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Design+

SHORT COMMUNICATION
An “appropriate” education for a practice-based

evidence approach in design education

Carlo Branzaglia 1,2,3 *
1 ADI Association for Industrial Design, Milan, Italy
2 Postgraduate School, IED Istituto Europeo Design, Milan, Italy
3 Department of Design and Applied Arts, Academy of Fine Arts, Bologna, Italy

Abstract
Design occupies a space between theory and practice, strategy and tactics, discipline
and craft. Its approach is now applied across a wide range of formulas and contexts.
To maintain its ability to engage with reality, design must adopt an interpretation
that manages increasingly complex models, while suggesting future educational
frameworks. The objective of design is to practically intervene to modify reality,
which makes its disciplinary dimensions somewhat ambiguous: It is rich in tools but
lacks the foundational axioms of a discipline. A transdisciplinary perspective can be
valuable in developing a reliable model and an affordable methodology. However,
this perspective must be built on areas of knowledge in which the practical activity
complements the theoretical evidence; that is, fields where the engagement with
the public (both collectively and individually) is strong. Therefore, a stimulus can
*Corresponding author: come from personal care practices such as medicine, psychology, or pedagogy. In
Carlo Branzaglia
(carlo.branzaglia@adi-design.org) these areas, recurring patterns (or, better, Gestalt) can help shape an anthropological
dimension, one that reflects the contextual and functional nature of design.
Citation: Branzaglia C. An
“appropriate” education for a
practice-based evidence approach
in design education. Design+. Keywords: Education; Tool; Discipline; Practice; Evidence; Experience
2025;2(1):4757.
doi: 10.36922/dp.4757
Received: September 4, 2024
1. Introduction
Revised: November 4, 2024
The design of educational programs for design requires special attention due to the
Accepted: November 18, 2024
nature of the field, which exists between theory and practice, and between strategy and
Published online: January 17, 2025 tactics. Design encompasses both speculative and conceptual components, but its full
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s). expression occurs through practical activity, whether this is temporally aligned with the
This is an Open-Access article theoretical or not. A concept may be applied at a distance, or even remain unapplied, yet
distributed under the terms still provide guidance for future actions. This is a historical reality, made more complex
of the Creative Commons
AttributionNoncommercial License, by the accelerating changes in social, economic, and, in recent years, health contexts – all
permitting all non-commercial use, of which can be involved in design processes. To be effective, an educational path must
distribution, and reproduction in any reveal the way to achieve results. In the context of design, which aims to provide real-
medium, provided the original work
is properly cited. world solutions, it is appropriate to clarify the methods for achieving pragmatic goals.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Despite its broad spectrum of applications (or perhaps because of it), design remains a
Publishing remains neutral with tool rather than a discipline. It is not a normative system based on its own rules, whether
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional derived from experimental scientific disciplines or speculative humanistic observations.
affiliations. However, it is an exceptionally versatile tool – or rather, a set of tools – capable not

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/dp.4757