Using Design Interventions to Develop Communication Solutions for Integrated Pest Management

Abstract

Iowa State University’s (ISU) Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program partnered with the ISU College of Design (COD) to use Design Thinking and other practical design methodologies and theories to identify and develop approaches to address IPM extension and communication issues. ISU IPM met with agriculture industry, program colleagues, and ISU COD faculty to discuss IPM-related needs in agriculture and to determine the program’s primary challenges. ISU COD faculty developed a two-semester course for undergraduate students, allocating various resources to solve these challenges. Undergraduates in the course, as the primary agents and problem solvers, developed various strategies the IPM program and its colleagues could implement. A model of interdisciplinary collaboration was developed, where design and science may function as equal partners in a design education setting. In our collaboration, the partners bought into a design-led process-based methodology that began with identifying IPM communication needs. This project resulted in unique design interventions to communicate IPM to stakeholders and the public, as well as created a model for interdisciplinary cooperation that can be exported to fields outside of agriculture and IPM.