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Egypt's craft industry encompasses many dependent businesses, while crafts are slowly dissipating in the flourishing digital age, designers are emerging and becoming more substantial. Handicrafts are actually in their majority environmentally friendly, offer a quick and short monetary cycle, and most of all are a reflection of the local culture and identity. Globally, cultural inspired designs can easily be trendy and fashionable. This paper argues that designers play a major role in solving this matter. Culture integration into the new designs is rather challenging as there is no solid theoretical framework linking design and culture. Designers have the ability to address how core components of culture can be embedded in innovative functional objects. The paper analyses the role of design from the outcome of local startup project and based on a design intervention conducted in collaboration with the International Labor Office (ILO) in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper investigates the traditional Malay silver craft that has existed for two centuries, reflecting the community's culture and heritage. The Srivijaya Kingdom and British colonial rule historically influenced this Malay culture's silver craft, encapsulating beliefs, dreams, and resilience. Originating in Kelantan, Malaysia, the Malay silver craft industry flourished, but recent studies reveal its decline and potential extinction. This paper's primary objective is to comprehensively identify and propose strategies for integrating sustainable practices of silver craft, aligning with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on sustainable industrialization and cultural heritage preservation. The research seeks to preserve and revitalize the craft industry for community benefit, emphasizing its socio-economic impact, potential for job creation, income generation, tourism, and intangible heritage preservation. The paper conducts a literature review, visual research, and focus group discussions employing anthropology, art history, and community development. This research emphasizes the importance of sustaining cultural heritage, fostering community resilience, and empowerment. Influenced by their cultural beliefs, environment, looking at nature, and the natural world, the fine silver craft undergoes artistic expression, subsequently fostering social cohesion and interaction. Following the quadruple helix concept, the Malay silver craft industry revival engaged through collaboration among local artisans, government agencies, community organizations, and academicians. By utilizing thematic analysis based on focus group discussion, this research thoroughly analyses the sustainability of the Malay silver craft domain, interpreting key thematic codes that underpin its ecological and socio-cultural significance within the framework of local craft in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Practice and academia exist in parallel worlds. Universities, with their priorities guided by government research metrics and competitive funding schemes, encourage academics to present research through refereed journals (often behind paywalls) or at international conferences to academic audiences. Conversely, practice works at speed, offering minimal time for critical reflection before moving on to the next project. The design project connects these two worlds. It is here that the conceptual collides with the material, and theory meets practice. While both academia and practice recognise the importance of design precedents and case studies, we argue neither is yet to fully capitalise on the tacit knowledge of the designer in advancing landscape architecture knowledge. Through a critical reflection on the research processes and creative methods underpinning the Landscape Architects as Changemakers project, in this paper we discuss the potential of the reflective practitioner, along with the research possibilities afforded by digital media, in developing more complex and precise understandings of design practice. Drawing a contrast with repeatable and predetermined research methodologies, we highlight the value of flexible and creative research approaches that can transform and respond to unfolding knowledge and evolving opportunities for funding and dissemination emerging during a research project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative research advocates for prioritizing Critical and Creative Thinking in professional design over empathy. The study involved 74 undergraduate Product Design and Engineering students from Brazil, Portugal, and India to explore the relationship between these thinking skills and sustainability. The students' Critical and Creative Thinking levels were evaluated using rubrics developed by Shively et al. (2018) and a multi-level framework developed by Ceschin & Gaziulusoy (2019) was applied to identify sustainable innovation levels. The research highlights the need to enhance tertiary students' skills in addressing wicked problems, a concern recognized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for the 21st-century workplace. This research contributes to the ongoing debate on the significance of Critical and Creative Thinking in professional design practice and emphasizes the importance of integrating sustainability considerations into design education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape architecture education in the 21st century witnessed a transition from merely art and engineering to a future that integrates knowledge in science, psychology, environmental studies, ecology, and more. Using planting and environmental design practice as an example, the education focus needs to shift from purely demonstrating aesthetics to a comprehensive framework that integrates aesthetics, ecological services, and social and spatial functionality. This paper explored the gaps in planting and environmental design between pedagogy and practice. The result indicates that college-level education in planting and environmental design is majorly focused on plant identification, ornamental properties, and construction drawing communications, whereas the practical field indicates an expectation of more horticultural and ecological knowledge in design practice from college-level education. To bridge the gap, the article identified the proper trajectories through qualitative research including a questionnaire survey, semi-structured interview, content analysis and cross analysis to explore a sustainable development education framework of planting and environmental design based on the barriers of knowledge dissemination between academia and practice.

