Industrial Design Undergraduate Program

The Industrial Design (ID) program at Brigham Young University is an undergraduate Bachelor of Fine Arts degree offered through the Ira R. Fulton College of Engineering. It is designed to serve the industrial design profession by graduating students who are immediately strong contributors to their employers and show by example that they are capable of advancing into leadership roles.

The industrial design (ID) program at Brigham Young University guides students in methods for creating, developing, and communicating product and service concepts that enrich the human experience and connection through aesthetics, problem solving, and meaning.

Based on a sufficient level of aptitude and effort graduates of the program will have:

• A foundational understanding of how products work; how products can be made to work better for people; what makes a product useful, usable, and desirable; how products are manufactured; and how ideas can be presented using state-of-the-art tools.
• Knowledge of computer-aided drafting (CAD), computer-aided industrial design (CAID), and appropriate two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphic software.
• Understanding of the history of industrial design.
• Functional knowledge of basic business and professional practice.
• The ability to investigate and synthesize the needs of marketing, sales, engineering, manufacturing, servicing, and ecological responsibility and to reconcile these needs with those of the user in terms of satisfaction, value, aesthetics, and safety. To do this, industrial designers must be able to define problems, variables and requirements; conceptualize and evaluate alternative; and test and refine solutions.
• The ability to communicate concepts and requirements to other designers and colleagues who work with them; to clients and employers; and to prospective clients and employers. This need to communicate draws upon verbal and written forms, two-dimensional and three-dimensional media, and levels of detailing ranging from sketch or abstract to detailed and specific.
• Studies related to end-user psychology, human factors and user interface.
• Opportunities for advanced undergraduate study in areas which intensify skills and concepts already developed, and which broaden knowledge of the profession of industrial design. Studies might be drawn from such areas as engineering, business, the practice and history of visual art and design, and technology, or interdisciplinary programs related to industrial design.
• Easy access to computer facilities; woodworking, metalworking, and plastics laboratories; libraries with relevant industrial design materials; and appropriate other work facilities related to the major.
• Opportunities for internships, collaborative programs, and other field experiences with industry groups.
• Participation in multidisciplinary team projects