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Beyond Ephemerality: Boundary Objects And The Plasticity Of Listening In Collaborative Design, Stefano Delle Monache, Dave Murray-Rust, Elif Özcan, Nicolas Misdariis Jun 2026

Beyond Ephemerality: Boundary Objects And The Plasticity Of Listening In Collaborative Design, Stefano Delle Monache, Dave Murray-Rust, Elif Özcan, Nicolas Misdariis

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Sound-driven design requires shared objects to bridge disciplinary divides and support collaboration between diverse expertise. Boundary Objects and Intermediary Objects typically fulfil this need, yet the ephemerality of sound is in apparent conflict with the stability needed for this boundary work. However, we argue for extending the object beyond the ephemeral sound wave to encompass tools, user interfaces, methods, and lexicons that provide material persistence. To support this we develop an analytical framework combining BO and IO properties and apply it to a selection of sound design tools in the literature. We argue that the required interpretive flexibility and perceived …

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Investigating Context In Sonic Interaction Design For Sleep: Bridging Users And Designers Through Participatory And Ideation Workshops, Abhishek Choubey, Tinke Van Buijtene, Sandra Pauletto Jun 2026

Investigating Context In Sonic Interaction Design For Sleep: Bridging Users And Designers Through Participatory And Ideation Workshops, Abhishek Choubey, Tinke Van Buijtene, Sandra Pauletto

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Sleep is fundamental to health and well-being, yet sleep problems have risen sharply in recent years. These problems often arise from individual and contextual factors, some of which are modifiable through behaviour or design. Research examining sleep’s contextual factors and how they can inform design interventions remains limited. This article presents two connected workshops exploring these aspects of sleep using participatory and speculative design methods. The first workshop invited participants to map contextual aspects of sleep through empathy maps and speculative exercises revealing three themes affecting sleep: safety, sleep routines, and stress or anxiety. The second focused on ideation asking …

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Public Sector’S Climate Commoning And Infrastructural Care, Alicia Smedberg, Per Linde, Anders Melin, Joakim Nordqvist Jun 2026

Public Sector’S Climate Commoning And Infrastructural Care, Alicia Smedberg, Per Linde, Anders Melin, Joakim Nordqvist

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Local urban governments struggle to approach environmental goals in the global climate crisis. An understanding on the necessitiy to increase fair citizen engagement in governmental sustainability initiatives has become fundamental, the challenge emerge on how processes can become resilient beyond specific project initiatives. The concept of infrastructruring, here understood as a situated effort to hold together socio-material constellations that enable certain ways of acting, provides a foundation for long-term interaction between the public sector and citizens. But as the participatory design community is strong on providing ”points of entry” for citizen participation it remains less clear how one cares for …

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More Than Concrete: The Tacit Knowledge Of Construction Workers Through Material Cognition And Embodied Experiences, Enza Migliore, Mirna Zordan, Peiyue Lin Jun 2026

More Than Concrete: The Tacit Knowledge Of Construction Workers Through Material Cognition And Embodied Experiences, Enza Migliore, Mirna Zordan, Peiyue Lin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Concrete builds the assets and aesthetics of contemporary cities. This research suggests that concrete also shapes emotions and cognition, generating a tacit body of valuable experience. Construction workers, who engage with this material daily, embody expertise through their bodily practices. Yet their insights remain unheard and underrepresented in the design discourse. This study adopts a material engagement approach, using concrete samples as probes and conducting semi-structured on-site interviews with 14 workers in Shenzhen, China. Analysing 280 minutes of video and audio data thematically, the research reveals that workers and materials mutually shape each other. Workers develop their understanding of concrete …

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Three-Eyed Seeing: A Framework For Regenerative Ecological Design, Korey Wetherell, Chris Speed, Laura Albareda Jun 2026

Three-Eyed Seeing: A Framework For Regenerative Ecological Design, Korey Wetherell, Chris Speed, Laura Albareda

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The design field is increasingly engaging with the challenge of regenerating Earth systems within planetary boundaries, yet the epistemic foundations of regenerative ecological design remain diffuse. This paper introduces Three-Eyed Seeing as a design framework that brings Western empirical methods, Indigenous relational knowledge, and futural imaginaries into accountable dialogue. The framework supports plural ways of knowing without collapsing them into a single worldview and positions designers as mediators across multiple ontological commitments. Drawing on an autoethnographic field encounter with pollinators at Kaʻena Point in Hawaiʻi alongside ecological systems-oriented design research, the study explores how these distinct ways of knowing can …

