DECO3200 is the final studio unit for Interaction Design students at the University of Sydney. I inherited a unit that treated graduating designers as one homogeneous group. I redesigned it around the reality that they weren't.
DECO3200 is the capstone studio for the Bachelor of Design (Interaction Design) at the University of Sydney. By the time students reach it, they have spent three years developing genuinely different areas of expertise: some deeply focused on service design and research, others on emerging technology, physical computing, or front-end development.
The existing structure gave everyone the same brief and the same support, regardless of where their skills had taken them. For a cohort built on the idea of specialisation, this was a missed opportunity. Students couldn't fully showcase what made them employable, and tutors couldn't give the kind of specific, meaningful feedback that a final-year project deserves.
When I took over coordination in 2023, I redesigned the unit around a single insight: one brief doesn't have to mean one experience.
I divided the unit into five specialisation streams, each with its own tutor cohort, guest lecture, and tailored deliverable requirements - all sitting under a single shared brief. Students chose the stream that best matched their skills and interests, or pushed into one outside their comfort zone.
When you introduce specialisation, you introduce the risk of inconsistency. A 3D modelling submission and a service design submission don't look the same. How do you ensure a student in one stream isn't systematically advantaged or disadvantaged by which tutor marks their work?
I built a marking parity system specifically for this unit, designed to catch and correct calibration drift before it affected student grades.
"The high degree of freedom in choosing streams allows us to better showcase and apply the knowledge we've acquired. This flexibility enhances our ability to explore and demonstrate our understanding effectively."
"The freedom to show off our skillset with our chosen stream with one last big design. I enjoyed hearing from the industry guests for lectures - I felt seen in my stream choice."
"The streams was such an innovative idea! I actually chose one out of my comfort zone - something I would not have done before - and I am so glad I did!"
"The best aspect of this unit has been the collaborative learning environment and having the opportunity to access a wide array of academics about different fields such as UX, UI or emerging tech."
DECO3200 had a USS score of 3.62 the year before I took over. After introducing the streams framework, it rose to 4.09 - a 0.47-point increase in a single year. This mirrors a pattern I saw across other units I coordinated: taking over DECO2014 (3.96 to 4.18) and DESN3001 (3.12 to 4.33).
The scores matter, but what they represent matters more: students finishing their degree feeling genuinely seen, challenged in their chosen area, and prepared for the specific kind of work they want to do.
My research and teaching practice are tightly linked. If you're hiring for education-focused design roles, I'd love to talk.