Is The Trend Your Friend? Exploring The Interior Shape And Material Use Across Australian ‘Car Of The Year’ Winners,
2026
School of Design, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Is The Trend Your Friend? Exploring The Interior Shape And Material Use Across Australian ‘Car Of The Year’ Winners, Jesse Goddard, Rafael Gomez, Shayne Beaver, Robbie Napper
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As car interiors transition toward emerging sustainable materials, exploring historical patterns of material use may inform future iteration and adoption. While automotive exterior literature is abundant, historical studies of interior trend evolution are rare. This study investigates over 60 years of interior material and form trends using Australian Wheels magazine’s annual ‘Car of the Year’ winners (1963-2024). Objective visual observations of 57 car interior image-sets built an abductive-coded matrix, followed by visual pattern analysis. This identified a cyclical trend in metal usage, and an evolutionary transition of gloss to matte surface finishes. Subjective scoring of interior shape using scales of …
Whose Voice Is It Anyway?: Design Resources For Safely Navigating Deceptive Ai Voice Scams,
2026
Swinburne University of Technology
Whose Voice Is It Anyway?: Design Resources For Safely Navigating Deceptive Ai Voice Scams, Dominique Carlon, Awais Hameed Khan, Anthony Mccosker, Tracy De Cotta
DRS Biennial Conference Series
AI-powered voice scams are a fast-evolving public threat, combining rapid advances in synthetic speech technologies with sophisticated social engineering tactics. These scams are difficult to detect, exploit trust and familiarity, often resulting in deeply stigmatising experiences for those targeted. While anyone can be affected by scams, building awareness and confidence in navigating AI-related risks requires approaches tailored to the needs of diverse communities, particularly those who are more digitally excluded or marginalised. To address this, we developed AI & You—a suite of accessible, modular, and adaptable public education resources, collaboratively designed with the digital advocacy group Tactical Tech. We evaluated …
Design Things In Search For Public Concern: A Study Of How Urban Lighting Is Scripted In The City Of Gothenburg,
2026
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Design Things In Search For Public Concern: A Study Of How Urban Lighting Is Scripted In The City Of Gothenburg, Christina Vildinge, Elena Raviola
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Light is gaining attention as a design element in public space. Its relational and ephemeral aesthetics enable urban transformations beyond the built environment, offering new possibilities for sustainable and inclusive cities. Yet, artificial light remains a relatively new concern in planning, traditionally excluded in drawings and regulations. This paper examines how light’s relational materiality is translated within urban planning and design, and travels as a matter of concern in city governance to become a public thing. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, we analyze municipal lighting policymaking in Gothenburg, Sweden, showing how light’s multiple dimensions—its aesthetics, sustainability, safety, environmental —are mediated through …
Designing Narrative Reconstruction From Bamboo Slips: A Rag-Agent Approach For Cultural Scene Generation,
2026
Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, China
Designing Narrative Reconstruction From Bamboo Slips: A Rag-Agent Approach For Cultural Scene Generation, Qijun Tian, Yuqian Yao, Zhengyu Chen, Hanling Zhang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As large language models (LLMs) become increasingly integrated into cultural heritage research, practices such as artifact reconstruction, content generation, and virtual restoration are rapidly advancing. Generative artificial intelligence is unlocking new narrative potential for jiandu (bamboo and wooden slips), offering innovative approaches to cultural expression and historical reconstruction. However, general-purpose language models often face limitations in domain knowledge and semantic reliability, making it difficult to ensure accuracy and traceability in jiandu-based generation. To address these challenges, this study proposes a virtual restoration framework for jiandu narratives based on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and agent mechanisms. Using the Liye Qin slips as …
Design-Driven Reflection: A Children's Metacognitive Cultivation System Integrating Physical Interaction And Digital Narrative,
2026
Hunan University