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Playing Future Places Together, Troy Innocent, Carolyn Briggs, Ashleigh Dharma, Carlo Tolentino Jun 2026

Playing Future Places Together, Troy Innocent, Carolyn Briggs, Ashleigh Dharma, Carlo Tolentino

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Cities are physical manifestations of how we live together in urgent need of redesign to adapt and respond to impacts of climate change. Place-based methods offer critical and imaginative ways to work with neighbourhoods as living labs for regenerative futures and planetary civics. Reworlding explores urban play as method in co-governance of the green transition of neighbourhoods. It works with posthuman methods to give nature a voice, supporting more-than-human approaches, and addressing climate, biodiversity, and pollution challenges. Play and democracy balance interests, power, and knowledge asymmetries among neighbourhood actors by engaging cultural actors and use local, indigenous, or marginalised knowledge …

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How Sound Knowledge And Education Can Support Designers In Creating Museum Experiences: Insights From Semi-Structured Interviews With Experts In Acoustics/Sound, Yi Zhang Jun 2026

How Sound Knowledge And Education Can Support Designers In Creating Museum Experiences: Insights From Semi-Structured Interviews With Experts In Acoustics/Sound, Yi Zhang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Today, the growing demand for sound in shaping multisensory museum experiences requires exhibition designers to acquire relevant sound knowledge. However, designers often find it difficult to identify applicable insights across the vast and interdisciplinary fields of acoustics and sound studies. Thus, this paper conducts twelve semi-structured interviews with experts in acoustics and sound-related disciplines. The findings establish a basic sound knowledge framework comprising four thematic areas with related concepts: fundamentals of acoustics, sound and space, sound and audience experience, and sound control and technology. In addition, the paper explores interdisciplinary communication and collaboration in sound design practices within exhibition productions. …

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Decolonizing Care In Design Research: Familiness And Relational Practices From Creative Ageing In Thailand, Khemmiga Teerapong, Boonanan Natakun Jun 2026

Decolonizing Care In Design Research: Familiness And Relational Practices From Creative Ageing In Thailand, Khemmiga Teerapong, Boonanan Natakun

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper advances a decolonised understanding of care within design research by examining how relational and culturally grounded practices shape engagements with older adults in Thailand’s rapidly aging society. Drawing on the Monday Museum creative ageing initiative in Bangkok’s Khlong Bang Luang neighbourhood, the study critiques Western-centric framings of care that privilege clinical, individualised, or outcome-driven approaches. Fieldwork and co-design activities with elderly residents reveal that care emerges as a relational practice embedded in local cultural norms, expressed through attentiveness, reciprocity, and shared responsibility. The paper introduces “Familiness” as a Thai, culturally situated framework that embodies warmth, flexibility, and family-like …

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Accessibility Analysis Of Hospital Lobbies In Korean Tertiary Hospitals Based On Space Syntax To Inform Design Strategies, Aijing Li, Yun Jeong Choi, Hokyun Lim Jun 2026

Accessibility Analysis Of Hospital Lobbies In Korean Tertiary Hospitals Based On Space Syntax To Inform Design Strategies, Aijing Li, Yun Jeong Choi, Hokyun Lim

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Hospital lobbies are gradually transforming from traditional zones of circulation and waiting into multifunctional public spaces that integrate rest, cultural display, retail services, and social interaction. This study analyzes four tertiary hospitals in Korea using space syntax methods, specifically convex space analysis and visibility graph analysis, to quantitatively examine the integration and visual integration characteristics of various functional zones within the lobby. The analysis provides a systematic assessment of spatial accessibility and visual guidance within the lobby environment. From the perspective of enhancing user experience in healthcare settings, the study identifies four key design strategies aimed at optimizing circulation and …

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Exploring How Packaging Transparency And Processing Level Affect Acceptance Of Edible Insects In Taiwan, Wei-Chen Chiu, Chun-Heng Ho Jun 2026

Exploring How Packaging Transparency And Processing Level Affect Acceptance Of Edible Insects In Taiwan, Wei-Chen Chiu, Chun-Heng Ho

