Design thinking: creativity for the 21st century (U101)

Starting this in October anybody here finished/in the process of doing this course? Thoughts and reviews? What kind of things to expect? Thanks.

Reply 1

Persipan

I did it a couple of years ago. It's tons of fun; expect the unexpected!

Open University

Milton Keynes

Reply 2

Inkedtaylor

heyya ill be doing it this October aswell really looking forward to it , you got your materials pack yet ?

Reply 3

Adamsiddle

Original post by Inkedtaylor

heyya ill be doing it this October aswell really looking forward to it , you got your materials pack yet ?

Yeah got them a while back, had a quick look and was quite impressed. Shame the tshirts 2 sizes too big could of made use of it whilst waiting to start lol. Not long to go.

Question: anyone know if we need any software such as Photoshop or similar for this course?

Reply 4

Persipan

Original post by Adamsiddle

Question: anyone know if we need any software such as Photoshop or similar for this course?

You shouldn't need Photoshop as such, although it wouldn't hurt to have some form of photo-editing software just to make the best the images you submit in your TMAs (something free like gimp, say) - it's important to take the best photos you can because you're communicating a lot of important information through them, but you can do this perfectly well without needing to spend a lot. My tip would be to go to an art shop and get a few massive sheets of coloured paper to use as a background when photographing objects.

You might possibly want to use SketchUp (the basic version is free) - I seem to remember the tutorial videos popping up in U101. I didn't really bother with it until T217, and you don't have to use it even then; I only did because there's a lot of emphasis on orthographic drawings in T217 and for things I was designing (loads of fiddly angles) it was easier to make a SketchUp model and then generate the views I needed than to spend ages on drawings that wouldn't look quite so good anyway.

Reply 5

Adamsiddle

Very informative persipan thank you! I was considering buying a chromebook for the course but I'm not sure if those programmes can be downloaded onto a chromebook although I'm sure there'll be something similar. I'll be taking pictures with my iPhone 5c and it takes fairly nice photos so I'll be ok with that.

What is your current/next course? Is the T217 the next one after u101 and what's your aim what kind of career path are you heading for? :smile:

Reply 6

Persipan

T217 is the Level 2 Design module. I'm doing an Open Degree that's basically half Creative Writing and half Design (and I've just randomly chucked in a bit of Chinese, too), not for any real reason other than interest.

Reply 7

Adamsiddle

Original post by Persipan

Cool sounds good, so I'm
Guessing t217 will be my next one. Is it much different than u101? I'm taking the actual design course and I think I'll be required to take a path but I'm not sure what choices or what I'll pick yet.

Reply 8

Persipan

T217 is a bit less wacky fun than U101; and it focuses mainly on product design. It also gets a bit more into stuff that's relevant for engineers as well as designers - so, it touches on materials and manufacturing more than U101 - and just generally cranks things up a level.

Reply 9

Adamsiddle

That kind of stuff interests me especially when it comes to designing new products to fit peoples needs and requirements or looking for ways to improve current products. Is there anything equipment wise thats handy for having for u101 and t217 alike? Im guessing plenty of paper, pencils, crayons etc is handy to have but anything else you can recommend?

Also are you studying design in hope to have a career in design? if so it would be interesting to know what kind of job.

Reply 10

Persipan

If you don't already have a scanner, it would definitely be worth getting one (a cheapo copy-print-scan machine will set you back about £30) - again, this helps with the quality of the images you submit. Having a few old cardboard boxes around that you can cut up is also surprisingly helpful! Also really useful are black fineliners, Sharpies in all colours (but especially black), and tracing paper. Mostly, though, just see how you go - there's no point buying loads of stuff and finding you never use it; easier to wait and see what you're actually using.

I have a degree already, so this one is really just for fun - and actually my focus is more the Creative Writing side of my studies. Design complements it well, though - they involve similar skills and approaches.

Reply 11

Korky1326

I did the U101 course a few years and wish I had planned my time effectively in terms of taking photos. When I studied it was nighttime, thus taking photos was terrible in artificial light. My advice would be take photos of your work in the daylight in preparation for evening study time.
I loved this course and learnt a lot more about my own pc and its capabilities. Using clear high quality images/photos was one of my tutor's bug- bears.
Eleanor

(edited 7 years ago)