Digital Commons Network^™

Design Thinking Beyond The Hype: Organisational Barriers And Implementation Challenges, Gianluca Carella, Cabirio Cautela, Michele Melazzini, Francesco Zurlo

IASDR Conference Series

Despite the growing popularity of Design Thinking (DT) as a catalyst for organisational innovation, agility, and user-centred transformation, its actual adoption often remains superficial, fragmented, or symbolic. This study presents a systematic literature review of 64 peer-reviewed publications, aiming to identify, categorise, and interpret the key barriers to DT implementation in organisational contexts. Findings reveal that resistance to DT is rooted not merely in technical or procedural limitations, but in deeper organisational structures, cultures, and mental models. Through thematic synthesis, four recurring macro-barriers are identified: (1) uncertainty induced by change, (2) leadership-related constraints, (3) incompatibility of approaches and languages, and …

Beyond Prefixes And Suffixes: A Systematic Literature Review Of Doctoral Education In Art And Design, Luke Feast

IASDR Conference Series

This systematic review examines the literature on doctoral education in art and design. We analysed 1,086 publications to categorise different approaches to art and design doctorates. Our analysis reveals three distinct doctoral types aligned with different educational aims: knowledge development doctorates emphasising systematic research and theoretical contribution; social utility doctorates focusing on professional practice and practical application; and individual development doctorates prior it ising artistic self-discovery and creative expression. The apparent confusion in the field, reflected in debates about terminology such as "research through practice" versus "practice-based research," stems from fundamental disagreements about educational purposes rather than mere semantic differences. …

Micro-Animations: Supporting Personal Recollection In Displacement Through Participatory Stop-Motion With Cherished Objects, Nairy Eivazy, Jan P.L. Peeters, Sandy Claes

IASDR Conference Series

For those living in diaspora, memory connects the past, present, and future while sustaining cultural identity. Cherished objects preserve these memories and help recreate a sense of home in new environments. Participatory stop-motion enables participants to create stories by enlivening physical materials and objects, offering a tangible, imaginative, and accessible way for preserving personal narratives. This paper explores and evaluates participatory stop-motion as a method that supports memory expression in contexts of displacement. Two participatory stop-motion workshops were designed following an iterative design process, focusing on synchronous and asynchronous animation-making setups. We introduce the concept of micro-animations as short, independently …

Generative Ai In Studio-Based Design Education: Human–Ai Relationships, Collaboration And Assessment, Hyunyim Park

IASDR Conference Series

Rapid advances in generative AI (GenAI) have created both opportunities and challenges that have transformed the landscape for design education. While GenAI offers new ways to envision and explore entire design processes—from framing design challenges to generating design output—its influence on studio-based learning practices and environments remains under explored. Drawing on qualitative data, this study investigates how GenAI is transforming core practices in studio-based design education, focusing on relationships, collaboration, and assessment. The findings show that GenAI disrupts dialogic critiques, undermines creative agency, diffuses ethical responsibility, and renders learning processes increasingly opaque, thus challenging traditional pedagogical structures. In response, this …

"We Are All Historically Constructed": Situating The Past In Designerly Practice, India Anderson, Skye Doherty, Ben Matthews

IASDR Conference Series

This paper investigates how designers utilise the past as part of the design process which stands as an under explored facet of design practice. Drawing on in-depth interviews (n=11) with professionals from both design and memory institution contexts—galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) that support design heritage in service of the public—we examine what aspects of the past designers engage with, including which pasts. Further, we identify under explored patterns in how the past is accessed, interpreted, and deployed as part of practice. Our thematic analysis of interviews surfaces three core findings: (1) history is used by designers as a …

A Study Of Audience Behaviour And Interaction Mechanisms In Immersive Non-Gallery Exhibition Spaces: A Case Study Of Contemporary Exhibition Practice In China, Lanjie Li

