Bachelor Industrial Design

Much of what you encounter in everyday life is designed. Whether it is how to operate your smartphone, the layout of the shelf in the supermarket or your sneakers; the design has always been thought through. However, the Industrial Design program goes beyond traditional product design. An Industrial Design student learns how to integrate innovation, data, creativity, technology, user needs, aesthetics, social impact and business interest into the design. After graduation, you will receive your degree Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design.

What's in the program?

You will learn to design interactive systems, products and services that make our lives better, more social or simply more comfortable. Examples of projects that you could be working on are smart home systems, intelligent clothing, sustainable materials, health, and motivating games. As an Industrial Design student you will learn to translate new technologies and societal trends to innovations for everyday life. You will do this not only by taking courses, but also by lots of hands-on education: learning by doing.

Multidisciplinary education

The bachelor's program of Industrial Design is a creative and versatile degree program. It is a mix of creativity and technology, of thinking and doing. The disciplines, or 'areas of expertise', that you will study are:

• Business and Entrepreneurship (if you want to go into business after graduating)
• Creativity and Aesthetics (for a functional and well-designed product or service)
• Math, Data and Computing (for obtaining and interpreting the right data for research)
• Technology and Realization (engineering, making, combining technologies in a design)
• User and Society (lgetting to know the user's perspective, and responding to societal trends and challenges).

This is how you develop the knowledge and skills you need to design interactive systems, products and services. You will learn about the user, his needs, design and technical possibilities.

In multidisciplinary design projects you will discover how these disciplines are interrelated. You will also learn which discipline suits you best and where you want to develop from the second year onwards. In the third year, you will learn how to combine the different areas of expertise.

Want to know more? Check out the Course structure for more information.

Industrial Design at TU/e: competence-based and self-directed

The field is developing rapidly. That is why we assess you on how you develop and use your competences. You will take courses in each of the five so-called 'areas of expertise'. In design projects, you use, integrate and develop knowledge and skills in the five areas of expertise, learn about design and research processes and work on your professional skills.From the first semester onwards, you will work on a group project.

You are responsible for your own development and have freedom to partly shape your own program, with the support from a coach. You have free choice from the very first year. Will you go into greater depth and take all the Industrial Design electives? Or will you broaden your scope and take electives from other programs? We encourage you to develop your own vision and professional identity as a designer. This not only offers great diversity and freedom of choice, but also demands a lot of responsibility and initiative from you.

Social context: projects in squads

In design projects, you work together in a squad for a semester. Each squad works on a different social theme or application. A squad consists of fellow students, lecturers and researchers, experts from the field, companies or organizations. Thanks to this close relationship with the 'outside world', the gap between theory and practice blurs.

International and tight community

We maintain strong relations with companies such as Philips, Daimler, Canon and Accenture, organizations such as the Maxima Medical Center, TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and the Dutch Province of North Brabant, and, finally, with educational institutions and universities far beyond Europe. This allows us to respond to international developments. During this English-spoken bachelor's program, you will also be supervised by international staff and work together with international students. You will improve your English language skills from day one. Besides being internationally oriented, the community at Industrial Design is also close-knit - thanks to the study association Lucid and the squads in which collaborate with research staff and students from different academic years.

Who are you?

Are you interested in technical applications, are you creative and can you empathize with others? Are you entrepreneurial, self-directed and do you work well together? Then the bachelor's program of Industrial Design is for you!

As an Industrial Design student, you must be prepared to work hard. You have successfully completed your pre-university education, including mathematics B and physics in your curriculum. Affinity with design and technology is a must, experience in programming or visualization, for example, is a plus. For more information, please visit the Admission and Enrollment page. Do you have an HBO propaedeutic year? Check the eligibility and additional requirements. Applied? Then we will contact you for the compulsory study choice check.

What do you want to beCOME?

A degree in Industrial Design gives you a broad foundation as a technical designer. Many of our students go on to specialise in the Master's programme in Industrial Design, and then enter the business world or continue in research or education. The field of work ranges from small agencies in the creative sector to design departments of multinationals, or design agencies supporting companies in research, design and development. Check out the possibilities at After your bachelor's degree.

Want to know more about the program Industrial Design?

• Create an account on MyStart@TU/e and we will keep you informed of all upcoming information activities.
• Everyone who has applied for our Bachelor's program starting in September 2025, will be invited for a study choice check, so you can check whether the study suits you.
• Curious about what our students make and learn at ID? You are very welcome to visit our on campus Information Days on 5 October 2024, or 15 March 2025, or our online Open Day on 24 May 2025.
• Or visit one of our Demo Days, on December 17, 2024 or June 6, 2025. We also offer a tour of the TU/e exposition during the Dutch Design Week (17-29 October). You can register for all these activities via MyStart@TU/e.