Search

The design process requires coordination between professions that have different ways of seeing. Using ethnographic data from a building project, this paper explores how architects and engineers mobilize visual objects to coordinate their professional visions around a design issue. The findings articulate the visual practices whereby design professionals move from a fragmented towards a shared professional vision. In this move, they cease looking at the design issue from within their disciplinary perspective, and begin taking inspiration from each other's. They further adjust the emergent shared professional vision, by iteratively narrowing and broadening its focus. The paper contributes to the practice perspective in design studies, explaining how different ways of seeing are coordinated through practical engagement with visual objects. • Design professionals from different disciplines have different ways of seeing. • Shared professional vision is built through engagement with visual objects. • The move to shared professional vision is performed in the non-digital space. • The adjustment of shared professional vision is performed in the digital space. • Shared professional vision can be iteratively narrowed and broadened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has three main aims. It argues that education is a surprisingly neglected sector of activity in research on service design and innovation and that greater attention to education as a service can shed new light on theoretical and methodological issues in service design and innovation research. It shows how a novel reframing of education activity – as networked learning – can enrich some critical areas of thinking about the analysis, design and evolution of co-produced services more generally. Finally, it identifies a family of participatory design approaches that are particularly well-tuned to the needs of service innovation. The paper shows how contemporary ideas on individual, group and network-wide learning can benefit research on services and service innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways architects negotiate new early stage design energy modelling tools in their design practice. Energy modelling tools have traditionally mostly been usedby building services engineers with their engagement often occurring at late stages in design to largely verify and validate already established ideas. Recently, however, with a growing international energy agenda and development of new modelling technologies there has been a greater need for broadening use particularly with architects early in design. Yet despite the broadening of use, and increased importance placed on building performance, few studies account for the ways new groups of users such as architects negotiate use of new energy modelling tools in their design practice. Research on the topic of energy modelling has tended to focus on addressing improvements within a particular professional domain or in enhancing features within tools and providing better analysis parameters. The data draws on semi structured interviews and focus group sessions with 26 participants across 4 large international architecture firms in the UK. Preliminary findings indicate differing organizational principles as well as team identities and project assumptions on the ways energy modelling contributes or detracts from fulfilling overall project needs. The implications of the findings are twofold. First, the analysis provides an initial overview of how early stage design energy modelling is considered in design in architecture practice in the UK. Second, the paper provides an understanding of how architects negotiate meaning on energy in design. There are also implications for energy policy development in the context of the built environment particularly concerning building performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a research project for improving performance of companies in manufacturing industry in introducing new products. One section of the project relates to design reuse, and therefore this article presents a literature review to this theme. Goal of the paper is to present how design reuse can be defined and supported. Our results emphasize focusing on designing products so that reusable sections can be separated from varying sections because of customer specific needs. Five industrial cases discussed in the paper highlight also that operations, processes and IT support needs to be adapted with reusable designs. [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]

This paper reports a case study investigating the productive value of designers ' creative practice within complex academic-industrial collaborations in which a designer's practice had a formative role. Adopting a pragmatic approach, collaborators' experiences of this project were reconstructed through interviews and ‘annotated timelines.’ Collaborators were found to value the designer's work in responding to their particular concerns whilst also opening up new possibilities. This paper discusses how such benefit is attributable to the ‘ designerly thinking ’ of skilled designers, shifting the focus of work from problem-solving to problematisation and enabling participants to collectively formulate concerns, roles, and potentialities. The paper concludes that designers ' creative practice can enable collaborative projects to build upon and transcend participants' expertise and expectations through ‘creative exchange.’ [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]

