Our PhD programme currently has two students working on research areas that relate to emerging markets and design futures and show the relationship between Public Sector Innovation and Socially Responsible Design.

Applications to discuss PhD research with C4D should make contact in the first instance with Prof. Simon Bolton.

—Xin Liu (Gail)

Exploratory study of Product Design Methods for Innovation on Chinese Product Design Education.

China has a booming economy but an inadequate design infrastructure to serve it, especially in product design education. Previous practices and theory in Chinese product design are no longer adequate to serve the new circumstances of international economic development. Western design experience and Empathic Design Methodology may help China anticipate the new issues of product design. In Europe and USA, Empathic Design (as identified in, Leonard & Rayport, 1997) is a set of techniques, and a relatively new methodology, for understanding customer needs in product design that has been adopted widely by various disciplines and designers.

This PhD research will concentrate on the impact of Empathic Design Methodology for Innovation on Chinese Product Design Education. By focusing on customer understanding as a start point to enhance the Chinese Product Design Methodologies for innovation, the research will demonstrate how Empathic Design as a new discipline impacts on Chinese Product Design Education and fits into Chinese Product Design context. It can make an original contribution to Chinese Product Design Education rather than an imitation of the West. It will provide a strategy to show how Empathic Design tools can be developed in the Chinese undergraduate education model. Moreover, it will enhance and promote the development of Chinese Product Design Methodologies.

—Gabriel Patrocínio

National and Regional Design Policies: Strategic Planning and Assessment.

Public Design Policies – or how government sets principles to employ design to leverage social, economical, industrial, and regional development – is an emerging theme in the field of design. Two aspects contribute to this interest: the extraordinary growth rates of the creative industries in the past decades; and the ability of Design to be a link between technology, creativity and the user, being a potential unique tool to help innovate and foster growth in economies.

This PhD research was then structured to analyse current national and regional Design Policies within the framework of common aspects, best practices and trends; external factors influencing their implementation; general causes of failures; assessment methods; and the influence of coexisting design definitions and trends.

The focus is on the United Kingdom – main reference in the field – and Brazil, whose government is funding the research, considering also the latest advances in the field in other countries or regions. In this context the research aims to generate a rationale for planning and assessment of Design Policies based on a review of current best practices and identified future trends relevant to emerging markets. The main objective of the research is the identification and analysis of the constituent elements, driving forces, impacting factors, expected consequences, assessment methodologies and common failures of Design Policies. The expected outcomes, beyond the new knowledge and insights in the field, will be the development of strategic tools to assist in the planning and implementation and to do benchmarking and assessment of Design Policies.