Quilt: Designing A Values-Driven Toolkit For Surfacing Participant-Led Impact Assessment Of Participatory Design And Making Experiences,
2026
Arts University Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Quilt: Designing A Values-Driven Toolkit For Surfacing Participant-Led Impact Assessment Of Participatory Design And Making Experiences, Emma Shercliff, Asha Ward
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Conventional impact assessment tools can overlook subtle sensory, cognitive and interpersonal transformations experienced in participatory design and making interventions by focusing on metrics, often retrospectively, rather than facilitating shared dialogue-based learning. The process of designing the QUILT toolkit discussed in this paper is anchored in a values-based approach that aims to prioritise participant-led narratives of discovery and change. Working with seven researcher-practitioners undertaking active projects in varied interdisciplinary and socially engaged design and making contexts, and their participant groups, we designed and tested questions, presented as a set of cards, for prompting dialogue and co-reflection. Findings highlight a) the significance …
From Passive List To Active Script: Menu Design As A Strategic Agent For Restaurant Sustainability Transformation,
2026
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China)
From Passive List To Active Script: Menu Design As A Strategic Agent For Restaurant Sustainability Transformation, Huiyi Zhang, Keren Zhang, Yijia Jiang, Kin Wai Michael Siu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Restaurants face the challenge of lacking systematic integration pathways in their sustainability transition (ST), struggling to fully incorporate sustainable principles throughout their operational systems. In this context, menu design demonstrates significant potential as a strategic tool to drive comprehensive ST. This study employs Goffman's dramaturgical theory to conceptualize restaurants as "social theaters," examining how menus function as "scripts" to systematically drive ST. Through analysis of eight representative cases, the research: 1) develops an integrated framework comprising three strategic dimensions, including nine key design intervention tactics that provide concrete implementation pathways for restaurant ST; 2) reveals three agency mechanisms of menus, …
Sticky Vitalities: Developing Play Design Sensitivities Through Material-Affective Practices,
2026
University College Absalon; Denmark
Sticky Vitalities: Developing Play Design Sensitivities Through Material-Affective Practices, Jennifer Ann Skriver, Helle Marie Skovbjerg
DRS Biennial Conference Series
While design for play has shown how materials invite and shape engagement, less attention has been given to how material encounters may hold participation over time. This article examines how participation is sustained through material–affective dynamics in early childhood play. Drawing on Spinoza’s (1985) concept of potentia, Ahmed’s (2004a, 2010a, 2010b) notion of stickiness, and Slaby et al.’s (2019) affective arrangements, the study explores how capacities and orientations unfold in situated encounters. Based on design-based research in Danish daycare, the analysis centers on a vignette in which a child remains in shared play through engagement with tape. The analysis shows …
Reflective Practices For Esg: A Framework For Organisational Learning And Transformation,
2026
Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering - Design and Manufacturing, Aarhus University
Reflective Practices For Esg: A Framework For Organisational Learning And Transformation, Kamila Kunrath, Devarajan Ramanujan
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) in organisations is often reduced to metric-driven compliance, overlooking the collective sensemaking required for systemic transformation. Through a longitudinal case study, we traced the evolution of ESG strategy and sensemaking processes across organisational layers. The study highlights (i) the nature of reflection determined by role, (ii) three recurring types of reflection, and (iii) the key transitions that marked the ESG journey in the case company. The results indicate that structured reflection can connect measurement with meaning, transforming ESG into a co-created learning system. These findings inform the Reflective ESG Learning Framework (R-ESG-LF), a learning infrastructure …
Care-Full Co-Production — An Aotearoa Case Study,
2026
Massey University of New Zealand, New Zealand
Care-Full Co-Production — An Aotearoa Case Study, Anjuli Clare, Anna Brown
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Embedding an ‘ethics of care’ into relational and collaborative design research practices benefits from a reflexive and reflective iterative approach. Through this process new ways of elevating multiple forms of knowing are developed, power asymmetries are disrupted, and inclusivity can be expanded. While care may often be included in our mindsets and principles for design research, care itself is often invisible or under talked about. Using the example of our project — Care-full Co-production — a practical perspective on co-producing research is taken. Through a case study of women’s health in Aotearoa New Zealand, this perspective highlights the everyday acts …
