Design Innovation MA / MSc

With a multi-talented group of students, you will work on a brief from a real company looking to solve a real social or business problem.

 

Together with your student team, you will research and build solutions to a business problem, supported by our project tutors, clients and staff. Previous clients include Foster + Partners, Speedo, The London Legacy Development Corporation as well as many other companies, start-ups and charities.

 

The Collaborative Project provides a means for you to engage in critical enquiry and to be exposed to project-based teamwork in multicultural and interdisciplinary settings. By undertaking this module, you will strengthen your cooperative and collaborative working skills and competencies, whilst raising your awareness and appreciation of cultural and disciplinary diversity and differences.

 

The Collaborative Project aims to provide you with a hands-on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice-oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions. Alongside the collaborative elements of the module, you will be provided with opportunities to network with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, which will give you the experience and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and potentially develop future employment opportunities.

 

On completion of this module, you will be able to:

 

• Work effectively in diverse and interdisciplinary teams;
• Undertake and contribute towards a project-based development process;
• Apply critical enquiry, reflection, and creative methods to identify, frame, and resolve issues and problems at hand;
• Identify user and stakeholder needs and value creation opportunities, whilst collecting and applying evidence-based information and knowledge to develop appropriate insights, practices and solutions;
• Identify, structure, reflect on key issues and propose solutions to problems in creative ways;
• Enhance your appreciation for diversity and divergent individual and disciplinary perspectives;
• Be able to provide structured, reflective and critical feedback to peers and other stakeholders;
• Plan and execute a project plan including scope, resources and timing;
• Effectively communicate ideas, methods and results to a diverse range of stakeholders;
• Use multiple, state-of-the-art date media and technologies to communicate with collaborators;
• Make informed, critical and reflective decisions in time-limited situations.

100% Coursework consisting of:

 

• 20% Group project proposal
• 20% Individual reflection
• 30% Final Project Report
• 30% Project deliverables to the client

This module focuses on developing skilled communication strategies and principles for working in cross-cultural contexts. Key theoretical concepts of `identity', ‘otherisation' and ‘representation' will be introduced through lectures and seminars in order to explore the complex interrelationships between identity, culture and communication. You will be expected to collect and analyse data from the Interdisciplinary Project module to be used for the case study assignment.

 

The module aims to answer the following important questions: What is culture? How are cultural identities constructed? How do cultural stereotypes impact on communication? How are meanings negotiated? And how are these questions related to working as a contemporary designer?

 

 On completion of this module you should be able to:

 

• Understand the complex interplay between identity and culture and demonstrate these concepts through application to a relevant design context
• Analyse communication events, written texts and visual images to explore how culture and power relations work to produce particular meanings and communicate this in an appropriate language and report structure
• Discuss the concepts of identity and culture outlined in the course
• Apply outlined key concepts when undertaking the analysis of communication strategies observed within the student project teams.
• Develop and communicate ideas in a coherent sequence
• Use appropriate language and report structure
• Reference and attribute correctly
• Provide critical peer feedback
• Work in cross-cultural teams
• Use concepts from the module to inform their professional practice

• 50% Individual Assessment
• 50% Individual Report

The module will include: visualization, using imagery to envision possible future conditions; journey mapping, assessing the existing experience through the customer's eyes, using customer oriented data collection techniques; value chain analysis, assessing the current value chain that supports the customer's journey; mind mapping, generating insights from exploration activities and using those to create; design criteria; brainstorming, generating ideas; rapid concept development, assembling innovative elements into a coherent proposition that can be explored and evaluated; rapid ‘prototyping', expressing a new concept in a tangible form for exploration, consumer testing, and refinement; consumer testing; and storytelling.

 

The aim of this module is to enhance your ability to use design approaches and tools for identifying and implementing human centred innovation opportunities. You will be expected to deploy knowledge learned in this module into parallel running Collaborative Project module.

The module will introduce you to a systematic design-based approach aimed at identifying and implementing user centered innovation opportunities.

 

On completion of this module you should be able to:

 

• Identify when and how to use range of Design Thinking tools;
• Select appropriate tools to inform project development;
• Appropriate use of the Design Thinking tools in a parallel module;
• Develop communication skills in diverse teams;
• Developed a systematic approach to tackle complex projects;
• Apply tools in a project context;
• Work with variety of stakeholders;
• Understand how to tackle `wicked' problems;
• Be able to deliver a succinct presentation to communicate key facts.

• 10% Presentation
• 20% Peer Feedback
• 70% Report

The module will locate design within broader cultural issues and practices of creativity and innovation. This module will use the Circuit of Culture and its five interrelated categories (i.e. Identity, Representation, Regulation, Production and Consumption) as framework to explore processes of meaning making.

