Visualising Values In Women’S Digital Labour: Design Ethics For Assembling Social Justice,
2026
Tongji University
Visualising Values In Women’S Digital Labour: Design Ethics For Assembling Social Justice, Li Zhang, Yujia Liu
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper examines how visualising values in women’s digital labour shapes recognition and justice in platform-driven environments. Visualisation is advanced as a design-ethics strategy for surfacing and negotiating undervalued work that remains obscured in digital economies. Grounded in Nancy Fraser’s justice framework and feminist epistemologies centred on situated and embodied experience, the study positions visualisation as a means to reveal and contest structural devaluation. A three-phase ethical practice is developed: ethical narration to make hidden value perceptible, ethical prototyping to question recognition mechanisms, and ethical interaction to build collective participation in decisions about representation. Insights draw on sociological and anthropological …
Tracing Oppression Through Things: Facilitating A Slow Critique In Post-Anthropocene Design,
2026
Internationale Filmschule Köln (IFS), Germany
Tracing Oppression Through Things: Facilitating A Slow Critique In Post-Anthropocene Design, Thanussayan Karunakaran, Dilina Nawarathne
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper reconsiders what it means to be critical in design studies under Post-Anthropocene conditions. It proposes slow relational critique as an orientation. In doing so, it stays with the fragile entanglements through which oppression is enacted by both human and more-than-human entities. Drawing on Actor–Network Theory, the paper revisits a case of a cradle in a caste-oppressed community in Sri Lanka to show how power and inequality are relationally produced through mundane associations of “things.” The analysis demonstrates how critique can remain empirical and attentive to objects while resisting the purification of problems into grand Anthropocene social explanations. Rather …
Reciprocal Sensing: Expanding Body Mapping Through Lenca And Mestizo Ontologies Of Relational Embodiment,
2026
Georgia Institute of Technology
Reciprocal Sensing: Expanding Body Mapping Through Lenca And Mestizo Ontologies Of Relational Embodiment, Thaís Alvarenga Medina, Michael Nitsche
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Reciprocal Sensing is an alternative way of body mapping that draws from Indigenous Lenca ontologies, which understand matter as animate and relational. It expands body mapping to account for culturally specific contexts and ways of knowing. The proposed method invites participants to (1) link each felt experience to a worldly source (the non-human agent or co-actor) and (2) visualize the direction of these sensory flows. Using an autoethnographic approach, iterative body mapping sessions revealed recurring patterns of exchange between the body and its material environment. This informed the development of Reciprocal Sensing as a culturally situated, more-than-human perspective to soma …
Designing The Service Exposome: Applying The D4l Unclock Framework To Longevity Challenges,
2026
University of Michigan, Urban Technology;
d-mix lab
Designing The Service Exposome: Applying The D4l Unclock Framework To Longevity Challenges, Sheng-Hung Lee
DRS Biennial Conference Series
In an emerging longevity society, reimagining social infrastructure has become increasingly essential. The World Health Organization (2025) projects that the global population aged 60 and over will nearly double from 12% in 2015 to 22% by 2050, raising urgent questions about how people live and interact with services over time. This study introduces the service exposome, extending Wild’s (2005, 2012) exposome concept to consider the cumulative service-related exposures that shape well-being across the lifespan. Using the Design for Longevity (D4L) Unclock Framework—a tool that helps designers explore intersections across longevity, service, system, design, technology, and society—the research examines how early-stage …
A Design Continuum For Autographic Sonification,
2026
Independent, Graz, Austria
A Design Continuum For Autographic Sonification, Kajetan Enge, Dietmar Offenhuber, Sara Lenzi
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Sonification and visualization practices usually take "data" as a given, without considering the complex ways in which data is collected or the complexity of the phenomena that data represents. Autographic design is an emerging field approaching this issue by starting the design process before data collection with the phenomenon itself, treating data as a material trace rather than an abstract reference. An autographic display uses a phenomenon's self-inscription, rather than its mediation and representation in symbolic encodings. While the existing framework of autographic design has a strong relation to the visual domain, a phenomenon may also reveal itself through its …
