Research Recommendations (856)

Carry out a practical evaluation of the model’s postgraduate P&D block, since the current empirical testing focused mainly on the MAiTE Toolkit’s process block.

Audience:

Researchers, Postgraduate Program Leads, Educators

Domain:

Postgraduate Design Education

Scope:

Meso

Feasibility:

High

Conduct deeper sector-specific and product-niche studies with the MAiTE approach, instead of relying only on broad cross-sector territorial-promotion exercises.

Audience:

Researchers, Designers, Sector Specialists

Domain:

Sectoral Application / Local Products

Scope:

Meso → Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Map and document local materials and know-how systematically so as to preserve material culture and support future design projects.

Audience:

Researchers, Cultural Institutions, Local Producers

Domain:

Material Culture Documentation / Territorial Knowledge

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Develop a digital and online version of the MAiTE Toolkit to improve interaction, usability, and dissemination, especially across Portuguese-speaking countries.

Audience:

Educators, Students, Designers

Domain:

Digital Toolkit / Educational Technology

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

High

Deepen the study of co-creation within material-driven design for territorial promotion, since this dimension was included but not fully developed in the current model.

Audience:

Researchers, Designers, Local Producers, Communities

Domain:

Co-creation / Material-Driven Design

Scope:

Meso

Feasibility:

Medium

Reflect on and evaluate the model in the Portuguese context, and potentially in other Lusophone contexts, beyond the Brazilian setting in which it was designed and tested.

Audience:

Researchers, Educators, Lusophone Institutions

Domain:

Cross-Context Transfer / Lusophone Design Studies

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Experiment systematically with alternative, non-elastic materials to replace traditional cotton thread while preserving the bobbin-lace technique.

Audience:

Researchers, artisans, craft designers

Domain:

Craft Innovation / Materials Research

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Develop contemporary and useful products that move bobbin lace beyond its direct association with the traditional napron and other purely ornamental textile objects.

Audience:

Designers, artisans, local producers, retailers

Domain:

Product Design / Craft Resignification

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

High

Use bobbin lace in larger-scale applications and interior/environmental products—such as screens, decorative panels, walls, or suspended nets—especially when woven with electrical wires and combined with framing materials.

Audience:

Designers, interior designers, artisans, material developers

Domain:

Spatial Applications / Interior Design

Scope:

Meso → Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Develop jewelry, fashion accessories, and other high-value small objects using gold, silver, copper, and stones in order to create refined products with commercial appeal.

Audience:

Designers, artisans, fashion/accessory developers

Domain:

Fashion Accessories / Craft Valorization

Scope:

Meso

Feasibility:

Medium

Target younger consumers and broader age groups through innovation, promotion, and contemporary cultural positioning so that bobbin lace becomes an object of current desire rather than a relic or museum-bound craft.

Audience:

Designers, municipalities, heritage promoters, artisans

Domain:

Craft Promotion / Cultural Sustainability

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Move beyond the boundaries of design alone and actively engage with inter- and transdisciplinary thinking in order to share knowledge with culinary arts and gastronomy.

Audience:

Researchers, educators, designers, culinary practitioners

Domain:

Food Design / Interdisciplinarity

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Approach food design from a systemic perspective, recognizing that production and consumption affect a complex food system as a whole.

Audience:

Designers, educators, food-system researchers

Domain:

Food Systems / Design for Food

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Frame food design in relation to all living beings involved in the food system, broadening the ethical and ecological scope of design practice.

Audience:

Researchers, designers, educators

Domain:

Food Ethics / Ecological Design

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Support the emergence of new professional patterns and redirected disciplinary roles capable of replacing the status quo in food-related design practice.

Audience:

Designers, educators, institutions, employers

Domain:

Professional Transformation / Food Design

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Low-Medium

Explore new forms of collaboration in order to stabilize and refine the concepts developed in the study and to strengthen the emerging field of Food Design.

Audience:

Researchers, educators, practitioners

Domain:

Field Building / Collaboration

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

High

Apply the adapted Double Diamond model and associated pedagogical tools transversally across culinary-arts curricula to integrate knowledge from multiple subjects into products, services, and food experiences.

Audience:

Educators, curriculum leaders, culinary-arts programs

Domain:

Curriculum Design / Food Design Pedagogy

Scope:

Meso → Macro

Feasibility:

Medium-High

Design screw-cap water bottles with higher caps (around 12–13 mm) to improve grip-force transmission and opening performance.

Audience:

Packaging designers, ergonomists, manufacturers

Domain:

Packaging Design / Ergonomics

Scope:

Meso

Feasibility:

High

Incorporate a curved gripping area in bottle bodies, ensuring that it is not positioned below the center, to support more effective and comfortable handling.

Audience:

Packaging designers, ergonomists

Domain:

Bottle Form / Usability

Scope:

Meso

Feasibility:

High

Use bottle geometry and center-of-mass distribution deliberately to guide hand positioning and improve manual interaction.

Audience:

Packaging designers, product engineers

Domain:

Biomechanics / Affordances in Packaging

Scope:

Meso

Feasibility:

Medium

Develop inclusive packaging solutions that explicitly account for age- and gender-related differences in strength, efficiency, and perceived effort.

Audience:

Designers, manufacturers, accessibility researchers

Domain:

Inclusive Packaging Design

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

Medium

Investigate color as a factor in perceived effort and usability judgments, and avoid color cues that may increase expectations of effort when low effort is desired.

Audience:

Researchers, packaging designers, marketing teams

Domain:

Color Perception / Packaging

Scope:

Meso

Feasibility:

Medium

Present the results to company B and support the implementation of the model.

Audience:

Product/Service Owners

Domain:

Design Methods / Management

Scope:

Micro → Meso

Feasibility:

Medium

Develop the Caco digital platform for dissemination.

Audience:

Designers and Engineers

Domain:

Knowledge Management

Scope:

Macro

Feasibility:

High

Create the Caco certification seal (silver/bronze/gold) based on specific criteria.

Audience:

Policymakers

Domain:

Sustainability

Scope:

Micro → Macro

Feasibility:

Medium