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Various forms of mediation are found to have effects on knowledge sharing and collaborative participation learning in the design processes of business. This chapter looks into the interrelationships between business process design, information system design, and the design of how learning and knowledge sharing are stimulated in organisations. By presenting the results of a comparative study that analysed how two firms employed co-design, the chapter illustrates how co-design practice cannot be separated from the learning process. The results of the study have enabled the identification of possible factors that affected the experiences of both firms. Also, it is suggested that infrastructure support for co-design activity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for producing strong learning effects.

This concluding chapter suggests future directions for the research and practice of cross-cultural technology in a glocalization age. Centering on a dialogical approach, it analyzes what the cross-cultural design community could learn from the user localization efforts to design for, invoke, nurture, encourage, support, and sustain culturally localized user experience —the consummate experience—for emerging technologies. It studies the characteristics and value as well as the role and functions of user localization in a technology’s whole design, production, and use cycle and discusses how to route those user efforts into the design process to better address user needs and expectations in this rising participatory culture. Real-world examples are supplemented to further the discussion beyond the case study when needed.

The managers of the Hospitals and Health Plan (H/HP) operation under Kaiser Permanente's Northern California Region gave much attention to issues regarding the changing market forces and increasing competition, and also to looking for new markets and meeting the needs of their customers. A new organizational design was required so that this new customer-focused approach could be implemented. David Pockell, then executive vice president and regional manager, suggested the need for freer cooperation and communication between departments to better fulfill functions. This chapter focuses on the case of the Northern California H/HP to point out various elements, such as interdependence, information flows, groupings, and linkages, that all proved to be integral elements in design. It attempts to illustrate a step-by-step process for determining the strategic design for organizational architecture, and also looks into the issue of who should be involved in this process.

This chapter describes the way that decisions were made about the sites where campus buildings and facilities were to be located and about how the design elements of the buildings and landscapes themselves were determined. It unpacks the project design process and its contribution to the goal of a sustainable campus. Project design took the stage after the large-scale campus planning framework was set by the Master Plan and Development Plan. As noted previously, the Master Plan set the general location and type of future projects and the Development Plan set their timing and sequence within overall campus development priorities. When the time came to design an individual building or facility and the necessary funds were allocated, then the project design process began.

This Part of the book critically evaluates the various mechanisms that are adopted in the different vertical and horizontal product sectors. The objective of this part is to analyse the following points. Firstly, to identify the purpose and nature of each technique. Secondly, to find out the situations in which each technique is used. Thirdly, to find out to whom are the obligations applied. Fourthly, to ask how effective each individual technique is in contributing to safety. The general categories of techniques that are examined here are: control of the design process; pre-marketing assessment requirements; control of the manufacturing environment and process; post-marketing requirements on producers, distributors, and the authorities; and the requirements of users. These mechanisms are ordered in this sequence to follow the chronological path in which products are designed, developed, and marketed.

Design thinking is needed to fashion physical objects such as pottery vases, clothing, or magazine covers, as well as intangibles such as Web pages, business services, or healthcare/wellness plans. Design thinking is tied to deeply understanding human needs, persistently reformulating the given problem, and continuously reconsidering the goals. Design processes often lead to multiple divergent solutions, seek input from stakeholders, and engage in spirited teamwork critiques. At some point, design team leaders acknowledge the limits of time and resources, forcing them to converge on a potential solution.

Chapter 1 tracks the design of the new computer music system in the computer music laboratory of the Institute. It presents the institutional setting of the Music LOGO project and tracks the early developments of the system carried out by the musician and the programmer. The design moves and transactions of the two developers are described in detail, focusing on their design conversations, the puzzles and problems they. Issues like the entry points to the music domain, the nature of the computer music interface, the making of new digital objects, multiple representations, and the design of a new computer music educational environment are dealt with.

In artistic perfumery, new perfumes are not based on last year’s top sellers, but on original, often unconventional ideas such as making a perfume that smells like melancholy. While this can sound promising to potential consumers, it poses a real challenge to the actors involved in the product development process: they need to organize their work in such a way that the immaterial, often deeply personal emotion can materialize into a concrete product. The chapter presents data from longitudinal, qualitative research on perfume making in artistic perfumery and outlines how the question of materializing the immaterial is approached by the creative director and two perfumers. Central to the chapter’s findings is a visual concept that serves as a material representation of the emotion. Throughout the process, it takes on different roles in response to the specific situational challenges (boundaries) and relationships in which it is embedded. Together, they define the relational movements that are necessary for the product’s becoming. The authors discuss insights and implications for understanding how materiality comes to matter in organization studies.

This chapter presents three very different partnership cases. The first focuses on partnerships among Rabobank, the second largest Dutch bank known for investments in food and agriculture worldwide, and two NGOs who worked with it to develop a climate-neutral credit card and to improve its investment portfolio’s carbon footprint. The second case addresses the collaborative design of a relicensing process for hydroelectric plants regulated by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). To improve the efficiency and equity of the relicensing process, FERC engaged in a collaborative governance process with stakeholders that produced new, widely legitimate relicensing procedures. The third reviews the IMF’s extended effort to build a partnership to address conflict over water contamination by a Peruvian gold mine. With many diverse local stakeholders and a resistant mining firm, this partnership struggled to achieve its goals. The case emphasizes the role of conveners, raising questions about partnering across power differences.

This book is about how the Oxford Scenario Planning Approach (OSPA) enables individuals and groups to better understand situations and develop new strategies. Chapter 1 outlines seven premises of the OSPA, and its three distinctive features: (1) learner-centric emphasis is key to impact; (2) it helps people to frame, reframe, and reperceive a situation; and (3) an approach to support strategy in contexts that exhibit turbulence, uncertainty, novelty, or ambiguity (TUNA) that balances competitive and collaborative strategic action. Reframing involves open systems thinking—not projections—and developing new, shared insights by contrasting alternative future contexts; reperception entails identifying new courses of action. Reframing and reperception are linked and enabled through immersive learning where actionable decision options are rehearsed. Using six cases, this book demonstrates the potential of learning with futures to create and prepare for new opportunities, rather than waiting to act until one knows more about the future.