Expected Competencies of Companies towards Designers in Malaysia
Ho Ying Ying1*, Abdul Muta’Ali Othman1
1 Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
Accepted: 1 April 2020 | Published: 15 April 2020
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Abstract: This paper covered aspects related to the landscape of the design industry in Malaysia and the industry’s expectations on the competencies of an industrial designer. The research aimed to understand the need of the industry and to serve as a reference for academicians in constructing the curricula for Industrial Design education. According to the existing literature, competencies of a designer can be categorised into three categories, namely design related knowledge, hard skills and soft skills. These items were then coded accordingly and used as a guide in constructing the questionnaire. In the selection of samples, 117 companies were selected from job posting platforms that were recruiting designer(s) and also companies who were awarded Good Design Award recognised by Malaysia Design Council (MRM). The questionnaire is then sent to the Human Resource Department and Design Department through email. Additional copies were also distributed during design exhibitions. In the questionnaire, companies were asked to select critical competencies considered when hiring new designers. As this study is limited to Malaysia companies that hire or plan to hire designer(s), a total of 31 valid responses were collected in the end. The results indicated that knowledge on design is indeed important as a designer.
However, only knowing all the tools and methods for design without actual application or execution is considered zero from the perspective of the industry. Another skill that is considered crucial for a designer is the capability in coming out with original ideas and in this research it somehow showed conflict when problem finding is not as necessary. Besides, based on this research, having a sketch that is informative in showing the details on the functions and how to assemble a product is considered more necessary by the industry instead of just a pretty and impressive sketch.
Keywords: Design competencies, industry expectations, industrial design
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1. Introduction
Graduate employability has become a critical global issue, especially in this competitive world (Erni Tanius et.al, 2018; Ministry of Education, 2015). There are plenty of discourses claiming that the root cause of this issue is due to graduates these days are not qualified for the job (Carol Stewart, 2018; N. Seetha, 2018; Erni Tanius et.al, 2018; Hart Research Associates, 2015; Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2015; National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2015; St. Louis Community College & Workforce Solutions Group, 2013).
The arguments on what is lacking on the graduates is circulating around two opposing poles which is the lack of soft skills and conversely the lack of hard skills. Literature indicated that
55 2010). As mentioned by L.Collina (2017) and D.Norman (2010) that the young designers today are lacking skills in managing increasingly complex contemporary problems. As a result, they failed to address and solve the actual problem and mainly focused on the physical appearance of the product (D.Norman, 2010; C.Maturana, 2014).
The rise of importance in the complex problem solving skill is mainly due to the 21st century challenges that include ageing population, overpopulation, climate change, food crisis and etc. These challenges are mostly global and diverse in nature as it involves a wide range of stakeholders. Consequently, it has opened a door for multidisciplinary approach in design, since the challenges can barely be solved through a single discipline as mentioned by Richard Perez, the founding director of UCT, D-school. D-School is an entirely new design education solution with the use of design thinking in teaching. This design education is more student- centred with activity-based learning approaches that focusing on self-directed learning, collaborative learning and learning related to practice (L.Kiernan and A.Ledwith, 2014;Dym et al, 2006; Perrenetet al, 2000; Yang et al, 2005). It often exposes students to the real problem in the society, and this is believed to help in fostering an empathetic understanding of the human experiences (M.Huber, 2017). Whereas, many other industrial design education are still focusing on the abstract compositional concepts described as “Element and Principle of Design” instead of “ Complexity, creativity, adaptation, understanding values, the power of stories, risk taking and empathy combined with rational thinking said Richard Fry (2018) in his article. In the expanding and diverse role of the industrial designer, it is necessary that design education equips student designers with transferable skills to tackle the diversity of design problems and also prepare students to cope with changes (Wormald and Rodber, 2008;
Louise Kiernan and Ann Ledwith, 2014). However, in the research of Dr. Benny Lim (2015), he claimed that the design education in Malaysia especially Industrial Design courses are very skill-oriented.