Archives And Graphic Memory: 1980s Brazilian Rock Album Covers As Cultural Heritage,
2026
FAUUSP, Brazil
Archives And Graphic Memory: 1980s Brazilian Rock Album Covers As Cultural Heritage, Paulo Eduardo Moretto, Priscila Lena Farias
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The centrality of modernist and institution-centred narratives has narrowed the scope of Brazilian graphic design throughout history, limiting its cultural and epistemological diversity. This article explores the value of researching graphic artefacts normally understood as not pertinent to design research, focusing on album covers from the Brazilian rock scene of the 1980s. Based on the formation of an archive of 155 covers, this study emphasizes the need for appropriate methods to analyse mass-culture artefacts whose wide circulation shapes collective design practices and visual imaginaries. By reflecting on the criteria of selection, interpretation, and preservation that determine what is collected, analysed, …
From Tool-First To Intention-First Pedagogy: A Framework For Evaluating And Selecting Empathy Tools In Design Education,
2026
MADA, Monash Univeristy, Australia;
IDC, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
From Tool-First To Intention-First Pedagogy: A Framework For Evaluating And Selecting Empathy Tools In Design Education, Akanksha Singh, Ilya Fridman, Purba Joshi, Daphne Flynn
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Design education has embraced empathy, developing a diverse repository of tools and methods for cultivating empathic engagement. Yet guidance on how or why these tools should be selected remains limited. Current practices often conflate availability with appropriateness, with tools chosen based on familiarity or convenience rather than empathic fit or contextual suitability. This leads to shallow engagement, limiting the empathic understanding needed for effective design outcomes. This paper proposes a criteria-based framework for evaluating empathy tools, grounded in psychological theory and established empathic design frameworks. The proposed criteria offers a structured lens to assess how tools operate, for whom, and …
The Place Of Aesthetics In Museums,
2026
Breda University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, The, University of Bergamo
The Place Of Aesthetics In Museums, Licia Calvi
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper addresses the question of aesthetics in museums. It does so starting from the work of Hilde Hein, a philosopher who posited that the shifts museums have gone through from classical to new museology has estranged them from their core role in society and brought them too close to other forms of entertainment. This assumption will prompt a discussion on the role technology plays in museums, beyond museum practice but more fundamentally into what the meaning of using technology in museums is and of what the implications of this use are, also from an aesthetical perspective.
Weaving Local Knowledge Into Design Education: Situated Learning In Ethnic Regions Of Western Sichuan,
2026
Minzu University, People's Republic of China
Weaving Local Knowledge Into Design Education: Situated Learning In Ethnic Regions Of Western Sichuan, Yao Tian, Xuan Liu, Xiaoyi Su, Ziyan Zeng, Tingxuan Zhou
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper presents a case study of the ‘Rural Fieldwork and Design Practice’ course at the School of Fine Arts, Minzu University of China, examining how situated learning in ethnic regions of Western Sichuan cultivates public design sensibilities. By engaging students in deep cultural immersion – from intangible cultural heritage documentation to community-based design interventions – the curriculum transforms local ethnic knowledge into plural pedagogical resources. The study analyses how students develop relational competencies through ethnographic fieldwork, collaborative design exhibitions, and cultural creative markets. Findings demonstrate that this situated approach fosters political sensitivity toward ethnic cultures, nurtures cross-cultural collaborative reflexes, …
Reframing Design Success: Care As A Chain Of Responses,
2026
Shantou University: Shantou, Guangdong, CN
Reframing Design Success: Care As A Chain Of Responses, Ruiqi Yao, Ziwei Lin, Yiying Wu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper emerges from a reflection on what counts as success in design. We examine how the relational qualities of care can guide design practice, approaching design as a continuous and socially embedded practice of responsiveness. Drawing on two projects in China, an age-friendly digital service initiative and a community governance intervention, we analyse how design unfolded through incremental adjustments, shared responsibilities, and situated betterments. Across both contexts, value developed through chains of responsiveness involving institutional uptake, resident participation, and evolving collaborations that extended the influence of the work beyond the designers’ immediate involvement. By bringing design into dialogue with …
