Design As Strategic Competence For The Evolving Energy Industry,
2026
Tongji University, China, People's Republic of
Design As Strategic Competence For The Evolving Energy Industry, Qing Tian, Xiangyang Xin
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Responding to the evolving changes in the energy industry—from government-led infrastructure development to business-driven energy solutions, and nowadays to energy products and services created by householders—this paper explores how design can contribute to this transition and create value across multiple frontlines. The paper begins by outlining the dynamics of the energy industry’s transformation and the reasons behind it, followed by a case study conducted in collaboration with an internationally recognized renewable energy technology company. The case study traces the evolution of design from a peripheral function to a central driver of corporate strategy. It identifies a triple-mechanism model through which …
Positioning Wearable Design: Research-Practice Gaps And A Practice-Informed Model,
2026
Monash University, Australia
Positioning Wearable Design: Research-Practice Gaps And A Practice-Informed Model, Jialu Hou, Rowan Page, Chuan Khoo
DRS Biennial Conference Series
With the emergence of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, wearable design is gathering renewed interest. Although design has an obvious role to play in developing wearables for user acceptance, the understanding of the role of design in wearables is fragmented and poorly understood. Through a scoping review, we highlight the fragmentation of the wearable research field and the lack of design-led approaches to developing wearable devices. To augment this lack of design literature, we analyze six design cases. The result reveals a key tension: wearable practice is rapidly expanding into interdisciplinary, speculative domains, blurring evaluative boundaries. To bridge this gap, we …
Psychological Responses To Green-Wall Layouts In Office Environments: A Virtual-Environment Study,
2026
Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, shcool of Art and Design
Psychological Responses To Green-Wall Layouts In Office Environments: A Virtual-Environment Study, Hengji Wang, Wengbo Li, Yihe Li, Yang Liu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
As office practices improve, green walls are increasingly deployed to ease work stress; however, research on whether their overall geometry yields differential individual effects remains limited.In this study, virtual reality was used to construct four office scenarios: curvilinear green wall (CGW), linear green wall (LGW), polyline green wall (PGW), and no green wall (NGW). Restorative effects after stress induction with the MAST were evaluated using two subjective scales, the fatigue scale and the restorative outcome scale. Results showed that all three green-wall forms significantly promoted post-stress psychological recovery at the subjective level. Further comparisons indicated that CGW produced the strongest …
The Fuzzy Front-End Of Transformation: An Inquiry Protocol For Intervention Design,
2026
Aalto University School of Engineering, Finland
The Fuzzy Front-End Of Transformation: An Inquiry Protocol For Intervention Design, Niti Bhan, Piia Rytilahti
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Donella Meadows’ concept of leverage points - places in complex systems where small shifts may lead to fundamental changes in the system as a whole - is gaining attention for developing a 'leverage points perspective' on systems transformation. Distinguishing a 'system of interest' as well as identifying 'where' and 'how' to intervene for 'whom' are all matters of practical relevance which remain to be properly addressed. We contribute an inquiry protocol to identify opportunities for design actions aiming to trigger transformation in complex human systems. Our system of interest for empirical study is the informal trade ecosystem at the borderlands …
From Compliance Adoption To Co-Design: An Exploratory Study Of Older Adults’ Engagement With Technology,
2026
National University of Singapore, Singapore
From Compliance Adoption To Co-Design: An Exploratory Study Of Older Adults’ Engagement With Technology, Lay Xuan Estherine Goh, Cees De Bont
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The growing presence of digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities for older adults, yet raises concerns around the digital divide, trust, and social inclusion. This exploratory study examines how older adults perceive and engage with technology through a community-based approach. Data were collected from 106 participants using a mixed-methods design that combined the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to assess adoption factors with narrative storytelling to capture contextual experiences. By centring participants’ voices, the study identifies emotional, social, and contextual factors shaping technology engagement. Findings highlight the importance of relational trust, social learning networks, perceived ease of use, …
