Due to industrial demand and the influence of government policies, the number of design colleges and students specializing in design in Taiwan has been increasing year by year. As a result, the topics on design education have gained great attention. To adapt to the rapidly-changing society, training that is designed to strengthen the professionalism and integration ability of those design majors should also be adjusted. Unlike traditional teaching methods, Stanford Design Thinking is a people-oriented problem-solving method. Proceeding from human needs, it offers creative solutions to various topics. Placing emphasis on integrated team communication and the cooperation and exchange among interdisciplinary talents, it is a new teaching model in response to the changes to the design environment. In this study, Stanford Design Thinking was introduced to the integrated design curriculum education as a creativity teaching strategy, and the action research method was adopted to explore the learning effectiveness of the design thinking method. According to the findings, the design thinking method can improve teaching; it can promote student participation through interview training in class during the Empathize stage; it offers substantial assistance to students in actual interviews; it reveals information about the demands of target groups, deepens students' discussions on design-related topics, and creates a favorable atmosphere for teaching; it fosters a positive interaction between students and teachers and makes students more attentive in class. Inspired by this teaching method, students can independently seek product-testing objects to review their design concepts and develop a stronger motivation for self-learning.

Green design is advocated and developed in response to the increasingly deteriorating global environment, but its implementation is only based on the morality of the entrepreneurs, without economic incentive and legal restraint. As a result, green design has not been widely adopted. In recent years, the European countries, the U.S., Japan, the UN and Taiwan have successively promoted environmental accounting guidelines and required enterprises to disclose environmental improvement information, so as to improve the environment through production that will unavoidably impact product manufacturing. How product design should respond to this trend is a concern of this study. This study adopted the KJ (Kawakita Jiro) method and the meta-research method to analyze the influence factors. Then, it was discussed whether green design is feasible. The results showed that the requirements of green accounting include: expanding corporate social responsibility, production cannot be exempted from environmental protection, the manufacturing of clean products can generate pollution, the external production cost should be internalized, the redesign to improve the product production process and packaging, reducing resource waste and implementing the (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse) 3R policy, lifecycle assessment for all assessments and developing environmentally-friendly products, which can be solved with green design.

In culturally diverse career settings, some designers are performing more effectively than others. The competence and intelligence behind their performance are crucial to sustainable career development in the highly competitive and globalized design industry. We believe that cultural intelligence (or CQ as a shorthand label) is highly required in such cross-cultural design situations, and it could be trained and improved through design education. Therefore, to better prepare students in design colleges for sustainable career development, we extend and assess the CQ model in design education. We begin the study by determining the demographic differences of design students in terms of CQ, then clarify associations between CQ and competitive advantage. The results of variance analyses using both a t-test and ANOVA showed that education level had a significant effect on two dimensions of CQ (cognitive and motivational CQs), whereas gender, age, and design field did not have significant effects on any dimensions of CQ. Further, step-wise regression analyses demonstrated that three dimensions of CQ (motivational, metacognitive, and behavioral CQs) had significant impacts on competitive advantage. Based on these results, theoretical and practical implications, as well as suggestions for future studies, are further discussed.Sustainability 2020, 12, 10 2 of 23 different cultural understandings about being, knowledge, participation, and life beyond the design project [4]. Designers should bear in mind that individuals are conditioned by their culture; therefore, cultural influence should be applied as a requirement when designing for multicultural users [3].The design industry is highly competitive. For individual designers, competitive advantage is required to a significant degree in the fierce design industry. The influential Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) issued by the United Nations address "decent work and economic growth" as one of the 17 goals to be achieved for a better and more sustainable future for all [5]. As a contributor to career sustainability, sustainable career competitive advantage is the ability to maintain constant improvement and development in career paths. Therefore, we believe that sustainable career competitive advantage is positively related to decent work and economic growth, thus requiring more attention to a sustainability blueprint. Theoretically originating from economics and management, competitive advantage is the competence employees possess to meet the requirements that employers and the labor market consider to be attractive [6]-a job performance that is better than competitors [7,8], the ability to achieve self-value and improve oneself through fulfilling the task [8,9], accomplishments to guarantee sustainable career survival and development [10], and a combination of various abilities and skills required to choose and engage in a career [11]. Therefore, the ability and competence to perform effectively in culturally diverse settings will be a significant competitive advantage ...

Fashionable clothes resource suppliers are directly linked with resource consumers through the Internet, thus replacing the traditional model. With fashionable clothes as the products for renting, this study helps relevant enterprises understand the factors influencing consumers' adoption of renting and their attitude and behavioral intention towards clothes renting. Taking the theory of planned behavior as the theoretical foundation, this study thus adopts the technology acceptance model (TAM), the innovation diffusion theory (IDT), the structural equation model (SEM), and the collected information to develop a research methodology that is both theoretical and practical. According to the research results, compatibility matters the most in driving consumers to have a positive assessment and perception of online clothes renting in terms of behavior and attitude. Additionally, personal innovativeness has significant effects and can help relevant enterprises find their target markets. In terms of subjective norm, interpersonal relationship also has a significant influence, showing that consumers today pay much more attention to friends' information sources. The self-efficacy of the perceived behavioral control also has a noticeable impact. Therefore, relevant enterprises need to consider the operability of online clothes renting to prevent consumers from feeling frustrated in their ability to use it, thus reducing their use intention.

The rapid growth of smartphones over recent decades has brought a large amount of e-waste as well as an increased carbon footprint. Facing severe environmental issues, sustainable development of smartphones has become a particularly important public concern. The main aim of this study was to clarify the key factor of sustainability for smartphones based on Taiwanese consumers’ perceived values. Apple’s iPhone was taken as an example. First, key factors of perception that smartphone consumers valued the most in terms of sustainable practice were extracted through a factor analysis. Second, demographic differences related to these key factors were investigated through t-test and one-way ANOVA analyses; demographic variables were gender, age, education level, occupation, and income level. The results were as follows: (1) the key factors were “recognition”, “brand advantage”, “service quality”, “usage period”, and “perceived price”; (2) there was a significant difference between genders on the key factors of perceived value (“recognition”, “brand advantage”, and “perceived price”). Specifically, females have higher perceived values of “recognition”, “brand advantage”, and “perceived price” than males; (3) there was a significant effect of income level on the key factor (“perceived price”) of perceived value. Specifically, respondents with an income level of NTD15,001–30,000 had a higher perceived value of “perceived price” than respondents earning NTD30,001–45,000. Among the five key factors, “recognition” and “brand advantage” are primary factors influencing purchase motivation; “recognition”, “brand advantage”, and “service quality” are primary factors that could influence brand loyalty; “perceived price” is the primary factor that affects purchase intention. This study contributes to the green market segmentation of smartphones. The limitations of the study relate to the size and distribution of the samples.