Who we are

The Design Society's "Who We Are" Ad-Hoc Committee was tasked to define who the Design Society is in the eyes of its members. In July 2019 this was accepted with amendments by the Board of Management. 

The Design Society is an interdisciplinary community of academics and industry practitioners with the goal of developing and promoting a robust, usable and scalable means of designing complex solutions that a sustainable and globalised society needs to thrive, in the 21st century. We see the development of Design Science, through design research, design teaching and design practice, as the enabler for maturing novel technologies into innovative solutions, as well as a way to engage diverse people in articulating their needs and challenges and to participate and even lead the creation of appropriate solutions. Our aim is to develop the innovative means that support designers in their practice. At the same time, we support the exchange of best practices to improve the routine design and conduct research to develop and maintain solid theoretical foundations of design.

The members of the Design Society are proud of the tools and methods that they have developed and introduced to industry for the development of better solutions. To this end, we combine rigorous technical knowledge with insights from different disciplines, to address specific problems. Our research is anchored in a deep understanding of the specific properties of the solutions we are designing, yet it is generalisable. It takes a process centred view in responding to the challenges of design practice across the product life cycle and embraces technical as well as human-centred approaches in combination of design and engineering expertise of our members. Our teaching, whether to students or to practitioners, impacts current and future product and process development.

The Design Society fosters a culture that combines scientific rigour with impact in industry. While a large portion of our members have a background in mechanical engineering and product development, researchers and practitioners from other fields who share our passion for design are contributing increasingly to the diversity of our community. As a mainly academic community, we seek to increase our industrial membership and influence policy makers and wider society. We see the Design Society as a dynamic forum for exchange among different groups.

The collaboration between industry and academia is a key feature to the endeavours of the Design Society. From the academic perspective, the challenge lies in carrying out research that makes a contribution, both to industry and to knowledge in general. At the same time, the Design Society is a platform for industry to pose its challenges and learn from the latest research. The Design Society offers a place of dissemination and exchange through our owned and endorsed conferences and journals. It argues the case for design research to funding agencies and other academic disciplines.

[Created in Spring 2019, approved by BM with minor edtits in July 2019]