrial Design

Professional industrial designers (product designers) work at the intersection of art, business, and technology to provide innovative vision for companies, services, and individuals. Using research and experience as catalysts, designers translate our psychological, social desires and aspirations into improved products and systems for better enjoyment of our world.

As a graduate, you will have opportunities to create products for all levels of production. Areas of possibility include consumer electronics, education, toys, sports, medical equipment, footwear, housewares, furniture, and exhibit design. Many graduates begin their careers immediately, designing either as a consultant, or as an in-house designer for some of the nation’s leading brands. As they continue to grow professionally, graduates often end up in leadership roles within their respective companies, making top-level decisions as a design director or creative manager.

Much of your educational experience will consist of experiential project-based studios, as well as courses in drawing, model making, manufacturing technologies (such as computer-aided design and rapid prototyping), user research, and design history. Classroom and studio experiences are complemented by two required cooperative work experiences. The co-op experience reinforces curricular goals and accelerates an understanding of professional practice. 

Wentworth’s Industrial Design program leads to a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Design. It is a four-year program, fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). NASAD provides published guidelines for evaluating Art and Design programs throughout the country. The NASAD handbook describes the goal of Industrial Design education and the essential competencies students must achieve to be prepared for an entry level design position. The NASAD Handbook describes the following:

Industrial Design

Industrial designers create and develop concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value, and aesthetics of products, environments, systems, and services for the benefit of user, industry, and society. Industrial design involves combinations of the visual arts disciplines, sciences, and technology, and requires problem-solving and communication skills.

The professional undergraduate degree in a design specialization is structured to provide in-depth, formal education that will prepare students for entry into professional practice upon graduation. This is the case whether the degree rubric is Bachelor of Fine Arts with a design specialization or another appropriate title.

Context

The role of the designer is not only to achieve the goodness of fit between form and context, but also to determine how much of the surrounding context will be considered as a specific design problem is addressed and solved. Basic competence in both framing and solving design problems is essential for graduates. In all design specializations, this competence includes knowledge of and ability to address the following:

• Usefulness. The value of communication, objects, environments, or services to persons and society.
• Usability. The cognitive or physical ease, efficiency, and satisfaction of people as they learn and use communication, objects, products, environments, systems, or services.
• Desirability. The perceived emotional, social, or cultural benefits of communication, objects, products, environments, systems, or services.
• Sustainability. The consequences of design in interdependent systems, lifespan of designed objects, and use and disposal of resources.
• Feasibility. The technological ability to produce and/or disseminate and/or distribute communication, objects, environments, or services.
• Viability. The economic potential and consequences, for example, for return on investment, economic sustainability, and growth.

Program Educational Objectives

NASAD Essential Competencies, Experiences, and Opportunities for Industrial Design:

1. Ability to design products and systems including, but not limited to a foundational understanding of how products and systems are made; what makes them valuable; how they are developed, realized, and distributed; and how they are related to environmental and societal issues and responsible design.
2. Ability to use technologies and tools associated with multi-dimensional design representation, development, dissemination, and application.
3. Foundational knowledge of the history of industrial design including, but not limited to the influences of works and ideas on the evolution of design study and practice over time and across cultures.
4. Fundamental knowledge of user experience, human factors, applied ergonomics, contextual inquiry, user preference studies, and usability assessments.

BIND Sophomore Review

A portfolio is not required for admission into the Industrial Design Program (BIND). However, BIND students must maintain a minimum program GPA of 2.5 for all DSGN and INDS courses (49 credits) by the end of the sophomore year (spring semester) in order to advance into the junior year. Students who do not meet this requirement can either transfer to a different degree program or repeat selected courses from the BIND program sophomore year.

To assess student accomplishment during the freshman and sophomore year, each student will take part in a comprehensive exhibition of design projects (in DSGN and INDS courses) at the end of each spring semester. The intent of the exhibit is to gauge students’ success in their respective classes for student advising and program assessment.

Study Abroad

The School of Architecture and Design has a long tradition of offering semester-long study-abroad programs for undergraduates in international locations. The programs are led by Wentworth faculty members in collaboration with scholars residing in those cities.  During their time abroad, students enrich their cultural and professional perspectives through study-travel and working closely with local design professionals.  Study-abroad curriculum is aligned with required courses in Boston, allowing normal progress toward graduation. During the academic year 2023-24, a semester-abroad program will be offered in Berlin, Germany.

Cooperative Work Experience

The undergraduate Industrial Design program has a substantial and well-established cooperative education component embedded in the curriculum. BIND students spend two semesters working in a professional setting. The program collaborates with the Institute’s Center for Cooperative Education and Career Development to reinforce the learning content of these placements.

Total credits for degree: 136

This is a four-year program, which begins in the fall semester of the student’s first year and is planned to end after the summer semester of the student’s fourth year.

Special Grade Requirement

The Industrial Design academic unit  has a special grade requirement that applies to all design studio courses from the sophomore year onward: 

Final grade must be C or better if the final grade in the previous design studio is less than a C. Students who receive a final grade below C for two consecutive semesters are not permitted to continue in the program until they successfully repeat the 2nd studio for which they received a sub-standard grade.

Of the six humanities and social science electives, BIND students must include the following HSS Directed Electives:

• A Design History Elective
• An Art History Elective
• PSYC/SOCL Elective