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As global food systems face growing sustainability challenges, edible insects are emerging as a viable alternative protein source. This study explores how transparent window size and food processing level in packaging affect Taiwanese consumers’ purchase intentions toward insect-based foods. A 2 (window size: small vs. large) by 3 (processing level: unprocessed, semi-processed, fully processed) experiment with 359 participants, categorized by attitudes into acceptance and rejection groups, revealed that processing level significantly influenced purchase intention. Fully processed products received the highest acceptance across both groups. Window size had a minor effect, slightly increasing purchase intention among the rejection group when smaller …

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Dialoguing With Design: How Llms Mediate Multimodal Workflows In Zero-Waste Fashion, Ping Li, Sarah Kettley, Mal James, Niki Taylor Jun 2026

Dialoguing With Design: How Llms Mediate Multimodal Workflows In Zero-Waste Fashion, Ping Li, Sarah Kettley, Mal James, Niki Taylor

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study investigates how large language models (LLMs) enable new modes of collaboration in zero-waste fashion design, addressing the challenge that traditional practice relies heavily on tacit knowledge developed through iterative material experimentation. Using first-person autoethnography, the research examines how a designer collaborates with ChatGPT and Claude across concept ideation, digital pattern development, toile construction, and sample production, tracing how technical terminology, design reasoning, and material knowledge are negotiated, misinterpreted, and re-articulated in human–AI interaction. Findings demonstrate that ChatGPT excels at generative conceptual prompting, whereas Claude better handles complex pattern-cutting rules; nevertheless, both require iterative, dialogue-based correction. The research proposes …

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Is There Limitless Romance Behind A “Bunch Of Ones And Zeros”? How Social Vr Shapes Romantic Interaction And Its Design Implications, Ágnes Karolina Bakk, David Redmond, Borbála Tölgyesi, Kata Szita Jun 2026

Is There Limitless Romance Behind A “Bunch Of Ones And Zeros”? How Social Vr Shapes Romantic Interaction And Its Design Implications, Ágnes Karolina Bakk, David Redmond, Borbála Tölgyesi, Kata Szita

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study explores how romantic relationships and expressions of intimacy unfold within social virtual reality (SVR) environments such as VRChat. Drawing on virtual ethnography and 26 semi-structured interviews, it examines how embodiment, anonymity, and technological affordances shape trust, emotional intimacy, and sexual expression. While often framed as taboo, these dynamics are central to understanding relational practices in immersive environments. Findings show that intimacy is experienced as both emotionally authentic and technologically mediated, emerging through practices such as roleplay, virtual touch, and shared activities. The study highlights how anonymity simultaneously enables openness and introduces challenges around trust, consent, and safety. By …

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Materialising Ecologies Of Intelligence: Learning To Design With And Within More-Than-Human Systems, Marianne Mcara, Zoë Prosser, Kirsty Ross Jun 2026

Materialising Ecologies Of Intelligence: Learning To Design With And Within More-Than-Human Systems, Marianne Mcara, Zoë Prosser, Kirsty Ross

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design is evolving from primarily human-centred approaches towards planetary concerns that re-centre more-than-human agency – a perspective that correlates with pressing ecological challenges emerging from global anthropogenic impacts. Against this backdrop, design education that equips graduates with the competencies to engage present and future complex socioecological challenges continue to develop. The authors discuss interconnected drivers that are shaping the wider field and advancing designers' roles before presenting a pedagogical model that supports design students to engage in academic-industry-community collaboration and forms of making to materialise complex systems and evolving epistemologies in accessible and tangible ways. The authors offer insights into …

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Co-Creating Connections: How Design, Healthcare, And Museum Actors Experience A Co-Creation Process, Margo Annemans, Iulia Vescan, Frederik Vandyck, Grietje D'Hollander, Maarten Van Acker, Inge Glazemakers Jun 2026

Co-Creating Connections: How Design, Healthcare, And Museum Actors Experience A Co-Creation Process, Margo Annemans, Iulia Vescan, Frederik Vandyck, Grietje D'Hollander, Maarten Van Acker, Inge Glazemakers

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In recent years, co-creation has become common in design and healthcare contexts. This paper examines a co-creation process aimed at creating a physical link between a museum park and a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital. Whereas the experiences of end-users are key in co-creation processes, only few studies analyse how research and design actors experience partaking in such process. Therefore, we aim to unravel how a co-creation process is perceived by the various actors involved to ultimately foster improved understanding and collaboration and formulate recommendations for future projects. Through a focused collective autoethnographic approach, we explore the experiences of all …