The emphasis of the design education are mainly software skills, drawing and sketching skills, prototyping and modelling skills etc. He also argued that this type of education often failed to train designers to react to the needs of the society and discover new trends and possibilities for the market. As industry in different countries might have different emphasis on the skills needed (Hsu, Y., Chang, W. C., & Yang, V., 2007). In order to understand the real need, a study is desperately needed in identifying Malaysia design industries’ needs before any actions or changes be done for the design education. Therefore, this study will be examining Malaysia design industries’ needs in the context of their expectations towards the local designers. This paper served as a preliminary inquiry and a pilot study for a full extended research in the future. This research will also help in defining the design industries in Malaysia as well as serve as a guide for design academic institutions in determining the design curricula.
2. Literature Review
The Evolution of Design
This evolution can be explained by Buchanan’s four orders of design (Figure 1). The first order is represented as graphic design that focuses on two-dimensional design (aims to communicate using signs and symbols). The second order (the birth of industrial design) emerged due to the first industrial revolution involving mechanisation and mass production.
This order of design focuses on industrial manufacturing, designing three-dimensional artefacts. Then, design has expanded into designing activities and processes (the birth of interaction design). Here, the focus of design involves designing the user experiences.
Moreover, the user is brought into the design process to understand their real needs. Last but not least, the fourth order of design is about the design of environment and systems. This order of design is extremely complex and abstract. And was known as the highest order of design by Buchanan.
In fact, industrial design is about designing products that served a purpose and can be manufactured. However, due to the development in technology, societal and environmental changes, the nature of products that focus on the physical and tangible things such as aesthetics and manufacturing has evolve to things that are physical but intangible like services, experiences, and interactions (D.Norman, 2010; L.Rodriguez & C.Peralta, 2014;
G.Muratovki, 2015; M.Turpault, 2017). This evolution creates new definitions for industrial design such as service or system design, user experience design (UX), interaction design and others.
Figure 1: Visual Representation of Richard Buchanan’s Four Order of Design
The skill and knowledge needed by the design industry has also expanded as a consequence of the shift across the design spectrum shown in Figure 2. As explained by K.Munshi (2001), when design changes from micro design to macro design, the knowledge needed also changes from deep knowledge to wide knowledge (Figure 3). In this regard, designers will need a holistic view in solving the “system-level” problems and acquire the ability to work with people from different disciplines such as social sciences, engineers, or even the community.
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Figure 2: The Design Spectrum
Figure 3: Level of design in response to the type of knowledge needed
The challenges of Malaysia Design Industry
There are a few challenges that the design industry in Malaysia is facing currently and it is obvious in the furniture design industry. Where they are articles saying that they have reached their bottle-neck. In an article from Prof. Dr. Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam (2017), he described the furniture industry does not have its own design capabilities. The government failed to boost the furniture industries due to the lack of quality human capital that can help produce innovative new products. Prof. Dr. Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam also highlighted in his article that the employees are lacking industrial exposure, cultural differences and most importantly a poor understanding of the industry itself. Besides, the low design awareness among the industry has also become a critical issue. According to Boon-Kwee, Ng and Thiruchelvam, K., (2011), most of the enterprises do not have their own in-house professional design teams. The products that they designed and produced are mostly gathered from exhibitions in and out of the country. The author described that most of the industry are more likely to focus on the aesthetic instead of looking into the niche market. The lack of design and research personnel is stated as one of the root causes of the problem.
Industrial design is stated as one of the occupations that is on the rise (Talentcorp Malaysia, 2017; World Economic Forum, 2018), however, Malaysia design industry seems to be unprepared for this. According to a discussion on the state of design in Malaysia (wREGA, 2012), the design industry is in the infant stage where designers are still designing for the client and not the user or customers. This statement showed that user centred principles almost do not exist in the entire design process. There are also critics saying that the business and corporations still view design as an afterthought (wREGA, 2012). The discussion also suggested the need for a new breed of designers with the caliber to lead in the business and technology world.
Competencies of a designer
As mentioned in a design skill report done by UK Design Council (2018), designers use a wide range of skills in their work. The skills are a combination of design related knowledge, hard skills and soft skills which include cognitive abilities and interpersonal competencies.
Design related knowledge are categorized into material, construction and manufacturing, computers and electronics, design, engineering and technology, fine art, geography, human factor and safety and lastly marketing and entrepreneurship (UK Design Council, 2018). The hard skills are categorized into graphical ability, design skills, modelling and prototyping skills, tools and machine, programming, ergonomics, production and manufacturing and marketing skill (Yen Hsu et.al, 2007; Yann-Long Lee et.al, 2016; UK Design Council, 2018).