From Citizen Innovation Labs To Social Transformation: Analysing The Conectando Cozinhas Case Through The Lens Of Infrastructuring,
2026
Federal Institute of Santa Catarina, Brazil
From Citizen Innovation Labs To Social Transformation: Analysing The Conectando Cozinhas Case Through The Lens Of Infrastructuring, Laryssa Tarachucky, Diego Hernando Florez Ayala, Aksel Ersoy
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Citizen Innovation Labs (LabICs) have emerged as experimental infrastructures for collective design and civic transformation. Operating in close partnership with public institutions, these laboratories create collaborative spaces where urban publics co-design responses to issues of shared concern. Yet, little is known about how these laboratories operate as long-term supports for community-driven initiatives beyond their initial phases of experimentation or incubation. This paper investigates how LabICs mobilise processes of infrastructuring to support broader cycles of social transformation by analysing the case of Conectando Cozinhas, a citizen-led initiative developed within LabIC Novale (Brazil). Using a retrospective qualitative case study, the research reconstructs …
Sketch-Based Ai: How Ai-Influence Levels Shape Perceived Authorship And Creativity In The Design Process,
2026
North Carolina State University, United States of America
Sketch-Based Ai: How Ai-Influence Levels Shape Perceived Authorship And Creativity In The Design Process, Byungsoo Kim, Haeyoung Kim
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Understanding perceived authorship and creativity is critical for novice designers to improve efficiency and engagement in human-AI collaboration. This study explores how different AI influence levels (100% = high human-drawing influence, 0% = low drawing influence) affect perceived authorship and creativity, and how these levels relate to design intents that shape authorship and support the process-oriented nature of creativity. Vizcom workshop post-surveys measured perceived authorship and creativity (N=45). Regarding authorship, when high AI influence (low authorship threshold), basic resemblance to the sketch was enough; when low AI influence, participants expected signature cues and minimal AI changes. Regarding perceived creativity, high …
Cultivating A Teaching Mindset: Persuasive Strategies For Developing Design Thinking Skills,
2026
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Cultivating A Teaching Mindset: Persuasive Strategies For Developing Design Thinking Skills, Min-Yuan Ma, Eric Chen-F Hsieh, Pin-He Huang, Jia-Chi Chih
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study proposes a cognitive framework for design thinking education that translates expert-derived strategies into systematic, classroom-ready moves. Drawing on in-depth interviews with experienced design thinking educators in higher education, a reflective thematic analysis surfaced seven themes and sixteen persuasive strategies from teaching practices developed through university-level design thinking workshops and courses: simplifying processes, bridging gaps, constructing repetitive experiences, providing contextual empowerment, adding evaluation criteria, changing perspectives, and introducing breakthroughs. Three teaching mindsets anchor these strategies: lowering the entry threshold, expanding engagement with complex, public-facing issues, and foregrounding authentic, first-hand experience. Integrating these strategies with pedagogical content knowledge supports plural …
Linking An Attention-Based View Of The Firm And Critical Design In Strategizing: Attention To Harmful Consequences,
2026
University of Lapland, Finland
Linking An Attention-Based View Of The Firm And Critical Design In Strategizing: Attention To Harmful Consequences, Tarja Pääkkönen, Satu Miettinen
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This article discusses an attention-based view of the firm ABV in the context of situated organisational decision making and strategising at the intersection of design and management. To encourage the articulation of contradictions among professionals in strategy making, a speculative approach is proposed with alternative games. An open conversation on the assumptions guiding attention in strategising may benefit from diverse design approaches that create attentional engagement to improve neglected user situations. Harmful consequences among (senior) users of modern technologies are used as examples.
