Design International

Which are the main research funds currently accessed by the Department of Design? What are the topics explored through them and which are the interconnections with the Department core research activities? Also, what are the research products delivered, the reached outcomes, and the expected impacts BY these research projects? The book synthesises the results of a qualitative analysis conducted over 32 research projects coordinated or participated in by the researchers of the Department in the timeframe 2014-mid 2021. The results of the analysis confirm the high-level attractiveness of the Department research profile on core topics such as design methodology, service design, and health.

Artificial intelligence is more-or-less covertly entering our lives and houses, embedded into products and services that are acquiring novel roles and agency on users. The design discipline and the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field are just beginning to explore the wicked relationship between Design and AI, looking for a definition of its borders, still blurred and ever changing. The book approaches this issue from a human-centered standpoint, proposing designerly reflections on AI-infused products. It addresses one main guiding question: what are the design implications of embedding intelligence into everyday objects?

The book tries to examine, from an historical and critical point of view, how media technologies have influenced inhabited interiors during the last sixty years. Although the title Smart Home, the research is not focused on strictly functional and technical aspects of domestic interiors design (i.e. domotics), but more broadly on how human behavioral aspects have modified (and could modify in the future) living spaces in relation to technologies evolutions.

The Fashion System is one of the most polluting and most impactful industries on the environment. In the last decade the fashion industry has changed its approach, aware of the fact that the attention to the environment can no longer be considered a trend. This path shows the need to intervene in design terms and that the growth in responsibility and role of design, requiring reference scenarios, knowledge and new tools. The book defines the features and scenarios of sustainable development, as well as the evolution of sustainability in research and practice of fashion design, addressing the strategies for the design and development of environmentally sustainable products.