Whereas, the soft skills are categorized into communication skills, teamwork, leadership, problem solving and creativity, lifelong learning and information management, and entrepreneurship (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2012; Bee, O. K., & Hie, T. S., 2015), visualization (UK Design Council, 2018), empathy, critical thinking, self-confidence, analytical, passion and work enthusiasm, time management, and positive thinking.
3. Methodology
Literature review is used in this study to understand the basic designers’ competencies and challenges of the current design field as well as some methodology from similar research.
Then, a questionnaire was constructed based on the competencies reviewed from existing literature. The questionnaire is designed to comprise four parts. The first part deals with the demographic of the respondent and the company background (business type, position held, industry sector). The second part consists of the recruitment methods of designers (types of platforms used to recruit designers, the requirement for evaluating the designers (portfolio check, resume, interview and etc). The third part demonstrates the expected requirement company considered when recruiting designers. There are four dimensions being considered which is background, knowledge, hard skills, and soft skills. Respondents are to choose any from the given dimensions that applies to them or to suggest other skills that are not in the list. This survey was conducted between February and April 2019 and was sent to 117 companies selected from job posting platforms that were recruiting designer(s) and also companies who were awarded Good Design Award recognised by Malaysia Design Council (MRM). The survey used two ways for sampling which is conducted by mail and randomly distributed to the companies that participated in the design exhibition in 2019. The target respondents are limited to employers or employees that contribute to the final decision of recruiting a designer in the company. As this study is limited to Malaysia companies that hire or plan to hire designer(s), a total of 31 valid responses which consist of 29 design companies in Malaysia were collected in the end.
General profile of the respondents
Concerning the general profile of the respondents, the majority are male which consist of 24 out of 31 and most of them fall under the age group of 25-34 years old (16 people). Apart from that out of 29 companies, 14 companies are furniture design industry, whereas 4 companies are industrial design firms, 4 consumer product design industry, 2 advertising industry, 1 digital design industry, and 2 companies that offer more than one service.
Furthermore, the companies that responded to this survey can be categorized into three business types which is 3 Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), 15 Original Design Manufacturer (ODM), and 10 Original Brand Manufacturer (OBM) (Refer to figure 5).
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Figure 4: Company location
Criterias for recruiting new designers
The results showed that 45.16% of the companies place less emphasis on the education stream when hiring designers. 35.48% of the companies prefer to hire designers with an art background and 19.35% prefer designers with science, engineering and technology backgrounds. Advertising industry and furniture design industry are the two major industries that are more likely to recruit designers with an art background rather than science (refer to figure 6). Figure 7 shows the preferable education level when recruiting designers. According to the respondents, 45.16% of them prefer degree holders followed by diploma (16.13%) and master (3.23%). Whereas, 35.48% of the companies have no exact preferences on the education level. Regarding the types of languages, most of the companies place greater emphasis on english (41.8%) followed by malay and mandarin (refer to figure 8).
Figure 5: Business types among different industries
Figure 6: Industries’ preferences on Education stream when hiring designer
Figure 7: Employers’ expectations on designers’ Education level
Figure 8: Employers’ expectations on types of languages need by designer
In terms of business type, OEM companies have less expectations on all competencies as compared to ODM and OBM companies (refer to figure 9). Although the expected education level is the same (degree holders) however, ODM and OBM companies have wider emphasis on the varieties of knowledge, hard skills and soft skills compared to OEM companies. As shown in Figure 9, most of the companies place more emphasis on soft skills. The results also showed that different industries expect different types of competencies from the designers.
Figure 9: The types of competency required by different business type
Top expected knowledge of different industries
Based on the result, 87.1% of the companies consider design knowledge (the process, principles, techniques and tools for design) as a fundamental knowledge that a designer should acquire. It is then followed by knowledge on standard design practice in human factors and safety when designing (67.74%) as well as knowledge on materials, methods and tools involved in building, construction and manufacturing (64.52%). Only 32.26% of the respondents considered the knowledge on geography (principles and methods for describing the features of nature) is needed as a designer.
