78 methods
Ways of working the book discusses, and what each one is for.
Agile
Agile methodologies, with their short iterations and responsiveness to change, are named as well suited to unpredictable project conditions, with roots the book traces to Stafford Beer's Project Cybersyn and links forward to Lean Startup practices.
Anti-Racist Design
Anti-racist design calls for moving beyond superficial diversity statements toward practices informed by critical race theory, so that design outcomes actively counter systemic racism and promote equitable access for marginalized communities.
Artifact Analysis
Artifact analysis means examining objects from diverse pasts to understand design's plural historical trajectories, and it is named alongside precedent study as a method for engaging with historical design precedents.
bioclimatic architecture
Bioclimatic architecture is named as the field with particular expertise in adapting buildings to the environment's cyclical patterns, from daily and seasonal to longer cycles, in pursuit of sustainability.
biodesign
Biodesign means designing with living organisms such as fungi, algae and bacteria as active fabrication partners rather than treating nature only as a resource; the book names it, with radical sustainability, as a root of the new procedures the climate crisis and biotechnology demand.
Biomimicry
Associated with Janine Benyus, biomimicry treats nature's evolved strategies as a source of design solutions, functioning both as an observational tool for understanding sustainability and as a material-choice principle for ecological integrity.
Circular Economy
Drawing on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's principles of eliminating waste, circulating materials and regenerating nature, the book keeps critical distance from the concept's market-based framing, warning that most of what is called circular is really recycling that only delays, rather than eliminates, eventual waste unless overconsumption and fossil fuel reliance are also addressed.
Closed-Loop
Illustrated by the Chilean platform Al Gramo, closed-loop design extends the life of packaging through repeated reuse cycles, but the book notes that even such systems eventually need to return materials to the environment or recycling, showing the temporal limits of circularity.
Co-Design / Co-Creation
The book describes co-design and co-creation as collaborative approaches built on shared power and diverse expertise, tracing their roots to participatory design and crediting Sanders and Stappers as pioneers, while noting that within its own Framework participants remain co-creators rather than designers in the strict disciplinary sense.
Computational Design
The book cites Behnaz Farahi's work, combining computational design algorithms, sensors and multi-material 3D printing to create dynamic wearable structures, as an example of new tools producing new material behaviors.
Cradle to Cradle
Traced from Stahel and Reday's early 1970s ideas through McDonough and Braungart's popularization, Cradle to Cradle treats materials as either technical or biological nutrients circulating safely, and the book lists implementing its protocols among the standard practices for ecological product design.
Cross-Cultural Design
Cross-cultural design studies serve as a corrective against applying methods from one context uncritically to another, and the book folds this into a broader capacity for cross-cultural humility and respectful dialogue with diverse knowledge systems.