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Environmentality's Integrated Design: Iso Standards As Infrastructural Semiotics, Lucia Jalon Oyarzun Jun 2026

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 …

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Situated Practices In Digital Jewellery Research: The Collective Voices Of The New Generation Of Jewellers, Nantia Koulidou, Mette Laier Henriksen Jun 2026

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 …

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An Early-Stage Framework: Exploring Narrative And Co-Design Methods In The Social Care Decision-Making Process For Older People, Shuzhong Wang Jun 2026

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 …

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Infographics As A Tool For Communicating And Promoting Public Policies For Women, Virginia Tiradentes Souto, Daniela Fávaro Garrossini, Symone Rodrigues Jardim, Wilson Henrique Veneziano, Bianca Novais Queiroz, Neily Baeza Manteiga Jun 2026

Infographics As A Tool For Communicating And Promoting Public Policies For Women, Virginia Tiradentes Souto, Daniela Fávaro Garrossini, Symone Rodrigues Jardim, Wilson Henrique Veneziano, Bianca Novais Queiroz, Neily Baeza Manteiga

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Infographics are an important tool for governments to provide public information to citizens. Digital infographics can present information in various ways within a coherent whole, enabling different types of information, with varying levels of complexity, to reach the population. This study aims to assess the potential of infographics as a tool to support communication and the promotion of public policies aimed at women. To this end, infographics on public policies for women were created and tested. The design of the infographics was based on a literature review, analysis of existing infographics, and feminist principles. The empirical tests included participants from …

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Strategies For Successful Collaborative Engagement: Navigating Organizational Dynamics, Sylvan Lobo, Ravi Mahamuni Jun 2026

Strategies For Successful Collaborative Engagement: Navigating Organizational Dynamics, Sylvan Lobo, Ravi Mahamuni

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Typical organizations are characterized by complexity, comprising individuals working in isolated groups with competing priorities. Structural and cultural factors often hinder effective collaboration, despite organizational efforts. This paper examines collaboration dynamics in organizations through the lens of behaviour-change. It introduces the CraftChange framework for behaviour-change for promoting collaborative participation, demonstrating the approach through an analysis of two real-world organizational projects. The paper argues that genuine participatory engagement cannot be achieved solely through top-down directives or establishment of support units like innovation labs, design thinking or prototyping teams. Instead, there is a need to focus on bringing behaviour-change through a stagewise …

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Understanding Designers’ Activities And Cognition In Co-Creation With Textual Genai: Do Prior Experience And Ai Literacy Matter?, Yulu Song, Ying Hu, Zihan Zhou, Yiming Bai, Xing Du, Ziling Liang, Yunxiang Shi, Wentao Deng Jun 2026

Understanding Designers’ Activities And Cognition In Co-Creation With Textual Genai: Do Prior Experience And Ai Literacy Matter?, Yulu Song, Ying Hu, Zihan Zhou, Yiming Bai, Xing Du, Ziling Liang, Yunxiang Shi, Wentao Deng

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Artificial intelligence is bringing comprehensive impacts to the approaches, methods, and efficiency of creation. As a result, designers are being driven to tackle more untried tasks, rather than engaging in work they have long been proficient in. This study organised a co-design experiment involving novice designers and Textual GenAI to investigate the influence of prior experience and AI literacy on collaborative design outcomes. We conducted a detailed coding of collaborative activities in the design process. This uncovered the activity characteristics, shifts, and collaboration patterns in the co-creation process. These findings deepen the understanding of the Human-AI collaborative design process and …

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The Transformative Nature Of Food And The Transition Of Traditional Desserts Into Industrial Products: A Case Study Through A Transformational Design Lens, Burcu Torum Jun 2026

The Transformative Nature Of Food And The Transition Of Traditional Desserts Into Industrial Products: A Case Study Through A Transformational Design Lens, Burcu Torum

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines the transformation of traditional Turkish desserts into contemporary industrial food products through the framework of transformational design. Grounded in the premise that food functions not only as a biological necessity but also as a carrier of cultural memory, identity, and social meaning, the study explores how traditional foods can be reinterpreted within modern production systems, consumption patterns, and sustainability expectations. Drawing on student projects from a food design course in an industrial design department during the 2024–2025 academic year, the research analyzes how desserts are redesigned according to industrial constraints and contemporary lifestyles. Using thematic analysis, findings …

