Quality education with a purpose

We offer quality education with a purpose, supporting both professional and personal growth. In this program, you’ll learn to question assumptions, explore situations from new angles, and notice details often overlooked. 

Modern organisations value the ability to analyse complex environments and engage in adaptive change – critical skills in today’s evolving landscape. By understanding how different people view the same situation, you’ll gain a more accurate picture of how organisations and people actually work, helping you creative strategies for change. Through hands-on projects with international peers and instructors, you’ll learn by collaborating, experimenting, and developing strategies that make a tangible difference.
Our programme helps you develop your design, communication and business skills. These skills are essential for organisations to create their futures in a sustainable and responsible way. 

You'll develop the skills to lead transformative projects and initiatives that directly contribute to achieving key SDGs, such as responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13), and quality education (SDG 4). By focusing on creating real-world impact, you’ll help organisations become more efficient, socially responsible, and future-ready.

 
Representation of the study with three coloured arrows

Our three year bachelor program combines design, communication, and business and equips you with skills to help organisations adapt and create more sustainable ways of working and living.

First year: Transforming & humanising activities 

In the first term, students learn to create useful documents and tools for organisations, including explore websites and apps; to help organisations adapt. 

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They also learn understand how attitudes affect learning, how the illusion of knowing results in wrong decisions, and basics of economic decisions. Students understand systems, they see the connections and interactions within complex networks, enabling better decision-making and adaptation in a rapidly changing world. They consider sustainability ensuring that our designs and actions support the health and resilience of our communities and the planet.


By integrating these competencies, students are well-prepared to meet the demands of a dynamic job market and contribute meaningfully to their organisations.

Second year: Transforming & humanising organisations and services 

Students learn to guide organisations through transformations. They explore the phases of behavioural change and how to implement them to plan and facilitate effective transformations.

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The curriculum includes budgeting, project management, IP law, and understanding individual motivations within organisations. Students uncover how things are connected —people, processes, and environments, seeing how changes in one area affect the whole system. Students combine systemic and People & Planet design to diagnose organisational issues, and design strategies. Emphasis is on co-design, collaboration, and creating humane practices —workplaces that honour the whole person. Humanising organisations entails fostering environments of trust and empathy, where individuals can express their true selves and collaborate meaningfully. Additionally, students delve into service design management, focusing on value co-creation, resilience, and innovation to enhance planetary health. Through real projects, students apply these concepts, to address complex, open-ended problems in various contexts.

Third year: Transforming & humanising systems and networks

Students become adept system thinkers, navigating complexity without simplifying it. They conduct inquiries into specific problem areas, focusing on people, relationships, dependencies, feedback mechanisms, and behavioural patterns.

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The curriculum emphasises designing with generative AI, shifting the designer’s role towards framing system areas rather than exploring action courses. Students learn to envision futures, and imagine behavioural scenarios to shift relationships. They design systems bridging current and future scenarios, identifying leverage points to build on strengths. Students delve into organisational culture, fostering collaboration, and applying new management perspectives to address systemic areas. 

Structure

Design Management Skills Wheel

Sustainable and responsible business

Applying 10 essential skills

As a design manager, you play a pivotal role in navigating the complexities of today’s evolving organisational landscape. Design managers leverage a diverse set of skills to help teams and leaders align strategies with business goals, sustainability, and inclusivity. Explore these skills to thrive as a design manager and make a meaningful impact.

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Studierende besprechen ihre Projekte

Reshaping the future

Where do graduates work?

Upon completing the Design Management International program at HSLU, students are prepared to embark on diverse career paths where they can drive meaningful change.  Graduates are equipped to thrive as design managers, innovation leads, service designers, or sustainability consultants. They bring value to organisations by fostering collaboration, addressing complex challenges, and envisioning future scenarios, making them ideal for roles in both corporate and social sectors that require adaptive, forward-thinking professionals.

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Guillermina Noël mit Design Management Skills Wheel

What we teach

Students are encouraged to reflect on their learning processes regularly. This could involve writing reflective essays, journaling, or discussing what learning strategies worked or didn’t work for them and why.

Through reflection and guidance students become aware of their own thought processes. This involves guiding them to think about how they approach problems, evaluate their own understanding, and adjust their strategies as needed.

Guillermina Noël erklärt Design Management

What is Design Management?

Guillermina Noël, head of the bachelor’s programme, explains Design Management.

Design Management explained in 76 seconds

Get a short understanding of what Design Management is.