 

The aims of this module are to build on concepts introduced in the Identity, Culture & Communication module and the Meaning Making in Design module. It aims to answer ‘What is culture?’, identify its meanings and practices, its production and representation, and show designers as cultural intermediaries.

 

On completion of this module you should be able to:

 

• Demonstrate your understanding of how designers' practices are interwoven with elements of production and consumption of culture.
• Cultural processes which form the culture of circuit
• Display the interplay of elements within the culture of circuit in construction of meaning
• Identify relation between design and culture
• Explain the key concepts of `culture, cultural formation and production in relation design
• Analyse complex cultural issues and evaluate design processes and products
• Collect data and analyse these using the key concepts discussed in the module
• Provide peer feedback
• Respond to peer feedback
• Develop understanding of culture as non-essential
• Understand interplay of elements in construction of meaning

 

• Case study (80%)
• Peer feedback (20%)

This module will enable you to start planning for their major project by focusing first on generating a suitable topic to be explored. The goal is for you to arrive at a feasible, agreed major project plan. You will consolidate your prior learning and use it to develop a learning plan to complete your chosen study pathway.

 

The aim of the Reflection and Action module is to facilitate your reflection on individual practices and values, and the shifts impacting on design discipline. You will gain a broad understanding of design theories and research in order to inform and shape their dissertation proposal to be developed in the dissertation module.

 

 On completion of this module you should be able to:

 

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to their own research and advanced scholarship and display evidence of understanding the requirements of focusing research ideas
• Understand what is a reflective practice and its role in design research
• Develop a feasible research direction
• Plan and pilot a research method suitable to the individuals dissertation
• understand the participatory and action research methodologies
• reflect, identify and agree a dissertation direction
• engage in a sustained piece of individual, academic research on a chosen research method
• articulate, carry out and reflect a feasible pilot project
• manage their time and resources effectively
• use initiative and take responsibility
• develop skills in pilot study planning
• display evidence of independent research skills

 

• 10% Research Method Pilot poster
• 30% Presentation
• 60% Research Method Pilot Study Report

The Dissertation module will equip you with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on your own research project. You will have the choice of three dissertation pathways:

 

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
• An Internship within an organisation during which time students will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)
• By undertaking a dissertation at master's level, you will achieve a high level of understanding in your chosen subject area and will produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss your research in more detail.

 

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

 

• The importance of project planning;
• The importance of a clear hypothesis or research question;
• The ethical implications of research;
• The relevant empirical data and methodologies for data collection or knowledge assimilation for the subject area;
• Methods of data analysis and their suitability for the intended data;
• The areas of expertise or publications of the major individuals or organisations in the subject or business area;
• The previous research or current knowledge in the specific subject or business area;
• Theoretical perspectives relevant to your chosen topic;
• The most effective methods of presentation for data or knowledge;
• Developing a clear, coherent and original research question, hypothesis or business problem in a suitable subject area;
• Synthesising relevant sources (e.g. research literature, primary data) to construct a coherent argument in response to your research question, hypothesis or business problem;
• Analysing primary or secondary data collected by an appropriate method;
• Critically evaluating data collected in context with previously published knowledge or information;
• Engaging in critical debate and argumentation in written work;
• Applying principles of good scholarly practice to your written work;
• Performing appropriate literature searching/business information searching using library databases or other reputable sources;
• Planning a research project and producing a realistic gantt chart demonstrating your intended timelines;
• Synthesising information from appropriate sources;
• Demonstrating rational use of research method tools;
• Selecting and using appropriate investigative and research skills;
• Demonstrating effective project planning skills;
• Finding and evaluating scholarly sources;
• Engaging in critical reasoning, debate and argumentation;
• Demonstrating effective report writing skills;
• Recognising and using resources effectively;
• Successfully managing a project from idea to completion;
• Demonstrating commercial awareness or the impact of knowledge transfer in a business or research environment.

 

100% Coursework consisting of:

 

• 20% Literature review
• 20% Research proposal
• 60% Dissertation report/essay

This module will provide an overview of mobile Internet and cloud technology, with a special emphasis on media cloud applications, mobile Internet platforms and their associated challenges.

