Stanford PDSA

Design at Stanford concerns itself with conceiving and designing products, services and experiences for the benefit of society. This process requires the balanced resolution of constraints arising from aesthetic, human, technical, and business concerns. A designer uses his or her creativity, imagination, and technical knowledge to satisfy these requirements and create products that satisfy human needs. Design is always a human-centered activity and designers work for the benefit of society.

Program emphasis is placed on conceptual thinking, creativity, risk-taking, and aesthetics. We are particularly interested in the front end of the design process where we frame the question "What should we create?" Students are taught to use design processes such as need-finding, ethnographic field-work, rapid prototyping, and extensive and iterative user testing to evolve their solutions to the problems given.
Ref: http://design.stanford.edu/PD

The undergraduate design program at Stanford teaches students how to design a product from start to finish. Needfinding, brainstorming, concept sketches, formgiving, prototyping, engineering, materials, manufacturing, and marketing -- all are important parts of the design process, and, by the end of their college career, Stanford students will have developed skill sets in all areas. However, while all students will eventually learn about the entire spectrum of the design process, they are also encouraged to take more specialized courses and develop a "depth" in an area of their choice.