Project Goals
This project supported students’ subjective well-being by positioning them as both designers and users of their own projects.
Project Activities
The experience offers a replicable, research-informed strategy for embedding well-being into design pedagogy and provides a model that other schools can adapt to foster human-centered innovation in design education.
Artifacts created:
- Faculty survey
- 2 participatory course assignment design workshops
- Piloted graduate course, “Design for Emotion and Subjective Well-being.”
- Pre/post surveys
- Student focus group
- Guidebook with suggested teaching practices
Student Impact
23 students were impacted by this project.
Project Dissemination
This project has been shared via a Celebrating Teaching Day poster, a journal manuscript, and a presentation at the Design Research Society conference.
College
College of Design
Course Name
Faculty Cohort
2024-2025 Provost Teaching and Learning Initiatives
Leandro Miletto Tonetto
“This initiative influenced how well-being is framed in course design. Rather than treating it as an ambient or secondary consideration, the project treated Subjective Well-Being as a legitimate learning outcome–equally as important as creativity, empathy, and iteration.” – Leandro Miletto Tonetto
“I learned a lot not only about my own well-being from applying theory to our own projects but also seeing what approaches people were taking to improve their own.” – ID 8803 Student Participant
“The way this class feels, I was immediately like okay, this is a place where I can put my guard down.” – ID 8803 Student Participant