1 Proceedings of the First International Conference on Integration of Design, Engineering and Management for innovation IDEMI09, Porto, Portugal, September 14-15, 2009. CONTRIBUTION OF PRODUCT DESIGN METHODOLOGIES RESEARCH Maria João Félix Design Department, School of Technology of Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Barcelos, Portugal mfelix@ipca.pt Paula Tavares Design Department, School of Technology of Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Barcelos, Portugal ptavares@ipca.pt ABSTRACT This research aims to enhance, once more, the interventive value of Design in our contemporaneity. The selection of a set of analysis areas in the domain of Design was one of our concerns, as well as the relative requirements of the products and respective methods of conception. This paper starts with the investigation history and also the methodologies in the Design area in the objective to make a point of the situation and to give a strategic contribution, in the way of its solid and interventional aspect in the economic social and academic areas. In spite of the factual collects on what was done, who done or is doing, about scientific investigation in the Design area, is fundamental to notice the impact of these works in the professional activities or in the entities that, by chance, have benefited of their results, as well as reflect on the vision and expectations that those agents have relatively to the academic investigation in this area. In the global society information, on our days, the enterprises must be concentrated in the task of maintaining competitively and accepting new challenges. Some subjective properties of Design are also subject of analysis, for the importance that they have assumed in the persecution of the design project, like interactions, sensorial aspects, design for pleasure, among others, looking users satisfaction, for thus being to project and construct fruition objects which can be competitive in the global market. All these various aspects must always be linked either to the conception process or to the user satisfaction. INTRODUCTION In order to make a point on design research, several design professors asked, in conferences, papers and lectures - what is design research and what is it for? Can Design be considered just as service activity? Ezio Manzini (2000) answer is: “a service that's needed by the production, but becomes a production activity in itself”. Which means design, as other Knowledge disciplines, is focused on innovation by Knowledge transference, its application in the real world, a symbiotic relationship between research, economic and commercial values. Traditional design schools invested in training their students in design processes, but like Maldonado (2000), we cite Alexander von Humboldt, who two centuries ago said: the role of the university must not involve only training but also, to an equal extent, research. So, the first step is done on Higher Education, the recognition, and then, the implementation of design research, as we can see on the substantial increase of Design PhDs all over the world. But we have to consider that design research does also means researching on multiple fields, as