Class Central is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

iversity

Design 101 (or Design Basics)

via iversity

This course may be unavailable.

Overview

Design is foremost a language.
A language shared, talked and discussed by designers all over the world.
Things, people and places we all know about.

Design 101 is a journey into contemporary design in which you will transform yourself and your everyday life into 101 projects.

For three months, you will develop basic design attitudes that will allow you to thrive in today’s world, while restoring your understanding of its mechanics. We live in a global community where the physical bits are slowly (and not so slowly) overlapped by social media. Design has become #design. Indeed, the use of new technologies has changed the teaching and, by the same token, the nature of the past; the past is being renewed. Herein lies the conceptual hinge of Design 101: 
a new way to learn a new design.

To do so, we will collectively explore the tools of today (such as this MOOC platform) to step into a fantastic voyage through time and space, in which we are all absolute beginners.

How?

Design is everything. Design is objects, buildings, sports, games…our lives.
Johan Cruyff, a very famous footballer and fantastic designer, once said:

“I never practice tricks. I play very simply. That's what it's all about. 
Playing simple football is the hardest thing.”

very simply

Everyday, you will receive a special package from a different place along our journey. The package will introduce objects, characters and happenings that are intertwined with the narrative of the course.

Each bundle will include 2 main elements:

  • An animated postcard announcing the day’s brief.
  • A letter exploring subjects in depth with the use of links, books, movies, music and more.

on a weekly basis

Each week, there is a new unit consisting of seven postcards/briefs outlining a few simple activities to trigger your imagination. From 15 minutes to one hour of work per day at the most. The quicker, the better!

On Mondays, you get an overview of the week and a quiz to complete.
Then, following our input, you start working.

By Sunday, you will upload images of what you made during the week.

You will refer, think and create a lot of different things. Not easy, but surely fun!

Our special trip will end with a three-day festival: a special event in a special place to exhibit your work to the public and get to know your travel mates.

forum: questions and answers

Doubts, ideas, whatever comes to mind. It is a perfect place to get entangled into discussions and become a true actor within the community.

In the design world, questions are much more interesting than answers. This is why the best questions asked in this forum will be redirected to a Design 101 e-book, to be printed at the end of the course.

extra! extra! encyclopedia!

If you are of the curious kind, we have a special page with all the people, places, things mentioned throughout the course. We could consider it our mini-encyclopedia.

Once we have a shared vocabulary/language, things become meaningful. Conversations start up quickly and flow nicely.

Like any other language, “design” is in constant change. Our mini-encyclopedia is a great foundation upon which to build your own collection of references.

Learning objectives

Design 101 will help you understand:

  • How the world looks through the special lenses called "design".
  • Who shares your visions and ideas (who could collaborate with you in the future).
  • How a community works: its behavior and potential.
  • What skills and attitudes you have: their merits and limitations.

Prior knowledge

No prior knowledge is required. If you have a lot of prior knowledge, it might make the learning process more difficult, but don’t worry, no one is perfect. As we said, if we talk about contemporary design, we are all "absolute beginners"!

Syllabus

The various things to do (so-called “hands-on” activities) will be divided into 14 units, one per week.

  1. Intro: Acquaint yourself with the course’s dynamics.
  2. Myself: Represent one's self.
  3. My diary: Learn about the design process by creating a very simple object.
  4. Kitchen Stories: Become an expert at something and develop basic social skills.
  5. Visiting You: Look back at what we have done so far.
  6. It’s alive: Design as a garden.
  7. Voyage into my room: Understand interior spaces, plans and measures.
  8. Making things: Get familiar with shapes, colors, materials. Plan a series.
  9. Christmas break: Lots of greetings + some more.
  10. Zoom out (the city): Observe the public space in a new way (and map it).
  11. Telling stories: Form doesn’t follow function. Form follows fiction.
  12. Dressing people: Understand what “custom-made” really means.
  13. Road to nowhere: Learn to become self-sufficient.
  14. Ready to show? Ready to exhibit?

Taught by

Stefano Mirti, Giovanni Pasca Raymondi and Lucia Giuliano

Reviews

5.0 rating, based on 24 Class Central reviews

Start your review of Design 101 (or Design Basics)

  • Anonymous
    Top class instructors, excellent course and

    Lovely co-students , all in all , best online course

    Design 1o1.

