In recent years, the frequency and complexity of emergencies—ranging from natural disasters to pandemics and socio-political crises—have highlighted the need for responsive, context-aware design practices. In this uncertain landscape, design has assumed an increasingly central role in addressing emergencies. However, a shared conceptual framework to clearly define the scope, methods, and potential impact of design in these situations is still lacking. This paper explores the geographies of design for emergencies through a series of educational projects developed within academic contexts. It aims to identify specific areas where design can effectively operate during crises. The proposed conceptual framework seeks to map and analyze how design interventions take shape in emergencies. By analyzing student design experiences from three educational courses (at both bachelor's and master's levels) offered at Iuav University of Venice in Italy, the paper identifies recurring patterns, strategies, and approaches. These insights contribute to the construction of a preliminary system for categorizing design interventions within the field of product design. The resulting framework—encompassing areas such as design for rescue; design for crisis contexts (in terms of both health and recovery); design for protection and safety; design for extreme climate conditions; design for vulnerable populations in emergencies; and intelligent devices for emergencies—is proposed as both a theoretical and practical tool to guide future design practice. This taxonomy is intended as a flexible, preliminary guide to help frame and assess the contributions of design in emergency contexts. For each category, two sample projects will be presented to illustrate the typology and characteristics of the design interventions. This article represents a first attempt at classifying the contributions of product design in emergency contexts and invites the academic community working on these challenges to contribute to the geography initiated in this study.

Keywords: Design for emergency, product design, crisis, design framework, design education.