A Case Study in the Contribution of Industrial Design Education in Relieving Child Anxiety in MRI Scanning Examinations

Selby COXON
2006 Conference

This paper sets out to demonstrate that case studies in industrial design education can contribute not only to the education of young designers, but can also offer insights and alternative approaches to problem-solving in other professional fields outside that of purely manufacturing. Industrial design is a discipline that draws upon a number of disparate branches of knowledge and requires the mastery of a wide range of cognitive and pragmatic skills. It is, therefore, relatively difficult to teach and develop experience within a university environment. Case studies in which students are introduced to design problems in a realistic manner are an important method for framing undergraduate projects.

Twenty undergraduate students undertaking the Bachelor of Industrial Design program at Monash University engaged in a collaborative research project to address the issue of child anxiety during a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedure. The approach was to use an industrial design methodology to create a more child-friendly environment.

About the author

Selby Coxon has been a practising Industrial Designer for over ten years, working largely in Europe for both multi-national consumer product manufacturers and design consultancies. For the past five years he has been teaching and researching at Monash University’s Faculty of Art & Design, where he is Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator for Industrial Design.