Techwork: Developing And Validating A Reflective Tool For Impact-Aware Design,
2026
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Techwork: Developing And Validating A Reflective Tool For Impact-Aware Design, Sihui Wu, Marirena Kladeftira, Kim Helmersen, Gudela Grote
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Most assessments of technology impact occur only after its deployment, limiting the ability to address unintended social, cultural, and organizational effects. This paper introduces TechWork, a prospective and reflective tool for evaluating emerging technologies within existing work systems. Grounded in reflective practice tradition, socio-technical systems theory, and contemporary work design research, TechWork guides interdisciplinary teams through structured prompts and impact mappings to examine how their own design choices influence autonomy, skills, collaboration, and job demands. The tool was tested through design-education workshops in an architectural studio, applied to vernacular construction practices where embodied expertise and cultural knowledge are central to …
Opening Portals To The Posthuman: A Pedagogical Framework For Materializing Philosophy,
2026
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Opening Portals To The Posthuman: A Pedagogical Framework For Materializing Philosophy, Carlos Henrique Araujo De Aguiar
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper critiques dominant design pedagogies for their alignment with positivist and modernist paradigms, which limit design’s capacity for serious philosophical inquiry. It argues that Speculative and Critical Design (SCD) pedagogy offers an alternative philosophy, functioning as a powerful method for fomenting critical engagement by enabling students to materialize abstract concepts. Drawing on a case study from an undergraduate course on human-robot-cyborg relations, the paper employs the metaphor of 'portals' to analyse three thematic case studies. Each portal opens onto a distinct philosophical debate: the nature of reality and the self, the biopolitics of the body, and the networked subject. …
Learning From Inexperienced Users’ Early Engagement With Food Tracking,
2026
University of Cincinnati, United States of America
Learning From Inexperienced Users’ Early Engagement With Food Tracking, Isil Oygur, Saadet Tikac Andic
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Current food tracking applications are largely designed to support behaviour change among users who track their food intake to meet predefined goals. As a result, individuals who are curious about food tracking but do not have specific goals remain underserved, limiting the potential of these tools for preventive care. To address this gap, we conducted a three-phase interview study using an existing food journaling application as a probe to reimagine food tracking experiences for inexperienced users. Thirty-one participants used the app for 14 days and discussed their views on healthy eating, food practices, and their tracking experiences. Our analysis identified …
Løp Gård: Revitalyzing History Through Food And Performance,
2026
Nordlandsmuseet, Norway
Løp Gård: Revitalyzing History Through Food And Performance, Marija Griniuk, Barbro Laxaa, Magnus Sivertsen Sørvig
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The current research explores the intersection of archives, history, food, and performance. Based on a case study from Løp Gård, a museum site within Nordlandsmuseet in Norway, the museum performance director (museumsregissør in Norwegian) Barbro Laxaa has developed a book that presents historical recipes created by former generations of Løp Gård’s owners. Laxaa explores methods of performing memory and the spirituality of place, positioning food as a catalyst that unites the lived experience of audiences with archival material and historical recipes rooted in the site. The method of this study is artistic research, which has led to the development of …
Designing Within Superdiversity: Encountering Forms Of Systemic Participation Through Layered Exploration Of An Immigrant Neighbourhood,
2026
Independent Design Researcher
Designing Within Superdiversity: Encountering Forms Of Systemic Participation Through Layered Exploration Of An Immigrant Neighbourhood, Manavi Datta, Carissa Champlin
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper offers a critical account of using a layered systemic design process to surface the complexity of a superdiverse neighbourhood - Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. The approach employs systemic design practices through walking and iterative prototyping to encounter a multiplicity of experiences and forms of participation that shape place. Four methodological contributions are presented: critical vignettes from ethnographic walks framing complexity, systemic visualization from walks with residents, three prototypes of archives and across the paper, accounts of systemic participation shaping place. The layered approach is presented as a form of systemic design participation in itself. It reveals how …
User-Centered Dread: A Lovecraftian Critique Of Design,
2026
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom
User-Centered Dread: A Lovecraftian Critique Of Design, Lewis Urquhart, Emma Lawrie
