Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the engine of economic growth and job creation. Governments have devoted considerable resources to increase their competitiveness in the market. Several design support programmes (DSPs) have emerged from this investment to promote design as a strategic resource for innovation and business growth. Although existing research indicates that an effective use of design can enhance the business performance, a lack of interest amongst SMEs to work with designers is cited in several studies. Despite the great amount of money, energy and time that has been spent on design support for SMEs, there is still a lack of knowledge about effective delivery and evaluation. This thesis focuses on the problem of finding better ways to assist SMEs with design for economic growth by evaluating the effectiveness of design support for SMEs. This research, therefore, has examined the activities of UK-based DSPs, investigated the expertise of design consultancies and inquired about the self-image of designers in order to expand the knowledge of design support for SMEs. The research applied an interpretive paradigm, where multiple realities are recognised as socially constructed. Data was gathered through interviews with individuals representing DSPs, SMEs, design consultancies and government support agencies assisting SMEs. Observation of business support events and publicly available documents were used as additional sources. A thematic analysis and a systematic metaphor analysis were employed to examine the resulting data. The research has highlighted a number of key issues that are pivotal to the success of design support for SMEs. This PhD research also proposes two explanatory frameworks to contribute to design theory and practice: a seven-step evaluation framework for planning and evaluating the outcomes of DSPs and a re-framing of the generalist-specialist dilemma that can inform the activities of design consultancies and DSPs and can guide designers to improve their expertise.

Cette thèse interroge le design depuis les pratiques de programmation en montrant qu'elles ne se réduisent pas à une industrie des programmes, qui empêche les inventions de naître tout à fait. Pour cela, elle confronte au sein d'une lecture non linéaire cinq moments de l'histoire du numérique (depuis Vannevar Bush en 1945, dont une traduction inédite est proposée en appendice, jusqu'aux usages contemporains du site web GitHub) à quatre formulations conceptuelles issues d'un corpus philosophique. Le choix d'auteurs qui n'ont pas directement voué leurs réflexions au design (comme Jacques Derrida, Hannah Arendt ou Walter Benjamin) permet de déconstruire un certain nombre de discours entourant la réception des technologies dites nouvelles. Critiquant nombre d'usages faits des notions de conception et de projet et s'appuyant finalement sur Gilbert Simondon, cette thèse s'intéresse à ce qui n'est pas prévisible dans les programmes. Elle soutient cinq axes ou directions pour une recherche dans le champ concerné: décentrer, authentifier, appareiller, traduire et désarticuler. La plausibilité de ces façons de faire du numérique, encore à l'état d'ébauche dans les productions contemporaines, peut intéresser les designers au-delà des spécialistes. Elle est avérée en fin d'ouvrage dans la description d'une fiction curatoriale. / This dissertation questions design through programming practices, showing how they cannot be summed up in program industries which prevent inventions from happening. To this end, it confronts, by a non-linear reading, five periods in the Digital History (since Vannevar Bush in 1945, including a new unpublished translation available as an appendix, to the contemporary use of the website GitHub) with four concepts extracted from a philosophical corpus. The choice of author who have not directly dedicated their writings to Design (such as Jacques Derrida, Hannah Arendt and Walter Benjamin) can deconstruct a number of discourses regarding the arrival of so-called new technologies. After redefining concept and project in design practices and project, and then supported by Gilbert Simondon, this dissertation focuses on what is not predictable in programs. It defends five lines or directions for researches in the relevant field: decentralize, certify, kit or translate and dislocate. The plausibility of these ways to make digital, still in draft form in contemporary productions, may interest designers beyond specialists. A demonstration is made at the end of the dissertation with the description of curatorial fiction.

The human body has been considered to be an active element and is a common starting point of fashion design processes. However, during these processes, understanding of the body and how it is used to design is often confined by the body’s standard spatial and structural characteristics. The research presented in this thesis aimed to examine body alternatives in fashion design processes in order to explore and open up for alternative body expressions for developing silhouettes for clothing.  Alternative aesthetic approaches and understandings of the body as a design tool were researched through experimental explorations, reflections, dialogue, and discussions. These created an embodied dialogue between thought and execution which was further developed and informed by the EDI (Embodied Design Ideation) framework for analysing and refining understandings of the interactions between the body, materials, and movement. These explorations and their outcomes bridge the theory of research for the art and research for art and design.   The explorations were based on the varied ways in which the body is perceived during body-material interactions, and were explored through movement, human-technology interfaces, and an exploratory workshop conducted at the Swedish School of Textiles. These explorations expanded our understanding of the body’s aesthetics in relation to material interactions and embodied experiences. The explorations questioned our preconceived conceptions of the body and facilitated a process of re-learning these through fashion design.  The results of the explorations were alternative methods and tools that use the body as a central variable in fashion design. The research culminated in the development of conceptions of the body in design processes that increase the design possibilities by introducing new concepts, tools, and methods. The body alternatives developed provide an openness in terms of design thinking and introduce conceptions of the body that can facilitate or improve design practice. The results have implications for design methods and contribute to methods in general and fashion design education programmes in terms of how they facilitate design processes.