Despite increasing policy and industry focus on repairability, consumer repair behavior remains limited. This study examines this contradiction by analyzing user perceptions of repairable products through a survey-based approach (N = 68), focusing on behavioral, economic, and functional drivers of repair decisions. The results reveal a pronounced repairability paradox: while over two-thirds of respondents are willing to pay more for repairable products and strongly support extended product lifecycles, actual repair decisions are constrained by cost, time, and perceived difficulty. Durability concerns significantly reduce acceptance of recycled materials, highlighting the importance of performance trust in sustainable consumption. Additionally, while informational awareness strengthens long-term repair intentions, it does not significantly influence immediate purchasing behavior. This challenges the current focus on Design for Repair as a standalone strategy and underscores the need to integrate repairability with durability, cost-efficiency, and ease of use. By linking empirical data with behavioral and economic theory, this study provides actionable insights for designers, manufacturers, and policymakers seeking to promote more effective and realistic circular economy solutions.

Since 2003, Kamikatsu in Japan has established a sustainable zero-waste practice that has achieved a recycling rate exceeding 80%. By exploring how the community has shaped itself around the zero-waste concept, this paper aims to enhance our understanding of zero waste in practice from a universal design perspective. Interviews and photo documentation were used to gather data. The zero-waste concept was not driven by technical solutions. Instead, the results highlight what initiatives contributed to the design of the zero-waste concept. Key themes presented include fostering a lifestyle shift, changing norms, creating co-located experiences, establishing an incentive system, and developing self-awareness routines. The paper also addresses the challenges and opportunities from a universal design perspective when applying zero waste, emphasizing the importance of designing for diverse needs while promoting long-term environmental sustainability. This research contributes to the understanding of zero waste practices, combining the ecological dimension with the social dimension of sustainable development.

This article seeks to contribute new insights into inclusive recycling environments through universal design. The aim is to develop knowledge on how waste is understood and managed by exploring the practice and design of a recycling environment. Applying a norm-critical view, this is explored in a study with participants from a municipal housing company and waste management company in northern Sweden. Methods used are go-along interviews together with professionals and observations of a recycling environment. The results are discussed as: 1) the “(un)social norm;” where our results show that the waste system is perceived as a social system, contradicting previous approaches where waste systems are treated as technical environments. 2) the “(un)design factor;” where we identify how design in a recycling context that doesn´t emphasise diversity may affect activities of sorting.

This paper aims to study graphic designers' views on knowledge, considering the challenges faced by the field today. Expressing thoughts about what is needed for a graphic designer to build professional confidence, interview respondents mentioned topics like historical knowledge as well as feedback and presentation skills. To facilitate the navigation of the ever-changing graphic design landscape and to build a solid professional identity, externalising tacit knowledge is a key issue. The study finds that graphic designers mainly talk about their design work when presenting to clients, primarily with the aim of convincing them to accept new proposals. A case can therefore be made for the necessity of developing graphic designers' skills when it comes to explicating design processes with the aim of making it clear to non-designers what it actually is that a graphic designer knows and does, as well as building a stronger theoretical foundation for the profession.

This comparative study explores breaches to unveil potential blindspots within the social constructs surrounding design practice in Sweden and New Zealand. In-depth interviews with designers in both countries, revealed similarities and differences. The underlying norms and values suggest that the two countries share a similar value-base in relation to the design profession. Designers from both countries described the niche they occupy in terms of what could be called 'in-betweenness'. There are also subtle differences in how designers relate to their professional roles. While designers in New Zealand identify as bricoleurs, designers in Sweden compare themselves to engineers. Furthermore, Sweden appears to be a somewhat monolithic context compared to New Zealand, which seems more polylithic. The proposed approach enables a deeper understanding of potential blindspots in the design field, and the surrounding social construct. Implementing breaches as a lens can be valuable in questioning established truths, and ultimately instigating change.

To achieve progression in a product portfolio, companies employ industrial designers to aid in the development and creation of new products. Researchers have shown that industrial designers play a consolidating role at both strategic and operational management levels due to the need to incorporate requirements from several company functions, such as brand, research and development, production, economics and senior management. This article investigates how to expand the ways in which a product portfolio may be extended and updated, from an industrial design perspective. Seven product portfolio development strategies were identified. Inspired by studies of competitors' influence on an existing portfolio, a theoretical descriptive model was developed: the Industrial Design Product Portfolio Management model, which positions the suggested product portfolio development strategies in relation to existing and competing products. The findings may advance our current understanding of existing product portfolio management strategies and the connection between management and product design. Thus, it could be a useful framework for academics, teachers and professionals.

