In order to fully utilise a 3D simulation software capable of evaluating hand-guided human-industrial robot collaborative (HIRC) work tasks, there is a need of a HIRC design process for early production development stages. This paper proposes a HIRC design method that uses the possibilities of the demonstrator software in the HIRC workstation design process. The method is based on Pahl and Beitz's engineering design method; it interprets all their phases and activities into HIRC design-specific ones.