Design processes

• Models

• Strategies

• Design process modelling and management

• Innovation engineering

• Multi-, Cross- and Trans-disciplinary processes

• Industrial design

Design organisation and management

• Organisational understanding

• Workspaces for design

• Market and business implications

• Management of innovation and complexity

• Assessment and management of risk and uncertainty

• Social responsibility and ethics of designing

Design research applications and case studies

• Design practice

• Industry case studies

• Transfer of design research methods into industry

• Applications to complex engineered systems

• Applications of design research across industry domains

Product, services and systems design

• Product and system modelling

• Structural complexity

• Product architectures, platform design, modularisation and product family design

• Product-service systems (PSS)

• Design and optimisation of organisational processes

• Systems engineering and design

• Designing large-scale engineering systems (e.g. healthcare, policy, infrastructure, energy systems)

Design methods and tools

• Design tactics and methods

• Requirements elicitation and management

• User orientation, user integration

• Evaluation and decision-making

• Modelling and simulation methods

• Virtual product development

• Usage and integration of supportive technologies

• Bio-inspired design

• Computational design methods and tools (e.g. design automation, representation, optimisation, evaluation and integration)

• Designing under uncertainty, Robust Design

Design for X, design to X

• Design for lifecycle (DfX) – manufacturing, additive manufacturing, use of new technologies, assembly, testing, use, recycling, etc.

• Design to properties (DtX) – cost, time, quality, flexibility, safety, etc.

• Ecodesign

• Sustainability (e.g. circular economy, social innovation)

• Designing for digitised engineering value chains (e.g. big data, integrated lifecycle data models, internet of things, sensor technologies)

Design information and knowledge

• Knowledge-intensive design

• Information and knowledge management

• Design knowledge and collaboration

• Representation of design information and knowledge

Design theory and research methodology

• Design theories and approaches

• Design research methodologies and methods

• Experiments in design

• Evaluation of theories, approaches and methods

Human behaviour in design

• Designers’ thinking, motivations and skills

• Design cognition

• Creativity and innovative thinking

• Teamwork in design

• Collaborative and participatory design

• Communication in design

• Design for emotion and experience

Design education

• Teaching examples and experiments

• Academic education experiences, plans and visions

• Industry training in design

• Life-long learning in design