The prototypes may include objects, software, experiences, performances and organizations. The research agendas will be just as varied, from stopping drunk driving to building better elementary schools.
Ask mechanical engineering professor David Kelley about the so-called d.school, and he jumps up from his office chair (ducking under a bicycle that hangs compactly from the ceiling) to draw a Venn diagram on a wall whiteboard. At the center is the proposed d.school—technically the Stanford Institute of Design—and ringing it like pop beads are the schools of business, education, medicine, and humanities and sciences. The vision: groups of three faculty will team-teach interdisciplinary graduate courses, focusing on the user-centered process called “design thinking,” which integrates analytical, visual and insight-based methodologies.
“If you’re going to stop drunk driving and you put nine engineers on [the problem], they’ll come up with a mechanism as a solution,” Kelley says. “But if you put business, psychology and Ed School people on it, the end result is liable to be more innovative.”
The d.school is not a replacement for the product design program, which will continue to award bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Rather than grant degrees, the d.school will issue certificates to those who complete three or more courses.
An instructor at Stanford since 1978, Kelley, MS ’78, also is the co-founder of the internationally renowned design firm known today as IDEO; its products include the first Apple mouse and rubber grips on toothbrushes. Four years ago he took his idea for the d.school to engineering dean Jim Plummer, MS ’67, PhD ’71, and got the okay to raise the estimated $50 million needed for the institute. He also secured 47,000 square feet of space in the Petersen Building as a home base for his newest project.
George Kembel, ’94, MS ’97, executive director of the product design program and of the d.school, gestures toward the high ceilings in Petersen and paints in the lofts, moveable furniture and wall-size whiteboards that will fill the warehouse-like building when it is renovated in 2½ years. Meanwhile, he’s collaborating with other faculty on prototype courses—designing water systems for developing countries or enhancing video games.
“I don’t care about video games, but we have to pick projects they’re going to be inherently interested in,” Kelley says. He adds that many students request socially beneficial projects. In one popular course, Design for Autism, students came up with toys that speech therapists could “talk” through remotely, and big cushy couches with wraparound arms that comfort autistic children. “The tide has turned from students who [used to] say, ‘Help me start a company and become wealthy,’ to this kind of Peace Corps feeling, where they care.”
