The Design Process

A design process is the route a designer takes from a problem nobody has stated clearly to a specification somebody could build from. B2.1 sets out that route and, more usefully, explains why designers loop back through it instead of working straight down the list, including how a brief gets interrogated before anyone draws a solution.

The two sustainability topics apply the same reasoning to consequences that only appear long after a product ships. Design for sustainability asks how present needs can be met without spending resources that later users will need, while the circular economy topic treats waste as a fault in the design rather than an unavoidable by-product, covering the strategies that keep materials in use instead of sending them to landfill.