Paul Rodgers

University of Strathclyde · Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management

This paper reports on the author’s ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC) Design Research Fellowship that aims to explore how design can contribute to the design and development of a range of enhanced products, services, and systems for people living with dementia. The fellowship, undertaken in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland,...

This paper describes the perceptions and views of creativity amongst a selection of UK-based design tutors. The paper presents the findings of research that has questioned a total of 16 design tutors in architecture and industrial design in a leading UK university that specialises in design education. The researchers adopted a semi-structured inter...

This paper describes the author’s ongoing collaborative work with Alzheimer Scotland that seeks to explore how design thinking and action might best contribute to the design and development of a range of products, services, and systems for people living with dementia. The paper focuses on one of three recently completed collaborative design project...

This project was undertaken as part of the author’s larger Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded Design Research Fellowship that aimed to explore how design can contribute to the design and development of a range of enhanced products, services, and systems for people living with dementia. The fellowship, undertaken in collaboration wit...

The breadth of topics covered at this Symposium is proof, if proof were needed, of the enormous value of design research. In areas that range from the future of urban living to justice systems and neuroscience, design research is providing the frameworks and methodologies to answer questions which span disciplinary and conceptual boundaries; in an...

Malgré les reprises et les réinterprétations régulières du titre de la conférence de Cedric Price en 1966, « Technology is the question, but what was the question ?», on cite rarement la dernière diapositive de son intervention, où il fait allusion à un début de solution du problème en déclarant : « L’utilité de cette architecture est de rappeler à...

This book presents the latest research that shows how design thinking, making, and acting contributes to the co-design and development of products, spaces, and services with people living with dementia. We know that there is currently no cure for the 130+ kinds of dementia that millions of people live with all over the world, but the designed inte...

We, the authors, have been probing the state of the gesture of care for nearly a decade, and we staged our first international symposium to begin a process of re-formulating the conceptual basis of Care from the point of view of design in Copenhagen in 2015. A few years and events later the first “Does Design Care…?” workshop at Imagination Lancast...

There has been an increasing interest in intergenerational activities where young people and older adults work together in the exchange of knowledge, new ideas, methodologies and ways of thinking. With the leading international climate change conference in Glasgow in Nov. 2021, this paper presents an intergenerational co-design COP26 project where...

Dementia is the umbrella term for a range of brain diseases that are progressive and chronic in their nature. Symptoms include deterioration in cognitive function, behavioural changes and functional limitations. The illness has a profound impact on society and those directly affected by the illness. Globally there are an estimated 44.4 million peop...

Dementia strips people of the unique attributes that form a person’s identity, but it is suggested that how we relate to the world emotionally is one of the last things to escape us (Evans, 2001). Therefore, it is imperative to work within models of care that recognise and engage with how people living with dementia feel about things they are engag...

This paper explores how co-design approaches contribute to support, learning and work opportunities for young people who are socially and economically disadvantaged because of where they live in the UK. The paper presents a project in which an arts organisation, design researcher and young people living in three rural areas in the North West of Eng...

Design, in terms of its industry, its educational institutions, and its research power, is a central pillar of the UK’s social, economic, and cultural fabric. The design sector (encompassing digital, graphic, product and fashion design) was directly responsible for an estimated £3.949 bn of Gross Value Added (GVA) in 2017 - an increase of 7.7 per c...

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in intergenerational activities that explore positive outcomes that come from children and older adults working together. Such activities often involve the exchange of knowledge or skillsets where an intergenerational pair can build new concepts, methodologies or ways of thinking. While project...

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is widely acknowledged as a land-mark document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives from all over the world, the declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard for al...

Care practice often relates to provoking an emotional or affective response from users, satisfying emotional needs and thus encouraging care for the product. Care practice in the process of promoting feelings of responsibility and commitment towards products, services and the environment to users also encourages sustainable behaviour. However, ther...

As design practitioners researchers and educators, we constantly find ourselves shuffled between humanities and sciences. In fact, the design departments in the universities around the globe are located within the faculties of engineering, architecture, visual art, liberal are or environmental sciences, thus becoming a meeting point for academics a...

Theories normally seek to explain something. 118 Theories of Design[ing] asks us to question those explanations. By focusing on a broad range of somewhat overlooked and undervalued essays, papers, book articles, words, terms, authors and phenomena that swirl around design[ing], the reader is encouraged to read, reflect and question everything. This...

This book offers a broad and comprehensive introduction to the field of product design and the key role of product designers. Covering a wide range of the activities involved in the creation of a new product –from concept design to manufacture, prototyping to marketing- this book also explores the diverse nature of product design, including new and...

This report documents the work undertaken as part of my Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Design Leadership Fellowship between January 2017 and December 2019. Over the course of 36 months, I have conducted a series of events and activities aimed at enhancing the design research community across the UK. This work has included organising an...

This paper presents a chronological account of design's response to the Covid-19 crisis as it unfolded globally. From January to May 2020, we documented over 500 design interventions that have been created by individuals, networks, amateurs, professionals, and public and private organizations and institutions. This international response witnessed...