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper offers a speculative critique of contemporary design practice through the lens of Lovecraftian horror by critically interrogating assumptions embedded in user-centered design theory. Drawing on the oeuvre of 'weird fiction' author H.P. Lovecraft’s cosmically pessimistic mythologies, this paper explores three thematic dimensions - control, user unknowability, alien materiality - to reveal the limitations of human-centred design paradigms. Utlising examples from literature, film, and everyday experience, this critique demonstrates how design’s aspirational narratives, centered on mastery, empathy, and progress, are increasingly inadequate in addressing the complexities of a more-than-human world. The concept of 'user-centered dread' emerges as a central …
Designing For Transversal Play: Experience, Materiality And Connection,
2026
University College Copenhagen, Denmark;
Aarhus University, Denmark
Designing For Transversal Play: Experience, Materiality And Connection, Kim Holflod
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper introduces transversal play as a material, experiential, and relational mode of playful inquiry and connection that traverses disciplinary, institutional, and cultural worlds in pedagogy and education. Drawing on design philosophical, posthumanist, and play theoretical perspectives, transversal play is framed as a situated, collaborative, and world-travelling practice of interbeing, where difference becomes a generative site for collective experimentation, care, and transformation. Through four design-based research examples, the paper explores how transversal play emerges in tangible engagements with materials, experiences, and agencies. These examples illustrate how transversal play can reconfigure roles, soften boundaries, and support speculative, caring, and ethical pedagogical …
Scaffolding Transition Pathways: Integrating Ses Resilience As A Dialogic Tool For Community-Based Co-Design,
2026
University of Auckland, New Zealand
Scaffolding Transition Pathways: Integrating Ses Resilience As A Dialogic Tool For Community-Based Co-Design, Jiarong Hu, Angus Donald Campbell, Gabriela Baron
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper addresses a challenge for Transition Design (TD): how to make long-term, systemic frameworks tangible and actionable in small-scale, community-led practice. We introduce and evaluate the preliminary results of a methodological framework that scaffolds TD backcasting with seven principles of Social-Ecological Systems (SES) resilience for urban gardens. Grounded in a community garden case study in Shanghai, we analyse data from semi-structured interviews and a co-design workshop to evaluate this method in practice. Our findings reveal that this method functions as a dialogic tool, enabling participants to diagnose systemic issues, negotiate trade-offs, and co-create near-term actions with a longer-term vision. …
“I Didn’T Choose To Write My Life”: Trauma-Informed Values In The Design Of Social Care Records,
2026
The Glasgow School Of Art, United Kingdom
“I Didn’T Choose To Write My Life”: Trauma-Informed Values In The Design Of Social Care Records, Marissa Cummings, Gemma Teal
DRS Biennial Conference Series
While there has been a recent interest in trauma-informed design approaches, there is still a need for further research on its use in participatory design (PD). This paper discusses the methodology of a values-driven, trauma-informed PD project which explored how social care records could be redesigned to meet the needs and aspirations of young people (YP). Care-experienced people have often lived through traumatic experiences closely associated with their experiences of care, resulting in a lack of trust in social care professionals. While foregrounding the views of care-experienced people, this project also engaged with professionals, revealing systemic tensions which needed to …
A Researcher And A Guide Talk Into A Paper: A Dialogue On Being Many Things At Once,
2026
Srishti Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India
A Researcher And A Guide Talk Into A Paper: A Dialogue On Being Many Things At Once, Ranjani Balasubramanian, Shweta Srivastav
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper argues that the positionality of the practitioner-researcher often remains centered in the self-reflective question “Who am I?”, fixing identity at the core of a relational web. We propose shifting this inquiry toward “Who can I be?” and “Who can I be in relation?”, recognising identity as fluid, contextual, and co-constituted through relationships. The paper unfolds through a conversational method that unpacks the ongoing PhD research of the first author. The authors navigate this landscape of lived research and practice in dialogue with two simultaneously held identities - the Practitioner-Researcher and the Scholar-Provocateur. Drawing from decolonial praxis, we conceptualise …
Framing The Fuzzy: Mapping Expert Designers’ Problem Framing Through C–K Theory,
2026
University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Framing The Fuzzy: Mapping Expert Designers’ Problem Framing Through C–K Theory, Die Hu, Thomas Woods, Wendy Zhang, Zehong Li, Hongyao Li
DRS Biennial Conference Series
