This qualitative, exploratory investigation provides insight into the relevance and applicability of adopting a Design for Service (DfS) approach to effect transformation in Voluntary Community Sector (VCS) contexts. Using Action Research and a case study structure, the DfS approach was introduced and applied within three VCS organisations in succession. In each organisation, data on the impact and perceived value of the approach to a range of stakeholders was captured during, immediately after, and in the year following the engagement. An inductive analysis process was then employed to build theory from the collated case study data. The research has established that the use of design at a systemic level of a VCS organisation can incite transformational change. It has shown that stakeholders' initial trust in the designer is more important than their trust in the DfS approach (methods and processes), which becomes crucial to increasing the influence of design in the organisation. Once the designer becomes a 'friend' to the organisation, they can operate at an embedded level as a 'critical friend', which allows them to challenge the status quo and create new organisational perspectives. Finally, it defines five organisational factors that are critical to using the DfS approach to effect transformational change in a VCS setting. The study has multiple contributions to knowledge, including: detailed evidence that design can be used to transform VCS organisations; a 'critical friend' model depicting how design can be used to effect transformation in such settings; and a prototype 'design-readiness' self-assessment tool for VCS organisations. This thesis represents the first doctoral length study into the application of the DfS approach in a VCS context, and provides both evidence and insight into its capacity to incite transformational change at a critical time for the sector.

This thesis explores the consumer culture of the Japanese Bubble Economy (1986-1991). Using the four key magazines of Mono, AXIS, Hanako and Brutus as vehicles, it shows how the culture of 1980s-Bubble Japan was expressed and celebrated through its consumption. Using the critical theories of Baudrillard and Bourdieu, it explores the various consequences of this newly liberated consumption, showing how the effects of the Bubble were not just economic, but also social and cultural. Spanning a period of about 4-5 years, the Bubble Economy was a time of ballooning prosperity in Japan. Following an upward revaluation of the yen and financial liberalisation instigated by the signing of the 1985 Plaza Accord, the late 1980s saw Japan entering a period of market frenzy, as a credit-fuelled boom caused assets to rocket and land speculation become rife. Consumption too boomed, along with a shifting focus from work to lifestyle, and magazines surged as guides to this new glittering life of prosperity and ease. As lifestyle magazines, the four chosen deal with different areas of the market that reflect the changes happening in and because of the Bubble. Mono describes new, faster patterns of consumer behaviour predicated on the increasingly fast and superficial tastes of its readers. AXIS places itself firmly in the international sphere of design culture, and in doing so reflects the subtle nationalist agendas of industry. Hanako, catering to the new consumer market of young women, uses travel and consumption to distract and compensate for inequalities in their working lives, while Brutus demonstrates a secret dissatisfaction of its male readers at their own restrictions of privilege. Using critical theory to interrogate the deeper implications of the Bubble, the thesis shows how rather than symbolising the apex of Japanese development and success of its unique system of working and social relations, it merely disguised the cracks that were beginning to form. Moreover, by encouraging the rampant consumer behaviour that was to characterise the Bubble, the government was inadvertently changing attitudes and expectations that would hasten dissatisfaction with the restrictions of a system that included considerable gender bias and heavily internetworked localised social and corporate relationships. In the final chapter to the thesis, the more strange and unusual aspects of the Bubble are explored, showing how even as it papered over faults and invited dissatisfaction, it also provided opportunities and space for transformation and self-expression. While many aspects of present-day Japanese culture, such as the trend for kawaii (cute), or hyper-energetic characters, are attributed to the 1990s, this thesis shows how these trends relied on the possibilities inherent in the Bubble Economy to flourish, before gaining enough impetus to travel abroad as mature cultures. Finally, in the field of Japanese studies, the Bubble period is notable for its relative absence in its social and cultural aspects. This is not to say that it was an inconsequential period, but rather that the difficulties of the decades after its bursting and the extravagance that marked it have made it both less urgent and culturally problematic as a period of study. However, this has meant that it has been denied rigorous study, in favour of the more pressing urgencies of the Lost Decades. Using critical theories to a depth rarely seen in Japanese studies, this thesis aims to rectify this and provide a deeper insight into the Bubble than has been allowed before.