This paper contributes to improving our understanding of design activity. Specifically the paper uses Activity Theory to enable a multi-scale analysis of the activity of three engineering designers over a period of one month. Correspondingly, this paper represents the first work that explicitly investigates design activity across different scales, referred to as macro-, meso- and micro-scales. In addition to establishing the range of activities and tasks that occur at, and constitute, each scale the underlying relationships between the scales of activity are discussed. Further, the paper elucidates the wider implications of the proposed framework and its findings for both design research and practice. Central to these implications is the articulation of design as a complex fabric of interwoven processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper focuses on design and reported speech (talk where a speaker quotes another), to outline how a user of a building employs reported speech to represent the comments of other users to an architect. By analyzing talk from a design meeting, the complex role of the ‘user/designer representative’ is delineated and the uses of reported talk to provide evidence, deflect decision-making, and deliver assessments are described. Also considered is how ‘face’ (positive personal/social regard) is managed in relation to reported speech. This paper offers a close analysis of design-based interaction and a reflection on the importance of hearing users – both who are present and who are absent but spoken for – in situated contexts of design practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper uses aspects of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis to consider talk from a meeting that occurred in a university course on ‘universal’ design. The focus is on how participants manage a practical and moral dilemma: how might they design a product that meets the needs of a wide population and the needs of a particular client? Resolving this dilemma has consequences for both who the product is aimed at and how it will function. Through the analysis and discussion of an extract of talk, this paper investigates precisely how this practical and moral dilemma of design is carefully managed and resolved through the collaborative social interactions of practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper develops a deeper understanding of professional software design by examining the emergent logic of a software design exercise. Decision-making is evident as a ‘product’ of activity, including coordinated attention to primarily two artefacts, the brief and the whiteboard. Thus, we pay attention to the ‘situatedness’ of decision-making, which is not one person’s accomplishment, but is interactively carried out through treating what is known to the participants such as requirements written in the brief as ‘documentary’ of what is to be understood. The paper examines how each pair resolved the requirements uncertainties, by treating different ‘users’ differently. Our examination reveals how different approaches to the design exercise were actually organised to shed new light on software design practices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Designers exert substantial effort to define an intended user experience (UX) for a product, service or system. However, discontinuities can arise when the actual UX of users differs from the design intent. This paper presents a 'Semantic Discontinuity Detection' (SDD) method capable of locating discontinuities between (i) realized product semantics, based on users' initial visual impression of a product, and (ii) intended product semantics, based on the originating designer's visual product expression. The experimental design includes a new technique termed 'Semantic Network Clustering' (SNC) to organize diverse product appraisal lexicon. Data generated by the method provides evidence to assist re-designing for reduced semantic discontinuity. The method is suggested to be suitably agile for a wide range of UX intent-realization research. • Method comparing designers' intended product expressions against users' product impressions. • 'Semantic Network Clustering' technique to organize diverse impression statements. • Uncovers links between semantic appraisals and physical product features. • Generates evidence to assist re-designing for reduced semantic discontinuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how the conversational aspects of design may be examined from perspectives associated with micro-sociology/social psychology: Symbolic Interactionism (SI) and Conversation Analysis (CA). Since many aspects of design involve face-to-face talk, this paper argues that an SI-informed CA offers an effective approach to understanding how communication and negotiation are central to design. Through analyzing excerpts of talk (an architect’s meeting with a client, and a design education critique) we can see how the collaborative nature of conversation contributes to understandings and assessments of objects. This discussion outlines how SI and CA can help delineate the processes that link the details of interaction to the wider social conditions and constraints that impact upon the practices and objects of design. [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]

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) fabrication is the practice where the end user creates a product for personal use rather than commercial production. This paper reviews how DIY practitioners can produce useful artefacts with limited resources. Fabrication principles were extracted from the DIY design repository Instructables.com. A set of candidate principles was iteratively refined and converged to five unique principles. Case studies are presented that illustrate approaches for implementing each. A first empirical study verifies the repeatability of the principle classification through crowd-sourced assessment. A hypothesis is that the principles seen in DIY fabrication can support design prototyping. This is validated through an empirical study that shows a positive correlation between exposure to the principles and enhanced design outcome. Highlights • Do-It-Yourself (DIY) design lowers the entry barrier to innovation. • Five DIY fabrication principles were extracted from the repository Instructables.com. • Occurrence of these principles in the database was validated with several mechanisms. • Ten case studies are presented in detail to elaborate the principles. • Study results show positive correlation with principles and enhanced design outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes an iterative development process used to understand the suitability of different inclusive design evaluation tools applied into design practices. At the end of this process, a tool named Inclusive Design Advisor was developed, combining data related to design features of small appliances with ergonomic task demands, anthropometric data and exclusion data. When auditing a new design the tool examines the exclusion that each design feature can cause, followed by objective recommendations directly related to its features. Interactively, it allows designers or clients to balance design changes with the exclusion caused. It presents the type of information that enables