An integrated framework to support multidisciplinary design processes

The evolution from machines to systems and from objects to products has profoundly affected the meaning of the term “design” as the “role” of designers, and the new concept of industrial design&engineering, which combines the two more traditional fields of industrial design and engineering design, has taken place. While till now the shift and the extension of the industrial designer’s area of expertise has affected his typical activities usually in an unarranged manner, the research presented in this paper aims at defining the guidelines for developing an innovative framework to support the design process carried out by a new designer, based on a structured integration of knowledge and tools currently used by the two main areas of reference (industrial design and industrial engineering). The paper presents the guidelines for the innovative framework, the experimental activities to qualitatively test it and some important remarks on its use by designers, both students and professional ones.