The Covid-19 crisis and the designed interventions we have catalogued in this book appear to prove definitively that design does care. We have documented this as it evolved every day from the 1 January 2020 to 31 May 2020 inclusive. As the cover and back cover, influenced by the work of Sean Clarke, Antonio Voce, Pablo Gutierrez and Frank Hulley-Jo...

This paper examines different types of value created by design research in the UK. Given the significant economic, social and environmental challenges we currently face, funding bodies and governments are increasingly concerned with assessing the value and impact of design research. The value generated by design research is not always clearly artic...

This paper reports on the authors’ Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded work that is developing and implementing innovative design interventions that encourage people living with dementia to remain creatively active, promote dignity, and encourage independence. This work examines how the integrative, inclusive, and collaborative actio...

The UK has an ageing population where there are now more people aged over 65 than those under the age of 16. The impact of this creates increased pressures on the National Health Service (NHS), and on local and regional health and social care services. Key concerns in regards to this aging population include the prevalence of the five most common c...

In 2017, the first Does Design Care...? workshop at Imagination Lancaster asked a series of question that were eventually addressed in both the publication of "The Lancaster Care Charter" (Design Issues 35:1 2019) and the DDC…? Book. Similarly, in 2019 the second Does Design Care…? workshop in Chiba, Japan, asked more questions but this time the qu...

The projects illustrate the wide-ranging social, cultural, and economic impact and highlight the signs cant roles that UK- based Design researchers play in some of the most complex and challenging issues we face both in the UK and globally and the positive outcomes that are being designed and developed. ‘KraalD’ activism continues to nurture a comp...

This illustrated A to Z for the Design of Care book was written collaboratively by nearly 50 design researchers and practitioners during the Does Design Care…? [2] workshop held at Chiba University, Japan, 1–3 July 2019. This workshop extended the explorations of design thought and action of the first Does Design Care…? workshop held at Imaginatio...

This paper reports on the evolving landscape of design research in the UK over the last 12 years. Through a rigorous analysis of a sample of 379 design research projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), this paper presents a detailed account of the evolution of AHRC-funded design research and how various factors – such as...

Design Research for Change 2019 is a showcase of over 60 design-led projects that transcend disciplinary, methodological, geographical, and conceptual boundaries. The projects illustrate wide- ranging social, cultural, and economic impact and highlight the significant roles that UK- based Design researchers play in some of the most complex and chal...

Design Research for Change 2019 is a showcase of over 60 design-led projects that transcend disciplinary, methodological, geographical, and conceptual boundaries. The projects illustrate wide-ranging social, cultural, and economic impact and highlight the significant roles that UK-based Design researchers play in some of the most complex and challe...

This paper presents ongoing research that adopts an open and truly collaborative approach to working with people living with dementia by recognising and utilising the inherent personal creative abilities that every individual possesses-no matter their cognitive ability. The research project entitled "Designed with Me", via a series of carefully dev...

This paper explores the opportunities, challenges and needs of the next generation of design researchers (NGDRs) in the United Kingdom. As part of the first author’s ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Design Leadership Fellowship, the paper reports on a series of ten NGDR workshops held across the UK, which explored the processes i...

This paper presents a novel conceptual framework for assessing design research projects. Present-day design research is typified by projects, which traverse disciplinary, methodological, and conceptual boundaries that often have wide-ranging social, cultural, and economic impact to industry, government bodies, and the wider public. Given design’s a...

To stay within the planetary boundaries, we have to take responsibility, and this includes designers. This requires new perspectives on design. In this work, we focus on a co-design project with indigenous communities. Within such communities, indigenous knowledge is central. Indigenous knowledge acknowledges that the world is alive and that we, as...

This paper presents on-going research that adopts an open and truly collaborative approach to working with people living with dementia by recognising and utilising the inherent personal creative abilities that every individual possesses - no matter their cognitive ability. The research project entitled “Designed with Me”, via a series of carefully...

This paper presents ongoing research from the first of a series of projects examining how collaborative design approaches can raise aspirations and increase opportunities for people throughout the North West of England, in support of the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy. The paper presents a case study where design practitioners and youth worker...

In the fall of 1991 the Munich Design Charter was published in Design Issues. This charter was written as a design-led "call to arms" on the future nations and boundaries of Europe. The signatories of the Munich Design Charter saw the problem of Europe, at that time, as fundamentally a problem of form that should draw on the creativity and expertis...

To stay within the planetary boundaries, we have to take responsibility, and this includes designers. This requires new perspectives on design. In this work, we focus on a co-design project with indigenous communities. Within such communities, indigenous knowledge is central. Indigenous knowledge acknowledges that the world is alive and that we, as...

The paper is the story of building a design research group from scratch. As there has been some recent interest in design research as a team-based activity, this article illustrates how we built the Imagination research team and how it continues to develop. This article gives us the chance to reflect on how far we have come in the last decade. Onc...

