Design Thinking Minor

The Department of Design offers five courses that directly tackle the field of Design Thinking (each can be taken individually or together as the Design Thinking Minor). The aim of these courses is introduce students to new and creative ways to solve problems.

Students will build a solid understanding of basic principles, processes and applications of Design as related to a wide spectrum of disciplines. The focus on the student’s critical thinking development, to efficiently and effectively addressing the complexity that often surrounds unmet or unrealized needs of people. Each course invites students to discover the design thinking methodology—providing them with the tools and opportunities to practice, using their own voice to identify and quantify meaningful problems, offering their understanding towards establishing goals and developing their perspective towards different sets of solutions.

No permissions or approvals are required to enroll in any of these courses or to pursue the Design Thinking Minor. Courses can be taken in any order. 

Students pursuing the minor should alert their college or school academic advisors of their intent, so that the correct plan can be assigned to their records and tracked in the degree Degree Auditing Report (DAR) system. The minor consists of 15-credit hours from the department’s offerings. 9-credit hours are in courses above 3000-level.

Design Thinking Minor Requirements

  • Design 2700: Introduction to Design Practice 
  • Design 2750: Design History 
  • Design 3105: Exploring Design Thinking 
  • Design 3305: Visualization as Thinking 
  • Design 3505: Presentation as Thinking

Additional requirements can be found on the Design Thinking Minor Advising Sheet found on the College of Arts and Sciences website. 

Design Thinking Minor Advising Sheet | College of Arts and Sciences Site