designers and clients to discuss user needs and make more inclusive design decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates uncertainty perception as a general driver of individual design activity. An observation based protocol study is used to explore the interaction between uncertainty perception and three core actions connected in design activity: information action, knowledge sharing action, and representation action. We bring together prior works on uncertainty perception in the design and management literature to derive three contributions. First, we describe how uncertainty perception is associated with activity progression, linking all three core actions. Second, we identify characteristic patterns of interaction between uncertainty perception and activity. Third, we decompose uncertainty perception to further explain its role in driving design activity. This extends prior research on design activity, and supports a number of theoretical and empirical implications. [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]

This paper explores the social dimension of collaborative design from the perspective of Schön's reflective practice. An in-depth video protocol study was performed on the reflective practice in an experienced design team. It looks, in particular, at reframing: the process to find a new productive frame for subsequent activities. Reframing processes are amplified in a social context, requiring considerable time and effort on the part of design teams. Reframing has distinctive features that set it apart from other steps of reflective practice. Two iterative stages are discerned: sensemaking, to reconstruct prior operating frames; and future framing, to design a frame for future activities. Surprises incite reframing, and we argue that surprises are a source for team learning and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation of the research question: How can tools for indoor climate and energy performance simulation (BPS) be conformed to fit architectural design practice? A series of semi-structured interviews with practicing architects was therefore conducted to collect information regarding 1) the design activities that architects actually do in the early stages of the design process, 2) how indoor climate and energy performance is considered during this phase, and 3) to get suggestions from practitioners on how BPS tools could be conformed to fit design practice. The interviewees found it difficult to generalise the course of the design process; it was considered to be different from project to project. However, analysis of interview data led to the contribution of this paper: A theory suggesting that the design process can be described as a project-specific and/or personalized sequence of independent and generalizable design activities. Consequently, the answer to the research question is that tools should support design activities; analysing the interview data, we identified 31 unique design activities. The interviews also revealed a range of desirable traits of an 'architect-friendly' BPS tool. This, together with the realisation that BPS tools should support design activities, led the formulation of a set of requirements for the development of BPS tools conformed to fit architectural design practice. • A series of semi-structured interviews with practicing architects was conducted. • The design process can be described as a sequence of design activities. • Tools should support design activities; 31 unique design activities were identified. • In addition, desirable traits of an 'architect-friendly' BPS tool was identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research on identification of user barriers for the adoption of building performance simulation (BPS) tools indicates that architects wants to use the output from BPS to inform their decisions in the early design stage, but only if the BPS tools are conformed to fit their design practice. In this paper we therefore propose a research framework for the development of BPS tools conformed to fit common design practice in the early design stage. The proposed framework was constructed based on review of existing research methodologies in the area of BPS for informing decisions in the early design stage, and on review of methodologies used in other research fields, such as design research, social science, software development, and innovation research. The proposed research framework consists of four elements: 1) a reflective researcher who navigates the research activities and reflect on research methods, approaches and outcome; 2) a framing of the research to identify relevant theme, topic and research question of interest; 3) an iterative workflow procedure of planning, acting, observing and reflecting to generate a spiral of understanding, inspired by action research; and 4) a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods and approaches from the related research fields that could be applied continuously to seek and refine different solutions. The paper also reports on an application example which demonstrated that the framework is a helpful tool for systematic navigation and documentation of research activities and collection of data. Furthermore, the iterative nature of the framework continuously increases the researchers understanding of the underlying mechanisms of the design practice in early design stage enabling them to make better proposals for BPS tools that are conformed to fit common design practice in the early design stage. • The use of thermal simulation to inform decision-making in the early design stage is rare. • Thermal simulation tools should be conformed to fit common design practices. • A research framework involving design practice in tool development was proposed. • Application of the framework generated new perspectives on how to make tools relevant to practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper presents survey of contemporary practice for disproportionate collapse prevention in buildings. • The study presents data on how practitioners around the world apply the existing codes and guidelines. • This study compares practices applied to different materials and different regions around the world. • The findings also inform on the development for future revisions of building codes for disproportionate collapse prevention. This paper summarises contemporary practices and implementations of the existing codes