IASDR Conference Series

Evolution of contemporary exhibition practices has challenged the dominance of the traditional ‘white cube’ model, which emphasizes the autonomy of artworks but often limits emotional engagement. This study examines audience interaction mechanisms and spatial experience in Chinese non-galleries, particularly in tourist, residential, and commercial cultural environments. Usingamixed methodological approach combining field observations, behavioral analysis, and questionnaires, that examine show spatial morphology, curatorialstrategy, and audience behavior together contribute to shaping the immersive experience. The results reveal different behavioral-emotional patterns depending on the type of space: tourist spaces encourage exploration and non-linear walking; residential spaces favor contextual immersion and emotional resonance; while …

Designing For Cultural Literacy: Adapting Japanese "Yomikikase" Practices In The Honduran Context, Sorayda Eleonora Maldonado Zapata, Tomohide Mizuuchi, Masanobu Nishimura

IASDR Conference Series

Design can be a living process, evolving alongside the people it is made for and the communities that shape it. Within the study of design, researchers have often focused on the world of picture books. But they rarely see them as portals of learning, starting points to cultivate reading habits that vary across cultures and educational backgrounds. This research examines how to incorporate Japanese principles of yomikikase読み聞かせ, or reading aloud, into the ethnic context of Honduras. The aim is to adapt this common Japanese practice into educational and private environments within Honduras, to promote early literacy, comprehension, and enjoyment. This …

Crafting Playful Data Engagement: Designing Textile-Based Workshops For Participants From Diverse Backgrounds, Chengtian Li, Jianrui Zhao, Xinru Zhu, Chihiro Sato, Kayoko Nohara

IASDR Conference Series

Building on craft’s material, narrative, and embodied dimensions—well established in design research—this study explores how textile-based making can foster playful engagement with personal data. As data practices shift beyond performance-oriented dashboards toward more expressive and situated forms, textile craft offers an alternative mode for materializing data through hands-on interaction. We conducted three workshops with participant groups of varying expertise in craft and data—crochet hobbyists, data-science students, and community organisers—with each workshop employing textile techniques tailored to their backgrounds. Our findings show that participants creatively negotiated material constraints and affordances to engage with their data in ways aligned with the playful …

From Waste To Stage: A Stakeholder-Embedded Approach To Sustainable Costume Design With Fish Waste Biomaterials, Fanqi Xu, Yating Li

IASDR Conference Series

The performing arts industry, particularly costume design, is facing increasingly urgent challenges in environmental sustainability. This research presents a qualitative study that explores how the needs of various stakeholders—such as designers, performers, and audiences—can be integrated into sustainable costume design practices. It also investigates principles for sustainable costume design based on biomaterials derived from fish processing waste. By developing costumes using biological materials sourced from fish industry by-products, the research examines sustainable pathways within costume design. At the same time, the study uses three analytical axes — "functionality of costumes", “material circulation system” and “theatre stakeholders' relational networks”— to understand …

Developing Publics In Companies Through Infrastructuring For Data-Driven Workplaces In Japan, Masako Kitazaki, Riichiro Take, Ryoko Koborita, Yuichi Nakamura

IASDR Conference Series

This study investigates how the participatory design concept of infra structuring and the formation of a public manifests differently in Japanese workplaces under data-driven management. Building on recognized pillars for public formation—incorporation of authority, development of attachment, and cultivation of ownership—we explore how these elements are shaped by Japan's unique organizational and cultural dynamics. Although employees in Japan express concerns about data use in the workplace, such as potential increases in bias, discrimination, deskilling, and unsafe practices, these anxieties rarely lead to open discussion or collective action. We argue that socio cultural factors, including a deep-rooted emphasis on harmony and …

Interactive And Narrative Design In Local Cultural Curation: A Case Study Of Craftmanship Legacy Of Yunlin In Beigang Cultural Festival, Pi-Chun Chen, Wang-Chin Tsai

IASDR Conference Series

As local revitalization and cultural governance become increasingly valued, local cultural curation is evolving from traditional static displays to multi-level interactive participation. Particularly in areas rich in religious, artisanal, and historical depth, curatorial efforts face the dual challenge and opportunity of reinterpreting local culture through innovative communication and experiential design. This study uses the " Craft man ship Legacy of Yunlin " from the Beigang Cultural Festival in Yunlin County as a case study to explore how interactive and narrative design strategies are implemented. It focuses on contextual translation, audience interaction, and spatial storytelling to reinforce contemporary cultural expression and …