On completion of this module students should be able to: 

• Receive an overview of the mobile Internet and cloud technologies with specific knowledge in media cloud applications on mobile devices, systems and Internet in general, and the challenges that are associated with making such applications available to the end-users via the mobile Internet and cloud technology 
• The mobile Internet technology, media cloud applications, and the strengths and associated challenges by utilising mobile cloud technology and applications 
• Mobile networking and media cloud topics 
• Privacy and security issues in mobile cloud services 
• Mobile Internet and cloud business models 
• Gain experience with the understanding of mobile Internet architecture and access techniques, system performance and limitation 
• Gain specific skills in media cloud applications and how the combination of mobile Internet with cloud computing technology will fast-changing the future of media applications for people on the move and the daily life of public in general 
• Apply their knowledge of mobile Internet and media cloud technology in media service delivery and communication industry 
• Tackle media cloud application and mobile communication networks related problems and deal with their possible solutions 
• Equip themselves with the necessary understanding and essential knowledge that are required for service provider jobs in the cloud computing, applications, and mobile services provision domains

Assessment

• Coursework (30%)
• Exam (70%)

 

The theory of entrepreneurship and the importance of entrepreneurial action to the innovation process; the contemporary business environment; micro and macro environments; intellectual property; funding & finance; project management; corporate responsibility & sustainability; governance; ethics; business planning; strategy; risk analysis and failure.

 

The aim of this module is to equip you with an in depth knowledge of the innovation process, its importance to the economy and an understanding of all of the various factors affecting its success including intellectual property, funding and strategy. We will introduce the academic theories of entrepreneurship and analyse the personality traits and behaviours associated with entrepreneurs.

 

On completion of this module you should be able to:

 

• Innovation as a process;
• Identify the academic theories of entrepreneurship;
• Identify the factors influencing the success of organisations;
• Relate innovation theory to the performance of organisations;
• Use investigative and research skills;
• Demonstrate effective report writing skills.
• Demonstrate commercial awareness.

 

100% Coursework consisting of:

 

• 50% Report 1
• 50% Report 2

The module content will include: defining media and creative industries; ownership, concentration and control in media and creative industries; innovation and technological change; media and creative markets; business models in media and creative industries; copyright; global media cities; clustering of media and creative industries; media and cultural policy.

 

The aim of this module is to introduce you to key critical debates relating to the economics of media and creative industries and their social, cultural and political implications.

 

On completion of this module you should be able to:

 

• Understand how and why the media and creative industries have been defined;
• Understand the importance of industrial structure in media and creative industries;
• Understand the implications of innovation and technological change for media and creative industries;
• Understand changing business models in media and creative industries;
• Understand the importance of copyright and how this is affected by technological change;
• Understand why media and creative industries cluster in particular spaces and cities;
• Understand the globalisation of media and creative industries;
• Understand media and cultural policy.
• Identify, debate and evaluate relevant critical perspectives on media and creative industries;
• Systematically assess the implicit theoretical assumptions of contrasting perspectives;
• Use critical perspectives to analyse emerging trends in media and creative industries;
• Communicate effectively in speech and writing, with academic and non-academic audiences;
• Engage in critical reasoning, debate and argumentation;
• Assess the empirical validity of competing perspectives;
• Manage time and resources effectively;
• Synthesise different sources of data and identify key arguments and issues at stake in particular fields of practice;
• Understand the behaviour of firms in media and creative industries;
• Understand emerging trends in media and creative industries;
• Apply skills in written and verbal communication that are relevant to this field;
• Be able to plan, organise and manage coursework assignments, demonstrating independence, initiative and originality.

 

• 100% Coursework

Introduction; The role of International Business and Trade in the Global System; Emerging Players and Markets; Trends in International Business and Trade; Trade Investments; Exchange Rates and Exchange Rate Systems; The Role of International Institutions; FDI; The importance of Diplomacy in Promoting Business and Trade; The Role of Governments; Organising Diplomatic and Trade Missions

 

The aim of this module to introduce you to the international perspectives of business, to assess the complex relationship between international business and trade and diplomacy and to understand the role of governments, diplomacy and diplomatic missions in promoting business and trade.

 

On completion of this module you should be able to:

 

• Critically evaluate the role of international business and trade;
• Analyse the relationship between international business and diplomacy;
• Critically evaluate the role of governments and diplomatic missions in promoting business and trade;
• Critically assess concepts and practice of international business and trade ;
• Identify appropriate sources pertaining to the study of international business and diplomacy;
• Formulate research questions and research strategies for studying international business, diplomacy and governments and diplomatic missions;
• Demonstrate excellent oral communication skills;
• Apply scholarship to communicate research findings to practitioner audience;
• Demonstrate research management and self-learning skills;
• Communication and ICT Skills;
• Manage research, resource materials, data and referencing, and research findings relating to the study of international business, diplomacy, and governments and diplomatic missions.

 

• 40% Critical Report
• 60% Presentation