During the Fuzzy Front End (FFE), the early and uncertain stage of the design process, creatively framing design problems plays a critical role in shaping direction and originality of outcomes. While the value of problem framing is well established, the cognitive mechanisms for innovation developed through industrial experience by which expert designers navigate ambiguity, remain comparatively underexamined. Guided by the C–K Theory, this study examines how expert designers leverage experiential knowledge when transitioning between concept (C) and knowledge (K) spaces. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews and real-time framing tasks with 12 expert designers (5+ years of practice). …
Uncertainty In The Studio: Ai As A Material In The Design Of Tangible Products,
2026
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, The
Uncertainty In The Studio: Ai As A Material In The Design Of Tangible Products, Sam Theelen, Giulia Talamini, Roy Op Het Veld, Demi Sparidans, Jesse Joshua Benjamin, Stephan Wensveen
DRS Biennial Conference Series
AI uncertainty has been proposed as a design material that provides practitioners with a foothold to engage with technical attributes of these technologies beyond any given output. However, it is unclear what role AI uncertainty can play in tangible product design processes. In this paper, we investigate this through two design research projects following a studio methodology; combining first-person reflective making with autoethnographic elements, incorporating a variety of AI technologies (e.g., object detection, image and video generation, mesh extraction). Through the analysis of these first-person accounts and reflection on design processes and outcomes, we find qualitatively different types of uncertainties …
Ddenso: An Evaluation-Driven Methodology For Information Visualisations,
2026
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Ddenso: An Evaluation-Driven Methodology For Information Visualisations, Michele Mauri, Elena Aversa, Anna Cattaneo, María De Los Ángeles Briones Rojas
DRS Biennial Conference Series
When designing Information Visualisations for Media and Information Literacy (MIL) initiatives, a significant challenge lies in ensuring that they effectively transmit and consolidate knowledge, particularly when the Information Visualisation literacy of the audience is unknown. Applying a Research through Design approach, this article describes a meta-process: the reflective and iterative path that led to the definition of DDENSO, a replicable design methodology for creating and evaluating Information Visualisations that allow for knowledge retention. Grounded in prior theoretical and practical experience in Information Design, DDENSO emerged through the development of the artefacts for a MIL exhibition exploring the social implications of …
Designing Safer School Routes In Busan, South Korea: Living Lab Approach To Child-Centered Traffic Safety,
2026
Dongseo University, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)
Designing Safer School Routes In Busan, South Korea: Living Lab Approach To Child-Centered Traffic Safety, Yong-Ki Lee
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Urban traffic environments in Busan, South Korea, often remain poorly adapted to the needs of children, despite infrastructure-based safety measures. This paper reports on a Living Lab project for co-creating safer school commuting environments through participatory service design. Researchers, elementary school students, parents, residents, and local authorities collaboratively identified critical issues, generated design ideas, and evaluated context-specific interventions. This paper synthesizes the Living Lab as both a methodological framework and a civic learning ecosystem by tracing how stakeholders’ perceptions, roles, and capacities evolved through iterative co-design, mapping, and prototyping activities. The findings highlight the potential of Living Labs to bridge …
Value Co-Creation, Co-Displacement, And Co-Destruction In Design: Bridging Value And Values In Human-Data Interaction,
2026
The University of Exeter
Value Co-Creation, Co-Displacement, And Co-Destruction In Design: Bridging Value And Values In Human-Data Interaction, Boyeun Lee, Ella Tallyn, Ramprabu Thangaraj, Chris Elsden, Chris Speed
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Data has emerged as a fundamental driver of value creation within design processes, shaping economic, ethical, and environmental outcomes across societies and socio-technical systems. Existing scholarship often frames value in binary terms of co-creation and co-destruction, overlooking the systemic complexities introduced by interconnected, data-intensive systems. This paper introduces the novel concept of value co-displacement to capture how alternative forms of value emerge and displace others within human–data interaction. Drawing on four design research case studies, we investigate how value and values are co-created, co-displaced, and co-destroyed across interconnected, data-intensive systems. We develop a framework that conceptualises the dynamic interplay of …
Emerging Hybrid Human-Genai Workflows To Optimise Human Ideation, Sketching And Design,
2026
Western Sydney University, Australia
Emerging Hybrid Human-Genai Workflows To Optimise Human Ideation, Sketching And Design, Mauricio Novoa Munoz, Juan Antonio Islas Munoz, Alejandro Lozano Robledo
