As the project coordinators of Project: Human-Product Relations (HPR), my colleague Değer Özkaramanlı and I were interviewed about the results of Project-HPR by UToday Magazine of the University of Twente.
This year’s project was very broad but very familiar. We asked students to design for 1.5 metres university campus. During the interview, we emphasized the role of design in tackling the societal challenges, like Corona crisis.
A snippet of the interview:
“In the Industrial Design Engineering Bachelor’s course Human Product Relations, students are given the task to create a design in which the experience of the user is key. This year’s theme focused on social distancing. ‘We wanted to draw students’ attention to the added value of design’, explains course co-coordinator Deǧer Özkaramanlı. ‘When you enter the campus these days, it seems as if you are entering a hostile environment. Because of all the signs and stickers, it’s no longer a stimulating and carefree learning environment. These measures are necessary, of course, but a good design can make people embrace the rules, instead of imposing an extra cognitive burden on them.’”