While ethics has been part of design research for decades, few studies have explored how designers engage with ethics in practice. Based on interviews with 11 practitioners in design consultancies, this paper explores how ethics is understood and dealt with in commercial practice. Based on an analysis of the interviews, we present six themes that capture how practitioners articulate the concept of ethics, how they distinguish between personal and organisational ethics, and how this relates to serving clients with potentially conflicting agendas. Moreover, the study demonstrates that practitioners do not typically use methods or procedures for dealing with ethics, but rely on ongoing and sometimes ad hoc dialogue. Based on these results, we suggest promising avenues for future work relating to concepts for articulating how ethics is dealt with in the design process and how design activities give rise to different levels of ethical concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores game designers' attitudes and praxis through a Grounded Theory analysis of data collected from interviews with 11 game design professionals. The aim of the research is to investigate and map possible shared approaches and strategies. The study presents a theoretical framework based on the core category "Balancing permanence and change". Designers appear to build and maintain elements of stability, and contemporarily ensure the process' flexibility and adaptability to possible constraints through collaborative approaches and iterative methods. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of game design practices and provide a theoretical framework for interpreting designers' choices. Future research should assess the adaptability of the framework across game genres and cultural backgrounds of designers. • Grounded theory can provide insights on game designers' attitudes and praxis. • Game designers' work is based on balancing permanence and change. • Game designers adopt fixed frameworks to ensure the project's coherence. • Game designers value flexibility to ensure the project's adaptability. • Game designers use team cooperation and iterative approaches as balancing strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design practices often involve grassroots communities and institutional actors with designers working as or with intermediaries. This paper defines intermediation as a significant design practice, especially when designers engage in commoning and institutioning—concepts that have gained traction in recent discourses in design scholarship. To discuss intermediation, the paper introduces two case studies: a community radio project in Europe and a food supply chain project between Australia and China. The two cases show implicit and explicit ways that intermediation can form an integral part of the practices and competences of designers. The paper discusses the merits of intermediation skills and techniques as well as how intermediation can be better embedded and integrated in design practices. • Expands discourse on institutioning and commoning in participatory design research. • Makes explicit the so far largely implicit design skillset of intermediation practice. • Illustrates the argument with two design cases from Europe and Australia/China. • Argues for the merit of adding intermediaries to interdisciplinary design teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory design (PD) is a signature element of good design practice. However, enabling effective participation is often difficult to realise. This article highlights the value of applying psychoanalytic approaches to spatial thinking to better understand the deeper complexities and dynamics of the space-psyche relationship, and the challenges in the spatial thinking process that can inadvertently alienate participants in PD. Lacanian psychoanalysis is used to highlight how participants' lack of access to imagined space compromises their ability to establish a reciprocal relationship with space. The paper contributes to critiques of PD by exploring the relationship between spatial thinking, power, and agency in the PD process through Lacanian psychoanalysis. The paper argues the space that imagination seeks to access should not be gated or guarded by the designer's gaze, and that careful work is required to prevent such foreclosures from occurring. • Lacanian psychoanalysis is used to map space-psyche tension in PD. • Three ideations of space in PD: Lived, Represented, Perceived. • Participant's ability to establish reciprocal relationship with space is compromised. • Represented space should not be gated or guarded in the designer's gaze. • Subjectivity in PD is not a challenge but a gateway to immerse participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology systems that support learning–such as Learning Management Systems, or LMS’s–can change frequently in higher education. This often creates significant challenges for faculty-support staff during a transition–or migration–period. When equitable practice is deprioritized during these migrations, there is a high chance that stakeholders will experience adoption resistance, putting the project’s success and subsequent student experience at risk. Using a vignette and case study qualitative methodological approach, three researchers at a large urban university in the Pacific Northwest detail personas and journey mapping as an equitable design practice during a LMS migration on a rapid development timeline. This paper details how personas were created, how journey mapping impacted various teams, and how centering equity better prepared staff to support instructors throughout the migration while addressing the student learning impact.