Agreements For Collective Real-Time Sketching Practice In Design Research,
2026
Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Agreements For Collective Real-Time Sketching Practice In Design Research, Mafalda Gamboa, Elvia Vasconcelos
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Designers often converse without speech, for example, through sketches and artifacts. These conversations transverse across layers through gestures, time, and materialities. In this paper, we report on a demonstration at a design conference, where we brought together the practices of two designers, into a collaborative real-time sketching environment. Through this unfolding exchange, we explore how sketching can move beyond individual expression to become a collective emergent record of thought and relation. The demo drew together digital and physical media while listening to a theoretical prompt, in a shared conversation with the audience. From this process and its tensions, we derive …
The Hauntology Of Generative Ai In Design,
2026
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden;
University of Gothenburg, Sweden
The Hauntology Of Generative Ai In Design, Michael Heron, Klara Aune, Mafalda Gamboa, Sofia Thunberg, Negin Hashmati, Pauline Belford
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is a fundamentally hauntological technology. This paper interrogates that character of contemporary AI systems and explores why this feature undermines the goals of design research. We argue the need for an exorcism of GenAI, or at least a constructive rebellion against the ghosts it systematically produces. GenAI is convergence-driven and nuance-averse. It aims for reasonableness as a first-order output. Its training data reflects a profound anthropocentrism that extinguishes plurality. As a result, GenAI accelerates the foreclosure of possible worlds by preferentially reproducing that which is statistically probable and culturally dominant. By contrast, design relies upon idiosyncrasy, …
Generative Ai In Digital Cultural Heritage Design Workflows: A Systematic Literature Review,
2026
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China
Generative Ai In Digital Cultural Heritage Design Workflows: A Systematic Literature Review, Yuyao Zhang, Tuotuo Yang, Meng Li, Yun Wang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Generative AI is increasingly shaping the workflows of digital cultural heritage design practice, introducing new approaches to creative production, interpretation, and collaboration. Existing research has examined how generative AI influences general design workflows and supports creative practices in different domains. However, limited attention has been given to how these technologies participate in the design workflows of digital cultural heritage. Compared with other design contexts, digital cultural heritage design requires balancing creative exploration with the accurate transmission of heritage knowledge, which makes its workflows more complex. To address this gap, this study conducts a systematic literature review to examine how generative …
Make It So(Und): Speculative Sonic Metaphors As Boundary Objects For Design Research,
2026
Carleton University, Canada
Make It So(Und): Speculative Sonic Metaphors As Boundary Objects For Design Research, Kc Collins
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper investigates how speculative sound design can employ metaphors as boundary objects to mediate shared understanding across users and designers. Because sound is ephemeral and difficult to describe, participants often rely on metaphor, drawing on nature, human behaviour, or emotion. We surveyed 72 people online to respond to textual prompts with descriptions of futuristic sound objects, and analysed their responses using several methods. We present results and outline suggestions for re-deploying sonic metaphors as design prompts, and discuss their potential to support sound design.
The Meandering Practitioner: When Research Emerges In Relational Resistance And Intentional Ambiguity,
2026
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China)
The Meandering Practitioner: When Research Emerges In Relational Resistance And Intentional Ambiguity, Markus Wernli, Kam-Fai Chan, Jonathan Yu, Josh Wolper
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper theorizes meandering as a dispositional heuristic in design research, foregrounding how researchers can encounter complexity through nuanced, situated journeying. Drawing on the case of SoilTrust nutrient-cycling praxis in Hong Kong, the study identifies four key dispositions – nimble resistance, contextual reasoning, temporal suppleness, and deliberate ambiguity – that enable practitioners to respond to structural challenges with humility, curiosity, and strategic indirection. Rather than pursuing fixed goals, meandering researchers cultivate relational awareness, embrace uncertainty, and reconfigure material and social systems through iterative, practice-led inquiry. Anchored in agential realism and indirect action, meanderability reframes design as a life-embedded mode of …
Reconciling Values In Multidisciplinary Design Teams Through Structured Dialogue,
2026
Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Reconciling Values In Multidisciplinary Design Teams Through Structured Dialogue, Yijia An, Marina Bos-De Vos, Yihua Wang
