Stanford has an undergraduate and graduate program in design. The undergraduate major is called Product Design; the graduate program is called the Joint Program in Design. Both operate on the same founding principles; design is always a human-centered activity and designers work for the benefit of society.

Both the undergraduate and graduate programs are a collaborative offering of the Design Group of the Mechanical Engineering Department in the School of Engineering and the Department of Art and Art History in the School of Humanities and Sciences. At both levels the goal is to graduate designers who can synthesize technology and aesthetics in the service of human need.

Program emphasis is placed on conceptual thinking, creativity, risk-taking, and aesthetics. We are particularly interested in the front end of the design process where we frame the question "What should we create?" Students are taught to use design processes such as need-finding, ethnographic field-work, rapid prototyping, and extensive and iterative user testing to evolve their solutions to the problems given.

Graduates are anticipated to become leaders in their chosen organizations. They are self-starters who make things happen. An unusually high number have created their own companies. Examples include: Fakespace Labs, IDEO, Blackeye Design, Concept Designs, Atlas Snowshoes, Freeboard, Light and Motion, D2M, Skyline Products, Xtracycle, and others.

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