Design-Driven Reflection: A Children's Metacognitive Cultivation System Integrating Physical Interaction And Digital Narrative, Yi Li, Yanfei Xu, Yu Gao, Zihui Jiang, Xinming Zhou, Xiaofang Jiang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Reflection is a crucial component for the development of children's metacognitive abilities, which is foundational for their overall growth. However, current preschool practices often lack structured approaches for facilitating reflection. To promote children's reflection after autonomous play and thereby foster their metacognitive abilities, this study introduces a reflection system that integrates physical interaction and digital narrative. Using tangible icons, the system guides children in reconstructing their play experiences, which are then converted into personalized digital comics. Implementation in kindergarten settings demonstrates the system's high usability and its effectiveness in eliciting children's metacognitive statements. Furthermore, the socially shared reflective situations significantly …
How Can A Participatory Process Improve The Patient Experience During Oncology Consultations? An Emotional Design Approach,
2026
Aragon Institute for Engineering Research (i3a), Department of Engineering Design and Manufacturing, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain;
Water and Environmental Health-IUCA Research Group, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
How Can A Participatory Process Improve The Patient Experience During Oncology Consultations? An Emotional Design Approach, Yeray Sañudo, Laura Aguado-González, Alba Medina-Castillo, Erika Renedo Illarregi, Anne M. Stiggelbout, Jorge Sierra-Pérez
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study explores how participatory and emotional service design can improve patient experiences and equity. Conducted in a Spanish public hospital, it involved breast and melanoma oncology patients as well as healthcare professionals, highlighting the importance of effective communication during initial consultations to help patients better cope with treatment and engage in self-care. The objective of this study is to analyse how oncology patients’ experiences change, from an emotional perspective, when a co-designed prototype is introduced in initial consultations. A comparative analysis between the initial state and post-redesign process was conducted using the EMPATHS methodology, which identifies patients’ emotional variations …
The Changing Role Of Diagrams In Architectural Publications: From Creative To Communicative,
2026
Ariel University, Israel
The Changing Role Of Diagrams In Architectural Publications: From Creative To Communicative, Hila David, Dortheimer Jonathan
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Diagrams have long been central to architectural reasoning and communication. While their historical and conceptual roles are established, the impact of digitization on their function and representation is underexplored. This study systematically analyzes 245 diagrams from 45 architectural graphics publications between 1980-2025, classifying them by design stage, representation technique, production method, and purpose. The dataset analysis reveals a transformation in published diagrams: while 1980s-1990s diagrams were characterized by being manually produced, exploratory diagrams in early-stage design, the 2000s onward saw almost total digital production, yet representational conventions remained 2D. By the 2020s, diagrams shift toward external communication and coordination in …
From Boundaries To Bindings. Reframing Sound-Driven Design In Narrative Exhibitions,
2026
Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
From Boundaries To Bindings. Reframing Sound-Driven Design In Narrative Exhibitions, Micol Riva, Yi Zhang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Digital technologies and human-centred design approaches have transformed the cultural heritage sector, shifting the focus towards the visitor experience and advocating for collaboration between designers and non-designers. This article draws on design research and museography to discuss the role of sound in the digital cultural heritage, focusing on sound-driven exhibition design practices. The ephemeral nature of sonic experiences challenges the concept of “boundary objects”, reframing them from blueprint-like physical or abstract schemes into an Ingoldian concept of “bindings", promoting mutual understanding and collaboration across different communities. We focus here on two narrative exhibitions we were directly involved in: a participatory …
Pedagogies Under Pressure In A Design-For-Transitions Era,
2026
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Department of Design, Organisation and Strategy, Creative Processes Section, Netherlands.