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Value has been conceptualized differently across disciplines, while the negotiation of values is inherent to design collaboration. In many multidisciplinary design projects, professionals struggle to articulate or align values due to disciplinary differences, limited value awareness, and imbalanced value prioritisation, which can lead to communication difficulties or even collaboration failure. Reconciling diverse values and underlying motivations is therefore essential. This paper explores how structured dialogue can help participants in multidisciplinary design teams work towards value reconciliation. Using a qualitative approach, six structured value dialogues involving twenty participants were conducted, followed by twenty post-dialogue interviews to capture participants’ reflections. The findings …
Naming And Resisting The System Of Fatphobia In Design By A Fat, Queer Designer And Educator,
2026
The Pennsylvania State University
Naming And Resisting The System Of Fatphobia In Design By A Fat, Queer Designer And Educator, Brooke Hull
DRS Biennial Conference Series
Within this paper, a white, fat, queer, trans nonbinary designer and educator uses a critical autoethnographic approach to examine the ways in which they have centered fat bodies. This is done through examination of two experiences: a design project creating fat letterforms and a pedagogical activity discussing bias in AI where they say fat in the classroom. By examining each narrative using a defined procedure, the author analyzes how fatphobia and other systems have negatively influenced the inclusion of fat bodies within design. Their analysis thus produces specific takeaways of how to name and resist this system. Using this approach …
Cooking Rush: Designing And Evaluating A Cross-Cultural Dietary Board Game For Chinese International Students Through Research Through Design,
2026
Independent Scholar
Cooking Rush: Designing And Evaluating A Cross-Cultural Dietary Board Game For Chinese International Students Through Research Through Design, Yuan Qin
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study addresses the dietary challenges faced by Chinese international students by developing Cooking Rush, a serious card-based board game. Using a Research through Design paradigm and Social Practice Theory, the project integrates Western nutrition with Traditional Chinese Medicine energetics. The game translates cultural beliefs into a quantified Balance of Thermal Intake (BTI) mechanism. Evaluation results from 14 participants show improved confidence in resource management and internalised dietary knowledge. Furthermore, the intervention shifts the perception of cooking from a burden to a practice of self-care. This research provides a scalable framework for cross-cultural health interventions by aligning local food logics …
Changing Skills Of Industrial Designers In The Age Of Genai: A Systematic And Practice Based Study,
2026
Istanbul Ticaret University, Türkiye
Changing Skills Of Industrial Designers In The Age Of Genai: A Systematic And Practice Based Study, Aybike Eser, Yener Altiparmakogullari
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This study explores the changing skills of industrial designers in the age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). It combines a systematic literature review covering 2020–2025 with a practice based investigation involving six designers who actively use GenAI in their design processes. Focusing on both novice and expert designers, the study examines how GenAI influences skill development through the lenses of upskilling, reskilling, and deskilling. The findings show that while GenAI enhances creativity, idea generation, and visualization, it also brings challenges such as increased cognitive load, information reliability issues, and a decline in production awareness. Differences between novice and expert designers …
Biodiverse Design And The Ethics Of Bioempathy In Practice,
2026
Pennsylvania State University, United States of America
Biodiverse Design And The Ethics Of Bioempathy In Practice, Delphine Lewandowski
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper investigates biodiverse design as a practice through which environmental ethics can inform architectural production. Drawing on the concept of bioempathy—understood as the recognition of the intrinsic value of the biotic community—it develops an ethical and operational framework for guiding design reasoning. This framework is then applied to a reflective analysis of biodiverse wall prototypes developed by the author with an interdisciplinary team, used as an empirical ground to examine how ecological intentions were translated into material and spatial decisions, and how observations of plant establishment and spontaneous colonisation contribute to reassessing the assumptions embedded in those intentions. The …
Designing For Generativity And Wellbeing: Insights From Visitors At The Hong Kong Space Museum,
2026
Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Designing For Generativity And Wellbeing: Insights From Visitors At The Hong Kong Space Museum, Cerella Yueru Chen, Amy Law, Jiarui Cao, Xun Li
DRS Biennial Conference Series
This paper investigates how generativity, understood as showing care and contributing to the next generation's lives, shapes visitors’ engagement, experience, and psychological wellbeing in the Hong Kong Space Museum. We conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews to explore how generativity unfolds in museum interactions. Building on Fan and Luo (2022), we extend the generativity model by introducing bidirectional and recursive relationships among generativity, engagement, and experience. Our findings show that generativity can be understood as a designable, relational and temporal pathway to wellbeing. Thematic analysis further reveals that different types of installations scaffold generativity and wellbeing through distinct design features such as …