More-Than-Human Data Practices,
2026
Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
More-Than-Human Data Practices, Elisa Giaccardi, Sara Lenzi, Chris Speed, Vasiliki Tsaknaki, Jiwei Zhou
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Grounded in post-anthropocentric and post-humanist perspectives, this track explores more-than-human data practices that challenge dominant data paradigms and cultivate alternative modes of engagement with the world, from the microbial to the planetary. Rather than treating non-human life as objects of measurement and classification, as data subjects, the contributions in this track ask what it would mean to recognize organisms, systems, and processes as data co-producers, whose perceptual worlds, temporal rhythms, and relational entanglements actively participate in what counts as knowledge. This reorientation carries profound consequences for the designer. Co-producing data with more-than-human others is a political, epistemic, and ontological commitment …
Queer(Ing) Design Research/Practice,
2026
Queering Futures Research Studio, Identity Research Lab
Queer(Ing) Design Research/Practice, Jess Parris Westbrook, Jessica Meharry, Valentina Ferreri, Chenxi Cui
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Paper track Queer(ing) Design Research/Practice, explores how Queer(ing) operates in design as a mode of inquiry, intervention, and worldmaking. Queer(ing) is positioned as a critical practice that challenges normativity, resists fixed categories, and generates alternative possibilities across intentions, processes, and outcomes. The track is organized into three interrelated clusters: Queer(ing) Method/ologies, Queer(ing) Experience, and Queer(ing) Complexity. Together, these clusters trace an expanding arc: from transforming how design is done, to examining what design generates, to engaging dynamic, entangled, complex phenomena. Across diverse contributions, authors use a range of approaches: activist, practice-based, experimental, and theoretical approaches to reimagine epistemologies, change experiential …
Food Morphology: Food Forms Matter,
2026
UBA, Argentine Republic
Food Morphology: Food Forms Matter, Pedro Reissig
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This research is guided by the general question: Why do foods have the forms they do, and what is the best form for a particular food? The possible answers are multiple and complex, and involve a mix of factors, starting with ingredients and their transformative technologies, immersed in geographical and cultural contexts, informed by the customs, needs, tastes, and food functions of each place and time. These factors, and the interactions between them, constitute the determinants of a particular food's shape or form. Food morphology is defined by the author as the study of the generation, transformation and reading of …
Unfashionable Knowledge: Patina, Repair, And The Philosophy Of Endurance In Design,
2026
RMIT University Vietnam, Vietnam
Unfashionable Knowledge: Patina, Repair, And The Philosophy Of Endurance In Design, Mitchell Vassie
DRS Biennial Conference Series
What if the future of fashion lies not in novelty, but in endurance? This paper proposes patina, the visible traces of wear, repair, and time, as a philosophical lens for rethinking design’s relationship to sustainability, identity, and value. Drawing on collaboration with Red Thai (Thái Đỏ) artisans in Vietnam, the research reimagines denim not as commodity, but as memory cloth: garments as temporal archives of land, ritual, and community. The work asks whether fashion can exist outside imperatives of novelty and speed, locating beauty instead in incompleteness, opacity, and repair. By framing patina as “unfashionable knowledge,” it positions endurance and …
Extending Futures Literacy To Speech Scientists And Technologists,
2026
Tilburg University, Netherlands, The
Extending Futures Literacy To Speech Scientists And Technologists, Sjuul Bos, Simone Ashby, Julian Hanna
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As speech technologies make rapid strides, facilitating multi-tasking, workflow automation, and cross-cultural collaboration, attention to the adverse effects of such technologies (e.g., legacy bias and inequities) continues to lag, exposing the need for non-designers, such as speech scientists and technologists, to critically assess the ethical implications of their work. In this paper, we present the art-based futuring methods used in a speech technology summer school we co-organized for guiding students in exploring the unintended consequences of speech technology outputs. By sharing our methods and pedagogical insights, we aim to help educators promote discussions on themes like fairness and inclusivity and …
Transitional Materials And Collaborative Craft: European–Indonesian Design Practices From The Design Matters Lab Programme Toward A Resilient Future,
2026
Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom
Transitional Materials And Collaborative Craft: European–Indonesian Design Practices From The Design Matters Lab Programme Toward A Resilient Future, Xingyu Tao, Samantha Vettese