and guidelines with respect to disproportionate collapse prevention. Here, focus is given to structural robustness, defined as the ideal method to decrease the probability of disproportionate collapse in buildings following an initial damage. The results from a global survey with 171 participants (mainly structural engineers) are presented. By comparing practices applied to different structural materials (steel, concrete and timber) and in different regions (Canada, USA, Europe, Australia/New Zealand), areas of improvements for the existing codes and guidelines as well as further research are identified. The results emphasise the importance of including specific recommendations for structural robustness in building codes, applicable to high importance and high occupancy structures. A performance-based approach is preferable, rather than prescriptive requirements, for practical and economic solutions. In addition, the obtained responses highlight the need to further develop the existing indirect and direct methods for disproportionate collapse prevention and structural robustness to include material-specific considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a study of tutor-student design reviews that form part of formal Industrial Design education. It is motivated by interests in how design expertise is acquired through experiences of designing and how novice designers are assisted to develop their own positions as designers. It explores the ways a professional designer tutor directs, guides and encourages students' engagement with a design task, and presents them with opportunities to develop their own design values, preferences, and design sensibilities. It uses the empirical data to draw attention to how the potential of design proposals as rhetorical instruments to serve both designers ‘own thinking and the presentation of their designs to others is a prominent theme in the professional designer tutor's engagement. [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]

This paper examines a successful architectural design process, taking place over a period of seven years, which resulted in the delivery of a complex building meeting the aspirations of the client. Our analysis focuses on the mechanisms by which expectations about how a building will be experienced are created, shared, and resolved during the process of design. We find differences in the ways designer and client talk to each other about experience and differences in the talk before the construction of the building and after it has been built and occupied. We discuss these differences and why the ‘design concept’ manifests in distinctive ways. We suggest that the phenomena we have noticed are linked intrinsically to expert design performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Inherent spatial variability is considered as a major source of uncertainties in soil properties, and it affects significantly the performance of geotechnical structures. However, research that considers, directly and explicitly, the inherent spatial variability in reliability-based design (RBD) of geotechnical structures is limited. This paper develops a RBD approach that integrates a Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS)-based RBD approach, namely the expanded RBD approach, with random field theory to model, both directly and explicitly, the inherent spatial variability of soil properties in RBD of drilled shafts. The proposed approach is implemented in a commonly-available spreadsheet environment to effectively remove the hurdle of reliability computational algorithms and to provide a user-friendly graphical user interface to practicing engineers. To improve the efficiency and resolution of MCS at small probability levels, the expanded RBD approach is enhanced with an advanced MCS method called “Subset Simulation”. Equations are derived for the integration of the expanded RBD approach and Subset Simulation. The proposed approach is illustrated through a drilled shaft design example, and is applied to explore the effects of inherent spatial variability (including the scale of fluctuation and correlation structure) and to evaluate systematically the equivalent variance technique that is commonly used to indirectly model inherent spatial variability in current RBD approaches. It is found that inherent spatial variability significantly affects the RBD of drilled shafts, and its effects are considered in RBD using the proposed approach in a direct and explicit manner. In addition, the results show that the indirect modeling of inherent spatial variability using the equivalent variance technique with the simplified form of variance reduction function in RBD might lead to relatively conservative designs in design practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A key issue in the field of inclusive design is the ability to provide designers with an understanding of people’s range of capabilities. Since it is not feasible to assess product interactions with a large sample, this paper assesses a range of proxy measures of design-relevant capabilities. It describes a study that was conducted to identify which measures provide the best prediction of people’s abilities to use a range of products. A detailed investigation with 100 respondents aged 50–80 years was undertaken to examine how they manage typical household products. Predictor variables included self-report and performance measures across a variety of capabilities (vision, hearing, dexterity and cognitive function), component activities used in product interactions (e.g. using a remote control, touch screen) and psychological characteristics (e.g. self-efficacy, confidence with using electronic devices). Results showed, as expected, a higher prevalence of visual, hearing, dexterity, cognitive and product interaction difficulties in the 65–80 age group. Regression analyses showed that, in addition to age, performance measures of vision (acuity, contrast sensitivity) and hearing (hearing threshold) and self-report and performance measures of component activities are strong predictors of successful product interactions. These findings will guide the choice of measures to be used in a subsequent national survey of design-relevant capabilities, which will lead to the creation of a capability database. This will be converted into a tool for designers to understand the implications of their design decisions, so that they can design products in a more inclusive way. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents three lenses for interpreting design thinking: a framework on learning to become professionals, and two interpretations of this framework that speak broadly to aspects of ‘design thinking’. The first lens draws on a framework for ‘an embodied understanding of professional practice’ and provides a way to describe how professionals form and organize their knowledge and skills into a particular ‘professional-way-of-being’. The second and third lenses provide examples of using this framework to interpret existing results from phenomenographic studies on ways of experiencing design and ways of experiencing cross-disciplinary practice. We conclude with a discussion of how these three lenses contribute to a working synthesis of design thinking and learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The ability to reframe a problematic situation in new and interesting ways is widely seen as one of the key characteristics of design thinking. In this paper we study how experienced designers have professionalised the crucial art of frame communication and new frame adoption with their clients. During briefing, professional designers elicit a client’s frame, reframe it to be more workable and desirable, and reflect it back. In this study fifteen experienced visual communications designers were interviewed and asked about briefing activities for what they deemed to be ‘typical’ and ‘innovative’ projects. This yielded rich descriptions of strategies that these professional designers used to enable reframing of the situation with clients, insights into possible difficulties and patterns of briefing practices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the last few years, “Design Thinking” has gained popularity – it is now seen as an exciting new paradigm for dealing with problems in sectors as far a field as IT, Business, Education and Medicine. This potential success challenges the design research community to provide unambiguous answers to two key questions: “What is the core of Design Thinking?” and “What could it bring to practitioners and organisations in other fields?”. We sketch a partial answer by considering the fundamental reasoning pattern behind design, and then looking at the core design practices of framing and frame creation. The paper ends with an exploration of the way in which these core design practices can be adopted for organisational problem solving and innovation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper presents the results from a UK survey about the knowledge and information requirements of managers and engineers in design and service. The survey aimed to gather requirements regarding the needs for retrieval of previous designs and the needs to capture knowledge and information from current designs to support future engineering tasks. The survey nature, method and instruments are described with the information and knowledge categories identified. The findings are analysed and contrasted with the results of other empirical studies. Notable results include the variety of information needs, unexpected absences and low frequency categories, the expectation of practitioners that tomorrow’s needs will be similar to today’s, the apparent failure to satisfy those needs, and suggestions from respondents for improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Henry Ford is recognized as the father of mass production, but his contributions extend well beyond that, offering valuable lessons for product platforming and mass customization. In this paper, we study Ford''s Model T and its many variants in depth and describe insights into Ford''s vision and his car. In particular, we examine how the platform was built, leveraged and dynamically maintained with continuous improvements to maximize learning and economies of scale. Finally, we compare Ford''s approach to more current approaches for platforming and mass customization. October 2008 marked the 100-year anniversary of the introduction of the Model T. In some aspects this old car still outperforms us, and we can learn valuable lessons from its past to avoid future mistakes and improve current practices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores differences in the use of design in service innovation in Nordic and American new technology-based firms and is based on a systematic qualitative comparison of case data collected on eight service innovation projects in each of the locations. Differences were expected due to these two locations'' disparity in terms of agglomeration of technology-based firms and access to design resources. The results of the comparison indicate that there are more similarities than there are differences in how design is used in service innovation in these two locations. Possible explanations are explored and implications suggested. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The goal of this paper is to examine the role of design in the development of technology-based services and reports on case research undertaken in new firms. Design was found to be applied to a broad range of service aspects in the case firms, namely user interfaces, tangible artifacts, documents, usability, service processes, revenue models, communication processes, community building, customer experiences and marketing materials. The application of design in the case firms was found to be motivated in part by the desire to either counteract or exploit one or more of the distinguishing characteristics of services, which are intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity and perishability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper reports a recent study asking current community design practitioners to identify the most influential people and key issue leaders in the community design field and to define the concept itself. The results of the study show that in addition to the continuing concepts such as participation, there are new concepts such as new urbanism and sustainability which are now associated with community design. The most important conclusion, however, is that community design field is in fact in search of new perspectives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper highlights that design teams should take the lead to enhance the buildability and constructability of their projects. Through a questionnaire survey, the significant