Pedagogies Under Pressure In A Design-For-Transitions Era, Rebecca Price
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Designers are increasingly called upon to address complex systemic crises, yet these expanding ambitions for impact risk overburdening both practitioners and students. This paper draws attention to the mounting pedagogical pressures within design education as students navigate problem-based, project-based, inquiry-based and transformative learning frameworks. I argue that as systemic aspirations for impact are integrated into curricula, the emotional and cognitive demands on learners intensify, threatening discovery, joy, and sustained engagement. Drawing upon care-based pedagogy and educational scaffolding, I propose approaches to support emerging designers learning to work amidst uncertainty, vulnerability and urgency. Positioned in contrast to design-for-transition literature that emphasises …
Making With Virtual Materials: Reframing “Making As Knowing” For Situated Narratives In Large-Scale Vr,
2026
Beijing Institute of Technology, China
Making With Virtual Materials: Reframing “Making As Knowing” For Situated Narratives In Large-Scale Vr, Shijie Ming, Ziqiang He, Ning Zhao, Haopeng Yuan, Furui Sun, Ke Jiang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Classic “Making as Knowing” relies on tangible resistance from physical materials, but this framework is insufficient for intangible virtual materials in Large-Scale VR, often leading to the “problem of spectacle.” This research explores how “Making as Knowing” is reframed in this context, using a Research through Design (RtD) approach with a novel “Mandated Design Rationale Protocol.” The paper argues that “making” transforms into a rigorous epistemic practice of “systemic and experiential tuning” to generate “Knowledge of Experience” (K-OF). A reception study (N=31) confirmed a strong alignment between the designer’s K-OF targets and visitors’ takeaways. This work offers a traceable RtD …
Perceived Quality And Future Applications Of Transparent Wood: Insights From An International Focus Group,
2026
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Perceived Quality And Future Applications Of Transparent Wood: Insights From An International Focus Group, Eva Vanessa Bruno, Beatrice Lerma, Doriana Dal Palù
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Transparent wood (TW), obtained by removing lignin from natural wood and infiltrating it with bio-resin or bioplastic, has attracted renewed scientific and industrial interest over the past fifteen years as an effective alternative to plastics and glass. The research explores how this perceptual hybrid can be meaningfully presented in professional design contexts to support future use of TW. A twofold action was carried out during a focus group involving 12 international project professionals. On one hand, a sensory–perceptual analysis was conducted to identify the distinctive characteristics of the material; on the other, future application scenarios were explored through creative techniques …
Toward An Ecology Of Imagination In Benwell,
2026
Open Lab - School of Computing- Newcastle University
Toward An Ecology Of Imagination In Benwell, Ivan Pecorari, Clara Crivellaro, Usue Ruiz Arana, Ahmed Kharrufa, Vasilis Vlachokyriakos
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper investigates the emergence of imagination as a participatory ecological process among children and adolescents in a deprived post-industrial area of Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Responding to ongoing debates about representation and agency in More-than-Human design, we advance an ecology of imagination as a theoretical framework. We situate imagination as a dynamic, evolving network of relations among diverse and ephemeral spatial-temporal actors. Drawing on a summer of ethnographic fieldwork, the paper analyses three examples of imaginative play to illustrate how spatial, material, and affective interactions generate conditions for collective creative play between humans and non-humans. The discussion explores …
Can The Thumb Point Effectively In Vr? An Evaluation Of Different 3d Pointing Techniques,
2026
Modern Industrial Design Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
Can The Thumb Point Effectively In Vr? An Evaluation Of Different 3d Pointing Techniques, Haoran Wei, Hanjia Zheng, Ningfeng Tang, Boyi Lian, Chen Feng, Xintang Wang, Chunlei Chai
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Technological advances have made VR interactions more natural, yet fatigue and social awkwardness persist. Microgestures offer a promising solution. However, prior research has focused mainly on the index finger, leaving the thumb’s potential as a stable, low-fatigue ray-casting modality underexplored. This study conducted two experiments to examine whether the thumb can function as an effective technique for 3D pointing in VR. Experiment 1 compared four input methods: VR controller, hand tracking, index-finger pointing, and thumb pointing. The controller was most efficient, while hand tracking provided greater stability but higher fatigue. Both microgestures outperformed hand tracking in efficiency and fatigue reduction. …
From Edgeland To Gentrified-Land: Graphic Communication As Intermediary For Negotiating Place Identity In Hackney Wick, London,
2026
University of Southampton, United Kingdom
From Edgeland To Gentrified-Land: Graphic Communication As Intermediary For Negotiating Place Identity In Hackney Wick, London, Angelina Hang Pan, Jennifer Mchugn, Jingnan Bian
