Can designers be proactively supported as from product specifications?

Abstract

During the design process, designers are concerned with two main types of issues - issues related to “what needs to be achieved” or “whats” and issues related to “how these needs will be met” or “hows”. A literature review carried out revealed that means which proactively make designers aware of artefact life-cycle consequences (LCCs) arising from both their “whats” and “hows” and which guide them on how to minimise or avoid any negative consequences, are lacking. This research thus contributes an approach framework to meet this aim. The approach framework developed is further implemented as a prototype computer-based tool and subsequently evaluated. Based on the feedback obtained from the evaluation, future research directions are also proposed.