Designing a Dissemination Framework: An Introduction to Design Knowledge Transfer

The Design Research Lab (DRLab) at the University of Trento is a research centre engaged in design knowledge transfer for the educational, production, and public policy systems in Trentino. Theoretically supported by the field of study of design research, DRLab follows a ‘Research Through Design’ approach with the aim of encouraging design-led approaches to innovation in public and private organisations. Therefore, this paper reports on how DRLab designed, performed field experiments through service design, and evaluated and iterated a framework for the dissemination of design culture in contexts where design is not systematically adopted. As results, this paper presents the DRLab Dissemination Framework as an action-led research framework for a setting-up phase in a wider design knowledge transfer process. The three main cores of the framework are (i) discourses; (ii) publications; (iii) formats. ‘Discourses’ are seminars, workshops and project presentations that have the aim of disseminating the theoretical and practical aspects of design. ‘Publications’ are all the media that aim to communicate the design contents and results, research works, and theoretical aspects of all the different subjects with different expertise levels. ‘Formats’ are practice-based design formats with specific design tools and design processes; and their aim is to engage local actors to apply design knowledge via a learning-by-doing approach. Also, the paper reports qualitative and quantitative feedback in terms of impact factors related to the level of interest in design-led approaches and in service design after experimenting with these practices in real design contexts.