Is Design Education Preparing Product Designers for the Real World? A Study of Product Design Graduates in Ireland

This study aims to identify professional product design roles. It presents the results of a survey of 251 graduates from undergraduate product design courses. Data was gathered about graduate's job descriptions; the companies that employ product designers and the postgraduate education taken. The objective was to show how design practice has evolved and the effect that this has had on product design as a discipline. The results highlight the crossover between design disciplines, the integration of product designers across different industries and the variety of roles that product designers undertake. Implications for product design education are discussed and recommendations are presented.