Research
Research programme
My research investigates how design can contribute to societal and industrial transitions toward sustainability, with a particular focus on circular economy, systems thinking, user behaviour, and strategic intervention.
I approach design not only as the development of individual products or services, but as a way of understanding and intervening in the wider systems in which they operate. My work therefore moves across different scales: from interactions between users and products, to organisational relationships, industry ecosystems, and broader societal systems.
My current research programme is developing around the question:
How can designers understand complex societal systems and develop, test, and evaluate strategic interventions for sustainability transitions?
Within this programme, I am increasingly interested in how AI may augment systems-oriented design, particularly in exploring relationships and patterns, identifying potential leverage points, generating intervention alternatives, and examining their possible consequences.
Current research areas
1. Circular product design, repair & product-life extension
A central strand of my research examines how design can extend product lifetimes through repair, upgrade, reuse, and greater user participation.
My work on facilitated do-it-yourself repair investigates repair as more than a technical activity. It considers how companies and users can jointly create value through repair and how repair may contribute to stronger product-user relationships, product longevity, and circular business practices.
Selected publication
Bayraktaroğlu, S. & İdemen, E. (2024). Redefining Repair as a Value Co-Creation Process for Circular Economy: Facilitated Do-It-Yourself Repair. International Journal of Design, 18(1), 1–22. PDF
Related work includes research on product upgrade, future repair scenarios, and the reuse of discarded products and clothing.
2. Systems-oriented design for circular transitions
I study how designers can understand the relationships between actors, organisations, behaviours, resources, and infrastructures involved in sustainability transitions.
My ongoing research on the Turkish furniture industry investigates the barriers and opportunities affecting the transition toward circular economy. The research combines manufacturer surveys, interviews, thematic analysis, and design workshops to examine both firm-level practices and wider ecosystem conditions.
Ongoing project
Circular Design Awareness and Applications in the Furniture Industry
2023–2025
The project investigates circular-economy awareness, motivations, barriers, and transition opportunities within the furniture industry.
Selected publication
Bayraktaroğlu, S. & Soylu, H. Y. (2024). Circular Economy Awareness and Motivations in the Furniture Industry: İnegöl as a Microcosm of Global South Dynamics. Mobilya ve Ahşap Malzeme Araştırmaları Dergisi, 7(1), 38–53. PDF
This strand of my work increasingly focuses on system mapping, stakeholder relationships, circular business ecosystems, and the identification of strategic intervention opportunities.
3. Circular design competencies & design education
Another strand of my research explores the capabilities designers need in order to work effectively with circularity and complex sustainability problems.
Rather than treating circular design as a collection of isolated strategies, I am interested in how designers combine systems thinking, recovery strategies, materials and manufacturing knowledge, contextual understanding, and engagement with business ecosystems.
Selected publication
Bayraktaroğlu, S. & Soylu, Y. (2026). Exploring circular design competencies in undergraduate education: the case of an interdisciplinary course and industry engagement. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 27(7), 1829–1845. DOI
My teaching and research are closely connected in this area. Design studios and sustainability courses often provide settings for experimenting with systems mapping, circular design strategies, industry engagement, and new research and learning methods.
4. AI-augmented systems design
I am developing an emerging research direction concerned with the role of artificial intelligence in systems-oriented and strategic design.
My interest is not primarily in AI as a tool for generating product form. Instead, I am exploring its potential to support designers in:
- examining complex bodies of qualitative and systemic information,
- revealing relationships and patterns,
- constructing and interpreting system representations,
- identifying possible leverage points,
- generating alternative interventions,
- and comparing possible consequences before implementation.
This work builds on my broader interest in design research methods, mapping, and intervention in complex systems.
Previous work in this area includes MSc supervision on Artificial Intelligence in the Creative Processes of Design, as well as the Integration of Infinity generative-AI design workshop research.
Research methods
My research is primarily qualitative and mixed-method, and frequently involves working across academic, industry, and community contexts.
Methods I use include:
- semi-structured interviews and qualitative inquiry,
- surveys and descriptive quantitative analysis,
- thematic analysis and qualitative coding,
- case-study research,
- stakeholder and actor mapping,
- system mapping,
- workshops and co-design,
- user research,
- business-model analysis,
- and the development and adaptation of design research tools.
I have also developed and adapted methods for specific research contexts, including a Talk-Aloud Disassembly approach for investigating design and disassembly decisions, adaptations of the Business Model Canvas, and visual mapping methods for representing actors and relationships within complex systems.
International research & collaboration
I have participated in interdisciplinary and international research collaborations around circular economy, social innovation, sustainability, and design.
ENCODUS
I coordinated ENCODUS – Excellence in Eco-Social Design for Urban Sustainability Transition, a Horizon Europe WIDERA Twinning proposal developed with international academic partners including Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, and Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
The proposal was evaluated above threshold but was not funded.
Other international research experience includes doctoral field research in India, collaboration with Design Academy Eindhoven, and research and design activities involving institutions and industry partners in Türkiye and Europe.
Foundations of my research
My current research programme builds on earlier work in social innovation, rural development, business models, and Product-Service Systems.
During my PhD, I conducted six months of field research in rural India examining the relationships among designers, craft communities, social enterprises, and other actors involved in rural innovation. This work led to a model examining the bridging roles of social innovation initiatives.
Selected publication
Bayraktaroğlu, S. (2020). Bridging Roles of Social Innovations in Rural Development: Craft Initiatives from Kutch, India. Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 1(1), 103–118. PDF
This earlier work established themes that continue to shape my current research: actor relationships, systemic representation, business models, collaborative intervention, and design for societal change.
Future direction
My longer-term aim is to develop a research programme around:
Designing strategic interventions for complex societal systems.
I am particularly interested in four connected questions:
- How can designers develop credible representations of complex societal systems?
- How can alternative intervention opportunities be generated and compared?
- How can interventions be prototyped and tested before large-scale implementation?
- How can their effects be evaluated over time?
Across these questions, I am exploring how AI-supported methods may strengthen designers’ ability to work with complexity while maintaining critical, contextual, and human judgement.