This paper presents a pilot study of the collaborative interaction between industrial design and engineering design in a significant productdevelopment project at a major Swedish vehicle manufacturer. Since industrial and engineering design have different approaches to productdevelopment, they require careful integration to reach their full potential, to reach project goals, and to ensure the innovative capability of thecompany. The objective of the research was to identify factors and suggest practices which support successful integration and nurture design-ledinnovation processes. In the study, six industrial designers at managerial and operative levels were interviewed. It was found that the industrialdesign department developed multiple strategies in order to mitigate disagreements and conflicts of interest in the collaboration. Firstly, designersdeveloped long-term, inter-personal relationships with key engineering designers and property-owners, who were critical for meeting design relatedobjectives. Secondly, the design department instigated studio visits, where project members were invited to experience and review physical andtangible prototypes, constructed to represent the current status of the project in terms of product design resolution. Furthermore, the studysuggested that the different ways to specify the design was a source of conflict, which could not be resolved by creating shared understandings ofneeds and objectives. Therefore, as a third strategy, the design department addressed top management to make design decisions of strategicimportance for the project. The study suggests that communication practices, creation of shared goals, and the use of ‘boundary objects’ supportinterdisciplinary collaboration. Future studies will explore these factors further. (Less)

A common assumption in product value literature is that authenticity is what contemporary consumers value the most. However, as this paper illustrates, the meaning of authenticity is unclear, and the term appears foreign to product development practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to explore in what ways product development professionals talk about product value in general and how this relates to authenticity. The analysis of the interviews reveals that product developers must embrace authenticity as a holistic framework if the phenomenon is to be constructive for companies within the product development industry. In line with the concept of authenticity as a multi-dimensional framework, this paper suggests that authenticity does not solely result from certain intrinsic tangible or intangible product characteristics, and that commercially strong products and brands do not automatically become “authentic”.The contribution of this paper to the product development fi eld is a framework for a multi-dimensional construct of authenticity, and an account of what representatives within selected companies talk about when asked about how they create consumer value, and how they contribute to valuable consumer experiences. The fi ndings are analysed and discussed in the context of literature on product development, brand management and marketing management.

This paper presents a design teaching approach that aims to support students to shift their approach when exploring, prototyping and testing user interactions with physical products. This is conducted in a bottom-up, iterative manner to change the perspective from focusing on the opportunities of user-involvement during the form-giving process, rather than prematurely stressing the design outcome. Instead of emphasising on aesthetics and appearance, the design approach emphasises how users perceive, interact with and experience products. Through a series of workshops, a pedagogical approach was developed for exploring and designing user actions with physical products, based on the notion of ‘action layers’. Action layers offer a mindset of designing, which facilitates understanding of, and design for, intuitive and tangible interaction. The approach builds on product semantics and emphasises cognitive and action-based paradigms to create intuitive and embodied information-for-use. Action layers present product interaction as a sequence of four steps; invite, engage, enable, and confirm. In the workshops, students iteratively explored form, prototyped and tested interaction with users through sketching with physical models, starting with minimal surface and edge treatments, eventually ending up with functional cues and meaningful form for a certain product type and environment. Through testing and evaluation, students learn to understand user behaviour, relate to their own expectations and intent to the design situation, and iteratively improve the design. The outcomes suggest that students advance their insights on how users interpret, respond to and interact with products, which consequently extends their ability to design products better suited for use. (Less)

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

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

This study reviews literature on the aspects of material selection within the field of industrial design education, specifically focusing on existing material selection tools and guidelines used in industrial design education. The growing number of materials available today has created a large variety of options for industrial designers, which they are ill-equipped to handle. A key reason behind this is that industrial designers lack appropriate education in material selection. There is a large body of research in the field of mechanical engineering, examining the material selection process of mechanical engineers. There are differences in material selection activities of mechanical engineers and industrial designers, based on their information requirements during different stages of the design process. Recent research highlights a need to merge the perspectives of engineering and industrial design for teaching the subject of material selection in industrial design education at tertiary level [1]-[3]. Industrial designers have unique skills to combine technical properties and intangible characteristics of materials in the product development process. Design students need to learn how to act as ambassadors of the intangible material characteristics in material selection processes in interdisciplinary teams. This paper suggests an approach that prepares the students to work both on inspirational and analytical levels in material selection processes.

