Prototypes are an established tool for rapidly increasing learning, communication and decision making rationale for design projects. The proven success has spawned a litany of approaches and methods for building and planning the efficient planning and construction of prototypes. Translating these methods into simple usable tools to assist novice designers has generated broadly applicable canvases to support prototyping across the design process. Product Service System design has similarly introduced prototyping methods and tools into the process. Presently there is a lack of support for generating early phase tangible prototypes for functional PSS design aimed at more radically innovative solutions instead of currently dominant traditional products with traditional add-on services. This work explores the viability of utilizing existing prototyping support tools in the context of early PSS design through workshops with student designers and practitioners. The data from these workshops illuminates the alignments and misalignment gaps presented as guidelines to enable better support for early PSS designers.

As mechanical simulations play an increasingly role in engineering projects, an appropriate integration of simulations into design-oriented product development processes is essential for efficient collaboration. To identify and overcome barriers between design and simulation departments, the BRIDGES approach was elaborated for barrier reduction in design engineering and simulation. This paper shows the industrial evaluation of the approach using a multi-method study of an online survey and focus group workshops. The experts' assessments were statistically analysed to build a connection matrix of barriers and recommendations. 59 participants from multiple industries with practical experience in the field contributed to the online survey, while 24 experts could be acquired for the focus group workshops. As a result of the workshops, both the data-based and the workshop-based part of the BRIDGES approach were assessed as beneficial to raise the efficiency of collaboration and practically applicable. This provides an empirically secured connection of barriers and suitable recommendations, allowing companies to identify and overcome collaboration barriers between design and simulation.

Already successfully used products or designs, past projects or our own experiences can be the basis for the development of new products. As reference products or existing knowledge, it is reused in the development process and across generations of products. Since further, products are developed in cooperation, the development of new product generations is characterized by knowledge-intensive processes in which information and knowledge are exchanged between different kinds of knowledge carriers. The particular knowledge transfer here describes the identification of knowledge, its transmission from the knowledge carrier to the knowledge receiver, and its application by the knowledge receiver, which includes embodied knowledge of physical products. Initial empirical findings of the quantitative effects regarding the speed of knowledge transfers already have been examined. However, the factors influencing the quality of knowledge transfer to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer in product development have not yet been examined empirically. Therefore, this paper prepares an experimental setting for the empirical investigation of the quality of knowledge transfers.

With the topic of sustainability steadily gaining importance and public awareness, there is growing consensus about the need to incorporate environmental considerations in early stage product development (PD). This makes it imperative for PD practitioners to have access to methods and tools, including life cycle assessment (LCA), that support sustainability integration. This paper evaluates existing LCA tools on their ability to cater to the early-stage PD context, by having users apply the tools in practice and exploring their experiences. We find that the challenges to applying LCA in this context emanate primarily from the shortcomings of the tools themselves. Our evaluation metrics for tool critique are derived from a thematic analysis of user interviews we conducted, refined according to information and interaction design principles from human-computer interaction (HCI). This unique approach helps triangulate insights from users with literature, to produce design recommendations for the development of novel LCA tools tailored to the early PD context.

This paper deals with the story and experiences of setting up a new start-up company with the ambition to scale using a software-based product. The paper is written by researchers for researchers interested in doing the same thing. The paper concludes that it can be very beneficial for research as the startup-can be seen as a data collection machine, but to set up a start-up company, comes with unforeseen problems along the way. A few of them involves: Do not rely on rational arguments (only), when marketing your product. Expect long lead-times. Work with multiple threads and secure funding early to ensure that you can finance your startup. Finally, you need to be committed, and you have to have a strategy to manage both your research and your commercial activities.

Hackathons are short design events at which participants collaboratively progress through the entire design process. They pose opportunities for design research, but the existing research is limited, as is the understanding of design activity at hackathons. In our study, we summarize the hackathon design process of 10 interview participants from varying disciplines, levels of experience, and hackathon events. The summarized account reveals a decreased emphasis on the beginning phases of the design process, mainly problem definition, but an increased emphasis on the end, specifically the pitch portion of the event. These differences are mainly due to the limited time frame. We further assess the effect of time limitations at hackathons by comparing hackathons to other instances of design, emphasizing the impact of time constraints on iteration. We conclude our discussion with an exploration of the role expertise has on the design process by comparing the accounts of designers and developers.

The digital transition refers to the fact that information technology (IT) tools are used in all our activities on a daily basis. In this article, we will study the use of IT tools in engineering activities. It is possible to say that today IT tools accompany engineers in their professional practices. This presence of computing has also enabled the development and considerable changes in human-technologies interactions. Moreover, the socio-economic context has evolved considerably, and environmental issues have taken on an important role in engineering. We ask whether and to what extent these two contexts (digital and ecological) have changed the expectations of design professionals with regard to IT tools. Should the way of addressing the type of human-machine interaction in engineering tools be modified in depth? The objective of this paper is to understand what types of human-computer interaction would allow a more satisfying user experience for those future engineers who are using new technologies and marked by the ecological urgency. To do so, we will focus on a particular engineering context (design for sustainability) and a particular engineering practice (LCA practice).

