The system around the product: methodologies and experiences focusing on material and immaterial aspects in design solutions

The design discipline has traditionally focused on products’ physical aspects, giving for granted that the context of services, infrastructures and technology will support the product life. A systemic perspective would revise such a focus, in order to project design competences over systemic aspects usually neglected by designers. This perspective shift is a challenge for designers, who have very efficient methods and tools to handle physical aspects of product design, but need to define an ‘operative paradigm’ to operate in a systemic context. An operative paradigm consists of a set of tools and methods to handle immaterial aspects such as time sequences, actors’ role and logical links in a product service system (PSS). Tools and methods can be borrowed from other disciplinary contexts, their relevance, though, derives from their adaptation to this specific study area: designing in a systemic context. This paper describes a curricular activity focused on the definition of methodologies for designing in a systemic context. using examples from students’ projects. For a semester students had to focus on a project of a PSS, borrowing and re-adapting methods from other disciplines with the purpose of developing their own project. By freely choosing and adapting such methods students defined their own operative paradigm for designing in a systemic context. The system around the product: shifting the focus from material to immaterial aspects of design solutions Nicola Morelli, PhD School of Architecture and Design Aalborg University, Aalborg Denmark