Design Research for Change is a showcase of 67 Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded Design research projects. The showcase illustrates the breadth and depth of Design research in the UK and celebrates the amazing work of talented researchers working on complex challenges. The Design Research for Change Showcase is one part of a much l...

The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research, celebrating the plurality of design research and the wide range of conceptual, methodological, technological and theoretical approaches evident in contemporary design research. This volume comprises 39 original and high quality design research chapter...

This paper presents an ongoing research project situated within the investigative context of design and dementia. The work adopts an open approach to working with people living with dementia by recognising and utilising the inherent personal creative abilities that every individual possesses no matter their cognitive ability. Through a series of ca...

As design practitioners researchers and educators, we constantly find ourselves shuffled between humanities and sciences. In fact, the design departments in the universities around the globe are sometimes placed under the formers, sometimes under the latters, thus becoming a meeting point for academics and professionals coming from both realms. The...

This paper examines the current landscape of design research in the United Kingdom (UK) with a particular focus on UK research councils’ funded projects that aim to make a positive change to society. In recent years, design research in the UK has grown massively in terms of the number of students studying for a postgraduate degree (Masters and PhD)...

Is design the best tool available to us to make sense of the contemporary, complex modern world? If so, how might a design school best prepare future designers for this world? This publication records the proceedings of three research summits on the future of the design school. Funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and in partners...

In an era of digital production and disruption this chapter probes how design might now best labour under a philosophy of nothing. Nothing is a pronoun for something and nothing is now the derivative project for design. As such design requires a new form of inquiry to produce new insights and a new working philosophy from the design of nothing. Des...

This paper presents ongoing research that highlights how design thinking and acting can contribute significantly to breaking down preconceived ideas about what people living with dementia are capable of doing. The research, undertaken in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland and other dementia organisations across the UK, has adopted a range of dis...

In their previous work, the authors have demonstrated that the discipline of design has been superseded by a condition where conventionally set design disciplines have dissolved.[1][2][3] In this age where design is typified by fluid, evolving patterns of practice that regularly traverse, transcend and transfigure historical disciplinary and concep...

Care, like design, is both a noun and a verb. As a noun, care is defined as the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, or protection of someone or something (e.g. care of the elderly, taking care of business). In this usage, care is concerned with giving serious attention or consideration to doing something correctly o...

This paper presents a critical examination of the current state of design by exploring a number of paradoxes – sustaining the unsustainable, disciplining the undisciplined, reconciling future visions with harsh realities, and others. We suggest that whilst design researchers have been probing design, it is highly likely design might never have been...

The recent growth of festivals, media, and events associated the design industry has had a major impact on the way we conceive, produce, distribute and consume design. This is reflected in the way designers now work, which includes preparing photo-shoots, organizing exhibitions, and creating and disseminating press release materials. Similarly, the...

This paper reports on the experiences gathered from an international collaborative workshop where participants were invited to continuously build and prototype their ideas, rather than following conventional stages such as idea generation, visualization and, only later, prototyping. Adopting a hands-on approach proved beneficial in the communicatio...

This paper reports on the first author’s ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded PhD research exploring the potential for disruptive design interventions within the context of health and social care. This paper describes an ongoing project to map the services available to people with dementia and their carers, with a specific emp...

This paper explores the perceptions and views of creativity amongst UK-based architecture and product design tutors and design students. This study is an extension of the authors’ earlier work that examined a group of design tutors’ views on creativity in design in a UK university design education context. The authors adopted a semi-structured inte...

This paper reports on the first author's ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded PhD research exploring the potential for disruptive design interventions within the context of health and social care. This paper describes an ongoing project to map the services available to people with dementia and their carers, with a specific emp...

This paper presents research that illustrates how design thought and action has contributed to the co-design and development of a mass-produced product with people living with dementia. The research, undertaken in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland, has adopted a range of disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opin...

This paper describes an experiment that is part of a larger research project that compares the visual reasoning between groups of designers and non-designers. In particular, this experiment focuses on how designers’ processes of reasoning is characterized when they are given different levels of reduced information of an object in comparison to a gr...

This paper chronicles and reflects upon the experiences gathered from a design workshop conducted at Chiba University, with students from Chiba University, Köln International School of Design and with the support of Fujitsu. During the workshop, participants were invited to continuously build and prototype their ideas, rather than following the con...

This paper chronicles and reflects upon the experiences gathered from a design workshop conducted at Chiba University, with students from Chiba University, Köln International School of Design and with the support of Fujitsu. During the workshop, participants were invited to continuously build and prototype their ideas, rather than following the con...

This paper describes an experiment that is part of a larger research pro- ject that compares the visual reasoning between groups of designers and non-designers. In particular, this experiment focuses on how designers’ processes of reasoning is characterized when they are given different levels of reduced information of an object in comparison to a...

This paper explores the current situation of design research with a particular emphasis on how emerging forms of design research are framing and addressing contemporary global issues. The paper examines how design research can be a creative and transformative force in helping to shape our lives in more responsible, sustainable, and meaningful ways....