This qualitative case study aims at understanding when and how industrial designers, working in design consultancies, engage in activities that will influence material selection in the design process. While the extant literature presents material selection processes as a sequence of activities aimed at finding candidate materials, there is paucity of research on material criteria activities. Formulating material criteria is an activity that is performed during all design phases and they become clearer and more complete throughout the project. For the case studies, explorative semi-structured interviews were conducted with five industrial designers with 10 years of work experience or more. The results suggest (a) that risk management has a major influence on the material selection process, (b) that negotiations of project boundaries in the 'fuzzy' pre-design phase has crucial influence on the risk management aspect of the material criteria activities, and (c) a lack of awareness that design briefs usually outline material criteria expressed as sensorial characteristics, which are later translated by engineering into final material criteria used for the material selection process.

The aim of this study is to evaluate a new pedagogic approach implemented in a compulsory materials course for product design students at bachelors level at ABC University. When developing a new curriculum for the material course, a decision was made to teach materials and production methods in a contextualized setting with emphasis on how students can deal with materials in a design process. Methods can be seen as mental tools that aid the design students in navigating complexity and offers them a structure to deal with unfamiliar territories. After an evaluation, some methods, guidelines and tools were selected to integrate in the compulsory materials course for the product design students, e.g. the Expressive-Sensorial Atlas [1], Meaning Driven Materials Selection [2] and the Material Driven Design method [3]. The implementation is made in two steps in order to test, evaluate and further develop a framework for teaching materials courses to product design students. The study evaluate the first step of implementation in general, and the implementation of the Material Driven Design method in particular. It is hoped that this research can contribute to further development of pedagogical approaches for teaching materials and production methods in a contextualized setting for product design students at bachelors level.

There is a growing demand for humanitarian aid around the world as the number of displaced people has reached an unprecedented level. At the same time, the number of community-based design and fabrication makerspaces has been growing exponentially. Recently the humanitarian sector has become interested in how these spaces can help marginalized populations, including migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. However, there have been few efforts to document what types of design projects marginalized populations develop in these spaces. More broadly, knowledge on design with and by marginalized people remains underdeveloped. This study responds to this gap in knowledge, by analyzing cases from three makerspaces that support migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Greece. Ethnographic studies are conducted of twenty-three design projects emerging from these spaces. These projects are analyzed using the framework of Max-Neef’s fundamental needs to show how they simultaneously address functional and non-functional needs. For researchers, this study contributes to knowledge on design with and by marginalized people. For practitioners, this study helps to document the impact of humanitarian makerspaces by showing how design projects emerging from these spaces can address the needs of marginalized people. © 2022 Corsini, Jagtap, & Moultrie.

Co-design, design process, human behaviour, poverty, base of the pyramid (BOP)Co-design with marginalised people is crucial for sustained adoption and use of frugal innovations or Product Service Systems (PSS). Interviews were conducted with eighteen designers to identify barriers and enablers that they encounter in co-designing with marginalised people. The findings suggest that the factors supporting or hindering this co-design relate to the context of marginalised societies, co-design processes and methods, organisational issues, and aspects of collaboration. Consideration of these factors can lead to more impactful co-design with marginalised people.

Codesign with resource-constrained people living in developing countries is crucial for sustained adoption and use of designed solutions. Several studies have investigated codesign with resource-constrained people. It is, therefore, important to understand what has been investigated and learnt so far as well as to plan for further scholarly exploration of this field. To address this, I applied a systematic literature review (SLR) approach to understand main sources, definitions, and theoretical perspectives regarding codesign with resource-constrained people. The SLR also aimed to understand inputs and outputs of codesign as well as factors influencing the codesign process. The findings portray a multifaceted picture regarding these aspects of codesign. I discuss implications of review findings for the practice of codesigning solutions with resource-constrained people, identify concerns that researchers should have about this field, and offer suggestions for future research in this field of codesign.

The base of the world income pyramid, typically known as the Base of the pyramid (BOP), represents low-income people living in developing countries. Co-design with BOP people is crucial for sustained adoption and use of products and services. Based on interviews with practising designers, we identify barriers and enablers that the designers encounter in undertaking various tasks in the process of co-designing with these marginalised people. The findings suggest that a broad range of factors, related to the BOP context, co-design processes and methods, organisational issues, and aspects of collaboration, support or hinder activities in the co-design process. Consideration of these factors, as perceived by the designers, can lead to more impactful co-design with BOP people.