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The Fair Share Of Care: A Distributed Care Account Of Circular Design, Ida Krstulović Jun 2026

The Fair Share Of Care: A Distributed Care Account Of Circular Design, Ida Krstulović

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores how the ethics of care can be applied to circular product design. Although the concept of care is compatible with circular design, individualistic models of care place excessive focus on single actors, such as designers, while approaches of shared or collective care risk the diffusion of responsibility, making it unclear who should act in order for certain needs to be met. These approaches fail to adequately address three interrelated problems: moral distance, influence (or lack thereof), and the diffusion of responsibility. Consequently, this paper introduces the concept of distributed care, an approach that focuses on assigning care …

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Olfactory Prototyping As Diplomatic Device: Codesigning A Morethanhuman ‘Us’ With Two Captive Pumas, Marcela Mora, Pablo Hermansen Jun 2026

Olfactory Prototyping As Diplomatic Device: Codesigning A Morethanhuman ‘Us’ With Two Captive Pumas, Marcela Mora, Pablo Hermansen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper extends cosmopolitical prototyping into the olfactory domain to examine how smell can operate as a diplomatic device for interspecies coexistence. Building on a longitudinal, autoethnographic research through design project, we report multi session fieldwork with two captive pumas—Huilo (older, methodical) and Maqui (younger, playful)—at Refugio Animal Cascada, Chile. The study sought not to apply enrichment as an external fix, but to co constitute a situated more than human we in which animal, designer, materials, climate and infrastructures jointly stage conditions for safe relationality. We designed textile olfactory braids (reused cotton braids and burlap sachets) infused with botanicals (e.g., …

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Towards Equitable Participation Of Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing People In Co-Design Research: An Initial Working Framework, Barbara Hein-Machado, Cecilia Landa-Avila, John Alexander Rey-Galindo, Carlos Aceves-Gonzalez, Rebecca Cain Jun 2026

Towards Equitable Participation Of Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing People In Co-Design Research: An Initial Working Framework, Barbara Hein-Machado, Cecilia Landa-Avila, John Alexander Rey-Galindo, Carlos Aceves-Gonzalez, Rebecca Cain

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Research involving Deaf and hard-of-hearing participants remains limited in its ability to include and engage with diverse participants lived experiences, weakening research rigour, relationships with communities, and perpetuating existing inequalities. The use of co-design approaches to address these needs, by positioning lived experience as an additional form of expert knowledge, has increased in recent years. However, the ways in which practices genuinely empower DHH participants, enabling participation that advances justice within and beyond the research setting, have not been translated into co-design research. This paper proposes an initial participatory framework for exploring DHH engagement in research, examining how models of …

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When Can Asmr Sound Improve Consumer Product Evaluation? Exploring The Joint Influences Of Asmr Sound And Visual Richness, Huan Chen, Peiyao Cheng Jun 2026

When Can Asmr Sound Improve Consumer Product Evaluation? Exploring The Joint Influences Of Asmr Sound And Visual Richness, Huan Chen, Peiyao Cheng

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As immersive media grows, brands increasingly adopt multisensory design, with ASMR emerging as a key auditory tool. How ASMR interacts with visual content to influence consumer product evaluation remains underexplored. Grounded in multisensory integration and processing fluency theory, this study employed three experiments (N=630) to examine their joint effects on immersive experience and purchase intention. Results indicate that ASMR generally enhances consumer evaluation, but its effect depends on visual richness. With low visual richness (color), ASMR adds sensory cues and enhances immersive experience. With moderate visual richness (3D), ASMR’s effect diminished. With high visual richness (close-up), ASMR may induce overload …

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Reflecting With Eco Material Libraries: Bridging Material Experimentation, Teaching, And Sustainability Discourse, Beth Ferguson, Sam Edens, Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez Jun 2026

Reflecting With Eco Material Libraries: Bridging Material Experimentation, Teaching, And Sustainability Discourse, Beth Ferguson, Sam Edens, Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Eco material libraries are emerging in design education as more than repositories of samples. We define them as pedagogical material infrastructures that combine samples, recipes, documentation, and situated curation to support hands-on experimentation and reflection. Drawing on two case studies at the University of California Davis and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, we examine how these libraries are built, maintained, and engaged in practice through interviews with faculty curators and a preliminary student survey. Across both sites, the findings suggest that eco material libraries extend conventional material-library models by linking material selection to making, comparison, documentation, and student contribution. They …

