Scope and Methodology

In this study, qualitative and quantitative methods will be adopted in order to obtain a more comprehensive and less biased result. First, desk research is conducted to identify the number of institutions and interior design programs in Hong Kong. Next, the interior design syllabi of these institutions are collected and compared. Overall, we have identified 20 institutions offering courses in interior design, with a total of 37 interior design programs offered. Letters of invitations were then sent to these institutions to invite them to participate in the second stage of this study. Among the 20, 10 institutions agreed to take part in our study.   In the second stage of the education survey, three sets of questionnaires were prepared for students, graduates and teachers, which were mainly adopted from a research project of comparing interior design programs between United States and South Korea¹. The function of these questionnaires is to ascertain how respondents perceive their learning outcome, as well as measure the quality of students and graduates. In general, we are interested in finding out how the students, graduates and teachers think about the development of interior design education, therefore open-ended questions have been stated in the questionnaires in order to obtain their views in a thorough manner.   In addition to questionnaires, interviews were also conducted with course leaders and managerial staffs from various schools have been invited to share their views about interior design education in Hong Kong². Open ended questions were used to elicit responses concerning the aims of their programs and the future aspiration of the institutions.

Market Sizing Exercise

• This exercise aims to find out the number of companies engaged in interior design services in Hong Kong

• A “potential” database of interior design companies is compiled from the Yellow Pages, TDC Directory, interior design magazines/ publications, HKIDA directory, HK Design directory, HKIA  website, and other websites (such as Yahoo)

• Telephone calls are made to verify the existence & nature of business

• Basic information is collected, and respondents are invited to participate in the Stage 2 survey

Quantitative Survey

• Online/ paper questionnaires are sent to those who agreed to participate the Stage 2 survey

• 2 sets of questionnaires are intended for Employer and Employee, respectively

• In the end, a total of n=101 questionnaires with Employers + n=103 questionnaires with Employees were completed

Focus groups

• A total of 4 mini-focus groups were conducted, with the following composition:

• Group 1: Employers of small companies

• Group 2: Employers of bigger companies

• Group 3: Junior interior designers

• Group 4: More experienced interior designers

Stakeholder consultations

Two Roundtable groups were convened in February and July 2011, in which interior design educators, industry professionals and other stakeholders participated. During the February session, Roundtable participants were invited to comment on the direction of the Education and Experience surveys and the specific questions to be included. In July 2011, a second Roundtable was convened in which participants looked at results from the Education and Experience surveys and gave their views on how to improve the interior design profession in Hong Kong.