Design is essential to fulfil unmet or under-served needs of resource-poor societies, supporting their social and human development. A great deal of design research has been undertaken in such low resource settings, and is discussed under different names, such as ‘community development engineering’, ‘humanitarian engineering’, ‘appropriate technology’, ‘design for development’, ‘design at the Base of the Pyramid’, etc. This has created an important need to know what has been examined and learnt so far and to plan for further investigation. To address this, we review a broad range of literature, with close examination of 30 design studies in this field. This reveals a multifaceted picture, showing a great diversity in investigation and reporting of attributes of context (income, rural and urban, design sectors, countries, and gender), the roles of poor people (consumers, producers, and co-designers), characteristics of research methods employed (e.g. descriptive and prescriptive, data collection methods, qualitative and quantitative aspects, and unit of analysis), and design topics. Based on the review results, we offer recommendations for further research, identifying concerns that researchers ought to have about this field and suggesting ways in which research in this field can be undertaken and reported.

Designing frugal innovations is crucial to alleviate problems faced by peo-ple living in low resource settings. Many design studies have been undertaken in such low resource settings. These studies are discussed using a variety of names such as ‘frugal innovations’, ‘appropriate technology’, ‘design for the Base of the Pyramid (BOP)’, ‘product service systems for BOP’, ‘community development engineering’, ‘design for development’, etc. There is an important need to know in what context these studies were undertaken. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the con-textual aspects of these studies, we review a wide range of literature, focussing on design studies in this field. The review findings show a multifaceted picture, revealing a large variety in examination and presentation of contextual aspects such as income, design sectors, countries, rural-urban, and gender. Based on the review findings, we offer recommendation for practice, education and research of designing frugal innova-tions in low resource settings.

People living in low-resource settings at the base of the world income pyra-mid (i.e. Base of the Pyramid — BOP) face several constraints. To satisfy their unmet needs, integrated frugal innovations are necessary. Several studies, discussed using many names such as ‘design for Base of the Pyramid’, ‘design for development’, ‘prod-uct service systems’, ‘frugal innovations’, ‘humanitarian engineering’, ‘appropriate technology’, etc., have explored the design of such integrated frugal innovations for the BOP. Based on ten key design aspects, gleaned from such studies, this paper aims at developing an Integrated Design Methodology for designing frugal innovations for the BOP (Frugal-IDeM). We have related the key design aspects with the various phases in the design and development process. The Frugal-IDeM also includes recommendations for how to implement the key design aspects.

Eliciting specific intentions and seeking inspiration are important activities in the process of shaping a product’s visual appearance. A survey of the professional industrial designers was conducted to identify intentions (e.g. attributes, emotions) that they attempt to elicit, and also to identify inspiration sources and their media that they prefer not only in generating ideas to realise intentions but also in analysing and communicating intentions. The findings indicate that the designers frequently intend to elicit some specific attributes and emotions. Regarding inspiration sources and media, commonalities as well as differences were observed in the activities - analysing intentions, communicating intentions, and generating ideas to realise intentions.

Marginalised societies face a wide range of deprivations and constraints at individual, institutional, economic, and technological levels. To satisfy unmet or underserved needs of poor people living in these societies, it is essential to address all the relevant constraints in the target context through the design of integrated solutions. Many studies have explored the design of integrated solutions for these societies using approaches and concepts such as holistic design for low-resource settings, Base of the Pyramid, product service systems, subsistence marketplaces, etc. We perform a systematic review of a broad range of literature on integrated design solutions for marginalised societies, gleaning ten guidelines to support design practice in this field. The derived guidelines cover different phases of the design process and life cycle stages of the solution. Each guideline is supported by findings of several studies. We have also included a detailed, illustrative example for each guideline. Additionally, the review allowed us to offer recommendations for how to use each of the ten guidelines. Finally, we discuss the guidelines relating them to constraints in marginalised societies and unfamiliarity of practitioners about these societies. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