    Anirudh Chawla
  • Lizz Robb
    This is as good as it gets. The Design 101 is by far the best designed and most interactive MOOC. It shines on so many levels. I have done MOOCs from some of the biggest names in the business but all of them pale by comparison with this one. Of cou…
  • Anonymous
    Design 1o1 is one of the best moocs! What makes it different from other moocs that I've taken is its special atmosphere. Teachers of this course are not inaccessible, you don't see them only in the video lectures, they are always around, on the foru…
  • Anonymous
    This class was well-planned and thoughtful on a number of levels. Content-wise it was very rich and I learned a huge amount. It provided me with enough reading materials and references to continue learning about the topic and exploring the field aft…
  • Anonymous
    Loved loved loved this class. Entertaining videos. Informative and entertaining reading. A lot of hands on homework. Although it is difficult to finish all the assignments, you'll have a great time trying. The facebook arena was a MUST in order to have the creative interaction with other students. The student skill level ranged from no design experience to professional designers and many of us with some hobby skills but working professionals outside of design. I am in the latter group. Although I don't plan on having Design as a career... if I had a course this inspiring twenty years ago, I may have changed my major!
  • Anonymous
    I never took a class that was more fun, where the teachers worked so hard and went trough so much trouble.

    It was a life-changing experience for me: I made a lot of friends all over the world, I learned a lot of things , creative as well as intellectual.

    The class was very interactive and a real community formed.

    I can recommend this course to everyone. Beware however, the workload is heavy, and you'll get hooked very quickly!
  • Anonymous
    The class was amazing.. Totally different from other MOOC I've seen. Teacher were so prepared and know a lot about learning dynamics. It was a really intensive experience and I made a lot of good friends all over the word. I don't have previous competencies on Design and I will not in this field but the class gave me more instrument to understand design as amateur but also to understand how to try to re-design my professional life.
  • Anonymous
    Wonderful experience.

    Learning about important names in the contemporary design on a very unusual way...

    Going trough encyclopedia which ,makes you want to learn more not only about design, but also about music, movies, books, cameras, flowers...

    Making creative home works and learning a lot about the process...

    Finding very inspirational teachers...

    Making friends....
  • Anonymous
    Wonderful experience.

    Learning about important names in the contemporary design on a very unusual way...

    Going trough encyclopedia which ,makes you want to learn more not only about design, but also about music, movies, books, cameras, flowers...

    Making creative home works and learning a lot about the process...

    Finding very inspirational teachers...

    Making friends....
  • Anonymous
    Wonderful experience.

    Learning about important names in the contemporary design on a very unusual way...

    Going trough encyclopedia which ,makes you want to learn more not only about design, but also about music, movies, books, cameras, flowers...

    Making creative home works and learning a lot about the process...

    Finding very inspirational teachers...

    Making friends....
  • Anonymous
    Wonderful experience.

    Learning about important names in the contemporary design on a very unusual way...

    Going trough encyclopedia which ,makes you want to learn more not only about design, but also about music, movies, books, cameras, flowers...

    Making creative home works and learning a lot about the process...

    Finding very inspirational teachers...

    Making friends....
  • nanouk
    Best MOOC I have done by far (3 in Coursera, 1 in Acumen, 1 in Udacity, 1 un rue89). The team was focus on designing a learning process adapted to the media, to the connected world. The result is a vivid community who asks for more! This is the post I made about this MOOC: http://isayel.net/post/76246819037/design1o1-the-mooc-that-rocks-design1o1-is-a
  • Anonymous
    Top notch! Life changing experience, inspiring, creative, wonderfully crazy professors, great classmates!

    101 days of revelations through learning about life and myself by crafting objects, conceptualizing, transmuting concrete experiences into epiphanies.

    Magical.
  • Anonymous
    It's a super-course! Very fun, very energetic and interesting!

    It's about design, community, connections, collaboration, interaction with world and people.

    I'm very grateful to instructors and classmates :) It is really cool!
  • Anonymous
    The class has been absolutely awesome!

    I will save all the letters and video from Desing 101 team as a outrageous source of information and inspirations

    DEFINITELY SEVEN STARS!!
  • Anonymous
    The most amazing course online possible. Not

    only learned to design things.... we designed a community with amazing, wonderful and creative people from all over the world
  • Anonymous
    That was my first online course and all I can say is that I had the most amazing experience ever. Loved it so much that I am anxiously waiting for Design 102.

    Marcia caldeira
  • Anonymous
    This was a fantastic MOOC. It has revolutionized the MOOC world where it united more than 60 countries together in Berlin, Germany. I felt so proud of be part of it.
  • Anonymous
    IT WAS FANTASTIC, MIND OPENING, ILLUMINATING, CHANGING YOUR WORLD, GETTING YOU TO THE POINT OF CREATION IN WHICHEVER SUBJECT YOU CHOOSE.

    LOVELY..
  • Profile image for Kruthika Ramesh
    Kruthika Ramesh
    This is a brilliant course...I liked the concept of letters...! :) I could go through the whole course it was so interactive and creative!! :)

Never Stop Learning.

Get personalized course recommendations, track subjects and courses with reminders, and more.

Someone learning on their laptop while sitting on the floor.