Sketching is one of the creative design tools that allows designers to develop such behaviours as combining, restructuring, lateral and vertical transformation as well as experimentation. Empowering design undergraduate students with this capability requires a good balance between content and pedagogy. This paper reports on a case study research carried out between two groups of industrial design students who learned design sketching in the old programme against those who had just entered the revised programmes at the University of Botswana. The purpose of the study was to identify the extent to which the revised programme develops the sketching capability when compared to the old programme. Two cohorts of students were used in this study (First year students studying under the revised programme and final year students studying under the old programme). The reason for choosing these two cohorts was to compare the quality of the outcomes for new entrants into the revised programme and those who are at the exit level. The results show that the outcomes from the new entrants of the revised programme demonstrate more proficiency in sketching than the final years of the old programme. Students’ proficiency in sketching has been attributed to the differences in the amount, type and structure of content in both programmes as well pedagogical approaches. The authors conclude that a supportive hands-on approach to design sketching is critical at the early stages of a design programme in order to build confidence in students to freely express their thinking throughout their design careers.

Projects

Currently no objects available

Currently no objects available