This article describes the research stimulated by a fundamental shift that is occurring in the manufacture and marketing of aero engines for commercial and defense purposes, away from the selling of products to the provision of services. This research was undertaken in an aerospace company, which designs and manufactures aero engines and also offers contracts, under which it remains responsible for the maintenance of engines. These contracts allow the company to collect far more data about the in-service performance of their engines than was previously available. This article aims at identifying what parts of this in-service information are required when components or systems of existing engines need to be redesigned because they have not performed as expected in service. In addition, this article aims at understanding how designers use this in-service information in a redesign task. In an attempt to address these aims, we analyzed five case studies involving redesign of components or systems of an existing engine. The findings show that the inservice information accessed by the designers mainly contains the undesired physical actions (e.g., deterioration mechanisms, deterioration effects, etc.) and the causal chains of these undesired physical actions. We identified a pattern in the designers’ actions regarding the use of these causal chains. The designers have generated several solutions that utilize these causal chains seen in the in-service information.The findings provide a sound basis for developing tools and methods to support designers in effectively satisfying their in-service information requirements in a redesign task.

The process of shaping a product's visual appearance is crucial in determining consumer response. However, extant research on the nature of expertise in this process is scarce. Specifically, there is absence of studies investigating differences between how expert and novice industrial designers use information in this process. This research, using think aloud method, compared informational behaviour of an expert and a novice industrial designer in shaping products. We report rich qualitative accounts of their informational behaviour, revealing a sharp contrast between them.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) embodied products are becoming ubiquitous in the modern world. Organizations are hence updating themselves to design and develop such products. In this paper, we aim at identifying enablers and barriers in designing such products across several sectors. Our analysis of a broad range of literature in this field allowed us to identify these enablers and barriers. We have developed SOTCUT and SEECUT models representing these enablers and barriers. We have discussed implication of the findings for the practice of designing AI-embodied products.

The base of the world economic pyramid consists of 4 billion people typically earning less than 4 USD per day. This population is generally called the base of the pyramid (BoP). Much research on BoP markets focuses on motivating companies to enter these markets to create a win-win situation such that companies can gain benefits and BoP customers can satisfy their unmet or under-served needs. The reviewed literature suggests the need of innovations to successfully deploy products and services in these BoP markets. The reviewed research on disruptive innovations suggests that these innovations provide a good opportunity in new markets in contrast to companies’ mainstream markets. This paper presents the findings of the initial phase of our research, and attempts to demonstrate that BoP can present a potential new market for companies to successfully employ disruptive innovations. This is shown by synthesizing the reviewed literature on: (1) design, development, marketing, and distribution of products and services in BoP markets; and (2) disruptive innovations.

There is a sharp contrast between High Resource Settings (HRSs), commonly seen in developedcountries and Low Resource Settings (LRSs), typically found in the marginalised sections of societiesaround the world. Product design for LRSs is crucial to satisfy unmet or under-served needs of thepeople living in LRSs. Supporting designers to develop successful products for LRSs demandsdeveloping an in-depth understanding of their design process, including their informational behaviour.In this research, using think aloud protocol analysis, we compared the designers’ informationalbehaviour in designing products for LRSs and HRSs, where HRSs is considered a baseline. The findingsindicate that designing products for LRSs is more information intensive, and that it influences theinformational activities of designers, thus indicating potential impact of a resource-setting on the waydesigners deal with information.

Design is imperative to satisfy needs of people in resource-limited societies. Many design studies have been carried out in the context of such societies in developing countries, and are discussed under names such as humanitarian engineering, frugal innovations, appropriate technology, design at the Base of the Pyramid, design for development, etc. In this paper, we review a wide range of literature, with close analysis of 30 design studies in this field to understand how marginalised people were engaged and positioned in those studies and to plan for future research in this field.

Poverty is characterized by many different constraints at individual, institutional, economic, and technological levels. To satisfy unmet or underserved needs of people living in poverty, it is essential to address all the relevant constraints in the target context through the design of integrated solutions. Although previous studies in this field have indicated that designing such solutions requires involvement of many stakeholders, there is a lack of related research in this field. To address this, using a case study methodology, we analysed two design projects that have successfully responded to all the pertinent constraints in the resource-limited societies, supporting social and human development of the marginalised people. Based on the findings of these design case studies, we developed a framework of stakeholder inputs, representing a diverse range of stakeholders, embedded within or outside the context of poverty and contributing towards the design of integrated solutions.