At a computational technology company called LTC, a large array of employees worked together to design the user experience (UX) of a variety of products. The empirical case study explores the relationship amongst the work of UX design, the work setting, and the larger strategic claims being made about the value, efficacy, and importance of design methods. The main research question is: How is the activity of design reflected and constructed by a local culture and material environment? By addressing the way designing occurs in a particular setting, the dissertation unpacks assumptions about setting and ideology within design studies and human-computer interaction. These assumptions impact the legitimacy of design as work, and challenge accepted justifications for the role of design in the development of technological artifacts. A better understanding of design work explores the proliferation of design as a general strategy for problem-solving, while questioning the agenda of this proliferation. The case study follows three accounts of UX design work at LTC. The research connects these accounts to theoretical concerns within design studies and HCI about agency, the setting of design, and the limits on design practice.

Design thinking is increasingly being promoted as a tool to address social problems. There is little consensus around the term ‘design thinking’ and how if at all it differs from other forms of thinking. Further, evidence for how design can help to tackle social challenges, particularly in resource poor settings is scant. The thesis critiques the notion of ‘design thinking’ as framed in contemporary design practice and literature. It draws out the ontological (pattern), teleological (purpose), and epistemological (process) elements of design, in order to re-articulate ‘design thinking’ as the ‘way of design’ to embody its first principles. Additionally the thesis shows how the ‘way of design’ can help to understand and inform services in resource poor contexts, using the case study of artisan services in India. The study employs mixed methods and bricoleur techniques to carry out design research in a weaving village in India. The study shows how ‘design as pattern’ helps to trace the underlying pattern of services in the artisan weaving ecosystem and highlight touchpoints for interventions. It reveals how ‘design as purpose’ prompts the assessment of: utility, social, emotional and epistemic values that underpin artisan service preferences and choices. It further illustrates how ‘design as process’ guides sense making and evaluation of artisan systems in ‘adaptive’ rather than ‘optimal’ ways. The thesis establishes how a design approach can help fundamentally to reframe the problems and prospects of artisan livelihoods. In redesigning design, the thesis demonstrates the transdisciplinary character of design and the kind of problems it can help to illuminate. In reframing artisan problems, the study shows how the ‘way of design’ can help to connect the dots of policy, practice and research.

This thesis marks the first biography of the evolution of the bra from a designer and patternmaker’s perspective. Although the bra has a very long history, it only became a truly iconic garment in the latter half of the Twentieth Century. To some extent this transformation was driven by rapid social and economic changes, but the evolution of this highly technical garment is also inextricably linked to developments in technology which have led to improvements in materials, design and manufacture. Initially these developments were related to designing a three-dimensional product from a two-dimensional flat patternmaking process, but more recently the advent of the moulded bra has offered opportunities to create a seamless three-dimensional garment without the need to construct a flat pattern, and this has enabled both increased design possibilities and raised the prospect of a better fitting product. Through an investigation of the origins of underwear in general, and the bra in particular, this thesis reviews secondary source historical data to chart major changes in design, patternmaking, and technology from the first recorded uses of underwear to the current challenges facing bra designers and patternmakers in an increasingly globalised industry. This historical review culminates in the identification of two distinctly diverging trends in current bra design and manufacture, both of which face significant challenges in terms of training new designers and producing better sizing and fitting protocols. The two primary source studies which emanate from this historical review contribute new knowledge to each of these diverging directions in bra design. The first study provides an entirely new approach to the teaching, and subsequent current commercial practice of flat patternmaking for what many regard as the ‘traditional’ cut-and-sewn variety of bra. This study culminates in a new way of producing, learning and teaching the art of flat patternmaking, enabling underwear design graduates to leave university with the core skills they need to survive in a fast moving global industry. The second major study investigates the salient challenge of providing an excellent fit for both major types of bra across globally diverse and perhaps ethnically different body types. Consequently, it employs cutting-edge threedimensional body scanning technology to demonstrate how the design, sizing, and 2 fitting of both cut-and-sewn and moulded varieties of garment might be significantly improved in the future. Both primary source data studies therefore stand at the beginning of the future evolution of the most technically complex garment in human history, the not so humble bra.