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Design Matters Lab (DML) was a collaborative design programme that brought together ten emerging designers from Europe and Indonesia for an online and in-person design residency in Bandung, Indonesia. This paper explores the concepts, methods, and outcomes of DML, offering a potential blueprint for small-sized international businesses seeking to integrate crafting techniques and local, sustainable materials into their manufacturing processes. The project also proposes a methodology for teaching sustainability in design through meaningful environmental engagement rooted in local collaboration and applied practice. It emphasises the importance of working with local communities and using locally available waste and bio- materials. The …
Cuia Colab: Toward A Design Across Species, Worlds And Relations,
2026
Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas-Artes, Centro de Investigação e de Estudos em Belas-Artes (CIEBA)
Cuia Colab: Toward A Design Across Species, Worlds And Relations, Andrea Bandoni
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Cuia Colab emerged from a design research project seeking to explore whether biodesign practices in the Amazon could foster equitable exchanges between traditional knowledge and contemporary design. The research combined theoretical and empirical methods, beginning with a literature review and a case study focused on the cuias of Santarém. Subsequent stages involved active field investigation through observation, collaboration with traditional cuia artisans, biodesign experiments integrating living organisms, and a co-created exhibition. Grounded in a situated, multispecies, and pluriversal approach, Cuia Colab revealed both the challenges and possibilities of establishing ethical and reciprocal relations between design and the Amazonian context. The …
The Paradox Of Richness: A Discourse-Centered Framework For Equitable Visualization,
2026
School of Design, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, China
The Paradox Of Richness: A Discourse-Centered Framework For Equitable Visualization, Fangbo Wu, Canyu Jiang, Yanlin Yin, Yonghong Liu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The proliferation of new technologies, notably GenAI, alongside augmented and virtual reality, has produced a paradoxical situation in visualization practice: while offering unprecedented multimodal richness, their complexity erects new barriers to entry, thereby exacerbating inequality and undermining design's democratic promise. Although research at the micro-level of visualization techniques abounds, a critical and systematic methodology for addressing the inherent power dynamics and design justice issues from meso- and macro-perspectives remains conspicuously absent. This paper intervenes by adapting an analytical framework from Critical Discourse Analysis to embed design justice within visualization practice. We propose a four-layer framework—Culture, Context, Meaning, and Expression (CCME)—as …
Care-Full Systems: Applying Tronto’S Ethics Of Care Into Systemic Design Processes,
2026
University of Antwerp, Faculty of Design Sciences, Belgium
Care-Full Systems: Applying Tronto’S Ethics Of Care Into Systemic Design Processes, Maud Gruyters, Kaat Kenis, Ivo Dewit, Alexis Jacoby
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper explores how care ethics, particularly Joan Tronto’s five dimensions of care, can enrich systemic design practices by embedding ethical and political reflections into co-design processes. The paper uses Tronto's framework as an ethical guide through the systemic design methodology of Jones and Van Ael and a retrospective case study involving children with incarcerated parents. It highlights how care ethics can guide designers in navigating complex relational dynamics, redistributing power, and fostering trust and responsiveness in co-creative processes. The study emphasizes the importance of designer positionality, expectation management, and co-ownership, especially when working with vulnerable groups. Ultimately, it proposes …
Scaffolding Oceans Futures: Design For Embedded, Embodied, And Emergent Thinking,
2026
Simon Fraser University, Canada
Scaffolding Oceans Futures: Design For Embedded, Embodied, And Emergent Thinking, Gillian Russell, Katherine Reilly, Jihyun Park, Lauren Thu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Citizen science and citizen data are widely used to engage with anthropogenic effects such as pollution and species loss. However, their focus on data gathering and objectivization can result in dispassionate learning. Futures scaffolding offers an alternative design approach that reimagines how environmental knowledge can be generated, experienced, and materialized. Positioned within co-speculative design, this practice uses design methods to make visible what data represents and to cultivate ocean futures. This paper mobilizes a workshop kit called Monsters of Marine Debris (MMD) as an object of design to illustrate futures scaffolding. MMD makes data a source of futures-making rather than …
