Industrial Design
Entry requirements
Applicants should normally have:
A minimum of a 2:2 honours degree in design, Business, Engineering and computing or a related discipline. Applicants with appropriate work experience and/or a relevant professional qualification will be considered
Additional Requirements
All students need to have some design communication skills to start the course. These skills include freehand sketching, digital sketching, 3D CAD modelling and rendering, 2D/3D mark-ups, or design videos. Therefore, students need to submit a creative portfolio evidencing the above skills.
International qualifications:
If you have studied a non- UK qualification, you can see how your qualifications compare to the standard entry criteria, by selecting the country that you received the qualification in, from our country pages. Visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/yourcountry
Months of entry
September
Course content
Overview
Please note that whilst we are accepting applications, this course is subject to validation.
The Industrial Design course at Northumbria University is highly specialised in combining the creative elements of technology, engineering, creative expression, and business entrepreneurship into industrial design. It is designed to encourage a deep understanding of how our sustainable development challenges can be addressed by applying design-for-people-and-planet theory and methodologies to smart products and services supported by emerging technologies, with particular emphasis on AI.
On our Masters course, you will learn to create better products, services, and business models that are needed to meet changing priorities in society, and you will be assessed by your coursework for all modules.
Our course features two focused pathways:
- MA Industrial Design – Designing services and promoting behaviour change or
- MSc Industrial Design – Generative AI design and smart products.
Experimental Generative Design - AI is driving a design revolution. The AI revolution is likely to change not just the way we work but perhaps also whether we can work at all. This module will introduce you to designing at a higher level with a cross section of industry leading artificial intelligence tools which help to boost design experimentation, iteration and quality of final outcomes. You will gain an understanding and practical application of emerging generative AI and related design tools and models in relation to human-centred design principles.
Smart Product Design and Practice - smart products are the future. Smart product design involves creating products that leverage digital technology such as AI and Digital twins, connectivity, and intelligent features to enhance functionality, user experience, and overall value. This module will first introduce smart product design principles, methodologies and processes across the product (ordinary) lifecycle, and then discuss how these can be applied to build smart connected products/devices.
Industrial Design major project dissertation MA/MSc - now is your chance to design the future. This major design project/thesis module allows you to focus on designing products or services or integrated product-service systems for connected futures, with reflection on and synthesis of previous learnt product and service systems design principles, approaches and practices. This MSc project will focus on product design.
Research Power - Art and Design at Northumbria is ranked 4th in the UK for research power (REF, 2021). This is a rise of 6 places compared to 2014.
Top 20 University - Art & Design at Northumbria is ranked 17th in the UK by the Complete University Guide for 2024, rising 4 places since last year.
Northumbria University is the largest provider of postgraduate taught education in the North East and the 9th largest provider in the UK. *HEIDI PLUS Student FPE 2022/23
Qualification, course duration and attendance options
- MA/MSc
- full time12 months
- Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
Course contact details
- Name
- Northumbria
- bc.applicantservices@northumbria.ac.uk