factors affecting buildability have been identified and classified into those related to the design process and design outcome, respectively. Results show that efforts in (i) carrying out thorough site and ground investigations prior to design; (ii) coordinating design documents, components, and working sequences; as well as (iii) designing for standardisation, repetition, safety and ease of construction, would enhance buildability and constructability for any given projects. The ANOVA statistical technique has also identified 3 buildability attributes associated with (a) below-ground works on nearby buildings, (b) imports of materials and (c) working space on site, which had statistically significant differences among the perceptions of Clients, Consultants and Contractors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper examines the impact of the IT revolution on the design professions, especially that of architecture. It looks at the impacts of past technological revolutions on established methods, products, and practices, and examines the potential impacts of ubiquitous computing, telecommunication, mass-customization and embedded computing on methods of design and construction, and on the products of architecture. This examination leads to conclusions about the implications of these technologies on the nature of architectural practice in the future. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Whilst new technologies in designing and rapid prototyping offer demonstrable benefits, their use can remove the potential for the designer to actively engage in the definition of form through tactile interaction with a physical material (as when working with foam or clay). This paper investigates the use of a haptic feedback device to facilitate interaction with virtual geometry and provide the designer with tactile cues during product modelling. The study concludes that limitations in the modelling capabilities of commercial haptic feedback technology restrict its ability to make a significant contribution to industrial design practice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Concept design is the most critical step in product development. To a large extent, its quality determines the fate of the product. Support for concept generation is mainly intuitive. In this paper, we review and exemplify the importance of quality product concepts and the available literature on concept generation. Subsequently, we present a method – subjective objective system (SOS) – for generating optimal concepts in diverse disciplines. The method rests on four mathematical metaphors: it is composed of objective and subjective components, it allows varying degrees of precision in modeling, it works by decomposing a complex problem into smaller sub-problems, and it uses highly simplified evaluations. SOS not only structures the decision process but also outputs the optimal concept given the customer objectives, the company context, and the available constraints. This solution is obtained by quadratic programming that allows the method to handle very large problems and solve them in negligible time. SOS has been developed over years of practical experience and research, and has been used in numerous successful real projects. We illustrate the use of the method in a real project. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Innovation happens deliberately more often than it does by inspiration. This paper describes disciplines applied by effective multi-disciplinary engineering firms in nurturing innovation in order to produce intellectual property in a variety of domains, from telecommunications to medical instruments. The report arises from a series of in situ observations and interviews in 12 engineering consultancies in the UK and US over 2 years. It describes strategies that expert designers use to ‘get out of the box’ of familiar thinking, to identify gaps in existing products, and to go beyond ‘satisficing’. It describes the supportive engineering culture in which these strategies are embedded. Finally, it identifies the characteristics which distinguish the highest-performing teams. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper introduces findings from the Recycling by Design Research Project (Phase I) (see note 111Note: Further information on the Recycling by Design Research Project, including all project reports, can be obtained from the website: http://www.recyclingbydesign.org.uk.). The importance of developing new markets for recyclate in the UK is first established. Selected research findings are then presented from a questionnaire survey response obtained from 539 architects and 142 designers, and follow-up interviews conducted with 20 of those respondents. These findings identified that UK architects and designers do not currently specify recycled products and materials, and that there are a range of obstacles to their doing so. A concluding discussion briefly examines the UK Government’s current position on addressing such obstacles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper explores the relationship between design logic and reasoning and the methodological and epistemological positioning of design-based knowledge production. Examining the relevant literature, we propose that the naturalistic logic of the American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey offers a potentially useful contextualisation of how logic, reasoning, method and, ultimately, knowledge can be understood as arising from, and be responsive to, context. This is considered in relation to the long-term delivery of a design research programme—termed Experience Labs—which was seen to undergo a gradual methodological shift in response to contextual concerns. It is our core argument that Dewey's logic can function as a valuable theoretical device, mediating between design and the necessity of methodological and epistemological explication in research. • Logic of design literature suggests an emphasis on situatedness and recursivity. • Design practice in research literature suggests an emphasis on situatedness and recursivity. • John Dewey's logic supports the consideration of situatedness and recursivity in logic. • Deweyan logic supports a post-rationalization of the evolution of a design research approach. • Deweyan logic provides an epistemological rationale for inclusion of design practice in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]