Academics
Our program gives students the ability to apply their interests to one of many pathways through our engineering major. In pursuing a Design major, students will balance fulfilling the requirements with personal elective options charting a personal pathway through the degree. Design students should review our Design Program Sheet, and SoE Design Handbook Page, to understand specific requirements.
Launch your journey with Design 1.
Take Engineering Breadth Courses.
Progress through our Design Core.
Select a Methods Track.
Choose a Domain Focus Area.
Complete final projects in the Capstone sequence.
Design 1 introduces students to design thinking and human-centered design in an applied, immersive way, covering core methods, values, and mindsets. It also exposes students to pathways within the Design degree, and career pathways beyond Stanford, helping them decide if they want to major in Design.
Design 1 is an introductory course that will explore the fundamental skills, methods, and mindsets of human-centered design. This course is intended for any student who is curious about the design major or wants to learn more about design. It is a required course for all design majors, and provides foundational understanding for subsequent coursework. This course is highly experiential and collaborative. We will cover core design methods through project-based learning and incorporate real world challenges. Students will experience how to prototype and test concepts, research needs, and how to synthesize insights from data to spark novel ideas. Each project will illuminate how design methods can be used to create positive impact in the world. The course will also help students understand possible career pathways for designers through an inspiring and diverse set of guest speakers and project leads.
DESIGN 1: Introduction to Design
Engineering Breadth Courses are required classes that all engineering students need to take in fulfillment of their engineering degree.
The Design Core are nine foundational classes which delves into needfinding & user research, expressing ideas visually, rapid prototyping across media, building to think, business factors, storytelling, and more.
Design 1 is an introductory course that will explore the fundamental skills, methods, and mindsets of human-centered design. This course is intended for any student who is curious about the design major or wants to learn more about design. It is a required course for all design majors, and provides foundational understanding for subsequent coursework. This course is highly experiential and collaborative. We will cover core design methods through project-based learning and incorporate real world challenges. Students will experience how to prototype and test concepts, research needs, and how to synthesize insights from data to spark novel ideas. Each project will illuminate how design methods can be used to create positive impact in the world. The course will also help students understand possible career pathways for designers through an inspiring and diverse set of guest speakers and project leads.
DESIGN 1: Introduction to Design
DESIGN 11: Visual Thinking
Visual Thinking is the foundational class for all designers and creative people at Stanford. It teaches you how to access your creativity through a series of projects. Visual thinking, a powerful adjunct to other problem solving modalities, is developed and exercised in the context of solving some fun and challenging design problems. Along the way, the class expands your access to your imagination, helps you see more clearly with the "mind's eye", and learn how to do rapid visualization and prototyping. The emphasis on basic creativity, learning to build in the 3D and digital world, and fluent and flexible idea production. This class was formerly listed as ME 101, and is a required foundational class for undergrad design majors.
DESIGN 101: History and Ethics of Design
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In this class we will examine the history of design, the challenges that designers at different historical moments have had to face and the ethical questions that have arisen from those choices. This class will explore a non-traditional view of design, looking at both the sung and unsung figures of history and question the choices they made, up to and including recent events in the Silicon Valley. Course work will include group projects as well as weekly writing. This course is required for undergraduate students in Product Design and, as such, priority will be given to these students. If you are not in the Product Design program, instructor permission is needed for enrollment.
An intensive project-based class that introduces the central philosophy of the product design program. Students learn how to use the lens of human needs to innovate at the intersection of technical factors (feasibility), business factors (viability), and human values (desirability). Students work toward mastery of the human-centered design methodology through several real-world, team-based projects. Students gain fluency in designing solutions ranging from physical products, to digital interfaces, to services and experiences. Students are immersed in building their individual and team capacities around core design process and methods, and emerge with a strong foundation in needfinding, synthesis, ideation, rapid prototyping, user testing, iteration, and storytelling. Prerequisites: DESIGN 1 and DESIGN 11; strongly recommended: DESIGN 101. This class was formerly listed as ME 115A. It is a required class for undergrad design majors. This class is for design students only.
