Our life and business go through diverse forms of transformations, therefore contributions and roles of design are expanding, from design to Big Design. Expectations on design contributions are growing and desired qualities of designers are becoming more comprehensive. Big transitions are happening in the field of design. Design solutions needed in the transforming society with high demand for enhanced quality of life and sophisticated business and societal innovation should address the core human activities and experiences encompassing technological breakthroughs. Systems with both product and service elements are to be designed together with transformative infrastructures and interrelations. Therefore, massive collaboration with designers of diverse expertise is inevitable and effective utilization of computational support is necessary.

To challenge complex systems design as needed in transforming society and industry, multidisciplinary design efforts dealing with high-function technological assets in human activity-centered approaches are required in delivering design-led innovation for diverse human, societal, entrepreneurial and environmental values. Designers equipped with integrated qualities of design, technology and business will play the core role addressing activities and experiences and orchestrating technological enablers with emphasis on intrinsic human experience values.

Turku Design Studio (TDS) has been launched at the University of Turku to serve as the home for design education and research activities of Turku. TDS is actively leading design education and research in Product-Service Systems Design, Customer Experience Design, and Service Design. TDS has currently two design studio spaces: one at Koneteknologiakeskus (KTK) and another at ICT-City.