Post-industrial revolution, industrial designers have historically designed the objects that people use in everyday life. From toothbrushes, chairs, and cars, to lamps and hand tools, industrial designers have made a worldwide impact across industries with their mainstay designs. In the age of technology, industrial designers have played a key role in creating technologies that enhance our worldview and experience.

As large and small companies increasingly continue to value designers, industrial designers have expanded their expertise beyond products. The modern industrial designer understands the users of their creations. They strive to quantify the user's experience beyond tangibility, a trend that has spread industrial designers across all industries. As technology advances, industrial designers will be key contributors to the successes of wearable electronics, smart products, medical equipment, sustainable systems, and universal assistive products and technology.

Georgia Tech industrial designers are uniquely equipped to lead in technical environments regarding topics such as parametric modeling, rapid prototyping, interactive environments, wearable technology, universal design, and assistive technology. We take a fundamentally different approach from industrial design programs rooted in the fine arts.

Our students learn design techniques, such as graphic communications, sketching, and modeling, which allow them to draw inspiration from the world. As a result, they're able to design visual outputs that play a critical part in research and user testing. 

We specialize in design research. We are a research-promoting unit of Georgia Tech: Our undergraduate and graduate programs consistently practice research and advancement within shifting topics and industries. We find that such research practice and technological resources allow our students to be highly competitive upon graduation, with a high percentage of students and alumni practicing design and innovation across "new economy" industries.

Not only do our students solve design problems based on user-centered research, but our design philosophy influences research and innovation throughout Georgia Tech.