ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that initial design workshop, defined in terms of scope, issues under investigation, structure, internal and external participants and type of research input. It deals with a description of the methods used to gather information, generate users' insights and consolidate knowledge. The chapter illustrates the design tools and criteria used to generate ideas. Guideline design tools and templates were made available, but they respected the necessary freedom of thinking and creativity of the teams at all times. The intensive burst of focused creativity generated approximately 80 design ideas for products and product-service systems. Flexible design instruments used to provide insights into 'a-day-in-the-life-of' the targeted individual or community. The 'design-for-sustainability' tool is different from traditional eco-design practices which tend to focus on technically modifying a product to gain incremental environmental improvements in the product development phase. The facilitators were trained beforehand to use a series of supporting design tools and exercises specifically developed for this workshop.
