As we become familiar with the 21st century we can see that what we are designing is changing, new technologies support the creation of new forms of product and service, and new pressures on business and society demand the design of solutions to increasingly complex problems, sometimes local, often global in nature. Customers, users and stakeholders are no longer passive recipients of design, expectations are higher, and increased participation is often essential.

Volume 1 explores these issues through the work of 21 research teams. Over a twelve-month period each of these groups held a series of workshops and events to examine different facets of future design activity as part of the UK's research council supported Designing for the 21st Century Research Initiative. Each of these 21 contributions describes the context of enquiry, the journey taken by the research team and key insights generated through discourse. Editor and Initiative Director, Tom Inns, provides an introductory chapter that suggests ways that the reader might navigate these different viewpoints.

Volume 2 from the Designing for the 21st Century team is to capture a sense of the many ways design thinking has been applied to a broad range of issues. Each chapter describes the context for project work and the main research questions, which framed each project. A great opportunity exists to communicate the actual research methods that have been used, many of these involve an interdisciplinary approach and clear descriptions provide a great repository of knowledge for future design researchers. Each chapter concludes with a review of the new knowledge and understanding generated through project work and a description of potential beneficiaries.

Whereas the phase-one projects focused on in the original volume covered interdisciplinary discussion and network building, phase-two projects have engaged in interdisciplinary research experimenting with a variety of methods and techniques to develop new knowledge and understanding for different stakeholders.

Contents: Volume 1: Preface; Introduction, Tom Inns; Ideal states – engaging patients in healthcare pathways through design methodologies, Alastair S Macdonald; The healing environment, Jacques Mizan; Designing healthy and inclusive public outdoor spaces for young people, Lamine Mahdoubi; The view of the child – explorations of the visual culture of the made environment, Catherine Burke, Claire Gallagher, Jon Prosser and Judy Torrington; Orientating the future – design strategies for non-place, Richard Coyne and James Stewart; Screens and the social landscape – digital design, representation, communication and interaction, Carey Jewitt, Teal Triggs and Gunther Kress; Technology and social action, Steve Walker and Andy Dearden; Win-win-win-win – synergy tools for metadesigners, John Wood; Embracing complexity in design, Jeffrey Johnson, et al; Emergent objects – design and performance research cluster, Alice Bayliss and Joslin McKinney; Designing physical artefacts from computational simulations and building computational simulations of physical systems, Mark d'Inverno and Jane Prophet; Understanding and supporting group creativity within design, Hilary Johnson, Peter Johnson and Tim Coughlan; Nature inspired creative design – bringing together ideas from nature, computer science, engineering, art and design, Thorsten Schnier, Russell Beale, Xin Yao, Bob Hendley and Will Byrne; Spatial imagination in design, Jane Rendell and Peg Rawes; Spatiality in design, John Stell, Lynne Cameron and Kenneth G Hay; Discovery in design – people-centred computational issues, Ian Parmee, Lisa Hall, John Miles, Jan Noyes, Christopher Simons and David Smith; Design imaging, Gordon M Mair and Kevin Miller; Sensory design and its implications for food design and presentation, Brent Richards; The emotional wardrobe, Sharon Baurley and Lisa Stead; Interrogating fashion – practice process and presention – new paradigms for fashion design in the 21st century, Sandy Black; Design performance, Jillian MacBryde and James Moultrie; Index.

Volume 2: Introduction, Tom Inns; Design scoreboard: development of an approach to comparing international design capabilities, Dr James Moultrie and Finbarr Livesey; 2020 vision – the UK design industry ten years on: implications for design businesses of the future, Prof. Alex Williams, Prof. Rachel Cooper, Martyn Evans and Dr Qian Sun; Designing for services in science and technology-based enterprises, Lucy Kimbell; Considerate design for personalised fashion, Prof. Sandy Black, Dr Claudia Eckert, Philip Delamore, Dr Frances Geesin, Steven Harkin, Dr Penelope Watkins and Fatemeh Eskandarypur; Embracing complexity in design: emerging perspectives and opportunities, Dr Katerina Alexiou, Prof. Jeffrey Johnson and Dr Theodore Zamenopoulos; Metadesign: the design practice that designs itself, Prof John Wood; emergent objects: performance and interdisciplinary design at the human/technological interface, Dr Joslin McKinney, Alice Bayliss, Dr Sita Popat and Prof. Mick Wallis; Democratising technology: a method, Dr Ann Light; Branded meeting places: ubiquitous technologies and the design of places for meaningful human encounter, Prof. Richard Coyne, Dr James Stewart, Dr Mark Wright, Henrik Ekeus, Prof. Robin Williams and Dr Penny Travlou; My exhibition: personalising unencumbered multimedia content in a museum environment, Prof. Chris Rust, Prof. Alison McKay, Dr Mark Bylthe, Prof. Peter Wright and Jeff Baggot; Design and physicality - towards an understanding of physicality in design and use, Prof. Alan Dix, Dr Steve Gill, Dr Devina Ramduny-Ellis and Jo Hare; Making sense of the city: representing the multi-modality of urban space, Dr Raymond Lucas, Gordon Mair and Dr Ombretta Romice; Welcoming workplace: rapid design intervention to determine the office environment needs of older knowledge workers, Prof. Jeremy Myerson and Jo-Anne Bichard; Realising participatory design with children and young people: a case study of design and refurbishment in schools, Prof. Andrée Woodcock, Dr Peter Kraftl, DrJohn Horton, Dr Peter Adey, Matthew Kinross, Michelle Newman and Dr Olga den Besten; Bike Off 2 – catalysing anti-theft bike, bike parking and information design for the 21st century: an open innovation research approach, Adam Thorpe, Prof. Lorraine Gamman, Prof. Paul Ekblom, Shane Johnson and Aiden Sidebottom; Inclusive new media design: the place of accessibility guidelines in the work of web designers, Dr Helen Kennedy, Siobhán Thomas and Simon Evans; Practical design for social action, Dr Andy Dearden, Dr Ann Light, Wendy Olphert, Leonie Ramondt and Steve Walker; People-centred computational environments for design discovery: establishing a fully integrated framework, Prof. Ian Parmee, Dr Azahar Machwe, Dr Damien Williams, Prof. Jan Noyes, Prof. Lisa Hall, Prof. John Miles, Chris Simons and Prof. David Smith; Design synthesis and shape generation, Prof. Alison McKay, Dr Scott Chase, Dr Steven Garner, Dr Iestyn Jowers, Dr Miquel Prats, Prof. David Hogg, Dr Hau Hing Chau, Prof. Alan de Pennington, Prof. Christopher Earl and Dr Sungwoo Lim; Stress computation, visualisation and measurement in: 1. design of minimum energy forms of fabric enclosures and 2. painting conservation and novel artist materials, Prof. Wanda J. Lewis and John S. Brew; Index.

About the Editor: Professor Tom Inns is Director of the AHRC/EPSRC Designing for the 21st Century Research Initiative. He is Chair of Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee. He was formerly Director of the Design Research Centre, Brunel University, UK.

Extracts from this title are available to view:

Full contents list from Volume 1

Preface from Volume 1

Introduction from Volume 1

Full contents list from Volume 2

Preface from Volume 2

Introduction from Volume 2

Chapter 2 from Volume 2: 2020 vision - the UK design industry ten years on: implications for design businesses of the future