Abstract
While academic research on design for sustainability and design for subjective well-being has grown for decades, application of these perspectives in professional practice remains underdeveloped. Professional designers often struggle to translate these objectives into their work due to conflicting demands, including tight project timelines, cost targets, and manufacturing constraints. Tools and methods developed in academic contexts have faced criticism for failing to consider these practical concerns, resulting in limited professional adoption. Studies indicate professional designers could benefit from concrete case-studies for existing products and systems that clearly demonstrate both processes and outcomes. This paper addresses this need through an artifact-analysis approach, developing case-studies of twelve existing design solutions that have yielded positive sustainability and well-being outcomes. Although not necessarily core drivers of the original projects, our systematic analysis and resulting design guidelines provide clear, concrete direction for designers seeking to create more responsible products and systems in their practices.
Keywords
design for sustainability, design for subjective well-being, artifact analysis, case studies
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.848
Citation
Kowalski, M.C., and Yoon, J. (2026) Should sustainability come second? Artifact analysis toward more positive outcomes through design, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.848
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Should sustainability come second? Artifact analysis toward more positive outcomes through design
While academic research on design for sustainability and design for subjective well-being has grown for decades, application of these perspectives in professional practice remains underdeveloped. Professional designers often struggle to translate these objectives into their work due to conflicting demands, including tight project timelines, cost targets, and manufacturing constraints. Tools and methods developed in academic contexts have faced criticism for failing to consider these practical concerns, resulting in limited professional adoption. Studies indicate professional designers could benefit from concrete case-studies for existing products and systems that clearly demonstrate both processes and outcomes. This paper addresses this need through an artifact-analysis approach, developing case-studies of twelve existing design solutions that have yielded positive sustainability and well-being outcomes. Although not necessarily core drivers of the original projects, our systematic analysis and resulting design guidelines provide clear, concrete direction for designers seeking to create more responsible products and systems in their practices.