Experience Economy Theory-Based Brand Design Research: Case Studies Of Macau Souvenirs, Kaixing Liu, Weijia Wang

IASDR Conference Series

In recent years, with the rise of the "experiential marketing" concept, enhancing the consumer purchasing experience is a topic of significant discussion in both academia and industry. As a distinctive local specialty of Macau, local souvenirs brands suffer from severe homogenization, which diminishes consumer purchase intention. Furthermore, intense market competition and high operational costs pose significant challenges to brand operations. Improving the consumer experience in purchasing souvenirs stimulates purchase intention, thereby addressing the sales challenges that souvenir brands face. At present, sufficient research on how brand experience design influences the consumer shopping experience is lacking. From the perspective of the …

Towards Emotional Technology: A Framework To Evaluate Culturally Resonant Immersive Storytelling Design, Stefania Palmieri, Giuseppe Lotti, Mario Bisson, Eleonora D'Ascenzi, Claudia Spinò

IASDR Conference Series

In an increasingly convergent landscape where Design, Art, and Technology intersect to transcend disciplinary boundaries, immersive storytelling design is emerging as a strategic tool for crafting experiences that are both culturally resonant and creatively compelling. This paper aligns with such a trajectory by exploring the potential of 360-degree video (an apparently “lower-tier” technology compared to more advanced extended reality solutions) as an expressive medium capable of activating culturally grounded narrative forms. Despite this potential, a significant gap persists in the literature: the absence of structured frameworks for evaluating the effectiveness of immersive content, particularly in terms of its emotional and …

A Design And Feasibility Study Of Virtual Navigation Tasks For Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease Detection, Cuiyi Lin, Peiheng Cai, Zhuoya Wang, Ruyin Zhang, Weining Ning, Min Hua

IASDR Conference Series

Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is critical, with spatial navigation impairment being a promising biomarker. This study validates the feasibility of using immersive navigation tasks in Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) for cognitive screening. By integrating design thinking into task construction, the study also examines how narrative framing and spatial layout influence user comprehension and engagement. Eleven healthy young adults completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and performed egocentric and allocentric navigation tasks across three difficulty levels on Meta Quest 3. Results demonstrated high task accuracy in both environments, with MR showing significantly lower motion sickness and …

Participatory Design Insights From Ai Mobility Projects In Amsterdam, Heng Gu, Senthil Chandrasegaran, Euiyoung Kim

IASDR Conference Series

How much participation is “enough” for artificial intelligence (AI) in public space? We investigate three Amsterdam urban mobility system (UMS) projects —crowd-monitoring cameras, parking-scan vehicles and value-based routing—to examine participatory trajectory with the goal of projecting legitimacy beyond technical execution. To trace who gained voice (and when) across conception, deployment, and operation of the projects, we combined Arnstein’s Ladder and stakeholder mapping as a minimal toolkit. Findings reveal recurrent gaps and challenges in identifying and engaging impacted stakeholders. We sought first-hand, in-depth accounts from project managers of the UMS projects to offer richer context to the decisions made throughout the …

Peacebuilding: Scoping An Empathic Design Approach Through Speculative Fiction, Koskinen Ilpo, Philip Ely, Markus Wernli

IASDR Conference Series

Despite an apparent period of geopolitical stability following the establishment of the UN in 1945, questions of war and peace remain as perennial concerns. . This paper presents an attempt to scope a design approach for peace building. It grounds its approach on Johan Galtung’s notion of positive peace as justice and John Paul Lederach’s middle-ground theory of peace building but underlines the importance of an empathic dialogue that brings parties in conflict together to find common ali ties and develop skills useful in post-conflict societies. The paper scopes an approach through a piece of speculative fiction about a design …

