As an academic foundation, the iF Design Foundation promotes new ideas on design education. Degree courses play a decisive role in how design fulfills its social responsibility. To determine the public value of design study programs at German universities, the iFDF, in collaboration with Professor Dr. Timo Meynhardt, holder of the Chair of Business Psychology at Leipzig Graduate School of Management (HHL), has now done a survey for the second time since 2022 on what contribution design studies in Germany make to the common good. The Public Value Study presents the findings and provides suggestions developing design studies for the common good.
Between the XNUMXth May and XNUMXnd August XNUMX, students, teachers, and alumni from all German design universities were able to take part in the online study, the results of which will be published shortly. As a thank you for participating in the study, the iF Design Foundation provided XNUMX € for an excursion. This sum will be awarded to the Intermedia Design program at Trier University of Applied Sciences, which had the highest participation in the study. ‘We are delighted to have won,’ explains Prof Daniel Gilgen, Head of the Intermedia Design degree program and Professor of Media Spaces (interactive scenography and physical interfaces). ‘And we will use the XNUMX € to take the entire course on an outing to the ZKM Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe. Its interdisciplinary approach of showing art and digital media comes very close to the interdisciplinary approach of our degree program.’ Intermedia Design at Trier University of Applied Sciences deals with digital media that extends into physical space, for example, in the form of installations or museum exhibits. In addition to the basics of intermedia design, the program comprises five teaching areas: Games, Narrative Formats, Hypermedia, Media Spaces and Intermedia Aesthetics. ‘My teaching area, Media Spaces, examines new forms of interaction with computer systems, their perception, and their penetration of space,’ says Prof Daniel Gilgen. Since XNUMX, his research and teaching have focused on the intersection of Product Design and Interaction Design alongside exhibition concepts and design.
‘Public Value is a central topic of our program, as we are very much concerned with knowledge transfer and dissemination, as they e.g. take place in museums. We are invested in forms of education in society and how they can be conceptualized,’ explains Prof. Daniel Gilgen. ‘Social engagement is not only an integral part of our teaching - we also have a very committed student body in Trier. When my colleague Prof. Gregor Kuschmirz and I told the students about the IFDF's call for participation in the Public Value Study, so many of them took part straight away that we can now celebrate having won the prize.’ The prize money of XNUMX € also enables students to take part in the excursion who would otherwise not have been able to participate in the excursion for financial reasons and, in turn, contributes to public value.