Det finns manga fordelar med att lata studenter vid hogre utbildning gruppvis genomfora projektarbete med oppna fragestallningar. Det finns emellertid problem med att satta individuella betyg i en kurs som till stor del examineras genom det gruppvisa projektarbetet. I kursen EEMA01 Medicinteknisk design ges valet av undervisningsform naturligt av larandemalens karaktar men betygssattningen boravspegla individens bidrag i grupprocessen. Efter kritik fran missnojda studenter har lararlaget i kursen nu utarbetat ett forslag till komplettering for att paverka betygsattning som uppfattats som orattvis.

Experiences of a User-Centered Approach to Relations between Ageing People and Furniture in the Home Environment

This paper examines references of visual product identity in product design. The perception of identity is the result of a composite experience of the presentational and representational dimensions of the product. As consumers to a large degree create their value perceptions of products and brands based on the design of the product, it is important for companies to understand how perceptions of identity are created and conveyed through product design. In this paper, product identity is conceptualised and an approach to examine visual product identity is proposed. Product examples are used to illustrate possible product experiences and how they relate to perceptions of product identity. In essence, the paper suggests principles for how brand identity may be materialised through meaningful references in visual design – in this way, product identity can be seen as a mode of tangible branding. It is proposed the analysis presented in this paper provides a means for identifying and developing strategies for brand representation through visual product design. It may also be utilised as a conceptual framework, which can be used as a pedagogical tool for design education and designers when considering the alternative approaches available for designing visual product identity.

Notions of comfort are multifaceted and complex to incorporate into the design process. This paper presents a study where 10 chairs were tested by 30 third age people. The study was not mainly a comfort test, but several of the investigated human-furniture interactions could be referred to as aspects of comfort. The methods used were a user satisfaction scale and interviews. The study shows that the participants have diverse needs of comfort, but that they all value product related factors that affords fit to their body, home and aspired identity. The chairs’ properties and characteristics co-affected the experiences of various types of usages and the totality of what was perceived. A possible explanation is that past experiences and first visual impression work together to guide user expectations and thus influence the perceived comfort. This paper recommends that designers and design decision makers should understand people’s needs holistically to ensure that the user's comfort experience in relation to product use is considered.

On Including Design in a Cross-Disciplinary Innovation CourseToday, innovation is a key word for many universities, as it constitutes an importantpart of most universities’ public and scientific interaction with society. Manyuniversities are striving to increase the frequency of innovations spun out. It iscommonly held that are sprung from research projects and researchers. However,several studies indicate that under-graduate or graduate students emanating fromproduct or market opportunities also generate innovations.Undergraduate or graduate courses that mix students with different academicbackgrounds allowing them to freely synthesize their domain specific knowledge innew contexts, are rare. By combining design, business and engineering students in aninnovation course, and by letting the students apply their knowledge to current marketneeds, innovators can be fostered, innovations generated and entrepreneurs born.Furthermore, mixing cultures and mindsets may stimulate creativity, leading to noveland unexpected ideas.This paper describes the execution and outcome of a new graduate course ininnovation. The course is international and multi-disciplinary in terms of students,teachers and subjects. It was developed in spring 2012 and has since then been giventhree times on a yearly basis. The duration of the course is six (6) weeks and held inChina, with Swedish and Chinese students collaborating in multidisciplinary teams. The mix of design, business and engineering students is a powerful combination sinceknowledge in these three disciplines mirrors the three central characteristics of asuccessful innovation – feasibility, viability and desirability. While engineeringstudents know if and how a technical innovation can be brought into reality(feasibility), management students can determine the market and financial aspects ofbringing an innovation to the market (viability), and design students can make surethe innovation is experienced and presented in an attractive way (desirability). If theinnovation is not desirable, it does not matter if it is desirable and viable – it will notmake a success on the market. Consequently, the role of the design students in thecourse is fundamental. The course offers the opportunity to integrate design thinkingand making in a truly multidisciplinary and multicultural setting – a place is eightinnovations, one per design team, manifested in eight prototypes, eight short moviesand eight business plans.The effects of the course are analyzed 2 ways. Firstly using Pertex analysis andsecondly a frequency-analysis of (the Swedish) students’ career choice: employmentor entrepreneurship. The Pertex analysis reveals a nuanced picture of the meaning andutility of the course. The means of the course for all but one group is: cooperation,teamwork, mixing of cultural backgrounds and educational background. Thefrequency of entrepreneurship when comparing the 3 classes of students taking thecourse with the prior 14 classes not taking the course reveals that before ≤1 of 40chose entrepreneurship, while in the three classes taking the course 1-4 out of 40chose entrepreneurship, an increase of 300-500%.

The increase in competition amongst companies that produce complex or large product portfolios has created a need to utilise modularity strategies not only to flexibly manage technical complexity i ...