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Mediating More-Than-Human Care: Art, Design And Climate Governance, Liesbeth Huybrechts, Jaz Hee-Jeong Choi, Rachel Elisabeth Clarke, Louise Mazet, Kana Ohashi Jun 2026

Mediating More-Than-Human Care: Art, Design And Climate Governance, Liesbeth Huybrechts, Jaz Hee-Jeong Choi, Rachel Elisabeth Clarke, Louise Mazet, Kana Ohashi

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Art is increasingly mobilised in climate governance and policy, yet often instrumentalised for predefined human agendas of data visualisation, awareness raising, and science communication. This paper explores design research’s role as a mediator of more radical art-driven participation that cultivates more-than-human care ecologies: relational configurations that redistribute sensing, accountability, and decision-making across human and other-than-human actors. Drawing on theories of care and affective politics, we examine how design research can support art-driven participation through a critical literature review. Three illustrative case studies addressing sustainable transitions on an interregional level, urban air pollution, and disaster recovery demonstrate a move from anthropocentric …

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The Role Of Packaging In Smart Home Design, Nour Al Maalouf, Chaiwoo Lee Jun 2026

The Role Of Packaging In Smart Home Design, Nour Al Maalouf, Chaiwoo Lee

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As technology becomes vital to aging independently, its first points of contact such as packaging influence accessibility and confidence. This study examines how older adults engage with technology through packaging. Nineteen Boston-based adults aged 65 to 85 interacted with three smart home kit packaging prototypes. Observations and interviews highlighted four main insights: Participants preferred (1) design that supported independent use, (2) visible organization of all components, (3) easy, tool-free opening, and (4) sustainable, recyclable materials. Ninety-five percent recalled past frustration with packaging that felt like it was meant “for someone else.” These results suggest that designing for longevity means rethinking …

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Ikigai: Co-Reflection With Ai To Enhance Career Direction Clarity In Design Education, Claudia Mayer, Wina Smeenk, Giulia Calabretta Jun 2026

Ikigai: Co-Reflection With Ai To Enhance Career Direction Clarity In Design Education, Claudia Mayer, Wina Smeenk, Giulia Calabretta

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As the design profession becomes increasingly diverse and fluid, many design students struggle to define a clear career direction. Existing reflection practices in education offer support, yet outcomes remain inconsistent due to limited mentoring capacity, uneven role model exposure and ambiguity in emerging roles. This paper investigates how the combination of generative AI and facilitated human reflection can support students in increasing their perceived career direction clarity. We present the results of an explorative investigation on IkigAI, an educational workshop combining the Japanese ikigai framework with GenAI as a co-reflective partner. Human reflection and three rounds of GenAI interaction with …

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Putting An Ear To The Ground: Attending To Frictions In Human-Machine-Soil Temporalities, Margrete Lodahl Rolighed, Lone Koefoed Hansen Jun 2026

Putting An Ear To The Ground: Attending To Frictions In Human-Machine-Soil Temporalities, Margrete Lodahl Rolighed, Lone Koefoed Hansen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In this paper we present "Plant-disco", an interactive physical design object that seeks to make activities in soil (e.g. bugs and plant growth) sensible to humans. With this, we discuss how more-than-human temporalities come to surface (such as plant, soil, microorganisms and machine) and how this creates friction in our human perception of time and interaction. The central aspect of the paper is to discuss how the design, as a result of trying to extend human appreciation of nature into soil, also intervenes in human temporalities by engaging with the seemingly slow pace of nature at a time where most …

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(Re)Framing Timber Values: Cascade Use Metrics As A Dynamic Policy Tool, Elif Erez-Henderson, Nadja Gaudillière-Jami, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes Jun 2026

(Re)Framing Timber Values: Cascade Use Metrics As A Dynamic Policy Tool, Elif Erez-Henderson, Nadja Gaudillière-Jami, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Salvaged timber embodies a paradox of contemporary circularity: despite its capacity to store carbon and its long history of reuse, it remains marginal within modern construction. Its reuse is constrained by regulations that both shape and reflect the material’s value. This paper reframes this paradox through the lens of value fluctuation–how financial, carbon, and social values oscillate and misalign across timber’s successive lives, determining whether it circulates as resource, product, or waste. These sequential uses, known as cascade use, describe an approach to resource management that prioritizes biomass retention. Building on this framework, the paper proposes a value-centered cascade-use metric …

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Design Activism Pedagogy: Learning And Negotiating Values In Practice, Gheysa Caroline Prado Jun 2026

