Human-centred design of products and services for the circular economy – A Review

This paper aims to broaden the circular economy discussion by emphasizing the role of people. The paper combines core circular economy literature and user-centred design seed literature with illustrative case studies, to consider the positioning of design within a circular economy. The article observes that design is considered predominantly in positivist terms within a field dominated by management, engineering, ecological and environmental science literature. Conceptualizing the designer’s opportunity within the circular economy would benefit from integration of knowledge from the social sciences (sociology of consumption, consumer psychology, cultural studies, inter alia). The current orientation overlooks design as a ‘radical humanist’ paradigm and this has implications for how people are considered (from ‘users-as-subjects’ to ‘peopleas-participants’) raising ethical questions about design practice within divergent circular economy framings. The article lays a basis for further research and theory-building for a fuller conceptualization of the designer’s opportunity within the circular economy

Design as an agent for public policy innovation

Described as units developing public policies in a design-oriented manner, Policy Labs are tasked to innovate to gain in policy effectiveness and efficiency. However, as public policymaking is a context-dependent activity, the way in which these novel organisations operate significantly differs. This study discusses the emergence of design approaches for policy innovation. The purpose is to map how Policy Labs in Europe introduce design approaches at distinct stages of the policymaking cycle. For this study, 30 organisations in Europe operating at various levels of government were surveyed. Based on the public policymaking process model, it investigates which design methods are Policy Labs deploying to innovate public policies. The study exposed a gap in the awareness of the utilised methods' nature. It also showed that the use of design methods is of less importance than the introduction of design mindsets for public policy innovation, namely ‘user-centredness’, ‘co-creation’, and ‘exploration’.</div

Using design thinking to improve strategic decisions during collaborative sensemaking

Human cognitive limitations affect strategic decision-making. One of such effects is emergence of cognitive biases, deviations from rationality in judgment. These biases can negatively influence an organisation's capability to capture and utilize new ideas, thus inhibiting innovation. Researchers have documented different strategies for mitigating cognitive biases – and many of them overlap with the ones emphasised in design thinking. However, research so far does not offer any specific “recipes” for mitigation of cognitive biases. This paper links together research on challenges of strategic decision-making, cognitive biases and design thinking. The paper investigates the effects of applying design-thinking tool in collaborative sense-making stage, within a small business team, aiming to mitigate confirmation bias. The study indicated that newly introduced design-thinking tools did not have the expected positive influence on decision-making. The research contributes to the field by developing a new framework on how to identify and mitigate confirmation bias in strategic decision-making

Service Blueprint for Sustainable Business Model Evaluation

The adverse societal impacts caused by sharing mobility - a form of service-based sustainable business model innovations, showed that operation activities and managerial practices impact heavily on the sustainable value of a service offering. To identify how new service development (NSD) activities can better support the proposed service offering for sustainability, evaluating sustainability of service operations is needed. This study draws learnings from service design, product-service system and sustainable innovation research streams, to build sustainability evaluation framework into service blueprint. Six expert-interviews and two mobility case studies were developed, to illustrate service blueprint's capability in mapping sustainability input and benefits created during NSD and service operation activities. Results revealed a) the shift from using sustainable ‘value’ to ‘benefits’ concept in service operation evaluation, b) the public-private collaboration dilemma and c) the agile NSD and sustainable innovation incompatibility. This paper aims to offer a springboard for practitioners and researchers to uncover compelling insights, discuss latest service design developments, and envision future directions for integrating sustainability into service-based business model innovation.<br

Exploring articulations of design activism

Discussions on design activism generously embrace the activist ethos of designers, but are inconsistent in articulating how design activism makes a difference in relation to the various socially engaged design approaches generated. Committed to critically and transformationally engage with progressive socio-economic and political problems, the activist designer creates forms and situations within social processes. By mapping the fields of knowledge and concepts on which design activism draws, the paper attempts to bring an understanding of what informs Design Activism actions beyond the neoliberal paradigm. Drawing on the emerging discussions on design activism, the paper brings together articulations of design activism from scholars and design collectives to foreground the foundation for a more coherent understanding of design activism and a constructive dialogue within its community

