Design, health and circular economy.

Products generate waste in a linear value production model design. New sustainable design methods focus on using bio-materials and re-manufacturing processes to decrease waste and impact on the environment. Circular Economy models are sustainable because they aim to keep the value of a product at the end of their useful life. They reintegrate products in the chain instead of becoming waste and lose their value. However, circular models require an understanding of the big picture of business model ecosystems on what, who and how everyone closes the loop. Furthermore, the Internet of Things in product-service systems (PSS) requires the integration of diverse perspectives in their conception and design. The objective of this thesis is to find a way to create circular PSS concepts in circular economy models through a collaborative design approach. The approach extracts the expertise of other areas to understand the real needs of all stakeholders to close the gap between design and business perspectives. It aims to understand what value means for each stakeholder, the implications of moving towards circular economy models, the impact on the product architecture, the technological trends opportunities and the experiences that the users and customers desire. The study case for the thesis focuses on chronic diseases in Finland, especially for ischemic heart diseases which are the leading cause of deaths triggered by a cardiac arrest. The cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and the automated external defibrillator (AED) are fundamental to save a life. Methods, tools and principles of PSS and circular models, combined with Human-Centred Design (HCD) approaches, identify a problem space and possible solutions for circularity and usability in the study case. The limits of this research are that the time scope for the project only reached the design concept stage, without the implications of standards for medical equipment for a future product development stage. The outcomes of the research are insights for CPR and AED as a product-service system in circular economy models. However, the principal value is a new canvas that analyses a product -from the perspectives of design, business and technology- to map all the implications required to transform a product into a PSS in a circular model; integrating experts in a collaborative workshop to validate the model. The complexity of product-service systems in circular models resides in their natural transdisciplinarity. The number of stakeholders and their expertise surpass the knowledge of design to understand their processes. Alongside the contribution of the new canvas, the main conclusion for this work is that transdisciplinary projects could be led through the collaborative design approach under two conditions. The first condition is when the designer understands the meanings of concepts across disciplines, and secondly when the project has access to all the critical stakeholders in the project’s ecosystem. Thus, the need for transdisciplinary tools for design approaches requires further analysis and development