Programme Code (73416 - SDS) BA(Hons) in Social Design
Mode of Study Full Time
Number of Credits 60
Normal Period of Study 2 years
Tuition Local Student: HK$42,100 per academic year
Social Design (BA)
Nurturing Creative Changemakers for a Better Society
Brief programme outline
Aims and objectives
This programme attempts to expand the scope of design beyond
the current commercialised and compartmentalised professional
practices by orienting towards the ‘social dimension of design’,
with emphasis on civic participation, social engagement and
collaborative design practices. Dedicated to the promotion of social
and cultural sustainability, the programme focuses on the realisation
of social innovations and civic goals through the framework of
design thinking and solution prototyping.
The programme aims to:
- augment students’ (empathic) understanding of social needs/changes from real-life perspectives
- introduce students to methods for social observation, ethnographic design research and co-designing practices
- engage students with outside partners to address social issues and develop design resolutions
- inaugurate designerly thinking into the professional practices of nondesign disciplines
- prototype and realise design solutions for sustainable and positive social change
Characteristics
Upon successful completion of this Programme, students will be able to:
- Appreciate and reflect upon the multiple social dimensions of design and their real-world complexity;
- Learn independently and continuously develop cultural, social, technological and design literacy through local, regional and global contexts;
- Explore and address social and community issues through design research, experimentations and reflective implementation practices;
- Make acute analysis of social situations and propose creative and realistic design solutions;
- Apply professional skills of design to deliver outcome with real-life impact;
- Communicate and collaborate with social institutions, communities and people to experiment with different approaches to social design;
- Develop strategic and design insights for relevant business, social and cultural endeavours;
- Design projects and create platforms and solutions for positive social change.
Programme structure
The BA (Hons) in Social Design is divided into two levels:
Level 3 (Year 1) - learn to research and apply knowledge and skills
Students are expected to broaden their critical knowledge and analytical ability through contextual research, design thinking and integrate conceptual and technical skills into the development and communication of creative ideas in projects and other opportunities.
Level 4 (Year 2) - learn to be collaborative, initiative and resourceful
Students are expected to incorporate knowledge, insights, design skills and social resources into creative and meaningful projects that will potentially generate positive impacts on societal systems. Students shall identify issues critical to future professional and social conditions and take the initiative to tackle them in collaboration with corresponding partners or stakeholders.
Subjects
Senior year students are required to complete a total of 60 credits in order to graduate; including 9 credits earned from General University Requirements subjects, 9 from Common Compulsory Subjects, and 42 from Discipline-Specific and Elective Subjects.
Senior Year Curriculum |
|
General University Requirement |
9 (Credits) |
Service-learning |
✓ |
Cluster-Area Requirements (CAR) |
✓ |
Language and Communication Requirements (LCR)* |
|
|
|
Common Compulsory Subjects |
9 (Credits) |
Introduction to Design Theories and Culture |
✓ |
Cooperative Project |
✓ |
|
|
Discipline-specific Compulsory Subjects |
33 (Credits) |
Professional Communication in Chinese for Design |
✓ |
Professional English for Design Communication |
✓ |
Researching People, Things and Contexts |
✓ |
Visualizing Network, Media and Community |
✓ |
Creative Citizenship in Practice |
✓ |
Participatory Design and Innovation in an Ageing Society (with APSS) |
✓ |
Design for Social and Cultural Business |
✓ |
Co-creation and Project Proposal Writing |
✓ |
Capstone Project 1: Research, Planning and Prototyping |
✓ |
Capstone Project 2: Realization, Documentation and Evaluation
|
✓ |
Elective Subjects (Social Design elective or other disciplines with at least one APSS subject and one SD subject) |
9 (Credits) |
Internship |
|
Communication Design to Foster Sustainable Behavior |
|
Service and Experience Design |
|
Public Facility and Street Furniture Design |
|
Interactive Media and Marketing |
|
Information Design |
|
Overseas Study Trip |
|
Design for Ageing and Silver Industries |
|
Inclusive and Universal Design |
|
Social Capital |
|
Corporate Social Responsibility |
|
Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise |
|
✓ Compulsory Subjects
*Senior Year Students who fail to meet the equivalent standard of the Undergraduate Degree LCR will be required to take up to 9 credits of degree LCR subjects.
Why Social Design?
_〈誰要做個 Social Designer?〉蕭競聰 (in Chinese)
_〈設計改變社會 2017 Beyond Social Innovation〉 Credit: U Magazine, 30 December 2016 (PDF format, in Chinese)
Career prospects
Answering to the emerging design demands and market for social innovations globally and in Hong Kong, the School of Design strives to expand its spectrum of design so as to contribute to the newly developed international movement of Social Design. Since social design is transdisciplinary by nature, this top-up programme of the senior year curriculum is set to admit candidates from a broader spectrum of disciplines, ranging from different areas of design to other social or service fields. The programme aspires to breed a generation of well-rounded dynamic designers and project coordinators who will become design practitioners, consultants and changemakers in service of social needs.
Graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary in professional design practice to help sustain the creative and social economy. They have a wide choice of careers as designers in mainstream industries or in alternative creative and social enterprises. Graduates can become designers not only in design consultancies, but also project coordinators and producers in the fields of social and cultural business, nongovernmental organisations or the public sector, etc.
Discipline leader
Siu King Chung — Associate Professor, BFA, MA

SIU, King Chung is Programme Leader of the BA (Hons) Art and Design in Education Programme. He is an art & design commentator, an installation artist, an independent curator and is actively involved in arts policy and art/design curriculum development in Hong Kong. He writes on art, creativity, design, museum and education. He co-organized the 2006 and 2008 Creative Education Summit for the Home Affairs Bureau of HK. His recent research is on “lesser” design, information design, visual culture and museum methods. Since 2002, he has been involving in establishing a creativity-oriented senior secondary school in Hong Kong (www.creativehk.edu.hk)
He produces experimental exhibitions and often participates in local and international creative and visual culture projects. For many years, he has been exploring ways to initiate collaboration among students, teachers, designers and artists through organizing exhibitions and publishing projects, such as "The Blackbox Exercise" series (June-Aug. 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 in Osaka, Japan, 2000, in Berlin, Germany) and the "Sentimental Education" series (July 1997 & July 98), which have given him chances to explore and develop possible forms and strategies for exhibition design, installation display, publication design and alternative museum practices.
He was former President of the Hong Kong Society for Education in Art (HKSEA) from 1998 to 2001. (www.hksea.org.hk) He co-founded the “Designs You Don’t Know What to Do With Association” (www.dydk.com/DYDK) and the "Community Museum Project" (www.hkcmp.org) in 2002 & 2003 respectively.
Email sdking@polyu.edu.hk
Teaching staff
See also: Meet our staff
Application
Please click HERE for application details.