利莫利克大学

What is product design and technology?

In recent years industry and society are recognising the positive impact design can have on both business and people. Understanding user’s needs is central to the UL design philosophy; we combine this with knowledge of technology, materials and manufacturing to ensure products are realisable and useful. PDT will bring you through a thinking process in creative design where human-focused research helps to reveal unmet needs and leads to ideas that are tested, developed and brought to life through sketching, model-making, computer aided design and cutting edge manufacturing techniques.

Our strong links with industry and community partners brings a real-world focus that reflects professional design practice and helps designers build strong portfolios which strengthen their job prospects. The products that UL students design are many and varied and include medical devices, furniture, transport vehicles, consumer goods and services, household items, communication technologies, display systems, sports equipment and anything else they can imagine.

Why Study Product Design and Technology at UL?

• Practical project-based learning
• Purpose built studios, workshops & computer labs
• Links with leading industry partners
• Tutors with design experience
• Internationally recognised degree
• Visiting lecturers and field trips
• Design competitions
• Co-Operative Education
• Study Abroad opportunities
• Be part of the ‘Design at UL’ community
• Build your own future through your final year design project

The course will develop your skills in design to allow you to plot your own future career through creative thinking processes. You will learn to research and understand user behaviours so you can provide them with the products and services that best suit their needs.

Through your four years of design education you will design products and services across a broad range of themes and subjects including future technologies, healthcare and well-being, consumer electronics, sustainability and social impact, and user experience.

Career Prospects

Career opportunities for Product Design and Technology graduates will be in roles such as Design Consultant, In-House Designer, Manufacturing Technologist with design capability or Designer with technological capability, and in such varied areas like:

• Consumer Products
• Medical Devices
• Mobile and Assistive Technologies
• Packaging and Display
• Furniture
• User Experience Design
• Computer Aided Design
• Design Engineering
• Toys and Entertainment
• Sports and Lifestyle Equipment
• Environmental Design
• Design for Social Impact
• Transport
• Interactive Media

PD+T graduates have followed careers in a wide variety of elds including in-house designers for manufacturing companies, contractors undertaking commissioned work and more recently, they have been snapped up by bio-medical design companies where they have been at the cutting edge of new surgical instrument design.

Follow-On Study

Our PDT Graduates have excellent creative skills, a capacity for innovation and deep technical knowledge which could lead to research opportunities with our Design Factors research group or for start-up support with UL’s NEXUS Innovation Centre. Graduates might also opt for postgraduate study in related UL courses such as:

• MTech in Computer Aided Product Design Engineering
• MSc. in Marketing, Consumption and Society