• Soft Skills

The objective of the teaching is to supply the conceptual instruments needed to read and interpret the phenomena of cultural and social change, and their consequences on behaviour. In addition, User and Social Innovation, through lessons on theory and applicative exercises, gives students a theory and method basis for identifying tendencies and seizing emerging phenomena that can influence innovation in different spheres.
This course is proposed by the School as an optional teaching group with innovative education characteristics that support students as they acquire and strengthen their transversal skills.

Students:
- know and decode social change through the observation of cultural phenomena;
- can use instruments and methods to monitor behaviour and expressions in society in order to anticipate social changes and design innovation.

In order to train students’ awareness about the recurring dynamic between social change, emerging lifestyle trends and new aesthetics catching on in the design field, the programme will be dealing with the following topics:

• A focus on trend forecasting intended as a research method aimed to support creative processes, design thinking and new products development
• The dictionary of the trend forecaster: what’s the difference between trends, micro trends, mega trends, paradigms, styles, fads, memes
• The evolution of trend research tools over the time, from trend books and cool hunting to AI-driven trend forecasting platforms
• How do trends spread? Trickle Down Effect, Bottom-up Effect, The curve of trend diffusion
• Tech-Driven innovation, User and Social Innovation, Design-driven Innovation
• The rules of social epidemics
• The five steps of the trend forecasting methodology
• Trend Forecasting Industry: Past, Present and Future
• Mapping the key players in Trend Forecasting field
• Focus on emerging trends driving social change and reshaping behaviors, consumers expectations, aesthetics and design

In addition to the professor's lectures, the course will be enhanced through in class team works, guests testimonies, flipped classes, presentation of remarkable case studies showing actual applications of the trend research methodology to real business contexts.

There are no pre-requisites for attendance.

1. The students' mastery of the theoretical contents of the programme will be evaluated in the occasion of an intermediate assessment which is a written test with open questions about both the constructs shared in class and the references of the essential bibligraphy, reported below:

_Raymond, M., The Trend Forecasters Handbook, London Laurence King, 2010
_Gladwell, M., The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Lb Books, 2001
_Gibson, W., Pattern recognition, Berkley Pub Group, 2003 

_Manzini, E., Design, When Everybody Designs. An introduction to Design for Social Innovation, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2015

_Verganti, R., Design Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean, Harvard Business Press, 2009

The mark of the intermediate assessment will account for 40% of the final mark.

2. The final assessment will consist of the delivery and in class presentation of a trend report developed in team (approximately 3/4 persons for each team) and supported by an iconographic research. The trend report, illustrated through a cross-sectorial approach, will be structured according to the guidelines provided in the brief by the professor.

The final assessment will be aimed at evaluating the students’ following skills:

-the capability to collect evidences and insights from a variety of both primary and secondary sources, selecting the relevant insights and leveraging as research methods both participant observation and desk research

-the capability to provide through a cross-sectorial approach a consistent and visually rich data set to back up the research work

-lateral thinking in finding out in a sensible and original way meaningful connections in the data set

-critical thinking in interpreting and contextualizing data and supporting evidences wither a wider socio-cultural framework

-graphic and communication skills in developing an original and effective way to convey the research findings

-effectiveness in public speaking and mastery of proper lexicon

The mark of the trend report developed in teams will account for 60% of the total final mark.