Swinburne design students partner with City of Boroondara

A semester-long industry project has tasked Swinburne students with developing design proposals that will help transform the City of Boroondara.

With Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus located within the City of Boroondara, the Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) students paired their local knowledge with their design skills.

Dr Christopher Waller, Convenor of the Communication Design Capstone Project, says the project asked students to create strategic design proposals that would help the council transition to a more customer-centric approach with their facilities and services.  

Real world experience

One of the members of team Reach, Samantha Kennedy-Helstrup,says their approach to the brief focussed on designing a new navigation system throughout the municipality. 

“We went out into the local area and did a lot of field research. We chose to focus on designing and implementing a connected way-finding system,” Ms Kennedy-Helstrup says. 

“It was great to work on a realistic project from the briefing stage, right through until the presentation of our final concepts. It gave us a good insight into what it will be like working in an agency environment once we graduate."

‌One of the mocked-up designs from team Reach

Students provide unique insights for City of Boroondara

Simon Wong, Boroondara’s Customer Experience Improvement/Digital Lead, says the project was beneficial to the council. 

“Swinburne’s communication design students have provided us with a lot of useful insights into design thinking and how it can be applied to the City of Boroondara,” Mr Wong says. 

“We’re in the process of implementing a ‘customer-first’ model and we’ve learnt more than we could have imagined from the students.” 

City of Boroondara's Simon Wong and Rowena Morrow and Swinburne's Christopher Waller

Drawing upon individual, collaborative and project management skills, capstone projects allow students to work within multidisciplinary groups to address a brief given to them by an industry partner. 

Why wait till next year? Apply now and start your studies in 2016.

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