Domains
• Focus areas allow students to immerse themselves in courses they are curious about, apply their design abilities to real-world problems, and emerge with a changed perspective (a lot like studying abroad).
Each domain is full of wicked problems where design work is useful and needed!
By mapping and completing a focused three-course “pathway” in a domain sphere, students will:
- Be primed with enough relevant context to inform or contribute to a multidisciplinary capstone project senior year (if they wish)
- Emerge with skills and knowledge useful for navigating any other domains that exist or emerge throughout a flourishing career in design
Students may find that their domain coursework sparks a passion and helps launch them into a career path at the intersection of design and a given domain, but it doesn’t need to. The chance to take courses in other departments at Stanford encourages a lifetime design practice grounded in curiosity, humility, immersion in new contexts, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.
We invite you to explore the Domain Landscape Maps below (illustrated in collaboration with artist Iris Gottlieb), and be moved by the possibility for design within each!
Choosing domain classes
A “pathway” (three-course sequence or cluster) in a domain sphere includes:
- Foundational Course
- Applied Course
- Future Horizons Course
Explore all of our domain course offerings within each of the spheres on our Domain Course Appendix. You’ll also find sample 3-course pathways that correspond to focused application areas (“islands” on our maps). We invite and encourage you to submit a Domain Petition form to propose classes that may fit in our domain spheres, but are not already on the list.
Foundational Course
A course that covers essential topics in the domain area (ie, history, scientific principles, frameworks, robustly useful concepts, etc.) that will be useful in the rest of your pathway sequence, and in preparing to do effective design work.
Applied Course
A course that has a lab or project-based component that requires you to put principles into practice, and that will help prepare you to be an effective maker and collaborator in this space.
Future Horizons Course
A course that explores emerging technologies, trends, and forces that are shaping this domain space. (Bonus points if this class also has a practical making component!)
Our program has four Domain Focus spheres that students choose from.
Kate Maher
Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Nicole Ardoin
E-IPER Director, Associate Professor of Education, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Fiorenza Micheli
David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science, Professor of Oceans, Senior at the Woods Insitute for the Environment and Professor of Biology
Emily Callaghan
Founder of Design+, Design Coach
Sarah Stein Greenberg
Executive Director of the Stanford d.school
