SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORIAL Design Contributions for the COVID-19 Global Emergency (Part 1): Empirical Approaches and First Solutions

This is a landmark publication for the field of design. It was catalysed by unprecedented circumstances, as designers around the world had to rapidly deploy their competencies in strategic problem-solving to help humanity in the fight against an invisible enemy during a global pandemic. In alliance with other disciplines, from medicine to mechanical engineering, from computing to anthropology, designers everywhere have addressed the challenges and produced remarkable results through a diversity of initiatives. This Special Issue presents a peer-reviewed sample of these initiatives. The coronavirus pandemic can be considered as the biggest ‘problem’ faced by an entire generation of designers. It has produced a great many unexpected changes and demands, many of which neither governments, companies nor communities were prepared to handle. Although designers were able to gather existing knowledge and reapply it, it became clear that our ability to learn from the past was limited, considering the complexities presented by COVID-19. Hence, a wholly deductive or inductive approach was neither viable nor relevant, as, in last hundred years, humanity has never been asked to face a pandemic of such scale and gravity. The result was a rapid, earnest application of abductive reasoning, typical of the creative process inherent in design activity. In a short period of time, designers contributed, and in many instances led, innovation processes associated with products, systems, services and experiences to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus.