Editorial for the Special Issue “Requirements in Design Processes: Open Issues, Relevance and Implications”

Requirements play a key role in the design process by affecting analysis, synthesis and evaluation activities at different levels and in different ways. Markedly, during the analysis of the design problem, requirements are at the cornerstone of designers’ reflection on processes such as the formulation and clarification of the objectives. Furthermore, requirements guide the process of solution finding; here, they affect designs both positively, by making designers focus on the solution, and negatively, by acting as potential triggers of psychological inertia and fixation. Eventually, during evaluation and selection activities, requirements constitute the reference criteria for the assessment of design outcomes in order to identify the solution that is supposedly the most compliant with design objectives. Accordingly, the proposed Special Issue is aimed at investigating the impact requirements have on the quality and creativity of the design outcomes and the implications of requirements’ handling in specific design activities, as well as across different phases.