This thesis puts forward a sociocultural approach to the learning of visual practices for designers and suggests communication tools to help educators and students to engage with practice. It is concerned with the question of how designers’ visual practices are developed and fostered. From prior research in this area it was assumed that designers learn through a linguistic visual literacy approach or, at best, through a critique-based process. However, this study found that learning happens through social interactions and dialogues, which enables reflection on visual practices, informing future visual inquiry. It was found, through the provision of communication tools that externalise visual practices, that students develop into active learners, who can take greater control over their learning. Therefore, the presentation of a sociocultural approach explicitly develops knowledge of visual development, but also offers a more effective learning theory upon which to ground visual pedagogy in design. The study employed a qualitative approach and a strategy of design-based research to externalise the underlying attributes and processes of developing and fostering visual practices through the designing, and testing, of teaching-learning artefacts. This strategy led to the employment of two research phases: design experiments with design students and user testing with design educators. A review of the literature relating to a sociocultural approach led to a design framework (a sociocultural approach, shared understanding, reflective articulation, and critical questioning of visual practices) that informed both the designing and testing during both phases of the research. The design framework was adopted to analyse and code the data gained in two stages: descriptive and pattern coding. Through the discourse of the identified patterns, theoretical descriptions of developmental learning attributes and processes of fostering designers’ visual practices were formed. These descriptions were then interpreted and contextualised in design education, to present a sociocultural approach and characteristics (a shared understanding of, constructive reflection on, and critical evaluation of, visual practices), in the process outlining theoretical and practical knowledge of developing and fostering designers’ visual practices. Through the presentation of this knowledge, this study outlines opportunities to develop new directions in design education; moving from a critique-based process guided by design educators fostering individual development, to a general dialogue facilitated in collaboration with the learning community.

This study has evolved from the researcher's clothing industry experience and interest in the development of technology use. It aims to discover clothing industry interrelationships and knowledge of industry practice using sector specific technology use as the vehicle. Opinions have been obtained from across the clothing industry, taking into account perspectives from regional Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (MSME), the high street retail sector, relevant government agencies and technology providers. For the purpose of this research the term clothing industry is used to describe an industry that is considered to have three main sectors: design, manufacture and market. Gaining an overview of each sector was essential to investigate industry interrelationships, processes and practices. A valid depiction of the industry was required to understand how each sector perceives both the internal and global perspectives. As the research required opinions from a variety of industry segments, selected industry representatives were identified. The resulting approach was to structure the research into three elements. The data collection process followed a chronological order: consideration of the MSME clothing sector, which comprised of a preparatory exercise incorporating a developmental approach that included a section that collected, compiled and recorded relevant industry terminology and also a process mapping technique designed to elicit knowledge of internal practice; a questionnaire devised to understand industry technology suppliers; investigate retail sector technology usage, a preliminary questionnaire was followed by a semi structured interview; conducting three sector specific focus groups utilising refined findings from prior elements; final summative interview to discuss outcomes of the focus group sessions. This incremental knowledge building approach was devised to utilise a combination of basic quantitative findings as subject matter for further qualitative analysis within a summative interview. This study presents an insight into the unique knowledge base existing across three industry segments within the clothing sector through analysis of terminology, process maps and topic related discussions. The findings obtained realised there are critical issues surrounding MSME businesses and technology use, therefore identifying need and opportunity for change. The main contributions of the study are: development and implementation of the incremental research strategy; the identification of issues affecting the use of technology in the MSME sector of the clothing industry; realisation that the industry community has dissipated with the shift in industry focus; presentation of potential solutions to improve product visibility between user and provider.

