The social dimension of open design

The sustainability of the quality and rate of the design process has always posed challenges. Initial open design concepts evolved from the need for an even faster rapid product development process and the desire to have co-creative platforms. Innovative open design platforms and toolkits ensure a continuous interchanging of knowledge between many and diverse stakeholders from a community with a common vision. Companies continuously research social strategies to get volunteers’ attention and keep their interest to contribute to the company’s objectives. Doing this can create significant value for the company’s customers and shareholders. Therefore, the objective of this research study was to understand the main reasons for contributing to these open design platforms. Both community- and company driven open design platforms were studied and; the benefits and challenges for utilising these platforms discussed. As a result boundary conditions were identified to exploit, without compromising the constraints of current design systems. Plans for further investigations are also given