Local recirculation of materials is a key aspect for a green transition, as it enables materials to be reused in new life cycles locally. In this article, we use the material “paper” as a case study to explore how this material recirculates at the local scales. This article aims at observing and evaluating upcycling scenarios as part of an expansion of local end-of-life possibilities compared to the current situation where paper end-of-life is reduced to a few recycling plants in France and abroad. This work relies on interviews and questionnaires that aim at understanding how paper is used and explored by artists to be recirculated in products. Indicators were tested to provide a methodology to compare different material circulation scenarios in terms of material use, environmental impact and value perception. Collaboration among multiple actors, artists, community centres, schools and industrial players is crucial for scaling up such recirculation loops.

Over the last years, academic literature has made significant progress on the development of key concepts, identifying circular product typologies, developing assessment methods, and exploring the synergies with manufacturing trends such as digitalisation or environmental management. Nevertheless, less attention has been paid on describing process model changes necessary for the implementation of circular product development. For this reason, this paper presents the circular Sustainable Product Development (cSPD) morphological field, aimed at providing implementation guidance to business and industry. It describes possible reconfigurations of the Sustainable Product Development (SPD) process model to further integrate circularity R-strategies, design scopes, design guidelines, inter- and intra-organisational actors and criteria for evaluation. With this framework, we intend to identify the most defining parameters in the process model and assign them a discrete number of categorical values so that different combinations explain the generation of prevalent circular product typologies in the manufacturing of durable goods.

In this research some systemic forces to sustainable design are described and mapped out, along with key areas, dimensions and stakeholders. These results are visualized in a causal loop diagram (CLD), which was the outcome of a group model building approach supported by a literature review. Within the proposed system model, represented by the system-level variables and their relationships within the CLD, some potential leverage points that can help make product design better contribute to sustainability are identified and described. These can be found in the balancing and reinforcing feedback loops of the CLD as well as the mapping to societal dimensions of sustainability transitions and stakeholder groups. Among the stakeholder groups, business managers, scientific researchers and engineering designers can be tied to the design community. Future research is proposed to build on these initial results to deepen the knowledge about the systemic drivers and barriers and leverage the contribution of design practice to sustainable development.

Design has the potential to include or exclude people, depending on how user needs are translated into products. Design exclusion has been vast in design for health care. Medication packaging design is a common example. It does a good job of protecting the product but can result in creating difficulties when used, especially for those who are older. Research in this area lacks an inclusive and user-centered approach because potential users have been studied outside of their context of living and with methods that limit participation. The aim of this study was to explore the combined use of solicited diaries and photography to engage and include older users in gathering data and reflecting on their day-to-day experiences of using multiple medications and the medication packaging. Our findings show key learnings of using this combined method, as well as related methodological challenges, and provide recommendations to tackle these challenges. The use of solicited diaries with photographs taken by participants is deemed to be relevant in interdisciplinary fields of research and practice, where designers and other professionals aim to better understand the reality of older people and create meaning in their experiences of self-care.

As the diversity of customer needs increases within the aerospace industry, so does the need for improved design practices to reduce quality issues downstream. When designing new products, design engineers struggle with applying tolerances to features, which often leads to expensive late design iterations. To mitigate this, one aerospace company is looking to reuse tolerance deviation data yielded during manufacturing in design. In the long term these data could provide the basis for a Digital Twin that can be used for improved product development. This article explores how data from production are used today, what issues prevents such data from being exploited in the design phase, and how they potentially could be used for design purposes in the future. To understand the current situation and identify the untapped potential of production data in design, an interview study was conducted in conjunction with a literature review. In this paper the current situation and primary barriers are presented and a possible path for further research and development is suggested.

Team collaboration is a critical necessity of the modern-day engineering design profession. This is no surprise given that teams typically possess more task-relevant skills and knowledge than individuals (Levine & Choi, 2004). Advancements in digital media provide new opportunities for collaboration across the design lifecycle. However, early stages of the design process still pose challenges to digitally mediated design collaboration due to greater representational abstraction and the presence of multiple modalities for design ideation. Usually, design teams spend a substantial amount of time generating a broad set of ideas that can lead them to a wide range of design solutions during the ideation phase. However, sooner or later, teams should narrow down their vision for a final solution. What factors influence team members to eliminate or select an idea? Our study is an attempt to demonstrate some examples of this challenge. By drawing on research in team cognition, particularly the concept of transactive memory system (TMS) we studied a design teams' communication and media use during the ideation phase. The goal was to see if media type and communication modes can predict a team's decisions on selecting and eliminating ideas.