DESIGN 121: Introduction to Human Values in Design
DESIGN 131: Advanced Product Design: Needfinding
Needfinding focuses on design research and design planning. The premise of the class is that by studying the world around us, we can get a better understanding of what people need, and use those insights to create meaningful new products and services. Needfinding draws upon theory and methods from anthropology, psychology, engineering and design planning. In this class, students develop proficiency in research and planning through a combination of in- class activities, readings on theory and real world projects. Emphasis is on developing the flexible thinking skills that enable the designer to navigate the future. Prerequisites for undergraduates: DESIGN 121 / ME115A and DESIGN 141 / ME115B, or consent of the instructor. This class was formerly listed as ME 216A. It is a required class for undergrad design majors. Priority for this class will be given to senior design students.
DESIGN 141: Product Design Methods
This course will introduce the basic concepts of human factors and demonstrate the importance of understanding and considering human capabilities and limits in product and system design. This will include an overview of both cognitive and physical human characteristics, methods to analyze human factors constraints, and design methods for prototyping and evaluating the usability of physical products and systems. In this course individual- and team-based design projects are used to emphasize the integration between human factors analysis and evaluation, authoring design requirements and translating these to both physical products and systems. Prerequisites: DESIGN 11 (formerly ME101), and DESIGN 121 (formerly ME115A). Strongly recommended: DESIGN 172 (formerly ME110), ME102, Psych 1. This class was formerly listed as ME 115B. It is a required class for undergrad design majors. This class is for design students only.
“Business Design: Impact and Implications introduces business concepts and personal capabilities to designers critical to the development, launch, and success of new products and services in for-profit and social enterprises. Functionally, students will learn to build the business case for new products, including skills such as market sizing, cost estimation, P&L modeling, and raising capital. In addition, business functions such as marketing, growth, and product management and the role of designers in businesses will be explored through class visitors and case studies. Class projects, culminating in a final demo day to industry experts, will develop teamwork and effectiveness in live presentations, written communications, and video storytelling. This course is required for undergraduate students in Product Design and, as such, priority will be given to these students. If you are not in the Product Design program, instructor permission is needed for enrollment. This class was formerly listed as ME 115C. Strongly recommended: DESIGN 121 (formerly ME115a) and DESIGN 141 (formerly ME115b).
DESIGN 151: Business Design: Impacts and Implications
DESIGN 160R: Design Formation
This class is a required advisory class for design juniors that will guide them in exploring personal and purposeful work. In this course, students will be encouraged to clarify their personal and design values with respect to the impact they hope to make as human-centered designers. Class activities will prepare students practically for navigating their careers beyond Stanford. Outcomes will include supporting students in sourcing summer experiences, creating self-designed projects, developing their personal brand and story, and launching a digital portfolio. Throughout the course, Design Formation will allow students to build community in their cohort as well as with the broader design alumni community. Time will be afforded for students to synthesize and integrate material learned in their chosen method depth classes and domain classes. Finally, this course will prepare students to leverage these insights in service of their senior year capstone project.
DESIGN 170: Visual Frontiers
The student will learn how to use graphic design to communicate online, in person, and through printed matter. Fundamentals of visual communications will be applied to branding exercises, typographic studies, color explorations, drawing exercises, use of photography, and use of grid and layout systems. This class was formerly listed as ME 125. This course can satisfy the visual expression elective requirement for undergrad design majors.
A Methods Track allows students to go across the university, and the whole School of Engineering, to sharpen making skills and abilities and gain professional fluency. Students will choose one of three Method Depths tracks listed below. Within each method you will take three classes with a focus on foundational understanding and application.
“Making in the Physical World”
This method ranges from classes on materials and mechanisms to understanding what is possible with physical design, to manufacturing processes and supply chain logistics to understand how physical design is implemented. Students will work with faculty who have a close partnership with the Product Realization Lab (PRL). Classes in this method will help students understand what they are excited about making. Students will draw from physics and mathematical modeling to build and understand material properties. You will engage with analyzing and calculating to help determine what you will build, and choosing the right materials for what you want your product to do.