Consumer-Facing Technologies In Stores: A Longitudinal Study Of Their Impact On Customer Experience,
2026
Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Consumer-Facing Technologies In Stores: A Longitudinal Study Of Their Impact On Customer Experience, Anthony Kent, Bethan Alexander
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper presents a longitudinal study of instore shopping technologies (ISTs) and their contribution to the phygital fashion store. It builds on studies of store design in an omnichannel environment and the use of ISTs for distinctive customer experiences (CX). The aim is to understand changes in fashion retailing brought about by ISTs and the extent to which they influence CX in the customer journey. The research was undertaken in three stages, in 2014, 2019 and 2024 in three of London’s West End shopping streets. The Methodology was replicated in each stage, using observations of store interiors and in-depth, qualitative …
Does Taboo Constrain Self-Knowledge?: A Design-Led Inquiry Into The Intimate Health Of Older Women,
2026
Universidade de Lisboa, ITI/LARSyS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal
Does Taboo Constrain Self-Knowledge?: A Design-Led Inquiry Into The Intimate Health Of Older Women, Renata Rocha, Ayşe Özge Ağça, Teresa Almeida
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Intimate health deals with highly personal functions and experiences related to sexuality, reproduction, and vulnerability. In this paper, we enquire into the private nature and sociocultural constructs of these experiences in relation to self-knowledge. We introduce a design workshop with three women aged 65+ in Portugal, where we investigated intimate care practices throughout the lifecourse. Our findings show that participatory methods can open dialogue and reveal tacit knowledge, and that lifelong learning is critical for healthy ageing. We reflect on our practice in relation to design considerations for designing with taboo and offer future directions for designing for and with …
Perception-Based Design: An Approach For Engineering Sustainable Biobased Materials,
2026
School of Architecture and Product Design, University of Limerick, Limerick V94T9PX, Ireland;
School of Product Design, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand
Perception-Based Design: An Approach For Engineering Sustainable Biobased Materials, Manu Thundathil, Ali Reza Nazmi, Bahareh Shahri, Nick Emerson, Jörg Müssig, Tim Huber
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Biobased composites, which are sustainable materials ideally poised to replace fossil-based raw materials, paradoxically are struggling to gain market acceptance. This underperformance is attributed to poor demand and acceptance of biobased composites, driven by technical and perceptual challenges. However, most research on biobased composites focuses on addressing technical challenges and fails to incorporate perceptual qualities into the material development process. By understanding the role of material characteristics (colour, patterns, texture, roughness) in shaping these qualities, we propose that novel biobased composites could be developed to meet specific consumer product needs. A prediction model for generating the desired material perception could …
Telling Stories, Making Hanzi: Ai-Assisted Co-Creation With Elderly Migrants In Urban China,
2026
Hunan University, China, People's Republic of
Telling Stories, Making Hanzi: Ai-Assisted Co-Creation With Elderly Migrants In Urban China, Yunfei Chen, Wen Zhan, Peiyue Lin, Ziqun Hua, Ying Hu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper explores how older migrants in urban China can record stories that everyday language and design often miss. We ran two co-creation workshops with 10 elders. Activities combined oral storytelling, facilitator-mediated AI assistance, and hand making. Large language models proposed candidate glyphs through a facilitator. Participants crafted new Hanzi to hold their stories. The resulting characters served as memory anchors for later sharing and retelling. Our interpretive analysis shows heterogeneity and adaptive capacity among participants. Participants experienced AI as a creative initiator that lowered barriers to expression and making, especially for those with lower digital literacy. The work challenges …
Environmentality's Integrated Design: Iso Standards As Infrastructural Semiotics,
2026
EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Switzerland
Environmentality's Integrated Design: Iso Standards As Infrastructural Semiotics, Lucia Jalon Oyarzun