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Hackney Wick has long been regarded as an urban edgeland, marked by significant poverty since the 1860s, with distinctive topographic and socio- economic features. Yet in the early 2000s, it saw a rapid transformation into a creative space as artists began to occupy abandoned warehouses, building a live- work culture and quickly establishing itself as one of Europe’s most vibrant artistic communities. More recently, the development of the London Olympic infrastructure and government-led urban regeneration initiatives have accelerated gentrification and drive for social capital, whilst intensifying social exclusion and community marginalisation amongst disadvantaged communities. This paper integrates visual ethnography (graphic …
When Play Becomes Language: Transforming International Student Experience Through Environmental Art And Eco-Social Design,
2026
Humak University of Applied Sciences, Finland
When Play Becomes Language: Transforming International Student Experience Through Environmental Art And Eco-Social Design, Nina Luostarinen, Melanie Sarantou
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study explores the Miyanohara participatory land art project in Ōmuta City, Japan, as an innovative teaching method for integrating international exchange students into new cultural and environmental settings within higher education institutions (HEIs). By creating a 74-metre installation depicting the Kasumi salamander at a former coal mine site, eleven international students from Kyushu University's Strategic Design course engaged in embodied learning that transcended linguistic and cultural barriers. Using arts-based methodologies and an eco-social design approach, we demonstrate how land art can serve as a powerful tool for HEIs to foster environmental awareness, cultural integration, and transformational learning experiences for …
Designing For Learning Rhythms: A Taxonomy Of Trajectory-Aware Interventions In Online Learning,
2026
Institute of Design at Illinois Tech, United States of America
Designing For Learning Rhythms: A Taxonomy Of Trajectory-Aware Interventions In Online Learning, Seulgi Sylvia Kim, Zach Pino, Paige Safyer, August Neyrey, Richa Sharma, Tzu-Chi Huang, Maria Sekyi
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Online learning platforms give learners unprecedented control over pacing, yet this flexibility often leaves students without support at the moments when they need it most—during transitions between activities, cognitive states, or levels of engagement. Existing self-regulated learning (SRL) interventions tend to rely on fixed schedules or simplistic triggers, overlooking how learners’ trajectories unfold and where they begin to diverge toward productive or unproductive pathways. This paper introduces a framework for trajectory-aware interventions, an approach that integrates temporal design with real-time behavioral diagnostics to identify and support critical transition moments. Through a comparative analysis of major online learning platforms and a …
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 …
Learning Design Capabilities In Public Administrations Through Sandbox Experiments: Insights From A 12-City Eu Network,
2026
Aalborg University
Learning Design Capabilities In Public Administrations Through Sandbox Experiments: Insights From A 12-City Eu Network, Patricia Csobánczi, Nicola Morreli, Rike Neuhoff
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper reports on an EU research project involving 12 cities in a multi-thematic innovation network. The project supports innovation and the testing of innovative procurement practices, and also generates or improves design capabilities in public administrations. Once local challenges were defined and two solution providers were selected for each city, civil servants worked in Sandbox mode, experimenting in their own urban contexts. This paper focuses on the Sandbox phase, which provided an opportunity for knowledge exchange, inspiration, and the diffusion of design capabilities. Given the extreme difference in local practices, knowledge exchange and shared learning must be accurately planned; …
In Search Of The Definitions For Biodesign: Practice, Identity And Biodesign Literacy,
2026
Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering
In Search Of The Definitions For Biodesign: Practice, Identity And Biodesign Literacy, Adela Orcajada, Isabel Ordoñez, Valentina Rognoli
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Since its inception two decades ago, biodesign has consistently been conceptually hazy. It´s an emerging interdisciplinary field lying somewhere between biology and material sciences on one hand, and art and design practice on the other. Despite efforts by academia and industry to define and contextualise biodesign, the lack of shared vocabulary between its two sides and clear standards for who qualifies as a biodesigner continues to hinder its development. This study combines a literature review to examine how biodesign has been defined over time, alongside a survey that analyzes who identifies as a biodesigner. The aim is to explore the …
Tectonic Computation: Crafting Logic Through Material And Geometry,
2026
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Tectonic Computation: Crafting Logic Through Material And Geometry, Dimitris Papanikolaou
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper reframes computation as a design practice rather than a technological application. Through the construction of mechanical computing artifacts that harness environmental energy and material constraints, it demonstrates how designing can become a form of computational inquiry. The work positions architecture as a discipline capable of foundational contributions to computation by treating material, geometry, and energy as active agents of logic and memory. The study advances two main contributions: 1) It reconceptualizes computation as a physical and architectural phenomenon rather than a symbolic or digital one. 2) It demonstrates, through a pedagogical experiment, that computation can be enacted and …
