What Should Be Known About Design if We Only Know Design?

Porous liquids are a new class of porous materials. They combine the permanent porosity of solid sorbents with liquid fluid properties. Their basic unifying principle allows them to reinvent materials syntheses, eliminating separations. Are these characteristics used in our Design Education? Design is already an activity associated with other study fields. It is potentially transdisciplinary and transversal. It uses contributions from other areas in its objects and forms of communication. It applies other questions, brings new searches, and constantly expands its reality. But is the Portuguese Design Education System open to further knowledge? Is it a porous system? What should be known about design if we only know design? These are the questions this paper investigates. Five different Portuguese Product Design Courses were studied. The study program’s objectives and intended learning outcomes were analyzed. Each curricular unit—syllabus and teaching methodologies—was compared. The conclusion is that the design educational system gains with these porous, liquid, plural, and hybrid programs that embrace different expertise, practices, and cultures.