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What We Do?

Education

Design / Dissemination

İzmir Design Factory adopts the "Design Thinking" (DT) method as its basic mindset and applies it in learning experiences as well.

DT is an interdisciplinary, human-centered creative thinking structure that provides basic educational goals and is used from problem definition to solution process. Since it is a mentality that can meet the changing needs with today's technology, educational practices related to it are becoming more and more common in the world. In line with the common educational goals of the 21st century, different practices bring different approaches and diversity in educational practices is increasing.

As in other examples of the Design Factory model in the world, İzmir Design Factory does not only focus on certain areas of design; it takes the design perspective in a broader framework. With the method and process it uses, it tries to ensure that the participants form the basis of the actions they will take to solve problems or improve current conditions.

IDF constructs and implements various interdisciplinary training programs in order to instill this mentality from the local to wider audiences, to enable individuals and institutions to experience the DT structure and use it in their own professional and daily lives.

We are trying to transform the DT structure into a common language that we will share with people of all ages and fields, with the training and in-house training programs we have co-designed in university-industry collaboration under the title of IDF education.

With the training we have built in university-industry collaboration, we ensure both the active contribution of the knowledge in the academy to the industry and the reinforcement of the current experience in the industry and the existing knowledge in the students and the academy. With in-house training, it supports the motivation of the human resources, their ability to produce solutions, and their ability to act together with an understanding of active participation and being a community; we contribute to regional development by increasing the qualified workforce.

Design Thinking Course

With the collaboration of Yaşar University and Originn, an interdisciplinary Design Thinking course at the undergraduate level has been implemented under the roof of İzmir Design Factory, as a first in Turkey.

The Design Thinking Course has been designed as a learner-focused, participatory learning experience that adopts a learning-by-doing approach and is open to development. This course consists of theoretical knowledge and educational practices with the aim of establishing a productive community on the basis of communication and cooperation, increasing the self-awareness of the participants, taking into account the problem-solving skills of the local culture. Within the scope of this training, the learner experiences the Design Thinking process with teams from different disciplines and a facilitator responsible for each team. During the training process, the learner is involved in two projects. In the first project, the learner experiences the learning process with a project that focuses on a daily problem and in the second project, with the stakeholder problems. It is provided to experience teamwork in the project, to look at problems from different perspectives, to introduce some basic methods and to propose solutions to the identified problems.

The first Design Thinking Course was held in the 2019-2020 academic year with 54 participants from 13 different disciplines of 3 different universities, 5 partners, 11 mentors, 8 facilitators / instructors, and 1 researcher. During the 15-week course, 8 practice projects and 10 projects were completed. 3 out of 10 teams worked on "A new user experience design with IoT technologies for a comfortable life with residential type combi boiler systems" for Viessmann; 4 of them worked for an international corporate company on “redesign of the new generation employees' recruitment process in corporate companies”; 3 teams developed projects for SME scale partners that are KATSAN, Philia Lifestyle & Coffee Co. and Abant Kahvecisi. While the project brief of KATSAN is “the redesign of product and brand communication after Covid-19 for Katsan, a surgical yarn manufacturer”, "service design that can adapt to the post-pandemic period" has been studied for Philia Lifestyle & Coffee Co. and Abant Kahvecisi. Projects developed during this period:

International Corporate Company: Team Extroverts project, Team İkiler project, BeetleGods Giri project, Team Evde Boyoz project

Viessmann: Project Febris, Vi-Home project
KATSAN: Kat-Kı project
Philia Lifestyle & Coffee Co. project
Abant Kahvecisi: 14OZ project

Developed with the experiences gained from the first Design Thinking Course, the second course was held in the fall semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. Within the scope of this course, 29 participants from 8 different disciplines of 5 different universities worked on 7 practice and 6 partner projects with 2 partners, 15 mentors, 5 facilitators / instructors, 4 co-facilitators, and 1 researcher. Three different projects on “Sustainable Air Conditioning for Mobile Spaces” were developed for our stakeholder Viessmann Germany, and 3 different projects on “Sustainability of Food Communities” were developed for İzmir and Istanbul Food Communities. Projects developed during this period: