Digital Design students get live client experience thanks to Design For Change module
Digital Design students get a taste of their industry thanks to successful Design For Change module.
The Design For Change module sees students work on a brief set by a client, involving university stakeholders such as the GCU Library, VISA team and the GCU Students’ Association.
Each client sets a brief which challenges students to develop a creative campaign around a specific issue or topic. At the end of the project, the student teams had the opportunity to present their ideas to their clients and fellow classmates
Final year students Shannon Connor, Adeeba Khan, Liesbeth (Lisa) Boas and Denis Negrev collaborated with the GCU VISA team on a campaign to help make information more accessible and easy to navigate.
Combining their skillsets, the students were able to produce a successful campaign which was positively received by the VISA team.
“The class got separated into different groups and then assigned a random brief, which is how we got the chance to work with the VISA team.” Explained Denis.
Shannon added: “Initially, we were asked to fill out a form to outline our preferences and which people we would like to work with as part of it, which they would use to try their best to give everyone their preferred choices.
In the form, it asked questions such as ‘Would you be comfortable leading a team?’ so you could be assigned to a role that you would like to do.”
Once the team had been assigned their brief, the students agreed that it appeared to be quite a challenge on first glance. Denis explained: “I thought that the brief would be quite challenging at first. With a topic like VISA, you don’t want to focus too much on the general stereotypes attached to it. For example, with VISA you might automatically think of passports and things like that.”
Adeeba added: “We wanted to do some research on similar campaigns used by other universities that focused on encouraging international students to seek help, but we actually struggled to find many examples of it!
Generally, there were mostly just webpages which contained information but not necessarily any campaigns around it.”
Reflecting back on the experience, the team felt that the challenges they faced gave a clearer picture of what to expect when working in the industry. Denis said: “I think the biggest challenge was time management. They are obviously very busy as a team, so we had to figure out the best way to make use of the time that we had with them.”
Adeeba added: “Since the client wasn’t necessarily from a creative background, we also had to make sure that we were explaining our ideas in terms that everyone would understand. It tests you on how you can explain a design idea without using complex technical design terms.
Communication is so important in that sense. You might have a great idea, but if you don’t explain it properly then the client might not buy into the idea.”
Despite some challenges, the power of teamwork became very apparent to students like Shannon. She explained: “ The teamwork really made it for me. There was one week where I ended up having to take some days off because I wasn’t well, and my task was to do the Highlight covers. Everyone ended up picking up extra work to help make up for time, they really came together as a team.
Now that the module is complete, the students are excited at the prospect that their hard work will used to help students in the university. Adeeba explained: “As well as having work experience, the work that we made actually has the potential to be used by the client in a real setting. In university, you’re often creating designs and campaigns purely for assessment purposes but in this case, we might see our work be used around the university. The VISA team were so enthusiastic about it which makes the experience totally worth it.
It was also useful to get feedback from the client. At times, we might submit an idea to them and they would suggest something that we hadn’t thought of ourselves, so it was helpful to have their insight as well.”
Lisa continued: “As an international student myself, I found it quite tough to find information around the VISA process. The way we have designed it is more visual and I think that it makes it a lot clearer for people to understand.
As someone from the Netherlands, I didn’t require a VISA because I’m only here for a short time but for others the VISA process in general can be really daunting and complicated. I really hope the campaign can help make finding the information easier.”
By Rachael McAlonan
Got a SCEBE or GSBS story? Email me at Rachael.McAlonan@gcu.ac.uk or connect with me on social media