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Download fileIs the industrial designer's changing role improving their opportunities for responsible design practices?
conference contribution
posted on 2013-09-17, 11:33 authored by Vicky LofthouseVicky Lofthouse, Norman StevensonPast research has indicated that if designers could gain involvement at a strategic level,
they would have greater potential to have a positive impact on the sustainability agenda. In recent
years, changes to the way that consultant designers are interacting with their clients, means that a
contribution to strategic decision making is now a possibility for many established consultancies.
This paper reflects on whether these changes in the industrial designer’s role are improving their
opportunities to incorporate practices such as ecodesign, sustainable design and universal design
into their work. Founded on empirical research collected from consultancies in the UK and
Ireland, the paper reflects on the nature of the opportunity that this shift in role has provided, and
whether it is the opportunity that was anticipated. It concludes that despite increased influences in
strategic decision making, the opportunities afforded industrial designers are less significant than
anticipated as ultimately there are still a range of factors which restrict them from becoming reality;
for example, client companies’ receptiveness to responsible issues, and the designer’s ability to
offer a persuasive case to decision makers.
History
School
- Design
Citation
LOFTHOUSE, V.A. and STEVENSON, N., 2013. Is the industrial designer's changing role improving their opportunities for responsible design practices? Presented at: The 5th International Congress of International Association of Societies of Design Research, IASDR 2013: Consilience and Innovation in Design, 26th-30th August 2013, Tokyo, Japan.Publisher
IASDRVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2013Notes
This is a conference paper.Language
- en