A three-stage design process applied to an industry-university textile product design project

Continual exploration and understanding of the design process is necessary to advance and encourage implementation of this valuable tool in the field of textiles and clothing. This paper examines design processes used in related fields, presents a common structure that links these working methods, and demonstrates how the structure was used by a university design team to work with an industry client. Design processes used in fields that focus on the design of three-dimensional structures and spaces were reviewed. Salient features were examined and organized into three common stages of problem definition and research, creative exploration and development, and implementation. The project also demonstrates the application of the design process to a textile product design problem.