Integrated design is a comprehensive holistic approach to design which brings together specialisms usually considered separately. It attempts to take into consideration all the factors and modulations necessary to a decision-making process.[1]
A few examples are the following:
Design of both a product (or family of products) and the assembly system that will produce it.[5][6]
Design of an electronic product that considers both hardware and software aspects, although this is often called co-design (not to be confused with participatory design, which is also often called co-design).
The requirement for integrated design comes when the different specialisms are dependent on each other or "coupled". An alternative or complementary approach to integrated design is to consciously reduce the dependencies. In computing and systems design, this approach is known as loose coupling.
^Victor Papanek (1972), "Design for the Real World: Human Ecological and Social CHange", Chicago: Academy Edition, p322.