Journal article
Is product-service system designing different from product designing? A cognitive study of experienced product designers
Design Science, v 11, 8
10 Mar 2025
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The literature suggests that product and product-service system (PSS) design problems are characteristically different. However, there is limited empirical evidence to suggest that the design cognition specific to the respective design activities is different. This article reports the findings of a comparative study of protocols of conceptual product and PSS designing carried out in a laboratory environment by 28 pairs of experienced product designers from the manufacturing industry. First, differences between product and PSS design problems were theoretically characterized in terms of their respective sources of complexity. Based on these differences, hypotheses concerning differences in the cognitive processes of conceptual product and PSS designing were developed and empirically tested. Results indicate that PSS designing by experienced product designers is more problem-focused while product designing is more solution-focused. PSS designing was found to focus more on the design issue function and the design process formulation. Further, PSS designing was more likely to apply a depth-first search strategy, while product designing was more apt to apply a breadth-first search strategy. Results point towards the need to support the analysis of derived behavior of structure and the application of a breadth-first strategy during PSS designing by product designers.
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Details
- Title
- Is product-service system designing different from product designing? A cognitive study of experienced product designers
- Creators
- Abhijna Neramballi - Linköping UniversityTomohiko Sakao - Linköping UniversityJohn S. Gero - University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- Publication Details
- Design Science, v 11, 8
- Publisher
- Cambridge Univ Press
- Number of pages
- 30
- Grant note
- DIA 2014/16 / Stiftelsen fr Miljstrategisk Forskning 1762415 / Mistra REES (Resource Efficient and Effective Solutions) program - Mistra (The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) US National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences (Psychology)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001440418700001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105003285389
- Other Identifier
- 991022156315304721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Engineering, Manufacturing