Hi Jake, Great question. There actually are a few MBA programs that are incorporating design, or more specifically, Design Thinking into the curriculum. I don't know off hand which schools offer this, but I did read in Fast Company a while back about this. In fact, Fast Company, is one of my favorite magazines that combines both design and business. I highly recommend reading it.
David On Wed, Oct 14, 2009 at 1:09 PM, Jake Trimble <[email protected]>wrote: > Did anyone else listen to the recent discussion/argument between Don > Norman and Peter Merholz? > http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/user-experience-week > > I think Don and Peter were both right. Don seemed to be arguing from > the customer client point of view. Meaning that using the word, > "Investment" is not suitable when trying to persuade clients of the > need for a better design process. Peter on the other hand seemed to be > arguing for how it is plausible to use the term "ROI" when persuading > management in-house to increase the design budget. > > An interesting take away for me was the sidebar discussion about > designers also needing to understand the "management" language. This > issue is often raised and seems to be at the forefront of many design > discussions, that is, how to implement better design within your > organization, or on another level, how to evangelize better design to > clients and in-house management. In the discussion they talk about the > need for designers to be managed (by MBA's in particular) in order for > designers to be able to prosper and produce, which I fully agree with > and I also agree that a certain level of "understanding the management > language" is necessary for designers so they can grow and be better at > their profession. But my take away from that part of their discussion > is a question: > > Why doesn't there seem to be (at least to me) a greater focus on > implementing the understanding of the design process and the great > need for it into a Business Management curriculum? Why must we > pressure the designers themselves to make management understand? > Wouldn’t it be a better process if the designers only focused on > creating products who’s ROI was self evident, and management had > already been taught that better design would lead to greater ROI and > that proving that to a client is their job? > One of the programs I work on is a grass roots effort to produce more > American born Naval, Ocean, and Marine Engineers. The program focuses > on implementing curriculum at the K-12 level so that students will not > only be exposed to the subject earlier, but that they will understand > engineering processes much earlier and have that instilled in their > thought process as they move forward in whatever career path they may > choose. > > I’m not saying that we should implement design curriculum at the K-12 > level, but my point is that like the program I work on, implementing a > design curriculum at earlier stages and integrating it with broader > subject matters instead of “grandfathering it in”, might be a design > strategy that we could all benefit from in the future. > > -Jake > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [email protected] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > -- "Making peoples lives easier daily... since 1969" w: http://weatherdude.wordpress.com ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [email protected] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
