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Being a designer is not only a fun job, it is becoming a serious job. They are tasked with the burden of solving many of the world’s wicked problems, doing things they were not even taught in design school. Design education is also at a crossroads. I’ve had many discussions with design education leaders both in the UK and US. They all in agreement that the recent shifts in design education theory and practice are forcing design educators to rethink design education in a response to significantly new contexts for design. These changes are the result proliferation of digital connectivity and interfaces, uncertainty of industries, environmental realities and social changes etc.

Stanford’s D-School has a very interesting interface design course. Unlike most computer interface design classes, which are constrained by the keyboard, mouse, and screen, the course explore ‘beyond-desktop’ interface design. The course, called tangible user interfaces, or “TUI” for short, combines theory with a design studio. Students not only study design theories, but also build prototypes of their designs. The idea is to not just talk about ideas, but also really design something new. Only by turning an idea into concrete form can students see the possibilities of their ideas. It helps student to think about the physical affordances of interfaces and translate them to the digital world.

The Royal College of Art in London also provides a unique joint two-year double Masters with The Imperial College London.  All graduates of this program receive an MA from the RCA and an MSc plus a Diploma from The Imperial College London. It is a fascinating program where students in the first year develop basic skills, and in the second year, students complete two long self-initiated projects; a group project and a solo project. I really like project-based approaches to learning. During the first year students elect into one of three learning strands:

Design for Manufacturing: DFM is core IDE territory and is about delivering innovative products to the market that work.
Experimental Design: EXP is for design innovation at a fundamental level, which may incorporate the exploration of new technologies, new product categories or new contexts.
Design Enterprise: DE is about the commercial elements around a product – the effective design and launch proposal of a new business venture, system or service.

So what are the best design schools? I’ve written a lot about the best business schools, here’s what I think about design schools. I’ll start with US schools. I’ll include the best US schools for product design as well as specialties like transportation, fashion and advertising etc

Rhode Island School of Design – this is the top school, a good balance between art and design. Most prestige and Rhode Island is nice;
Cranbrook – treats design very seriously, good theoretical training and applying the highest standard;
University of Cincinnati- solid and affordable, great co-op program, well respected;
Art Center College of Design- rigorous program, great reputation, good alumni network, strong in industrial design, photography and transportation too;
Cleveland Institute of Art- relatively inexpensive, very friendly and caring faculty, doesn’t have the brand names like others;
College for Creative Studies- highly networked and mostly within the auto industry;
Columbus College of Art and Design- great value for money;
Academy of Art College- advertising design school as its core, emphasis on practical skills. San Francisco is popular choice for designers;
Pratt- more of an art school than design school. Great network because of the NY thing.  Strong ID and interactive dept. Good graduate programs;
Parsons – great fashion, illustration and interior design programs. NY for fashion, that’s makes sense. Good network too;
Rochester Institute of Technology – a lot of emphasis on functional training with the latest tools;
Savannah – advertising and digital arts are their strengths.