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Tracing the emergence of neoliberalism, Michel Foucault introduced the concept of environmentality to describe a form of power in which control is exercised through the design of an increasingly technologically mediated environment to ensure economic circulation. Decades in, environmentality has reshaped how our habitats are conceptualized, designed, and perceived. In many levels, design has stopped being an independent autonomous task to be integrated and automated within the operative nature of our milieux. This integrated design operates through infrastructural semiotics, i.e. texts, codes, guidelines, indicators, benchmarks and protocols as well as other ecologies of biological, social and machinic signs like notifications …
Learning Through Alternatives: Fostering Reflection Through Design Interventions,
2026
Iran University of Art
Learning Through Alternatives: Fostering Reflection Through Design Interventions, Nooshin Ziashahabi, Seyed-Abbas Yazdanfar, Ahmad Ekhlassi
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper investigates how structured pedagogical interventions can foster reflective Learning within design studios. Conducted as an action-based case study with fifteen interior design students, the research integrated principles of Research through Design (RtD) and Action Design Research (ADR) to link educational practice with reflective inquiry. Four iterative interventions, including model making, circulation mapping, vertical connection, and inside–outside exploration, were designed to disrupt habitual thinking and enhance metacognitive awareness. Data from observations, interviews, and evaluations were analyzed through a three-layer framework capturing behavioral, cognitive, and self-regulatory dimensions of reflection. Findings show that reflection did not arise directly from the interventions …
Situated Practices In Digital Jewellery Research: The Collective Voices Of The New Generation Of Jewellers,
2026
Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Situated Practices In Digital Jewellery Research: The Collective Voices Of The New Generation Of Jewellers, Nantia Koulidou, Mette Laier Henriksen
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Digital jewellery is an emerging field of research and practice that combines jewellery practices with microelectronics and employs methodologies from art, craft, design and Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI). This interdisciplinary approach offers exciting possibilities for designing innovative digital devices on the body. However, the field of digital jewellery remains loosely defined and underdeveloped. It is timely to give voice to jewellers and to lead them to shape the many ways in which digital technology can be meaningful to the wearer. This paper synthesises insights from the past five years of digital jewellery research conducted in two jewellery education programs in the UK …
Why Is The Artwork No Longer Enough? Phygital Narratives As An Interplay Between The Real And The Digital,
2026
Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
Why Is The Artwork No Longer Enough? Phygital Narratives As An Interplay Between The Real And The Digital, Alessandra Miano
DRS Biennial Conference Series
The cross-cutting introduction of digital technologies into museum infrastructure activates a process of reinterpretation of digital languages within the museum narrative framework. From this perspective, the spread of phygital phenomena, such as contextual interaction between physical and digital worlds, is recontextualised within the field of cultural heritage and museums, revealing narrative and experiential potential in the capacity to express the evocative component of the spaces and artworks on display, through digital and interactive abilities. The contamination between physical space and digital layer is constructed starting from the stories to be told, orchestrated by the body gestures of visitors. The paper …
Civic Imagining: Participatory Speculative Design And Its Opportunities In Civic Service Design,
2026
Parsons School of Design, The New School, United States of America
Civic Imagining: Participatory Speculative Design And Its Opportunities In Civic Service Design, Isabel Regina Meriales
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This exploratory research discusses participatory speculative design (PSD) in the context of understanding its potential opportunities for civic service design (CSD) and for practicing designers in this growing field. This study employs a critical lens, with consideration to existing criticisms regarding the design practice, and how to navigate through potential barriers in civic service design. The research paper explores the approach of participatory speculative design, and how it might inform civic service design and its designers today.
