The paper explores how engineering students approach eco-design as novices to the topic. Only few observational studies focus on novice eco-design practice, whilst it is a classical topic in traditional design research. This gap is addressed by an observational study of six multidisciplinary groups of European engineering students. The eco-design task consists in the environmental performance improvement of a vacuum cleaner. Two viewpoints are introduced and compared: a traditional life-cycle and a stakeholder perspective. Main results show that (1) novices tend to start the task by searching for solutions whatever the method; (2) environmental framing of the task is easier with a stakeholder viewpoint than with a life cycle one.
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