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Figure 10: The types of competency required by different industries
Among the industrial design firms, the most common knowledge which the companies expect designers to acquire is being able to understand the concept of engineering, science and technology in design. Knowledge on building, construction and manufacturing processes, knowledge on design, as well as human factors and safety are the other required skills in this industry. In fact, most of the companies do not consider knowledge on fine art, geography as well as marketing and entrepreneurship is needed to be hired in the company. However, one of the respondents explained that by having knowledge alone is not enough when designers do not know how to apply them into design.
In the advertising industry, designers are expected to acquire knowledge on design and knowledge on building, construction and manufacturing in order to get hired. None of the companies from the advertising industry see knowledge on engineering and technology, fine art, geography, and human factors and safety as needed to be recruited. The knowledge needed in the advertising industry is more specific as compared to other industries.
80% from the consumer product industry recognised knowledge on design and fine art as a requirement for a designer during recruitment. Whereas, half of them expect knowledge on human factors and safety as well as marketing and entrepreneurship from a designer.
For the furniture industry, the top five knowledge needed are human factors and safety (100%), knowledge on design (92.86%), material, construction and manufacturing processes (78.57%), knowledge on engineering and technology (78.57%), as well as knowledge on marketing and entrepreneurship (64.29%).
In the digital design industry, only knowledge on computers and electronics, design, as well as marketing and entrepreneurship are considered when recruiting designers.
As for the multiple services industry, knowledge on materials, construction and manufacturing processes, knowledge on design and fine art are the common expected knowledge that designers need to acquire. In contrast, the knowledge on computers and electronics as well as geography are considered as not needed when evaluating a designer.
Top expected hard skills of different industries
In terms of hard skills, the ability to use 3D modelling software to perform realistic computer rendering, engineering drawing and the ability to design original ideas are the two common hard skills required by the industries. In contrast, the ability to draw beautiful sketches and programming are less considered by companies when hiring designers. Among industrial design firms, the top hard skills that are being considered by all respondents is being able to select suitable material and manufacturing processes for production and manufacturing. The ability to design original ideas is the second most considered skills followed by sketching ability (perform ideas in sketches effectively with detail, instructions, specifications about how device/parts work, fabricate etc), 3D modelling software, modelling and prototyping (Construct conceptual model, mockups, prototypes) as well as being able to apply ergonomics into design.
The 3 skills that most advertising companies expect designers to acquire is the ability to perform 2D graphic design using computer graphical software, able to use 3D modelling software to perform realistic computer rendering, engineering drawing and design original ideas. Sketching ability is indeed unnecessary in the advertising industry as none from the respondents choose it. The ability to use 2D and 3D software are considered as common skills that the consumer product industry will expect designers to have. Furthermore, other skill-sets demanded by this industry are sketching ability (instructional sketch), design original ideas and ability to select suitable material and manufacturing process for production. The findings also show that the consumer product industry does not focus on the ability of a designer in dealing with form and functions based on product semantics.
Designers also do not need to know how to handle tools and machines as well as perform marketing survey and etc.There are 4 top skills that furniture industry evaluate when hiring of designers which includes sketching ability (instructional sketch), ability to use 3D modelling software, design original ideas, and apply ergonomics when designing. Although the ability to design original ideas is listed on most of the furniture companies, please be noted that the respondents that took this survey are companies that have or plan to hire in-house designers.
Where a large number of furniture companies do not own an in-house designer. Only 1 among 14 of the companies think that producing beautiful sketches in different tools and material is necessary as a designer.
Among all industries, only the digital design industry required designers to acquire skills on writing computer programmes and applications. Other than this, the hard skills for this industry is rather specific as there are only 3 other skills that are being considered, which is sketching ability (instructional sketch), able to use 3D modelling software, and design original ideas. Lastly, the multiple services industry is the only industry that needs designers to be able in handling or operating tools and machines. Other skills that are needed in multiple services industries include sketching ability (instructional sketch), able to use 3D modelling software, design original ideas, form design (being able to deal with form &
functions based on product semantics), also modelling and prototyping skills. Marketing and programming skills are considered non-relevant to the respondents in this industry.