An Autoethnographic Account Of Noticing In Practice, Through A More-Than-Human Centred Lens.,
2026
Cardiff Metropolitan University, United Kingdom
An Autoethnographic Account Of Noticing In Practice, Through A More-Than-Human Centred Lens., Dr Carol Breen, Kirsten Stevens-Wood
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper investigates what it means to notice in practice. Carrying out field research situated on the edge of the River Taff, Cardiff, we interrogate what it means to notice through a more-than-human centred lens. We arrive at ‘noticing’ as a method from two different perspectives: ethnography and design. Utilising concepts from assemblage theory, deep time thinking and technological entanglement theory, we extend upon scholarly interpretations of noticing through autoethnographic accounts. Our choice of non-human participant (i.e. a river) forces us to consider more-than-human temporalities, geological time and the longue durée. We think about the ways in which technology disrupts …
Designing For Being Mindful: A Non-Instrumental Turn To Mindfulness Technology,
2026
University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Designing For Being Mindful: A Non-Instrumental Turn To Mindfulness Technology, Xiaozhuang Gao, Beverley Hood, Denitsa Petrova
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Mindfulness technology in Human–Computer Interaction research predominantly remains grounded in behaviourist and cognitivist paradigms. Such instrumental design logic emphasises goal achievement and behavioural compliance, conflicting with the core ideals of mindfulness—non-striving, non-judging, and acceptance. Drawing on phenomenological, pragmatist, and embodied perspectives, this paper proposes a non-instrumental approach to mindfulness technology grounded in aesthetic experience. It also introduces a theoretical framework consisting of four experiential dimensions: somatic, temporal, atmospheric and material to reposition mindfulness technology as a medium of experience rather than a means to an end. Through design practice, this paper explores two early interaction prototypes to generate insights about …
Practicing Prototyping Within Transition Design: Materials, Competences And Meanings,
2026
Service Design Lab - Aalborg University (Copenhagen), Denmark
Practicing Prototyping Within Transition Design: Materials, Competences And Meanings, Maria Vitaller Del Olmo
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Recent research highlights the potential of prototyping for promoting sustainable transitions. However, scholars argue that it is essential to modify, and possibly redefine, the conventional use of prototyping to address complex system transformations. This paper enhances the understanding of prototyping within Transition Design for sustainability. Drawing on Social Practice Theory and practice-oriented design, we conceive prototyping as a design practice and define it through three key components: materials, competencies, and meanings. This perspective shifts the emphasis from individual prototyping artefacts to a more comprehensive, contextual understanding of the practice, aligning with the systemic nature of transitions. The empirical findings derive …
Affective Materialities And Textile Agency: The Apron As A Device Of Gender And Class,
2026
Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
Affective Materialities And Textile Agency: The Apron As A Device Of Gender And Class, Camila Andrea Rios Erazo
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This article analyses textiles as living materials endowed with their own agency. In addition to the emotions and memories they evoke, textiles are imbued with vitality. When they occupy an intimate and private space, such as a home, they act as a kind of soft architecture, absorbing the words, gestures, smells, memories and relationships that emerge within that environment. Steeped in everyday aesthetics and imbued with feminine care, these materials face a society with clear and visible power structures as they cross the threshold into the public sphere. This is accentuated when these textiles cover a body, revealing social hierarchies …
An Early-Stage Framework: Exploring Narrative And Co-Design Methods In The Social Care Decision-Making Process For Older People,
2026
Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom
An Early-Stage Framework: Exploring Narrative And Co-Design Methods In The Social Care Decision-Making Process For Older People, Shuzhong Wang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In Scotland’s social care system, decisions about support and care transitions are often shaped by professional and policy discourses, leaving older people and their families with limited involvement in key decisions. Although policy frameworks emphasise “choice and control,” communication remains dominated by professional language, and lived experiences are rarely used to inform care processes. This paper proposes an early-stage conceptual framework that considers how narrative theory and scenario-based co-design may contribute to a more user-centred understanding of decision-making for older people. Within this framework, a by-proxy approach is proposed, in which family carers are positioned to represent aspects of older …
Building Together(Ness): Exploring Constructive Play When Designing For Social–Emotional Learning (Sel) In Late Childhood.,
2026
Kolding School of Design, Denmark
Building Together(Ness): Exploring Constructive Play When Designing For Social–Emotional Learning (Sel) In Late Childhood., Mariagiulia Sardu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper investigates how constructive play can support social–emotional learning (SEL) in late childhood. As children approach adolescence, they increasingly seek emotional support from peers, develop stronger identities and need to engage in self-reflection and personal expression. Despite these needs, SEL programs targeting children aged 8 to 11 are limited. Research has shown that play can support SEL. This study explores how constructive play can foster social–emotional skills and help address this shortage. The project was conducted with a child-centred approach and a design-based research methodology, ensuring a strong link between theory and practice while prioritising children’s perspectives. The fieldwork …