Design Activism Pedagogy: Learning And Negotiating Values In Practice, Gheysa Caroline Prado

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how design education can reveal and negotiate values through the practice of design activism. Based on a multi-year teaching experience with undergraduate design students, the study reflects on how pedagogical strategies oriented by emancipation and collective responsibility enable the articulation of ethical awareness in design processes. The teaching approach evolved from remote reflection-based activities to embodied, field-based interventions that addressed social and environmental issues in local communities. Through qualitative analysis of classroom documentation and student projects, the study identifies values such as reciprocity, dignity, and solidarity as emerging drivers of learning and design action. The discussion highlights …

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"It's Going To Be A Really Good Place To Hang Out": Supporting Diversity In Community Indoor Environments By Eliciting Autistic Adults’ Preferences, Asako Osedo, Stella Boess Jun 2026

"It's Going To Be A Really Good Place To Hang Out": Supporting Diversity In Community Indoor Environments By Eliciting Autistic Adults’ Preferences, Asako Osedo, Stella Boess

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study investigates how indoor environments, for example of schools or workplaces, can actively support the diversity of communities, by considering the case of autistic adults’ preferences for them. Employing a participatory design approach, we engaged autistic individuals to understand their lived experiences, preferences for meaningful in-person social interactions, and their strategies to engage in social settings. Key findings highlight the importance of sensory regulation, vibrant and engaging spaces that mitigate awkwardness and promote authentic interactions, and the role of predictability and autonomy in reducing unnecessary stresses. We show how autistic adults can be supported in managing their regulation to …

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Grounding Artificial Intelligence: Terrestrial Cartography And Rare Earths In Chile, Martín Tironi, Manuela Garretón Jun 2026

Grounding Artificial Intelligence: Terrestrial Cartography And Rare Earths In Chile, Martín Tironi, Manuela Garretón

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This article argues for planetarizing artificial intelligence (AI) by re-situating its development within the terrestrial ecologies that sustain it. While dominant imaginaries frame AI as an immaterial and global technology, its infrastructures depend on geological, energetic, and social processes rooted in specific territories. Drawing on fieldwork in Penco, southern Chile—where a rare-earth mining project has sparked a complex socio-environmental controversy—we present Bajo nuestros pies, a research-creation project that develops a terrestrial cartography of AI. We propose two core operations for grounding AI: diplomacy, understood as cultivating sensitive encounters between heterogeneous temporalities and more-than-human agencies; and relationality, which interweaves geological, industrial, …

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Dropping Pebbles: The Ripple Effect Of Designerly Co-Creation In Steering Sustainability Transitions In Hospitals, Ayşegül Özçelik, Jotte De Koning, Nicole Hunfeld, Jan-Carel Diehl Jun 2026

Dropping Pebbles: The Ripple Effect Of Designerly Co-Creation In Steering Sustainability Transitions In Hospitals, Ayşegül Özçelik, Jotte De Koning, Nicole Hunfeld, Jan-Carel Diehl

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Steering sustainability transitions in complex organizations, such as hospitals, may benefit from iterative, situated, and participatory experimentation. Co-creation holds particular promise in this regard, acting as a “pebble” in the system that generates ripple effects towards sustainable change. However, its implications and methodologies within hospital systems, especially those grounded in design practice, remain underexplored. This paper investigates designerly co-creation through seven medical device design projects conducted by master’s students in collaboration with healthcare professionals. Drawing on observations of co-creation processes and 14 interviews, the study identifies designerly co-creation as both an “incubation space” for sustainability innovations and a potential “catalyst …

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Epimethean Design In Practice: Infrastructuring Reproductive Labour In The Maternity Ward, Sissel Olander, Tau Lenskjold Jun 2026

Epimethean Design In Practice: Infrastructuring Reproductive Labour In The Maternity Ward, Sissel Olander, Tau Lenskjold

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper proposes an Epimethean mode of design that works with reproductive labour as a counterpoint to Anthropocenic narratives of progress. Rather than innovating new futures, design is approached as a practice of aftercare, sustaining endangered forms of life-making within existing institutions. Drawing on a long-term participatory design project at a large hospital maternity ward, the paper theorizes Epimethean design as a mode of infrastructuring that resists the translation of care into productivity and reclaims reproduction as a site of ontological and political contestation. At the same time, it argues that confronting reductionist ideas of productivity requires a double movement: …

