Integration of New Dimensions in Design Process

Clarifying the integration phenomenon applied to the industrial world is the aim of this article. Three attempts of integration of the environmental dimension in product design are analysed. The first one rests on an instrumental change (the addition of a specialized evaluation tool for the environmental actor). The second attempt concerns an organizational and methodological change (the integration of an ecodesign method shared by the design team). The last one deals with a change of governing values and learning schemes to be created within a company (a support for a learning organization).The confrontation of these three attempts allows us to present a “complete” integration process of a new dimension in the design process. This approach (to be experimented) might serve as a guide to integrate other dimensions (ergonomics or aesthetics), new tools or methods (functional analysis, TRIZ method, trends analysis) or new materials or technologies (rapid prototyping, information technology).

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