Physical Design + Manufacturing
Artificial Intelligence + Digital User Experience
“Digital Design”
This method ranges from foundational classes on programming methodologies and human computer interaction to applied courses on digital prototyping, user experience design, and incorporating AI and data science. In this day and age, we are constantly interacting within a digital space. The digital world is increasingly controlling the physical products we interact with. This method aims to understand digital design and its importance for the development of our world. Class offerings include several courses on Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science focused on different techniques of AI from vision to language. Students will get to focus on the technology of AI paired with understanding the design process which influences the user interface and user interaction.
Human Behavior + Multi-stakeholder Research
“Build for the Human Experience”
This method depth is an opportunity for students to develop an understanding on how to build the body of knowledge that will allow them to execute effective design AND how to use research to modify and evolve design directions as they manifest in the world. This method uses qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand people. Who we are, what we do, and why we do it. A better understanding of us will help better design products, inventions, and policies for our world. Classes focus on communication and psychology to help understand how to design for the human experience.
A Domain Focus Area grounds design work in a particular context by designing for a specific field.
Students with Climate & Environment as their Domain Focus Area gain knowledge around environmental problem solving at macro and micro scales. Environmental problem-solving using design unveils an inspiring path of creativity and innovation. It challenges us to envision solutions that not only address issues, but transform them into opportunities for positive change. By blending design principles with a care for nature, we can address real challenges in our environments. Applying design skills can make us active, and leading, participants in solving some of the biggest environmental challenges of our time.
Climate & Environment
Living Matter
Students with Living Matter as their Domain Focus Area learn about biofutures and the possibilities of building with biology. Biofutures explore a revolutionary frontier where the potential of biology converges with innovative design and technology. Building with biology inspires and transforms the way we conceive, construct, and interact with our environments. This emerging field invites us to envision a coexistence between nature and technology, unlocking new possibilities that redefines the future. It's a journey of exploring how biology can build towards a more sustainable and interconnected world.
Global Development & Poverty
Students with Global Development & Poverty as their Domain Focus Area investigate global governance and its intersection with development and economics. This explores the complexities of international cooperation, policy frameworks, and economic systems. Design can be a transformative force in shaping solutions. By incorporating design principles, we can address global development and poverty in ways that are equitable, and interconnected to the world landscape.
Healthcare & Health Technology Innovation
Students with Healthcare & Health Technology Innovation as their Domain gain a better understanding in anatomy, physiology, health, and health technology. In this exploration, we can use design skills for solutions that not only address current healthcare challenges but also pave the way for a new era of personalized, accessible, and patient-centered care. Pushing for the production of solutions that pair biological sciences with cutting-edge health technology.
Oceans
Students with Oceans as their domain learn about the sea, ecology, and biological change and how they affect marine conservation and management. Ecosystems are both complex and interconnected. Thoughtful design can play a pivotal role in addressing 21st century oceanic challenges. By diving beyond the surface of the water, designers can envision solutions that harmonize the friction between human activities and endangered marine environments.
The Capstone is where students scope and execute design work that integrates their methods and domain focus areas over a 2-quarter long sequence.
Team-based project using knowledge, methodology, and skills obtained in the Product Design major. Students will form a team, identify an opportunity space of interest, and design and implement a product (digital, physical, experiential, ... ) within that opportunity space. This class was formerly listed as ME 216B/C.
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DESIGN 161A: Advanced Design: Capstone 1
DESIGN 161B: Advanced Design: Capstone 2
Team-based project using knowledge, methodology, and skills obtained in the Product Design major. Students will form a team, identify an opportunity space of interest, and design and implement a product (digital, physical, experiential, ... ) within that opportunity space. This class was formerly listed as ME 216B/C.
>> See Explore Course Listing