On this page, we have prepared a guide “for universities” when carrying out collaborations with NGOs within the scope of design education focussing on inclusive design studies, and in accordance with how our platform works. In this guide, you can find the introduction of our model, its stages and process that we outlined to increase the efficiency of the collaboration, and as well as our recommendations regarding these stages.
DOWNLOAD OUR GUIDANCE FOR UNIVERSITIES
Universities can use this model within the scope of the courses/practices (short and long term) of universities that support inclusive design-oriented project development studies in different disciplines or their social responsibility and volunteering courses in design faculties. Our model aims to increase the awareness of design students in inclusive design and to become more sensitive professionals in diversity in the future while supporting the design students to use their professional skills to create solutions for real-life needs and with real users. Besides, our web-platform, which is an important component of our model that consists of 5 stages, provides the visibility of the developed student projects and the collaboration carried out with NGOs in the field of social responsibility. To develop this model, we adopted the concept design process developed by Cambridge EDC in their “Inclusive Design Toolkit”.
The stages of our collaboration approach are summarised below. You can find more detailed information and recommendations regarding its use in the design education, in the guidance document.
1) MATCH: University representatives/tutors see the inclusive design collaboration model with NGOs we have developed, through our web-platform. In this direction, the guidance document provided on this page can be used to understand our model in detail. Depending on the scope of the work to be carried out, University contacts with an NGO to establish a collaboration, and a university-NGO match is achieved. University representatives/tutors can find the list of NGOs and other universities that have previously participated in inclusive design studies and experienced out model, on our web-platform. They can also access the guidance document we prepared for NGOs who will take part in such a design-oriented study for the first time, from the “For NGOs” link on the main page. By sharing this document with the NGO(s) that you establish a partnership, you will provide them the basic information on inclusive design and their required input in the following stages.
2) EXPLORE: Determining the project topics and to be worked by the design students and detailing them as design briefs, is an important stage of the collaboration between Universities and NGOs. While universities inform NGOs about course requirements and education process, NGOs convey their own experience on the possible problem areas to be focussed on. In this way, the resulting design briefs will both meet the course requirements and focus on real-life issues within society. Afterwards, these design briefs are uploaded to our web-platform and the University-NGO collaboration is made visible.
3) CREATE: At this stage, tutors match design students with NGO members whom they will work together and carry-out a co-design process throughout the inclusive design project development process. Preferably, students work in study groups and on design briefs of their choice. Students can access all the design briefs identified as an outcome of the collaboration, from our web-platform through out the process. They regularly present their progress to the tutors and receive feedback. Within this period, tutors and NGO representatives keep communication to ensure the collaboration proceeds in line with the common goal. During this process, updates about the project work can be made on the project’s page on our web-platform, the link can be shared with other stakeholders to get their opinions and comment by the site visitors.
4) EVALUATE: At the end of the project development stage, it is important to organise a “presentation day” for design students to present the co-design projects that they have developed with their NGO partners, and share their unique experiences. In this way, students have the opportunity to observe the experiences of other study groups that focussed on different design briefs. At this stage, we recommend tutors to focus on experiences of the students and their reflections on the experiential processes, rather than solely providing critics to their final design outcomes.
5) PROMOTE: After the projects are completed, they can be uploaded to our web-platform as “completed projects”. These projects are exhibited in the gallery section and their visibility is provided. Besides, design students can create a profile by registering to our web-platform, and if they wish, their profiles are included under the “designers” section.
1) MATCH: University representatives/tutors see the inclusive design collaboration model with NGOs we have developed, through our web-platform. In this direction, the guidance document provided on this page can be used to understand our model in detail. Depending on the scope of the work to be carried out, University contacts with an NGO to establish a collaboration, and a university-NGO match is achieved. University representatives/tutors can find the list of NGOs and other universities that have previously participated in inclusive design studies and experienced out model, on our web-platform. They can also access the guidance document we prepared for NGOs who will take part in such a design-oriented study for the first time, from the “For NGOs” link on the main page. By sharing this document with the NGO(s) that you establish a partnership, you will provide them the basic information on inclusive design and their required input in the following stages.
2) EXPLORE: Determining the project topics and to be worked by the design students and detailing them as design briefs, is an important stage of the collaboration between Universities and NGOs. While universities inform NGOs about course requirements and education process, NGOs convey their own experience on the possible problem areas to be focussed on. In this way, the resulting design briefs will both meet the course requirements and focus on real-life issues within society. Afterwards, these design briefs are uploaded to our web-platform and the University-NGO collaboration is made visible.
3) CREATE: At this stage, tutors match design students with NGO members whom they will work together and carry-out a co-design process throughout the inclusive design project development process. Preferably, students work in study groups and on design briefs of their choice. Students can access all the design briefs identified as an outcome of the collaboration, from our web-platform through out the process. They regularly present their progress to the tutors and receive feedback. Within this period, tutors and NGO representatives keep communication to ensure the collaboration proceeds in line with the common goal. During this process, updates about the project work can be made on the project’s page on our web-platform, the link can be shared with other stakeholders to get their opinions and comment by the site visitors.
4) EVALUATE: At the end of the project development stage, it is important to organise a “presentation day” for design students to present the co-design projects that they have developed with their NGO partners, and share their unique experiences. In this way, students have the opportunity to observe the experiences of other study groups that focussed on different design briefs. At this stage, we recommend tutors to focus on experiences of the students and their reflections on the experiential processes, rather than solely providing critics to their final design outcomes.
5) PROMOTE: After the projects are completed, they can be uploaded to our web-platform as “completed projects”. These projects are exhibited in the gallery section and their visibility is provided. Besides, design students can create a profile by registering to our web-platform, and if they wish, their profiles are included under the “designers” section.