Creating sustainable value through remanufacturing: Three industry cases

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Remanufacturing is proposed as a strategy to develop circular business models to manage resource loops in the future circular economy (CE). If remanufacturing is to occupy a central role in the CE it needs to be considered from a series of complementary and synchronous business activities. Thus, the aim of this article is to investigate how such an integrated perspective can drive sustainable value creation within the context of remanufacturing business models. This is explored through three business cases: Philips Healthcare Refurbished Systems, Siemens Wind Power, and Orangebox. This ‘integrated view’ considers remanufacturing activities according to: product design and development; remanufacturing processes; value chain design and management; and marketing and consumer/user relationship. The research question asks, ‘Can an integrated perspective drive sustainable value creation in remanufacturing contexts?’ To answer this, the research maps a set of triple-bottom-line indicators across the chosen cases. The work contributes to the field by mapping a set of business mechanisms (e.g. warranties, service approaches, partnerships) that can be utilised to co-develop necessary activities in unison for a successful remanufacturing approach. In certain cases, remanufacturing has the potential to add to the triple-bottom-line through such an integrated approach. However, each of the firms are investing in remanufacturing predominantly for profitability and market protection measures and therefore environmental and social components of the triple-bottom-line must be proactively considered

Sustainable product-service systems for an office furniture manufacturer: How insights from a pilot study can inform PSS design

his paper reports on a project in which service design principles and LCA are brought together to conceptualise sustainable PSS models for an office furniture design and manufacturing company. Lessons learned from a pilot study in which a take-back scheme is being retrospectively developed for a popular office chair are used to develop two theoretical models (a product-oriented PSS and a use-oriented PSS) for a new product being developed by the company in conjunction with a local ECO-WISE. The paper discusses how merging service design tools with LCA can inform the PSS design from economic, environmental and social perspectives

Sustainable product-service systems for an office furniture manufacturer: How insights from a pilot study can inform PSS design

his paper reports on a project in which service design principles and LCA are brought together to conceptualise sustainable PSS models for an office furniture design and manufacturing company. Lessons learned from a pilot study in which a take-back scheme is being retrospectively developed for a popular office chair are used to develop two theoretical models (a product-oriented PSS and a use-oriented PSS) for a new product being developed by the company in conjunction with a local ECO-WISE. The paper discusses how merging service design tools with LCA can inform the PSS design from economic, environmental and social perspectives

Design discourses of transformation

The aim of this article is to develop knowledge and understanding that supports critical conceptual interventions in design innovation theory and practice. Existing discourses of design are dissonant and paradoxical, for example positioning design as at once value-free and virtuous. We explain various instances of dissonance by establishing relationships between modes of design, design discourses, and knowledge systems. We map and interpret four design discourses, revealing the plural, dynamic, and mutable nature they share. Our understanding of design in the context of social transformation varies according to how we relate to knowledge systems, how these are produced through discourses, and how the two inform distinct modes of design. We argue that dominant discourses and entrenched knowledge systems must be consciously and actively upended. For this, we present a framework for transformative action to foster encounters across discourses and engender new critical expressions of and interventions in design theory and practice

Considering the user in the circular economy

This paper reflects on how much of the dialogue and literature regarding a move towards a circular economy tends to focus on production and that this language reflects a technological narrative around innovation for a future circular economy. The authors argue that there is a need for a more profound consideration of users in both the research activity and practical implementation of the circular economy, where the real needs, desires and values of the end user are incorporated from the outset, whether as part of research agendas, theories, frameworks or business models. The paper concludes by arguing that changing the way that the circular economy is framed so that it is more inclusive of the consumption side of the development process would open up greater opportunities for success