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User Centred Design Innovation

Module code: MEU44EM9 · Semester: Semester 1

Themes: MAI track · Theme 1: Energy; MAI track · Theme 2: Bioengineering/Manufacturing; MAI track · Theme 3: Mechanical/Manufacturing; BSc track · Theme 1: Energy/Fluids/Manufacturing; BSc track · Theme 2: Bioengineering/Manufacturing; BSc track · Theme 3: Mechanical/Manufacturing

Resources​

How it's assessed​

No end-of-semester exam. It's assessed through coursework.

How to identify real user needs and design products and services that meet them, an area where many new businesses fail.

AssessmentWeight
Continuous assessment assignments100%
  • Reassessment is an individual project over the summer.

Summarised from the TCD module descriptor, checked 2026-11-09. Details can change from year to year, so check this year's descriptor and Blackboard.

From students who've done it​

No write-ups yet.

Questions by Year​

This module has no end-of-semester exam, so there are no past papers. See How it's assessed above.

Topics

  • User-centred design LO6
  • Ideation, personas and point-of-view statements LO4
  • Needfinding and benchmarking LO2–4
  • Interviewing, observation and focus groups LO3
  • Thought leaders in user-centred design LO6
  • Intellectual property and patents LO5
Learning outcomes
  1. Work in multidisciplinary teams on ambitious, ill-defined projects
  2. Identify key users and stakeholders
  3. Find user needs with anthropological and ethnographic methods
  4. Select well-defined problems from needfinding evidence
  5. Work professionally with industry engineers
  6. Assess current thinking in user-centred design

Summarised from the module descriptor, checked November 2026.