Lightweight design in interconnected systems becomes more and more complex as the interdependencies cannot be overseen by the product developer. Varying one component might not only influence the interfaces to other components but also the underlying production systems.

Therefore, this contribution focuses on the product/production interdependencies and how they can be supported within lightweight design. Based on a functional description of the product it is possible to derive new lightweight design solutions and also to evaluate the change propagation in the production system. For this, a method for the impact and risk analysis is integrated in the lightweight design method Extended Target Weighing Approach (ETWA). By doing so, a risk value for the adapted production system can be calculated and different design concepts can be compared.

The application of the developed method on a simplified use-case shows great potentials when evaluating the impact of a newly developed lightweight design solution on an already existing production system supporting the product development in decision making.

Learning innovation and design process is a necessity of the coming decade and games are a potential tool to do so. This paper proposes an extended taxonomy for categorising innovation and design games. The intent is to understand the essential, the similar and the different categories not only for development, but also for evaluation of innovation and design games, and in turn, help educators identify appropriate games for their learning objectives and curricula.

Although product family design methods are well established, little research has focused on Product-Service-System (PSS) family design. A PSS family design method is proposed in this paper that parallels methodology for designing product families. Separate platforms are proposed for products and for services. However, couplings between product and service platforms are identified and incorporated into the design method. Design problem formulations are proposed for PSS family platforms and for the PSS family itself, using a module-based approach, in contrast to a platform scaling approach. Alternative methods are investigated and compared for solving these problems. The application domain of Assistive Mobility (AM) is identified as a promising PSS family in this work. If smart technologies are integrated into AM devices, such as manual wheelchairs, powered wheelchairs, walkers, and rollators, then patient diagnosis and treatment, as well as device maintenance, services are enabled with these smart technologies, demonstrating that smart AM devices are a promising PSS family.

The integration of users' perception in the design process is and important challenge for the optimization of products. This study describes how design recommendations can be drawn, from a perceptual experiment with a panel of subjects using a multi-objective interactive genetic algorithm (IGA). The application concerns the bi-objective optimization of the unpleasantness and the detectability of sounds for electric vehicles (EV). After a description of the experimental protocol for the assessment of the detectability and the unpleasantness of EV sounds (listening test), a set of optimal sounds (Pareto efficient) is defined with an IGA experiment. The analysis of these sounds, based on a probabilistic analysis of the selection process, leads to the definition of design recommendations. A second listening test, involving recommended sounds but also other design proposals, allows an evaluation of the validity of the approach. Results show that the sounds recommended obtain interesting performance, in particular to improve the detectability of EV sounds.

Micromobility has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, and air pollution, particularly when replacing private vehicle use in conjunction with public transit for first- and last-mile travel. The design of the built environment in and around public transit stations plays a key role in the integration of public transit and micromobility. This research presents a case study of rail stations in the California Bay Area, which are in the operation zone of seven shared micromobility operators. Nineteen stations and their surroundings were surveyed to inventory design features that could enable or constrain use of micromobility for first- and last-mile access. Shared mobility service characteristics, crime records, and connections to underserved communities were also documented. Key design solutions were identified based on the findings, including protected bike lanes, increased shared bike and scooter fleet size and service area, and clear signage indicating parking corral and docking points.

Materials can be considered from a technical and experiential perspective. However, the latter perspective is more complex to study systematically. Four intertwined experiential levels describe the overall materials experience: sensorial, interpretive, affective, and performative level. Building upon the need in experiential material characterization for comparable physical material representations to enable within-material-class comparisons and the inclusion of extensive user aspects, this paper sums up the reasoning process regarding the understanding and design of an experimental set-up and its parameters of a specific case. The case objective is to formulate guidelines for the designer/researcher to set up experiential material characterization experiments with (i) plastic demonstrator forms and (ii) by consumers. Following elements are discussed: Assessors, Stimuli, Interaction Modalities, Dependent variables, Method, and Practical considerations. Next, future experiments can be carried out in order to generate holistic plastic material data on a larger scale, that can be collected in an experiential database and used by designers throughout the design process.

Transitioning to a more sustainable society requires that universities produce an increasing number of engineering professionals capable of redesigning current production and consumption systems. This calls for restructuring engineering curricula towards sustainability becoming an integral part of engineering education and professional practice. To this end, this paper investigates the intrinsic and extrinsic motivational aspects of professional identity that contribute to consolidating sustainable mindsets in engineering, considering education as its main route. Specifically, we focus on identifying significant personal and education-related factors that contribute to fostering sustainable decision-making and affect the development of sustainable mindsets in engineering students. In order to identify such factors, we conducted semi-structured interviews with a diverse set of students and professionals (N=12). A thematic analysis of survey transcripts present three main components that support the development of sustainable mindsets throughout engineering education: i) Personal commitment, ii) Learning opportunities, and iii) Internalization time.