Design Principles and Theories

This is a graduate seminar that steps back from studio work to ask what design actually *is*, how designers think, where ideas come from, and how different cognitive and theoretical models try to explain that process. You'll spend most of the term reading contemporary design literature, presenting papers, and writing an analysis of a single artifact, with side trips through creativity research, empathy, neuroarchitecture, and collaborative design. It's meant to give research-track IAED students the conceptual vocabulary to situate their own thesis work within the broader field, rather than to teach a specific design skill.