Designers recognize the importance of human values in shaping user experience and meaning-making. While existing approaches acknowledge the role of values, they often lack a clear integration of empirical grounding, theoretical coherence and practical usability. This paper proposes a double triangulation design research methodology for developing value-oriented tools. Rather than treating triangulation solely as a validation technique, it is a generative research logic that integrates empirical data, theoretical perspectives and iterative design experimentation. The approach is demonstrated through the development of a design tool created to support designers in identifying, articulating and reflecting on human values throughout the design process. The study combines a literature review, a human values survey (n = 568, 69 nationalities), theoretical grounding in Dooyeweerd’s modal aspects and iterative tool development and evaluation. Empirical analysis produced alternative value structures, which were further refined through design experimentation and applied in a quasi-experimental study with design students. The results show that triangulation enables the coevolution of value frameworks and design artifacts, allowing abstract value concepts to be translated into actionable design resources. The main contribution demonstrates how triangulation can be used as a structuring logic in design research to develop evidence-based tools.

This paper explores how design fiction and generative AI (GAI) were used in a master’s course addressing food consumption issues. Data from two course iterations include student outputs, reflections, and prompt records. GAI expanded speculative exploration, supporting rich, detailed futures. Two approaches emerged, exploratory and goal-oriented, highlighting the value of prompt literacy, iteration, and critical curation to sustain creative control and adaptability.

This research describes a tool based on subjective well-being, value, and practical design. We present a Value-Driven Ladder Canvas and 78 Value Insight Cards to support SWB-oriented practice. Studies 1 and 2 focus on discovering insights based on the user’s product experience and converting them into toolkits. Study 3 evaluates and verifies toolkits with SUS, UEQ, PANAS, etc. This research highlights the connection between Needs and positive experiences, providing actionable guidance. Our findings demonstrate that Canvas and Insight cards are designed to improve SWB sufficiently to be useful.

Collaborative design futuring has gained attention as an inclusive approach for envisioning future societies where external stimuli play a crucial role in stimulating imagination. Building on literature on design stimuli, psychological distance, and co-design, we propose and evaluate a five-layer framework through a multiple-case analysis of fifteen workshops and exhibitions. Through comparative analysis of different workshops, we explored how stimulus characteristics, such as modality, richness, and scenario, influence participant engagement and perceived psychological distance.

The study examines integrating absolute sustainability, based on planetary boundaries, into product design and development. A review of current frameworks shows that they focus on relative sustainability and lack mechanisms to encourage innovation within ecological limits. Analysis of fourteen publications shows that a design support tool should facilitate early-stage decision-making, incorporate scientific thresholds and circular economy principles, align with the SDGs and provide guidance on product development to create sustainable and transformative product solutions.

This study identifies the challenges design educators face in understanding, using, and teaching design methods and derives features from these challenges for an enhanced methods repository to support design practice and pedagogy. Interviews with 21 educators yielded 14 distinct themes of challenges, based on which the following features are proposed: (a) detailed method information with context-based recommendations and teaching resources, (b) a platform to learn and practice with guidance, and (c) step-by-step walkthroughs with cross-disciplinary examples.

This paper reports iterative industrial prototyping of data collection systems for simulating seafood factories. We identify the data necessary to achieve the level of realism factory designers need for effective design exploration, and propose methods to obtain them. Sixteen physical prototypes showed how prototyping shape dynamic requirements in the design process. Findings indicate that models need 3D shape and texture, which can be obtained from smartphone photogrammetry, and bending stiffness and multidirectional friction from cantilever and inclined plane tests.

This paper presents the development and validation of a new information structure for design methods for an enhanced repository of design methods to support design practice and pedagogy. The structure is based on features derived from challenges faced by design students, practitioners, and educators in understanding, using, and teaching design methods, and it is experimentally validated. Results show 81.2% of participants had no difficulty in understanding and using design methods based on the proposed information structure. Participants reported 8 improvements in the structure.

Mixed Reality (MR) prototyping offers significant design opportunities but introduces complexity in prototype specification. This paper presents a card-based design tool to support designers in this specification process. The tool is based on a comprehensive taxonomy of MR prototype fidelity and foundational research into the interplay between, and value of, different physical and virtual characteristics. A validation study demonstrates that the developed tool supports and guides designer reasoning, resulting in higher quality MR prototypes with stronger rationale for their implementation.

Solar photovoltaic systems are a key renewable energy solution, but behavioural rebound effects offset their environmental potential. As Solar Home System adoption expands in low- to middle-income countries, understanding how contextual factors (e.g., social norms) shape these effects is crucial, yet research on this topic is scarce. Through a systematic literature review, this study identifies 15 contextual factors influencing behavioural rebound mechanisms (BRM). Findings are integrated into a design tool, helping developers analyse contexts, anticipate BRM, and apply prevention strategies.

This paper presents a pedagogical tool for the co-design of systemic and resilient Nature-based Solutions for carbon removal. Tested with nine participants, it significantly improved understanding of NbS dynamics. Wilcoxon tests showed higher scores for all thinking skills derived from Bloom’s taxonomy (p < 0.05), with notable gains for higher-order skills. Participants reported that the tool was intuitive and engaging, fostering collaborative learning. Results confirm its educational value and potential to engage creative and resilient NbS design.

