uxmelina

As 4th year begins, I’m very excited about my courses. Getting to really dive deep into my interest in courses like “design and society” analyzing how to design for society, “cognitive ergonomics”, “conflict analysis”, and “designing learning tools with interactive media”, as well as my 4th year design project course! All are very exciting, and should fuel some interesting posts on this blog!

One of my profs,  likes to channel discussions in his course. It’s a great way to promote learning, and his methods of making them provocative, even sometimes insulting to the largely engineering audience keep them engaging. However, my beef is with his consistent interchanging of the term “Designer” and “Engineer”. Some people may think they are the same thing, but using them interchangeably is not correct. I’ve worked with a lot of very skilled designers who aren’t engineers, and I know a lot of engineers who have never designed anything professionally. So here is the difference.

Engineer (in Canada): This term is restricted by law to to mean those persons who have demonstrated their competence and have been licensed by a provincial licensing body [1]. The bacholors degree (in an accredited program) is a the basic educational requirements, however each province has different additional requirements (work experience, ethics tests, etc). Engineers are educated in many different areas and can hold professional positions where they analyze, evaluate, lead, plan, and yes sometimes but not always, design. Basically the term “engineer” refers a person with a proven level of education and competence and doesn’t refer to their professional responsibilities.

Designer: This term is much more general, and can encompass anyone who designs anything professionally. Home interiors to fashion to home electronics. The term “Designer” refers to a person’s professional responsibilities and doesn’t imply anything about eduction or competence. Designers can have educational backgrounds in fine arts, social sciences, and yes sometimes but not always engineering, as well as many more. Designers can also be self tough without any formal education. 

So where do I fit?

I haven’t completed my degree (yet!), or gone through the certification to be an board licensed engineer. As such, I am a designer!

1. G. C. Andrews, J. D. Aplevich, R. A. Fraser, H C Ratz, “Introduction to Professional Engineering in Canada”, Prentic Hall, June 2002