Rethinking Public Space Design And Assemblage Affordances: A Perspective From China's One-Child Generation And Solitude, Xia Bi, Yijia Jiang, Caterina Villani, Kin Wai Michael Siu

IASDR Conference Series

This paper explores how urban public space design in China responds to the growing demand for solitude, with a particular focus on the unique social and cultural preferences of the one-child generation. Drawing on relational thinking and affordance theory, the study examines how public spaces intentionally designed to promote social interaction are appropriated for solitary use. Through case analyses of public spaces in Shanghai and Yantai, China, the paper reveals the emergence of improvised and serendipitous affordances that reflect changing user behaviours and cultural expectations. This paper highlights the need to move beyond intent-driven design toward a relational model that …

The Inside-Out And The Outside-In Interpretation: Evoking Personal Perception Of A Place, Chih-Sheng Su

IASDR Conference Series

In this pictorial, we present the Inside-out and the Outside-in Interpretation, an 18-week design curriculum to evoke personal perception and awareness of the space that our bodies live in, but we might not notice it from the outset. We use a “Set Design for Theatre” workshop as a starting point, to visualize the story in our minds, and then condense the external environment into a limited space. We integrate our curriculum with theoretical perspectives from HCI and drama theory through an inside- out, outside-in interpretation. We expect to help students create spatial sensations based on their own lived experiences and …

Ai As Cultural Decoder: Multimodal Analysis Of Object Evolution In Chinese Domestic Space, Ziyuan Yang, Yuji Li, Limin Song

IASDR Conference Series

Historical design research often prioritizes grand narratives, while the cultural sig- nificance of everyday objects and their spatial contexts is frequently overlooked. Addressing this gap, this study investigates the evolution of "object-space" order in domestic environments through an integrated approach combining computer vision technology and natural language processing. By analysing image data across different periods, we identify object categories, placements, and spatial configurations, revealing micro-level organizational patterns and macro-level influ- ences of functionality and socio-cultural factors. Combining qualitative and quanti- tative methods—including interviews and computational analysis—we trace the transformation of Chinese residential spaces since the 1980s. Findings demon- strate how …

Squeeze Machine: Designing Uncomfortable Interactions For Critical Heritage, Piyakorn Koowattanataworn, Anders Sundnes Løvlie, Steve Benford

IASDR Conference Series

We present Squeeze Machine, an experimental interactive experience, aiming for a critical-heritage exhibition at MUNCH museum. Our design process weaved together three research threads: (1) designing embodied interaction for critical heritage, (2) using uncomfortable interaction, and (3) facilitating critical reflection focusing on social beliefs of authority. We conducted interaction tests at a university laboratory (N=16, 8 pairs). Participant responses illustrate that Squeeze Machine could evoke visitors to reflect on their personal experience, increase visitor curiosity about the exhibition and support reflection on curated artefacts. The exploration also brought out some challenges for applying discomfort through control in an exhibition context.

Speculative Filmmaking With Children: Envisioning The Future Of Humans, Machines, And Nature, Sumit Sharma, Behnaz Norouzi, Leena Ventä-Olkkonen, Marianne Kinnula, Tommi Nevala, Charu Monga, Tuure Haarjärvi

IASDR Conference Series

With children’s increasingly entangled relationships with technology, it is imperative for them to critically explore, reflect on, and envision how technology impacts them and society at large, now and in the future. We conducted a speculative filmmaking workshop with 9-10-year-old school children where participants worked in groups to envision the future of human-machine relationships, creating stop-motion animations showcasing their imagined futures. Analysis of the films highlights unexpected explorations of conflicts involving nature, alongside anticipated human-machine dynamics. These reveal children’s expectations for humans and machines and their roles and responsibilities. Our work showcases how speculative filmmaking with children scaffolds critical explorations …

Blurring Boundaries: A Speculative And Generative Exhibition Exploring Hospital In The Home, Troy Mcgee, Amy Killen, Rowan Page

