DL125- Certificate Design Thinking
Hear more about this course
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This course is currently offered in collaboration with Creative Futures Academy (CFA). CFA is a ground-breaking partnership between: The National College of Art and Design, University College Dublin, and the Institute of Art, Design + Technology. Our tailored programmes and micro courses offer access to expertise and networks across the three leading creative institutions and our industry partners. Learn with us as we experiment, innovate and respond to change.
Note: This course is no longer accepting applications for 2024/25. To register your interest in the next intake, please email cfa@iadt.ie
What is Design Thinking?
Design thinking can transform the way organisations develop products, services, processes and strategy. Many companies now deploy design thinking methodologies to help them overcome key business challenges ever present in today’s fast-paced technology and data driven environment.
Design thinking can be used as an innovative approach:
- for problem solving and management strategy;
- to create customer-centric products and services;
- to anticipate and respond to new trends and technologies;
- to design experiences and interactions;
- to develop systemised solutions.
Designing thinking combines what is desirable from a human point of view with what is technologically feasible and economically viable. Design thinking has become a crucial business tool and mindset that enables companies (and their employees) to think creatively beyond traditional logical and analytical approaches helping them to be agile and responsive to change so they can maintain their competitiveness.
What subjects will I study?
The programme may include a range of topics such as:
Origins of design thinking | Writing a design brief | Competitor analysis | Creative leadership, vision and values | Brainstorming and ideation | Audience/customer profiling | Customer journeys & empathy experiments | Synthesis and insights | Visualisation methodologies | Storytelling | Prototyping & iteration | Design metrics, evaluation, validation and testing.
What will I do?
Students will learn through a series of on-campus lectures, workshops, exercises and projects. The course will incorporate practical methods for design research, brainstorming and idea generation, visualisation, mapping, charting, recording and documentation. Practical exercises and projects will provide students with the opportunity to develop critical thinking, creative problem solving, and visualisation methodologies.
Students will complete two practical and written assignments during the programme. The first assignment is a group assignment and the second is an individual assignment. Students will be required to work on project assignments with their assigned group and individually outside of the specified course dates.
Who can apply?
This course is suitable for professionals and graduates who have an Undergraduate qualification of 2nd Class Honours or higher at Honours Degree level. Applicants without a Level 8 qualification may be considered based on their prior experience and learning through our RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) process.
Dates + Times
The 2024/25 course will be delivered on a blended format as follows:
| Times | Dates | Location |
| 10am–4.30pm | Friday 13th Sept 2024 | On campus |
| 10am–4.30pm | Friday 1st Nov 2024 | On campus |
| 10am–1.00pm | Friday 6th Dec 2024 | Online |
| 10am–4.30pm | Friday 24th Jan 2025 | On campus |
| 10am–1.00pm | Friday 28th March 2025 | Online |
Fees + Scholarships
IADT + CCI Skillnet Collaboration:
Creative Futures Academy is delighted to collaborate with Cultural & Creative Industries Skillnet to offer a special partnership rate for a range of upcoming courses. Details and application information is available HERE.
THIS PROGRAMME IS CO FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (EUFUNDS.IE).
CFA + Kilkenny Arts Office Bursaries:
Kilkenny Arts Office has joined forces with CFA to offer bursaries this Autumn to Kilkenny based artists seeking to gain new qualifications and skills to expand their practice. The bursaries range from €500 to a maximum of €2,000. Find out more HERE
CFA Scholarship:
A CFA scholarship encourages the participation of learners from sections of society that are significantly under-represented in higher education by offering one free place on all of our CFA short courses.
Find out if you are eligible to apply HERE
Fill in the CFA@IADT scholarship application form HERE
Future careers
This course will enhance your career opportunities in any current or future role by providing you with vital design thinking skills in creative problem solving, visualisation techniques and innovation strategies.
For recent graduates, this course will provide a competitive edge for entering the workplace. For professionals, the course is ideal for anyone working in a team or project-driven environment that is customer-focused. The skills learnt on the course are applicable to product/service ideation, development or improvement, or for startups and R&D teams who may be developing new and innovative offerings.
Graduates and participants from the course have come from a wide range of private and public sector organisations and companies including:
ESB, Google, Deloitte, Accenture, Trinity College Dublin, Dell, UCD, Publicis, IBEC, Silvercloud Health, Dynamo Design, Dublin City Council, Epsilon, South County Dublin Partnership, Johnson Controls, Click n’ Go, AIB, Bulgari, RTÉ, NUI Galway, Group M, Aerlingus
Testimonials
“As a Design Lead within a multi-disciplinary, in-house creative team I have seen the rapidly changing scope and scale of the creative work we do here. Having a strong understanding of Design Thinking principles, in my role, is more important now than ever. The course gave me the confidence to bring these principles to both team and stakeholder projects which has helped focus and drive them in a different direction. The results being that our outputs are more considered and applicable to the audience we are reaching out to”. Mari McCallion, Graphic Design Lead, Ernst and Young Ireland
“As part of my work on the course, I identified an opportunity for a new function within our organization and built a team to meet the needs of our internal customers. I would highly recommend the course for leaders looking to innovate within their organization or careers”. Rosemary Clancy Engagement Strategy Director, Oracle EMEA.
“The course proved to be an excellent way to increase the appetite for Innovation across our organisation.
We collaboratively tackled a project that has been a challenge for our organisation for a couple of years using low risk ‘experiments’ that led to great solutions”. Lorraine Bowen, Head of Innovation & Impact, The Entrepreneurs Academy
“A number of us at Allianz completed the Design Thinking course and I found it great to get a range of people from across the business access the same framework. The focus on ensuring you are framing the problem correctly, ideating widely and ensuring you are testing your solutions with consumers can be applied across any part of the business. On top of that, it was great fun and also great to activate your more creative side with both group work and individual assignments”. Terri McCarthy, Head of Customer Experience, Insights and Analytics Allianz