Cross (1999 & 2006) describes a taxonomy of the field of design research, stating that there are three main categories, based on people, processes and products: (i) Design epistemology - study of designerly ways of knowing; (ii) Design praxiology - study of the practices and processes of design; (iii) Design phenomenology - study of the form and configuration of artefacts (Cross, 1999: 6). Cross highlights that design is a socio-cultural activity and therefore the description of designing cannot be complete without taking the opinions and experiences of designers into account, rather than just studying the objects and processes of their work. Dorst (1997: 19) argued that design researchers have paid insufficient attention to the experience of designing and that by improving our knowledge of this phenomenon a more complete account of design activities would be achieved. If design researchers can develop a more comprehensive account of design activities it will contribute to bridging the gap between design theory and design practice. In design methodology there has developed two fundamentally different ways of approaching design, formalised into two paradigms: 'rational problem solving' (also known as technical rationality) (Simon, 1969) and 'reflective practice' (SchOn, 1983 & 1987). Simon defined designing as an instrument of rational problem solving where, in its best and purest form, it is a process of optimisation. Within the paradigm of rational problem solving, problem solvers (designers) are goal-seeking information processing systems, operating in an objective and knowable reality. Under the paradigm of rational problem solving, studying the inner environment, experience or phenomenology of designers is unimportant and illogical. Sch6n criticised the prevailing positivist paradigm, of technical rationality, stating that it fails to account for practical competence in divergent situations. Schiin's theory of design as reflective practice, attempted to address the dilemma and balance between rigour and relevance, focusing upon acts of intelligence within situations of uncertainty and developing an epistemology of practice, which places technical rationality within a broader context of reflective inquiry. In the constructionist paradigm of design as reflective practice the designer is placed in a central role in design activities. However, while the theory of design as reflective practice places the practitioner centrally, describing the action-orientated steps in reflective inquiry, it objectifies the practice of design; and therefore, the theory of reflective practice, as defined by SchOn, falls short of an understanding of the experience of designing. Progress can be made toward developing the theory of reflective practice and further increasing the theory's relevance to design as it is practised by developing our understanding of the experience of designing. This study is concerned with the experiences and conditions that occur as expert designers practise reflective practice within design practice. It develops our knowledge of design as it is experienced by providing descriptions of the design experience based upon the reflections of expert designers. This thesis describes an embedded multiple-case study with multiple units of analysis, where qualitative data about the experience of designing were obtained from eight semi-structured interviews with expert designers. Based upon the process of conjecture and refutation the thesis presents a discourse analysis to test theoretical propositions and draw conclusions about the experience of designing. The findings of this data analysis support the following conclusions: The design process of uncertainty resolution generates emotional fluctuation and disquiet. When operating in situations of volatility and ambiguity, expert designers use creative thinking as a coping mechanism to escape their fear and uncertainty. Creative thinking is used to frame and reframe the design situation in an attempt to create conceptual certainty and synthesis explored through propositional change experiments. Contextualised by the challenge of the design situation the creative element of the design experience is stimulated by: iterative attempts to escape the discomfort of uncertainty and manifest clarity through the creative moment; attempts to protect the conceptual certainty and joy of a design proposition; and the need to do better and have their propositions accepted and considered valuable by other people. The significance of the study is that it moves beyond design practice theory and descriptive models of design processes; it focuses on the practise of design practice, describing the experience of expert designers' professional activities. The key contribution is to further our understanding about, and help describe elements of, the experience of designing, relating those descriptions to the theory of design as reflective practice. This study frames designers' activities from the perspective of their experience and their relationship with uncertainty, thereby providing new ways to understand designing.

