Abstract
Enterprises operating under resource constraints often struggle to maintain efficient and innovative design practices. Data intelligence (DI) offers new opportunities to overcome design challenges and process optimization. However, research on how DI is practically integrated into real-world design workflows under such constraints remains limited. To address this gap, qualitative interviews were conducted with 21 industry designers from 14 companies. Using grounded theory, the interview data were coded to examine how DI supports the optimization of existing design processes and to identify its key intervention points and values. The study further investigates how DI interacts with design practices from multiple perspectives, including project type, organizational mode, and design strategy. By outlining a fifteen-dimensional blueprint of DI system functionalities, it provides guidance for future system development and proposes a framework for DI-driven design collaboration.
Keywords
data intelligence; design process; product design; resource-constrained
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1007
Citation
Shen, A., Gu, J., Yin, Y., Zhang, X., Dong, Y., Hong, Y., Fan, A., Lian, B., Fan, H., and Chai, C. (2026) Optimizing design processes through data intelligence under resource constraints: A qualitative interview study in industry, 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.2026.1007
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Optimizing design processes through data intelligence under resource constraints: A qualitative interview study in industry
Enterprises operating under resource constraints often struggle to maintain efficient and innovative design practices. Data intelligence (DI) offers new opportunities to overcome design challenges and process optimization. However, research on how DI is practically integrated into real-world design workflows under such constraints remains limited. To address this gap, qualitative interviews were conducted with 21 industry designers from 14 companies. Using grounded theory, the interview data were coded to examine how DI supports the optimization of existing design processes and to identify its key intervention points and values. The study further investigates how DI interacts with design practices from multiple perspectives, including project type, organizational mode, and design strategy. By outlining a fifteen-dimensional blueprint of DI system functionalities, it provides guidance for future system development and proposes a framework for DI-driven design collaboration.