IASDR Conference Series

This pictorial presents Blurring Boundaries, a speculative exhibition and workshop series staged during Melbourne Design Week 2025, that explores the shifting landscape of Hospital in the Home (HITH) care. As healthcare moves from clinical to domestic settings, design plays a critical role in navigating the tensions, values, and lived experiences this transition provokes. Over five days, more than 80 designers, architects, clinicians, patient advocates, and students co-created artefacts that were progressively integrated into the gallery, transforming the space into a dynamic, participatory installation. Framed in three acts — Surfacing, Envisioning, and Together ing — the exhibition scaffolded collective futuring through …

Attuned Design Practice: A Design Vocabulary For Embodied Knowing, Anne Marleen Olthof, Jouke Verlinden, Somaya Ben Allouch

IASDR Conference Series

This poster introduces Attuned Design Practice (ADP), a concept that examines how design practice can be used to interpret and articulate alternative understandings of studying human-computer relationships, by prior it ising ‘embodied knowing’ as an alternative design vocabulary. We shortly introduce the current state of scientific research in general, explain the notion of ‘attunement’, and show an existing framework that has inspired us to start an eighteen-months field study of body-based inquiry in the domains of Design, Art and Technology. In our field study, we have explored developmental paths of scientific and artistic inquiry towards constructing embodied knowledge, and have …

A Burlesque: The Shimmering Body Of Revealing, Lola Montgomery

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

A Burlesque: The Shimmer Manuscript is a hybrid critical–creative work that examines burlesque as an embodied methodology and a mode of knowledge production. Drawing from my two decades as a performer–scholar, the work reframes glamour, desire, and adornment as epistemological practices rather than theatrical ornamentation. The project is significant in that it expands understandings of performance studies, autotheory, and feminist aesthetics by foregrounding the performer’s body as an intelligent, sensing, world-making apparatus.

The methodology is creative practice research and archive-driven, integrating backstage documentation, AI-assisted photomontage, and theoretical reflection. The work draws from poststructuralist and feminist frameworks (Irigaray, Deleuze & Guattari, …

Script To Animatic: Reading Between The Lines, Kallie Jenkins

Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media Culminating Experience

This capstone describes the foundational steps created as a process for developing three scripts of varying genres into full animatics. This project guides you through the process of adapting a script written by an outside author and visually developing it to represent the story being told. Looking past the script, this project explains how to add depth to the characters in ways that shape their visual direction. It shows how those character choices influence body language, acting, and the environments around them, emphasizing the importance of composition, camera work, and the way a scene’s framing depends on the personality and …

Guiding The Story World: A Comparison Of Diegetic Cues In A Snow White Vr Narrative Game, Jiayi Xu

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Virtual reality (VR) narrative games must guide players through complex story worlds without undermining immersion, yet prior work rarely compares different forms of in-world guidance under tightly controlled conditions. Designers routinely mix diegetic text, character behavior, and environmental motion, but it remains unclear how these cue families differentially shape cognitive load, task performance, and narrative experience when they convey the same instruction.

This thesis investigates how three common diegetic cue types—diegetic text, non-verbal gestures from a non-player character, and environmental motion and highlights—affect players in a first-person VR retelling of the Snow White story. In a between-subjects laboratory study, each …

Su Drama Bernarda Alba Production Photos, Henry Killbourn, Alex Jainchill, Reyna Sanchez

Drama - All Scholarship

This project strengthens the Syracuse University Department of Drama’s ability to document its theatrical productions through high-quality digital photography. With support from the SOURCE grant, the department acquired updated photography equipment that enables students to capture clearer, more accurate images of performances. These photographs document acting, staging, costumes, sets, and lighting in a professional and archival manner.

Movement Lab Lunchtime Presentations: Hunter Whitaker-Morrow | Poster, Hunter Whitaker-Morrow, Movement Lab

Personal Work

No abstract provided.

Movement Lab Fellow Lunchtime Presentations: Patrick Buhr | Poster, Patrick Buhr, Movement Lab

Personal Work

No abstract provided.

Godspell Costume Construction, Catherine E. Michel

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This submission contains progress photos and written documentation of a student's experience constructing a costume for the musical Godspell. This costume was a simple dress for the character performed by Sarah Lenahan.