Intellect (UK) Design Discourse on Business and Industry: RE: Research, Volume 6

Just as the term design has been going through change, growth and expansion of meaning, and interpretation in practice and education – the same can be said for design research. The traditional boundaries of design are dissolving and connections are being established with other fields at an exponential rate. Based on the proceedings from the IASDR 2017 Conference, Re:Research is an edited collection that showcases a curated selection of 83 papers – just over half of the works presented at the conference. With topics ranging from the introduction of design in the primary education sector to designing information for Artificial Intelligence systems, this book collection demonstrates the diverse perspectives of design and design research. Divided into seven thematic volumes, this collection maps out where the field of design research is now. Interaction Between Client and Design Consultant: The Stance of Client to Design Consultant and Its Influence on Design Process Haebin Lee, Muhammad Tufail, Myungjin Kim, KwanMyung Kim Design is essential in product development but several small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) relatively capable of manufacturing are suffered from lack of in-house design ability. For new product design, these SMEs typically employ external designers. In this client–designer interaction, designers propose design solution alternatives to their clients, which clients may accept or reject. In some cases, clients provide designers further design requirements. A study on how interactions are performed and what effects these interactions have on the results of product development is essential to determine what is needed to achieve successful collaborative relationships. Thus, this study analyzed three design development cases that were previously performed to understand how interactions work between clients and designers and its effect on the outcomes. In all cases, the design team developed designs for the clients based on their technological requirements. This study focused on the effect of client stance on the process and deliverables. Clients usually take various actions that accept or reject design solutions or give additional demands. This is because clients take initiative in decision making. Clients’ stance was divided into receptive and expressive stances. As a result, a receptive stance ensured the design capabilities of design consultants, whereas expressive stance confined design capabilities to some extent but a new design direction may be proposed based on a client’s knowledge, information and judgment. Speed Dating with Design Thinking: An Empirical Study of Managers Solving Business Problems with Design Seda McKilligan, Tejas Dhadphale, David Ringholz The concept of design thinking has received increasing attention during recent years, particularly from managers around the world. However, despite being the subject of a vast number of articles and books stating its importance, the effectiveness of this approach is unclear, as the claims about the concept are not grounded on empirical studies or evaluations. In this study, we investigated the perceptions of six design thinking methods of 21 managers in the agriculture industry as they explored employee and business-related problems and solutions using these tools in a 6-hour workshop. The results from pre and post-survey responses suggest that the managers agreed on the value design thinking could bring to their own domains and were able to articulate on how they can use them in solving problems. We conclude by proposing directions for research to further explore adaptation of design thinking for the management practice context. Product Design Briefs as Knowledge-Based Artifacts of Cross-Functional Collaboration in New Product Development Ian Parkman Contemporary research in business strategy, new product development and design management has suggested that cross-functional collaboration within team-based environments is critical to successful product development processes. However, scholars have also demonstrated that the mere presence of inter-functional structures does not necessarily lead to better outcomes. Indeed, the very differences which cause cross-disciplinary teams to result in improved design processes may also lead to friction as team members’ backgrounds, orientations and training often cause them to have different perspectives on what information is important to the product design process and to solve development-related problems. Improved understanding how to integrate information from differing functional areas is a clear emphasis of research, yet very few empirical studies have precisely defined the units of knowledge flowing through NPD projects, differences in importance of information elements by functional area or the structures which may facilitate the sharing of information within NPD. This study presents an investigation of product design briefs as knowledge-based artifacts of cross-functional coll