This intensive 100-day program is designed to give participants an end-to-end understanding of product design, UI/UX, colour theory, design thinking, composition, innovation, and product costing. The bootcamp blends theoretical foundations, practical tools, case studies, and real-world applications to help learners become skilled product designers and innovators who can thrive in competitive markets.

Participants will explore design as a business advantage, understand how technology and innovation shape product design, master the principles of good design, and apply human-centred methodologies to create functional, aesthetic, and sustainable products.

By the end of the course, learners will have built a portfolio-ready project, including a complete design case study and product costing model, ready to showcase to employers, investors, or customers.

Key Skills to be Learned

• Product design for business competitiveness

• Applying design thinking and IDEO methodologies

• Innovation: radical and incremental approaches

• Market research and user research (primary & secondary)

• UI/UX design and usability testing

• Colour theory, psychology, and cultural interpretation

• Composition skills with dots, lines, and planes

• Gestalt principles of perception and design application

• Principles of good design (Dieter Rams)

• Emotional design and cognitive impact

• Lean, Agile, and Six Sigma approaches to design projects

• Costing principles: raw material, variable, and zero-based costing

• Creating functional, user-centred, and emotionally resonant products

Course Modules

Module 1: Design in the World of Business and Innovation

• Design as a competitive force in business

• How technology forces design change

• Product release cycles and timelines

• Radical vs incremental innovation

• Design thinking: what it is and what it is not

• IDEO design thinking process

• Games and exercises to test innovation

• Iteration as the foundation of innovation

• Connecting creativity, common sense, and design thinking

• Recap and conclusion

Module 2: Colour Theory and Emotional Design

• The colour wheel and fundamentals of colour

• Understanding hues, tints, shades, and tones

• Techniques for extracting colours

• Painting emotions with colour

• Colour interaction and creative brochure design

• Deciphering the emotions of colour

• Expression of colours in relation to love, status, and economy

• Introduction to synaesthesia and colour challenges

• Practical applications of synaesthesia in design

• Cultural variations in colour meaning

• Functional colours and their applications

• Creating gradients and palettes

• Perspective shifts for flexible designers

Module 3: UI/UX Design and Research Methods

• Importance and statistics of UI/UX

• Case studies of the design process

• Primary research: user interviews, mapping exercises

• Secondary research: online studies, case studies, visuals, inspirations

• Ideation: creativity, team building, sketching

• Prototyping and testing

• Screen analysis across formats (mobile, tablet, desktop)

• Jakob Nielsen’s heuristic principles: flexibility, visibility, consistency, aesthetics, minimalism

• Gestalt principles applied to UI/UX

Module 4: Composition and Principles of Design

• Principles of design: rhythm, harmony, balance, symmetry, asymmetry

• Composition using dots, lines, and planes

• Gestalt laws of perception: figure and ground, closure, proximity, simplicity, continuation, symmetry, common fate

• Dieter Rams’ principles of good design: innovative, functional, understandable, unobtrusive, minimalist, sustainable, long-lasting

• Shifting perspectives as a designer

Module 5: Emotional Design and Cognitive Behaviour

• Emotions and cognition in design

• Three levels of emotions in buying decisions

• Maslow’s hierarchy and its connection to emotional design

• How people remember strong emotions and memories

• Rationalising emotion in design decisions

• Examples of good and bad emotional design

• Emotional design connected with Dieter Rams’ principles

• Emotional colours and emotional materials

Module 6: Case Study and Product Costing

• Case study: IKEA ecosystem, design architecture, and customer psychology

• Engineers and designers in product ecosystems

• Zero-based costing and its applications

• Why designers must understand costing

• Raw material costing and variable costing

• Comparison costing across product alternatives

• Linking design excellence with financial viability

Learning Outcomes

By completing this bootcamp, learners will:

1. Understand design as a business strategy and innovation driver.

2. Master design thinking frameworks and apply them in real projects.

3. Gain deep knowledge of colour theory, emotions, and cultural interpretations.

4. Conduct thorough primary and secondary research for product design.

5. Apply principles of design and composition to create effective visuals.

6. Build and test interactive UI/UX prototypes.

7. Integrate emotional and cognitive design principles into products.

8. Analyse real-world case studies like IKEA to learn design ecosystems.

9. Master costing strategies for practical, sustainable design outcomes.

10. Develop a complete product design portfolio project including research, design, prototyping, testing, and costing.

Practical Applications

• End-to-end product case study (idea to launch)

• Colour theory project with branding and brochure design

• UI/UX prototype with usability testing

• Design composition exercises (dots, lines, planes, gestalt laws)

• Emotional design study applied to a consumer product

• Costing model for a product, including raw material, variable, and comparison costing

• Final capstone project presentation