This thesis contributes to the debate about the role of design and designers in a modern organisation. It aims to engage in academic dialogue through an exploration of the way designers perceive themselves and their methods (and also how they are being perceived); providing an outline of their professional culture and its interactions in an organisation. Its rationale is based on the assumption that various occupational and professional cultures can have significant influence on the way organisations are run. Thus, by examining the dimensions and sense-making within the professional culture of designers, this PhD aims to establish the analytical grounds for understanding the role design and designers in an organisational setting. By conducting a number of in-depth interviews with general managers, senior designers, management consultants and design managers from IDEO, Wolff Olins, Nissan Design and Philips Design this thesis looks at constructs attributed to designers that emerge at the core of their culture. Grounded theory methodology helped to establish a picture of the cultural arrangements in design-intensive organisations. 'Consolidating multidimensional meanings', `Creating bringing to 4/, Embracing discontinuityand gbenendedness', Embracing persona/ and commercial empathy', Engaging porensorial aesthetics', are the five theoretical categories that have been recognised as important to describing designers' professional culture. The analysis suggests that designers, by focusing on adding fundamental rake through unconfined exploration can play the part of 0/J-temological change agetas'in an organisation. Additionally, the thesis develops a model of design's influence on organisations. According to this model there are three 'channels' through which design affects organisations: (i) frameniarhs such as ontologies, epistemologies, theories, methods, tools, techniques etc., (ii) outcomes including physical artefacts, environments, brands and experiences, (iii) a'esigwers and their professional culture with certain values, assumptions, skills, preferences, behaviours etc. Designers, as a professional group, might have a more or less active roles within those groups of influences, modifying them in accordance with their culture.

This thesis focuses on the potential to expand the markets for recycled synthetic materials, specifically focusing on the uptake of polyester recycling technologies and materials from the perspective of UK high street clothing retailers and Japanese recycled polyester textile manufacturers. Historically, textile waste or 'shoddy' has been 'downcycled' and used in products such as blankets, rugs or wipers. During the 1990s technological developments enabled the production of thinner and longer fibres from recycled polyester for clothing, particularly in outdoor wear, sportswear and uniforms. Advances in chemical recycling systems which return the fibre to its original raw materials state have led to the production of fibres of a quality equal to those produced from virgin material. Polyester is currently the only viable material which can be 'upcycled' and used in 'closed loop recycling systems'. This research investigated the barriers and drivers affecting the adoption of recycled polyester in high street clothing markets, from the perspectives of UK high street clothing retailers, UK consumers, and world leading Japanese recycled polyester textile manufacturers. The study is exploratory in nature, and comprises a literature review, a street survey and industry surveys. The literature review was carried out in order to understand current thinking in the areas of sustainable fashion and technological development, particularly with regards to the production of recycled polyester. A street survey conducted in Newcastle gathered information from the general public in order to evaluate consumer attitudes towards clothes with recycled content, what affects their purchasing decisions when buying clothes, and their awareness of recycled clothing products in the market. The industry surveys were adopted to examine the views of five major recycled polyester fibre and fabric manufacturers in Japan and evaluate their perspectives on the potential for recycled polyester outside their current niche markets. Four major UK high street clothing retailers were interviewed in order to gain insights into their current practices for product development (in particular the materials selection process), to evaluate the level of environmental consideration they have when they develop products, and to test their readiness to use recycled materials. The findings are derived from previously unscrutinised barriers and drivers for the wider use of recycled synthetic materials in high street clothing retailers. Two key factors are identified: Japanese manufacturers need to create 'closed loop' recyclable synthetic fabrics that have excellent tactile and design qualities to appeal to the teams that source fabrics for clothing development. Clothing retailers need torecognise that it is possible to specify 'closed loop' fabrics but they need to connect this to clear design, business and sustainable development strategies. The contribution of this thesis based on the findings shows the potential to extend the recycled polyester market, based on advanced technology and socioeconomical issues, the outlook of recycled textile producers, and public opinion towards clothes with recycled content. The key recommendation concerns the need to establish a long term commitment between clothing retailers and recycled fabric producers in order to develop desirable recycled fabrics for general and fashion markets. Further research is suggested on this basis.