Product Design Technology

Product design technology sits at the intersection of engineering and design, applying the creative thinking of design to the practical constraints and possibilities of real materials, manufacturing processes and technical systems. Product designers work on the physical objects that people use in their daily lives, from household goods and medical devices to tools, electronic products and transport, and they must balance aesthetic ambition with functional requirements, manufacturing feasibility, cost constraints and the environmental impact of the materials and processes they specify. The discipline requires both creative thinking and technical rigour, and graduates who can move fluently between the two are consistently valued by industry.

At the University of the West of England, Bristol this BSc programme is designed to give you the creativity, skills and confidence to take exciting concepts and transform them into real, working products. You will develop competence in product design methodology, computer-aided design, prototyping, materials selection, manufacturing processes, design for sustainability and the human factors that determine how well products serve their users. The programme includes a sandwich year and work-placement experience, giving you a significant period of professional practice within the design and product development industry during your studies.

Working on real products for real clients under professional conditions is a formative experience that the degree is structured to provide. The programme runs full time over three years.

You will build a portfolio of design work that demonstrates both your conceptual range and your technical ability to realise ideas as functional physical products.

Graduates from product design technology programmes work as product designers, industrial designers, design engineers, packaging designers, UX/UI designers and product development specialists across manufacturing, consumer goods, medical devices, electronics and the broader design industry. Postgraduate study in product design or engineering is also an option.