As the COVID‐19 pandemic spread across the globe in the first quarter of 2020, demand for specialised equipment in hospitals soared. As a result, firms from a variety of sectors repurposed their design and manufacturing to create new products in days. By examining 80 cases of this accelerated innovation, the research investigates how a shared purpose drives change in the innovation process. It applies the lens of exaptation – the discovery of unintended functions for technologies – to explain how product complexity and ecosystem structure affect accelerated innovation in this context. The research extends the application of exaption to manufacturing as well as product design; it identifies a relationship between complexity, exaptation and ecosystems. The research suggests that the ability to exapt design and manufacturing can determine a firm’s ecosystem role. These results lead to implications for theory and for practice, during the response to and recovery from the crisis.

Sustainability encompasses social, economic and environmental issues with the primary aim to fulfil the needs of the present society without compromising the potential needs of future generations. Product design has been identified to greatly influence the sustainability of New Product Development. This study aims to identify and review the fundamental factors in which product design has the ability to influence and improve the overall environmental sustainability of a product. A comprehensive literature review has been performed to establish trends over the past four decades. The factors that have significant potential, such as the 6Rs, waste and energy, which aid designers in the implementation of environmental sustainability during the product design process have been identified and discussed. Through this analysis, a new conceptual framework has been conceived, facilitating designers in implementing environmental sustainability during product development. In addition, future research opportunities have been identified.

With environment becoming deteriorated, packaging industry is expected to take the circular economy (CE) approach through packaging design which is estimated to effect up to 80% of environmental sustainability impacts. This research aims to investigate the practical design guidance and considerations throughout the design process for developing CE-oriented packaging design solutions. Qualitative methods including interviews, workshops and secondary data were adopted to explore the circular packaging design practices which have been proven effective from 9 internationally leading firms. A ‘Design for Circular Packaging (DfCP)’ framework for packaging industry has been developed to guide firms and designers to create effective circular packaging design solutions. Major considerations in the CE packaging concepts, material selection, design process and manufacture are also addressed.

This paper aims to explore the mechanism of involving customers as designers and decision-makers in developing new product. This study describes results from in-depth case studies with three companies: Tokyoflash, Threadless, and LEGO. These firms are pioneers in enabling customers to engage in product design and development as both designers and decision-makers. This study is based on detailed in-depth interviews with senior managers within these firms, as well as interviews with participating customer-designers. A new Customer-Dominated Innovation Process is described, which highlights the critical role played by customer-designers and customer communities and challenges the role played by senior managers in traditional phase-review processes. In addition, the methods and key factors needed to enable this engagement are discussed. This new phenomenon challenges standard models of product development in which internal resources retain authority and expertise.

Loneliness and social isolation are prevalent concerns among older adults and can lead to negative health consequences and a reduced lifespan. New technologies are increasingly being developed to help address loneliness and social isolation in older adults, including monitoring systems, social networks, robots, companions, smart televisions, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications. This systematic review maps human-centered design (HCD) and user-centered design (UCD) approaches, human needs, and contextual factors considered in current technological interventions designed to address the problems of loneliness and social isolation in older adults. We conducted a scoping review and in-depth examination of 98 papers through a qualitative content analysis. We found 12 studies applying either an HCD or UCD approach and observed strengths in continuous user involvement and implementation in field studies but limitations in participant inclusion criteria and methodological reporting. We also observed the consideration of important human needs and contextual factors. However, more research is needed on stakeholder perspectives, the functioning of applications in different housing environments, as well as studies that include diverse socio-economic groups.

Objectives Loneliness is a public health issue impacting the health and well-being of older adults. This protocol focuses on understanding the psychological experiences of loneliness in later life to inform technology development as part of the ‘Design for health ageing: a smart system to detect loneliness in older people’ (DELONELINESS) study. Methods and analysis Data will be collected from semi-structured interviews with up to 60 people over the age of 65 on their experiences of loneliness and preferences for sensor-based technologies. The interviews will be audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using a thematic codebook approach on NVivo software. Ethics and dissemination This study has received ethical approval by Research Ethics Committee’s at King’s College London (reference number: LRS/DP-21/22-33376) and the University of Sussex (reference number: ER/JH878/1). All participants will be required to provide informed consent. Results will be used to inform technology development within the DELONELINESS study and will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications and conferences.