Knowledge from academic design research projects does not always help design professionals to actually strengthen their work. Based on a multi-case study, this paper describes how researchers view the impact of their design research projects on design practice and what they do to achieve this. Even in projects where impact on design practice is a stated ambition, several challenges can stand in the way, such as a lack of funding opportunities and unclarity on the needs of design practice. The paper provides tips for researchers and funding parties who want to inform design practice by research, including tips to operationalize design practice roles. • Professional design practice as an audience is a blind spot in funding. • Involving design professionals is not sufficient to impact design practice. • Four tips to impact design practice are provided for researchers and funding parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current discussions in practice-led design research concentrate on the thoughtful dimension of working with materials and the problem of analyzing acts of making at the scale of individual practice. Informed by the theoretical tenets of sociomateriality, this paper encloses a practice-led study addressing both issues. We followed the making of a collaboration-based, material-intensive workshop designed by the first author, where he also participated as a maker. This approach afforded us an insider's perspective to delineate how thinking through making transcends the individual and distributes across the entangled becoming of the social and the material. Our findings shed light on four features of sociomaterial assemblages that warrant critical attention in practice-led design research: temporality, contingency, epistemic capability, and analytical agency. • We contribute a methodological approach to conducting practice-led design research. • Our approach situates design practice in collaborative making. • Collaborative making demands a process of sociomaterial negotiation. • This process decenters the designer-researcher from knowledge production. • Adopting a sociomaterial lens can substantially benefit current efforts to analyze own design activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Design anthropology covers various design practices and research. While some researchers/pactitioners rely on anthropological insights to enhance design, others use design as a tool to gain anthropological knowledge. This paper explores the symbiotic relation between design and anthropology and proposes a 'design anthropology of collaborative making'. It contributes to gaining insights in plural ways of knowing while providing contextual insights that inform design practices. Starting from a common skill from an 'in-habitat' position, we consider both perspectives and invite collaborative engagement between people and materiality. Based on collaborations with the San community in Namibia on shoemaking and with Syrian refugee women through embroidery, we explore the added value of this tactile engagement through making to bridge theory and practice. • Collaborative making to inform design practices and situated knowledge creation. • Common skills from an in-habitat position as a means of correspondence. • Values of design anthropology to collaborative design research practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the uses of sticky notes in a range of design-oriented activities, from three different projects. The paper makes two principal contributions. First, it introduces a socio-material analytic for the study of design materials, and exemplifies this analysis with respect to video data of designers' uses of sticky notes. Second, it illustrates how the material properties of sticky notes come to have interactional consequences in the performance of particular social actions. Four general thematic considerations emerge from this socio-material analysis of sticky notes: (1) a reappreciation of the embodiment of space, ownership and actions-with-notes; (2) the interactional history of notes; (3) the social and conceptual inertia of gestalt contextures; and (4) the unity of the social, material and conceptual in embodied design activity. • Material properties of sticky notes are used in the performance of social actions. • A socio-material analytic perspective is introduced and exemplified. • The social and material aspects of sticky notes are mutually constitutive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of 'strategic design' has arisen in the past years as an umbrella term for a set of evolving practices. Yet the literature is quite fuzzy as to what this strategic design actually is and how it would lead to strategic impact. In this paper we explore the issue afresh, bracketing the concept of strategic design, and starting from the standpoint that " There is no such thing as strategic design ". We use a longitudinal case study of a design intervention, following its strategic impact as it unfolds over 10 years to critically consider the strategic impact of design practices. The dynamics of strategic impact across this case study is captured in a fledgling 'Game Changers' model. • We question whether what is called 'strategic design' is part of design at all. • There are complex relationships between design and strategic impact. • Strategic impact requires synchronized top down and bottom–up processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current concepts of design processes are largely pre-defined by Westphalian perspectives which omit other non-European-defined onto-epistemes. This paper draws on a co-design education program with young adults from the Aboriginal community of Ntaria to explore Western Arrarnta ways of designing , which are mediated by Country, culture, and community. Questioning accepted universal processes, drawing from multiple participatory methods, and enabling Ntaria students to reinforce their own knowledge systems, practices, and