Poverty is a multidimensional issue, characterized by deprivations and constraints at the individual, institutional, economic, and technological level. To satisfy the unmet or underserved needs of people living in poverty, the relevant constraints in the target context must be addressed via integrated design solutions. Although previous studies in this field show that designing integrated solutions requires input from multiple stakeholders, there is a lack of relevant research examining the nature of this input. To address this, using a case study methodology, we analyzed three design projects that have successfully responded to the pertinent constraints within each context by supporting social and human development among its marginalized populations. Based on our findings, we designed a stakeholder input framework categorizing a diverse range of stakeholder perspectives—both inside and outside the context of poverty—that can contribute towards integrated solutions design. The findings and resulting stakeholder input framework can help designers gain a deeper appreciation of the constraints faced by marginalized societies, and how design input from various stakeholders can be mobilized to overcome these constraints and create value for resource-poor people.

Societies across the globe are facing many unprecedented challenges; climate change, pandemics, and resource depletion, just to name a few. These societal challenges, the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and companies’ demands about knowledge and skills required from future employees have put pressure on academia to develop suitable education programmes in many disciplines, including product development and mechanical engineering. In this position paper, we present our work undertaken in phase-1 of the development of a new MSc programme in the field of product development and mechanical engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology, aimed at addressing changing societal needs and demands of the future industry. We employ a generic design thinking approach, starting from key stakeholder needs with iterative execution of needfinding, benchmarking, and ideation. In these steps, we use several data collection and generation methods such as interviews, surveys, and workshops. The main outcome of phase-1 is the overall programme structure, consisting of three main focus streams — the engineering design core, three academic specializations (Product-Service Systems Design, Data-Driven Design, and Simulation- Driven Design), and the practical application profiling. Based on our experience of developing the overall programme structure, we offer recommendations for developing new programmes in this area.

Paternalism is an instance of someone making a decision on behalf of someone else. A professional designer can exhibit paternalism through conceptualizing, defining, and selecting current or preferable situations or while finalizing outcomes for stakeholders. Paternalism is thus, a critical ethical dimension related to the design profession. The design academy and community must theorize paternalism if we are to avoid or reduce it. Paternalism may be present at three critical junctures of design decision making. Our three-layer framework examines paternalism as it relates to design process decisions, decisions about participation in design, and normative framework decisions. The circular model represents the hierarchy of paternalistic decision making: any effort to overcome paternalism at the (inner) design level or (middle) participatory level will be ineffective if it is present in the (outer) normative layer. We discuss the extent of possible exhibitions of paternalism and the challenges to avoiding it in decisions at each layer, and contrast these briefly with overtly paternalistic design approaches, such as design for behavior change. We find that design may be inherently paternalistic, at times may need to be that way (in certain contexts especially, where expertise is required for decisions to be made accurately), and that it is up to the individual designer whether they exhibit paternalism in their design decisions or not.

Product design is a key aspect of human intelligence and creativity, attracting not only experts but also people without any formal design training. Although numerous people in developing countries design and manufacture products in metalworking microenterprises in the informal sector, there is still little knowledge about their design process. This paper aims to fill this gap in design knowledge. We aim to investigate the design processes in metalworking microenterprises in the informal sector of Tanzania. In particular, we aim to explore how these microenterprises identify consumer needs and requirements, how they determine the specifications for the product, how they generate and evaluate alternative product concepts, and how they define product details. To address these aims, semistructured interviews were carried out in metalworking microenterprises operating in the informal sector of Tanzania. The findings reveal many facets of their design processes, providing a sound basis upon which design methods and tools can be developed to support their design activities.

Product design is a key aspect of human intelligence and creativity, attracting not only experts but also workers and self-employed without any formal design training. Although numerous people in developing countries design and manufacture simple products in metalworking microenterprises, there is very little systematic knowledge about their design process. This paper aims to fill this gap in design knowledge. We aim at investigating some aspects of design process in the metalworking microenterprises in Tanzania. The findings reveal how they identify needs, and generate and evaluate concepts.

The field of autonomous vehicles is gaining wide recognition in the industry, academia as well as socialmedia. However, there is a lack of knowledge on expectations of people regarding this topic. To this end,this paper analyses extant research on perceptions of people in various countries about semi-autonomous andautonomous vehicles. Secondly, based on the findings of this analysis, we developed a questionnaire togauge the perceptions of the people in Sweden regarding such vehicles. The findings have important implications for the design of AVs in Sweden, and possibly other countries.