Everything around us – products, environments, even services – is designed with different objectives in mind. It could be a matter of price and quality, a unique handicraft item, or global mass production. Or of accessibility, user-friendliness and feelings. Design is not only glass, chairs and mobile phones; it's also playgrounds, forms, roads, sewing machines, rock drills, work schedules, and production lines. Design is not some isolated universal tool. But using design can bring about some radical changes. Irritation can be converted into inquisitiveness, disappointment into satisfaction, isolation into accessibility, alienation into participation and environmental problems into development opportunities.Issues of working life and design will also be raised. Day centres, schools, hospitals, industries, public transport, the public sector and many other workplaces are facing immense challenges in a process of change where design can play a pivotal role. The year 2005 is Sweden's Year of Design.