Engineers simulate system behavior to support decisions in product engineering. Leveraging such engineering simulation data in strategic product planning can support idea generation and early evaluation of design alternatives and limitations. However, limited resources and expertise hinder broader uptake in strategic product planning. This paper investigates simulator integration into automated workflows and key processing components to enable simulation without in-depth expertise. This approach improves strategic product planning by creating data-based decision support.

Cradle to Cradle (C2C), as an eco-effective approach to the circular economy, helps mitigate the environmental impacts of the linear economy; however, its implementation in product development remains challenging. Due to limited prior reviews, this research investigates the implementation of C2C in product development. Through a systematic literature analysis, we identify key topics and challenges and examine how eco-efficiency and eco-effectiveness are addressed. Based on these findings, future research should develop a framework for implementing eco-effectiveness in product development.

The EU 2050 carbon neutrality target drives growing interest in renewable energy (RE) integration in building design, yet social housing organizations face difficulties integrating them early in design due to complexity and high upfront costs. This paper presents a three-step method based on the Set Based Design approach to define the design space using a morphological chart. This offers a robust and adaptable framework to formalize and structure domain-specific knowledge, clarifies design options, and supports informed decision-making for RE integration in social housing design.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) fix and connect electrical components and are widely used. Current design methods emphasise mature products and do not leverage the potential of PCBs as prototyping tools. Accordingly, an alternative approach using PCBs for prototyping electrical and mechatronic solutions is evaluated through three case studies. Insights formed five concrete recommendations for designers: Increase fidelity deliberately, design for prototyping, iterate incrementally, parallelise prototyping, and prototype and test early. These aim to make prototyping with PCBs more accessible.

This article explores how design tools can enhance shared understanding of problems within West African entrepreneurial ecosystems, where new product development occurs amidst resource scarcity and intense market opportunitiies. The findings emphasize that design tools serve as flexible cognitive intermediaries that promote collaboration, uncover underlying assumptions, and foster new perspectives for solution development. Their value emerges through a progressive translation process, where researchers reinterpret these tools to bridge the diverse object worlds of entrepreneurs.

Digital design tools are omnipresent today, but which is right for the job? This study reviews previous approaches to categorise design tools revealing a lack of comprehensive catalogues. Given this gap, a set of requirements, classification schema and prototype catalogue (IDEATE) were developed. A survey explored selection factors, format preferences and evaluated the prototype with IDEATE scoring 6.44/10 compared to 5.28/10 for a table format. This evidenced interest in mapping the ecosystem though future iterations should prioritise refined navigation and enhanced searchability of tools.

This paper presents the Systems Engineering Method Matrix (SEMM), a tool that links activities, methods, and artefacts to address gaps in existing method repositories. SEMM enables artefact-consistent process modelling and supports method selection, planning, and documentation in engineering projects. A case study in a project-based engineering design course demonstrates that SEMM enhances students’ conceptual understanding, broadens the range of methods, and provides instructors with a coherent framework for project planning.

VR sketching tools have matured to a practical level, enabling use across various 3D design disciplines. Studies into VR sketching in design report beneficial affordances but are based on brief testing of tools in simulated tasks. Consequently, there is a knowledge deficit in understanding how to effectively integrate VR sketching into design projects. We address this gap with a case study on the sustained use of VR sketching in 10 automotive concept design projects over 10 months. In analysing designers’ logbooks, which captured design development, and post-study reflections, we show how the affordances of VR sketching outlined in literature manifest in practice. Specifically, we show how and when designers can exploit the precedence of 3D geometry embodied in VR sketches to advance the design process in terms of several dimensions of design fidelity. We highlight where process advantages are realised through (1) increased spatial fidelity, reducing the time required to iterate 2D sketches, (2) operational fidelity supporting dynamic testing of concept functionality via animation and (3) environmental fidelity supporting contextualising components and storytelling. As such, our findings highlight how and when practitioners can realise the comparative benefits of VR sketching alongside traditional sketching and 3d modelling during the concept design process.

Freehand sketching meets a vital need in design for fluid, fast and flexible visual representations that designers build off of and learn from. Sketching more frequently during the design process correlates with positive design outcomes. Engineering designers receive minimal training on freehand sketching, and engineering students do not apply freehand sketching well during the design process. This study examines some of the underlying factors associated with using sketching more frequently. We examine how sketching skills, spatial visualization skills, sketching instruction and engineering design self-efficacy influence designers’ self-reported sketching behavior. We find that higher sketching skills are associated with using sketching in a variety of ways, and spatial visualization skills and design self-efficacy are associated with sketching more frequently. The relationships uncovered were emphasized by their longevity: spatial skills and sketching skills in students’ first semesters predicted sketching more frequently in a senior capstone design course. These long-lasting relationships suggest the need to invest in students’ spatial skills and sketching skills early in the degree program so that they can be leveraged for better design practice.