Education guide 'Eindhoven designs' - Technische Universiteit ...

Eindhoven designs / volume two
61
Teamwork and
Communication
Work together towards a common
goal using all strengths within a
team and communicate opinions,
ideas, information and results
clearly and convincingly.
Design projects by nature involve many
different stakeholders and experts,
where designers can play a leading role
in the assimilation and integration of
many different parts of the project. The
focus on intelligent systems, which might
become very complex, urges designers
to cooperate with other experts.
Inevitably, this requires special skills and
experiences to work in multidisciplinary
teams, which are often internationally
based. Teamwork is about working
together, where the whole is of more
value than one person working alone.
Teamwork is about understanding the
differences between people, how to
work together towards a positive goal
and most of all, teamwork is about good
communication and project management.
Communication has different faces
and goals. One can communicate
internally (within oneself), for example
with visualisations/physicalisations
to enhance imagination and reflect
on action. One can also communicate
externally with team members, clients,
experts, users, any interested audience,
etc. to show and discuss design-related
issues. The type of communication,
e.g. presentations (e.g. oral, graphical),
discussion or written reports, can be
dependent on the type of activity and
audience. It involves clarity, inspiration
and passion, convincing others, distilling
the essence, selling one’s ideas, by
using (body) language, gestures and
materials. Understanding and being able
to manipulate aspects such as structure,
grammar, language and terminology,
appropriateness for the reader/listener,
gestures and body language, purpose,
atmosphere and context can support
one’s message. It also requires one to
act as a professional within the realm of
Industrial Design.