cultural values within their design learning, revealed how identity, place, and culture are fundamental to the enactment of design. In articulating a Western Arrarnta design process, the significance of autonomous and pluriversal ways of designing must be respected. • Westphalian design processes omit other non-European-defined onto-epistemes. • Aboriginal young adults explore Western Arrarnta ways of designing. • Insights reveal how identity, place, and culture are fundamental to design. • Encourages the incorporation of Indigenous values systems within design discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The debate about place has long intersected with design studies. Our contribution to interdisciplinary design is to facilitate a dialogue between design and human geography. Grounded in Doreen Massey's conceptualisation of place as the interrelations of diverse powers, processes and practices, this paper combines ethnographic methods and examples into a succinct place-based methodology for design researchers. We argue that this interpretation of place can provide designers and design researchers with an approach to understanding the multiplicity of place to locate themselves and their work better. We maintain that taking place-based methodologies seriously can support design researchers working in transdisciplinary teams, help avoid the pitfalls of homogenising and solution-based outcomes, and make space for Indigenous voices, feminist fabulations and pluriversal futures. • The article extends interdisciplinary dialogues to human geography, foregrounding the work of geographer Doreen Massey. • An articulation of place as extraverted and progressive can sharpen the understanding of situated research. • Place-based methodologies can help design researchers avoid homogenising and solution-focused outcomes. • Ethnographic approaches to place expand the idea of design ethnography to the production of alternative situated knowledges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our design processes and tools matter, as our design is always shaped by the processes and tools that we use. Context necessarily shapes the content of our design processes and tools. But, without paying attention to the content emerging from that context, the use of these tools and processes may become oppressive. In the wake of colonialism, the un-reflexive use of design tools and processes underpinned by Western conceptual ideas and schema can lead to oppression for design with nonWestern or Indigenous peoples. Even tools and processes designed with a supposedly liberatory intent, such as promoting democratic practice or equality, can lead to oppression in their un-reflexive use. Looking at two experiences from my design practice with my own hapū (clan), this article explores the ways in which ideas of democratic participation and equality raised in these two design spaces could function in an oppressive way to cause a form of violence against our traditional lifeworld. This article proposes some ways in which this aspect of design might be modified to help lead to more just design outcomes, through a more reflective and intentional approach when choosing and applying the design tools and processes we use in our design practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent fiscal and political mismanagement, together with the financial pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, have driven Sri Lanka into a social and economic crisis triggering a decrease in national foreign exchange reserves, an inability to purchase vital imports, and an unprecedented rise in internal inflation rates. Within the correspondingly distressed construction sector, the idea of ‘design circularity’ gains natural impetus beyond eco-system protection and responsible consumption views, as a critical strategy for responding to the material and fiscal scarcity of the country’s by-now relatively closed economy. This is also in light of the fact that the post-independence history of industrial policy in the island has produced an urban landscape characterised by large underused and increasingly derelict building stock with a significant potential - and need - to be programmatically reorganised, technically recycled, and spatially and culturally re-designed. This paper moves from the proposition that, for ‘circularity’ to be of use at the scale required, its design application must expand beyond conventional interpretations of material recycling, to acknowledge the overall building fabric as a critical, transformative resource available to be renewed or reborn, with varying degrees of reforms as called by the existing opportunities, underlying programmatic needs, and/or industrial constraints. In facilitating this function, architectural design has an important role to play, as particular sets of design strategies must be employed to handle the inevitable complexities between structure and form, material and content, and product and process, against a reflective understanding of local building logic, challenges and potential. To that end, professional design can help foster design approaches to resolve the technical intricacies of building fabric transformations, to strategise actions concerning work procurement and economic planning, and to provide the leading agency in setting up future-industry configurations. How this approach could inform and affect broad market notions of design circularity for Sri Lanka is evaluated through the review of three projects that focus on different programmatic transformations (residential-to-residential, residential-to-recreational, and commercial-to-recreational), are set within different geographical locales (city, periphery and in-between), and situated in and around Kandy, Sri Lanka’s second largest city. The projects illustrate possible tactics for intervening on the existing fabric whilst considering the benefits of each and articulating the structural challenges for the practices involved.