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This article presents findings on the reciprocal relationship between industrial design education and the industry it prepares graduates for. Particularly considering the growing impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) on ideation, sketching, design methodologies, and productivity. To inform this research, industry professionals currently integrating GenAI into their practice were consulted to establish benchmarks and highlight critical areas for updated pedagogical approaches and digital transformation, thereby ensuring that design learning and productivity workflows remain relevant. The study arises from an awareness of current workforce shifts that are anticipated to become more pronounced soon. Rapid technological advancements are driving significant cultural and …
Interface Cultures, Forever: Speculative Prototypes For Technological Awareness,
2026
Università Iuav di Venezia, Italy
Interface Cultures, Forever: Speculative Prototypes For Technological Awareness, Mario Ciaramitaro, Pietro Costa
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As artificial intelligence increasingly takes over the designer’s role in shaping interfaces for services and platforms, a key challenge is how to teach young designers to critically reflect on how design mechanisms shape users and their everyday lives. Interface Cultures, Forever was a design workshop that challenged the conventional notion of the digital interface. Participants were asked to design critical interfaces - concepts that reveal tensions, paradoxes, and invisible mechanisms within digital life. Through speculative and ironic prototypes, students explored how interfaces shape behavior, emotion, and identity. The projects articulate a landscape of cultural critique, where the interface becomes both …
Against The Given: Reframing The Brief For Transformative Design Practices,
2026
Elisava (UVic-UCC), Catalonia, Spain
Against The Given: Reframing The Brief For Transformative Design Practices, Roger Paez, James Auger
DRS Biennial Conference Series
While design transition discourse foregrounds systemic change, pedagogy frequently remains rooted in a solutionist mindset, in which the design brief often functions to perpetuate norms. Drawing on the Erasmus+ project Speculative Urban Futures, we reimagine the design brief as an infrastructure for epistemic plurality. Students collaboratively develop and circulate briefs across groups, harnessing divergence as a means of expanding the design space and unsettling normative expectations. We argue that embracing this tension is central to navigating the “growing pains” of design transitions. By embedding theoretical complexity within viscerality, playfulness and speculation, design education can shift from transmission to transformation—equipping students …
Exploring Common Understandings And Bodily Experiences Of Vulnerability In Design Researchers In Sensitive Contexts,
2026
Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Exploring Common Understandings And Bodily Experiences Of Vulnerability In Design Researchers In Sensitive Contexts, Bhakti Moghe, Roberta Antognini, Sofie Dideriksen, Zhuochao Peng, Francesca Toso, Maarten Houben
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Design researchers are increasingly being exposed to stressors while empathizing with their participants such as feeling emotionally charged, leading them to feeling vulnerable. Currently, there is a lack of clear consensus on how this vulnerability arises and manifests, hindering both individual and collective awareness and support. To address this gap, we conducted an empirical investigation into the vulnerability of design researchers. We conducted exploratory workshops with PhD students working in the field of design research in sensitive settings. The workshops consisted of three approaches to understand researcher vulnerability: (1) Reflecting on individual and collective vulnerability, (2) Exploring embodied experiences, and …
The Memory Loom: Reweaving Curatorial Power Relations With Source Communities In Virtual Reality Cultural Heritage Exhibitions,
2026
Beijing Institute of Technology, China
The Memory Loom: Reweaving Curatorial Power Relations With Source Communities In Virtual Reality Cultural Heritage Exhibitions, Ning Zhao, Ziqiang He, Shijie Ming, Haopeng Yuan, Furui Sun, Ke Jiang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper examines how to redistribute curatorial power in VR heritage exhibitions by designing actionable governance mechanisms. We conceptualize VR heritage exhibitions as political curatorial infrastructures rather than neutral storytelling media. We employ a two-stage RtD framework: first building a baseline VR stage, then embedding two mechanisms: Parallel Weave (narrative authorship) and Asynchronous Governance Lock (publishing/veto rights). With N=32 participants, analysis reveals four tensions: (1) community narratives increased affective engagement and epistemic recognition, yet (2) parallel inclusion also risked narrative segregation; (3) a visible veto established accountable workflows, but (4) this power redistribution also transferred sociopolitical risk onto community representatives, …
