“Design” means many different things. Some think of interior design, or fashion— creating things that are pleasing to the eye. Engineers think of design more pragmatically—designing new circuits, materials, or chemicals. At the Segal Design Institute, we combine these two approaches to focus on the design of systems, goods and services that involve people and technology, and how technological concerns interact with societal and individual ones.
In many ways, we consider the relationship of design to the university as akin to that of engineering to science. If engineering is the application of scientific knowledge and methods, then design is the application of knowledge from across the university: science and engineering, the arts and humanities, the cognitive, social, and behavioral sciences. We call our approach human-centered design.