The concept of inclusion in design is increasingly well known and often recognizes value in a greater diversity of people when creating new buildings, spaces, products, and services. Still, uptake is said to be limited in practice. The theoretical landscape provides several definitions and concerns, but they are often paradoxical. Rather than disentangle theory, this research turns to practitioners who design inclusively. This research explores the ways people advocate for inclusion in design projects, prevailing aspects in the negotiations within multi-stakeholder projects, the motivations and mindsets that drive these aspects, and the opportunities they create for the improved uptake of inclusion. Through discussions (semi-structured interviews) with six individuals from design and architecture, aspects of inclusion from practice emerged. The data were clustered thematically and organized into three parts: general project development, working with others as a team, and designing inclusively. These explorations highlight the value of including a more diverse group of individuals in the negotiations of a design project, the value of bespoke designs, the ever-evolving nature of inclusion, the different ways to present a valuable business case, and the influence of team dynamics. Conflicting perspectives on effective uptake prevail in both practice and theory. Future research will inquire on the most prevalent and valuable aspects of inclusion and their placement within current development processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of 'publics' has emerged as a frame for rethinking the relationships between design practices and the communities affected by design. This paper explores two facets of the intersection of design and publics. First, we examine the notion of designing for public interests with an understanding of publics as multiple, conflicting and varied. Second, with reference to the Australian context, we reflect on different ways design communities can identify and support the formation of publics as a pivotal next step to more effectively serve its own interests and values, including the urgent enactment of social change. Our discussion identifies four sets of tensions that we offer as provocations for constructive and ongoing engagement by the design community at large to inform the process of designing for our own publics. • Reviews interdisciplinary scholarship on publics and public interests. • Maps Australia's design industry associations to identify publics' challenges and opportunities. • Identifies arising tensions across distinctions such as fragmentation or pluralism of interests. • Asks design researchers critical questions about advocacy and unionisation. • Invites discussion about how design communities can foment their own publics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of design teaching, learning and research in Australia is determined by Eurocentric traditions and the ongoing colonial project. In this context Indigenous Peoples continue to experience erasure, silencing and appropriation of practices and knowledges. The Visual Communication Design Program, situated in the School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), is committed to disrupting this trajectory. In this article we describe an immersive model that seeks to challenge the role of the design educator, creative practitioner and researcher on unceded Gadigal Lands in the city of Sydney, Australia. We reflect on the challenges of facilitating Visual Communication Design and Emergent Practices, for a third iteration as an online studio experience, during COVID-19 in the context of the climate crisis, bushfires and Black Lives Matter. This iteration is the result of four years of deep collaboration with local First Nation Elders, Indigenous scholars and practitioners. The research-focused studio for 180 final-year visual communication design students is led by Local Elders, cultural and research advisers with the support of studio leaders. The consideration of design-led research methods through a process that infuses Indigenous research principles builds on the longitudinal research into the role of the emplaced designer in Indigenous-led projects on Country. Our studio, titled ‘In Our Own Backyard’, provides students with strength-based design capabilities and understandings of the principles of the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples Rights (UNDRIP), Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights (ICIP) and the Australian Indigenous Design Charter. As a studio experience, the aim is to create conditions which spark possibilities for re-orientation towards relational and respectful negotiation of difference, and the capacity to action Indigenous self-determination in complex practitioner scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to discuss the adaptive challenge, and bridge the gap between theory and practice in design education. From now on, navigating design communities through the new era is a significant issue facing global competition and pluralistic society. First, this study reviews the essential evolution of design theories in the past few decades on man-machine system design, user-centered design, and user experience design. Second, based on three case studies of the REACH toothbrushes, an IEF wearable computer, and a LINNAK twin-cup, the research findings are offered to witness the advancement and transformation from hi-tech to hi-touch. Furthermore, this study summarizes three paradigms to interpret the adaptive evolution in design education. Finally, the authors propose three directions for the advancement of the creative industry and design education. The contributions of this study are to (1) clarify the interrelations between the theory and practice of design via the three foci of the human factors, human actors, and cultural aspects; (2) demonstrate the transformation of the archetypal model of user–tool–task employing illustrative paradigms; (3) identify the evolution of design education with contextual stages in the past decades; and (4) propose orientated perspectives for the personnel and institutes of the design industry and design education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]