Engage People

Course summary

Engage People to Produce Better Policies and Services is an applied professional module for public designers who need to involve users, stakeholders and colleagues effectively in design work.

Public designers improve policies and services by involving people with different experiences, responsibilities and forms of expertise. This requires judgement about who should participate, how they should be involved and what level of participation is appropriate.

The module develops the professional capability needed to engage users and stakeholders, work in and coordinate multidisciplinary teams, and plan and facilitate effective workshops inside and outside the design team.

Students apply the practice to a work-based challenge and produce an engagement plan that sets out who should be involved, how they will participate and how the activity will be coordinated and facilitated.

Who this course is for

This module is designed for existing and aspiring public designers who need to involve users, stakeholders, colleagues and specialist professionals in design work.

It is relevant to people designing public policies, services, interactions, communications, operational systems or spaces.

Students must complete Introduction to Public Design before taking this module.

They should also have access to a suitable work-based challenge through which they can apply the practice independently.

What you will learn

How the course works

This is an applied professional module combining classroom learning with independent workplace practice. Students learn through a structured sequence:

• teaching of the concepts, methods and frameworks that underpin the practice;
• public-sector case studies that show how the practice is used;
• short practical exercises using individual tools and methods;
• group application through a realistic scenario developed across the module;
• reflection on learning and planning for workplace application.

Following the classroom component, students complete a two-day independent work-based project in which they apply the skills to a real challenge. They then spend a further day preparing their portfolio entry, completing their project reflection and taking part in a design crit.

Assessment and accreditation

This module is formally assessed. Students submit a portfolio entry demonstrating how they have applied all the skills associated with the practice in a real work environment. The expected professional artefact is an engagement plan, supported by evidence of how the student identified users and stakeholders, selected an appropriate intensity and method of participation, worked in and coordinated a multidisciplinary team, and planned and facilitated engagement inside and outside the design team.

Students also complete a project reflection and present their work at a design crit.

A teacher from the Government School of Design assesses the portfolio evidence against the Public Design Capability Framework. Students are assessed on their deployment of the required skills, rather than the scale of the engagement activity or whether all participants reached agreement.

Students who successfully complete the module receive professional certification jointly badged by the Government School of Design and the Chartered Society of Designers.

Each completed module contributes to the student’s professional portfolio. Students who successfully complete all seven Universal Public Design Practice modules will be assessed for chartered status through the Chartered Society of Designers.