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Time Travelers: Bridging Generations In Boston’S Seaport, Robiya Sahibnazarova, Annika Kim Jun 2026

Time Travelers: Bridging Generations In Boston’S Seaport, Robiya Sahibnazarova, Annika Kim

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This qualitative study examines social isolation among Boston's elders aged 65 and older. We explored ways to employ service design and interactive encounters to connect different generations around history. Our focus was on Boston’s Seaport—a district shaped by redevelopment and technology. This study involved four interviews with museum professionals, elders, and locals to understand how memories influence community connections. The Time Travelers app features an Interactive Memory Map of stories along with guided walks and collaborative memory threads that encourage intergenerational exchange. Complementing the app, a Seaport boardwalk installation features televisions from different decades displaying memories from each era. Visitors …

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Information Hierarchies For Better Health Communication: Mapping Expert-User Differences For Drug Instruction Design, Hengyi Shi, Hao Wang, Zhilong Luan, Chunxi Huang Jun 2026

Information Hierarchies For Better Health Communication: Mapping Expert-User Differences For Drug Instruction Design, Hengyi Shi, Hao Wang, Zhilong Luan, Chunxi Huang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Designing drug instructions that communicate effectively to both experts and lay users requires understanding of their different information needs. This study examines how healthcare professionals and the public differ in their priorities and cognitive focus when interpreting drug instructions, offering design guidance for future instructions and labeling system. Using a two-stage approach, we conducted a survey of 111 professionals and 123 public participants to assess their perceived importance of 22 information items, followed by focus groups exploring perceptual and structural expectations. Professionals prioritized procedural accuracy and detailed guidance, while public users emphasized clarity and safety. Despite these differences, both groups …

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The Invisible Playground For Taboos: A Framework For Recognising And Designing For Inner Play To Engage With Death And Anticipatory Grief, Manuela Melo, Sofie Kinch, Andrew Tibbles, Allan Køster Jun 2026

The Invisible Playground For Taboos: A Framework For Recognising And Designing For Inner Play To Engage With Death And Anticipatory Grief, Manuela Melo, Sofie Kinch, Andrew Tibbles, Allan Køster

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Death and Anticipatory Grief remain culturally taboo, limiting opportunities for open dialogue and emotional preparedness. This paper explores how design can facilitate such conversations through play. Inner Play is a form of imaginative and introspective play that aids engagement with taboos in an empathic way, but lacks ways to understand and evaluate how to design for it. Employing a Research-through-Design approach, the papers presents a speculative design project that mediates communication between the bereaved and the deceased with a game kit resulting in a shared grief artefact. Ten participants in five workshops engaged in an iterative prototyping process, which resulted …

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Designing With And Through Care: From Empathy To Relational Accountability, Ibtissam Jayed, Valentina Sorvillo Jun 2026

Designing With And Through Care: From Empathy To Relational Accountability, Ibtissam Jayed, Valentina Sorvillo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In contemporary design practice, care risks becoming an imperative that obscures asymmetric power relations. This paper interrogates the relationship between design and care, asking: how can design shift from producing solutions to cultivating relations of care without reproducing paternalistic logics? Through a comparative analysis of case studies through the lenses of knowing, making, and defining with care, we treat caring about, caring for, and caring with as simultaneous and co-present dimensions to examine how care operates within design processes. The analysis identifies a structural pattern: while caring about and caring for are compatible with existing design logics, caring with encounters …

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Between Worlds: Play Materials As Mediators Of The Lived And The Ludic, Lakshmi Srinivasan, Khushboo Jogani Jun 2026

Between Worlds: Play Materials As Mediators Of The Lived And The Ludic, Lakshmi Srinivasan, Khushboo Jogani

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The ludic space exists both within and beyond reality as a parallel world. While play design has been explored through rules, experiences, and systems, the role of play materials as mediators between lived and ludic space remains under-discussed. This paper examines how play materials invite players into, operate within, and emerge from the ludic space, shaping gameplay and learning. Using a practice-based approach, the Between Worlds (BW) framework was developed and empirically grounded through classroom projects involving over 130 undergraduate students at BITS Design School. The framework identifies four qualities of play materials that enable transitions between lived and ludic …

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Linking An Attention-Based View Of The Firm And Critical Design In Strategizing: Attention To Harmful Consequences, Tarja Pääkkönen, Satu Miettinen Jun 2026

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.

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