It can be concluded that the ability to use 3D modelling software and design original ideas as the two main criterias for a designer in getting a job. In addition, the result also showed that the ability to perform ideas in sketches effectively with details, instructions, specifications about how devices or parts work and fabricate is far more needed compared to the ability to perform beautiful sketches using different tools and materials. Findings also indicated that
63 designers is communication skills (listen actively and give feedback), teamwork (know and respect the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs of others), problem solving and creativity (look for ideas and find alternatives solutions), passion and work enthusiasm, time management, perseverance and positive thinking.
In terms of the advertising industry, the common soft skills that most of the companies evaluate when recruiting designers is problem solving and creativity as well as communication skills (listen actively and give feedback). However, none from the advertising industry demand problem finding as a criteria in selecting new designers.
In the consumer product industry, critical thinking, teamwork (interact and work effectively with others), passion and work enthusiasm, time management, lifelong learning and information management, as well as positive thinking are the common soft skills companies expect designers to acquire. Apart from that, only half from the consumer product industry would consider problem finding as a needed skill when recruiting designers.
As for the furniture industry, the common soft skills evaluated by 87.5% of the companies are communication skills (express ideas effectively and give feedback), empathy, teamwork (interact and work effectively with others), problem solving and creativity (look for ideas and find alternatives solutions), as well as positive thinking. In contrast, analytical skills (make a decision based on evidence) and problem finding are less considered by the companies (37.5%). Respondents from the digital design industry tend to focus on communication skills (express ideas effectively in written and spoken), self-confidence, curiosity and lifelong learning as well as information management (search and manage relevant info from different sources) when recruiting designers.
Among the multiple services industry, communication skills (express ideas effectively in spoken and written, listen actively and give feedback), empathy, leadership (lead a project, understand and take roles of both leader and member), self-confidence, teamwork (know and respect the attitudes, behaviours and beliefs of others), problem solving and creativity, time management and perseverance (able to handle pressure generated by work and surroundings), curiosity and lifelong learning, and lastly positive thinking.
4. Conclusion and suggestions
Indeed knowledge on design is important as a designer. However, only knowing all the tools and methods for design without actual application or execution is considered nothing from the perspective of the industry. Furthermore, the reasons for being able to use 3D modelling softwares, which is viewed as an essential skill in the industry, should however become what needs to be taught to the student when they enroll into the subject. If only academicians can expose the students to see the future potential in championing this skill for design, not just
being able to use it however will help in drawing a clear line between being a drafter and a designer. Whether it is to be used to present an impressive visual idea in pitching for a project or to make it easy for prototyping and manufacturing, which can then help to reduce cost and time for a project. Thus, design education must move from being teaching-centred to a learning-centred environment which enables students to experiment and to develop their own potential in and beyond academic programmes. Another skill that is considered crucial for a designer is the capability in coming out with original ideas, in this research, it somehow showed conflict when problem finding is not as necessary.
The conflict is that without being able to identify business opportunities, analyse the needs and product requirements there is no other way an idea can come in as original. This conflicting synthesis draws a big question mark on whether industrial design education should be multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary. Moreover, when only nearly 40% of the companies think that problem finding is crucial for a designer, where it may be true that 60%
of them have problems proposed by their client which shows that the market would probably be client-driven instead of user-driven. When plenty of discourses say that designers need to be a problem finder than a problem solver, however in this research, the results seem to be otherwise. Besides, based on this research, having a sketch that is informative in showing the details on the functions and how to assemble a product is considered more necessary by the industry instead of just a pretty and impressive sketch. This is something that academicians should take into account when constructing the curriculum. In addition, the need for a designer to have programming skills somehow only happened in the digital design industry.
However, in this research the company chose to hire industrial designers as an option for this position. This in a way shows the emergence of new design fields such as User Interface and Experience designer (UIUX), Interaction Designer, Service Designer could be the future path for industrial designers.
In a nutshell, the findings indicated that different industries might need different skill-sets.
However, looking at the bigger picture, most of the Malaysia design industries seem to be more soft skill oriented when recruiting new designers for the company. From the research, there is a strong stance on prioritizing the attitude of a designer rather than his/her knowledge and hard skills. The reason given is because it is much easier to train a person’s hard skills and knowledge instead of his/her personalities and cognitive skills. Do note that this research is a preliminary study for a full extended research in future.
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