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Transforming A Precarious Equilibrium: Embracing Complexity In Public Design Practices, Thomas Van Arkel, Nynke Tromp, Deger Ozkaramanli Jun 2026

Transforming A Precarious Equilibrium: Embracing Complexity In Public Design Practices, Thomas Van Arkel, Nynke Tromp, Deger Ozkaramanli

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how design space for engaging with complexity was constrained, negotiated and expanded within a Dutch public sector organisation providing occupational disability services. While systemic design calls for transformation and embracing complexity, practical understanding of enacting this within a political-administrative context remains limited. Through critical analysis of a participatory action research project, we trace six key moments where possibilities for transformation were opened up or constrained: from processing the initial individual-centric framing, through recognising relational complexity, to translating insights into interventions. Our analysis reveals tensions between systemic aspirations and organisational realities: while the project successfully reframed reintegration from …

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A Perceived Value Framework For Automotive Design Innovation: Rethinking Strategic Transition Of Incumbent Oems In The Post-Ice Era, Zikun Song, Shizhu Lu, Yaqin Peng, Lixin Song Jun 2026

A Perceived Value Framework For Automotive Design Innovation: Rethinking Strategic Transition Of Incumbent Oems In The Post-Ice Era, Zikun Song, Shizhu Lu, Yaqin Peng, Lixin Song

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As the industry moves beyond the internal combustion engine, incumbent original equipment manufacturers (incumbent OEMs) need a systematic, experience perception-centred way to evaluate design. We introduce a Perceived Value Framework (PVF) derived from a 2015–2025 review that defines six dimensions: perceived functionality, performance, intelligence, aesthetics, brand, and sustainability, each linked to sensory indicators. These dimensions are mapped to the emotional design model’s visceral, behavioral, and reflective levels to connect first impressions, in-use experience, and long-term meaning. Comparative case analyses of four OEMs’ 2024–2025 products validate how these dimensions operate across distinct value orchestration and design transformation initiatives. Cross-case results reveal …

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Older Adults As A Critical Group In The Design Of A Mobile Application For Hearing Screening And Monitoring, Emilene Zitkus, Leonardo Morgadona Tosi Rodrigues, Vinicius Dantas, Leticia Santos, Patricia Campos, Ana Laura Oliveira, Rikarla Sales, Lucas Vieira, Sheila Andreoli Balen, Deborah Ferrari Jun 2026

Older Adults As A Critical Group In The Design Of A Mobile Application For Hearing Screening And Monitoring, Emilene Zitkus, Leonardo Morgadona Tosi Rodrigues, Vinicius Dantas, Leticia Santos, Patricia Campos, Ana Laura Oliveira, Rikarla Sales, Lucas Vieira, Sheila Andreoli Balen, Deborah Ferrari

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The global population is aging rapidly. Hearing loss (HL) constitutes the leading cause of years lived with disability for individuals over 70. With 42% of the 430 million people experiencing disabling HL aged 60 or older, and the majority of them residing in less developed regions, accessible intervention strategies are essential. This paper details an initial study from an ongoing project to develop a digital health intervention (DHI) for hearing screening and monitoring, specifically considering the difficulties faced by older users living in Brazil. User needs revealed critical design requirements, including simplified language, the need for adding images for guidance, …

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Crafting Legacies With Care: Speculative Frameworks For The Digital Afterlife, Sara Bilić, Jessica Sorenson Jun 2026

Crafting Legacies With Care: Speculative Frameworks For The Digital Afterlife, Sara Bilić, Jessica Sorenson

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Emerging grief technologies promise to preserve the dead through data, yet often neglect the relational, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of memory and identity. This paper proposes a care-centred framework for digital legacy design, grounded in the speculative concept of A Living Will, which uses augmented reality to enable co-created posthumous memories between the living and the deceased. Through autoethnography, participatory workshops, and theoretical analysis, the study critically examines how care ethics and co-authorship can transform digital legacy from an act of preservation to one of participation. By treating identity as distributed and legacy as relational, we reframe grief technology as …

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The Who Cares? Approach: Materializing Values In Community-Based Participatory Research, Logan Wilkinson, Collen Reid, Caylee Raber, Jon Hannan Jun 2026

The Who Cares? Approach: Materializing Values In Community-Based Participatory Research, Logan Wilkinson, Collen Reid, Caylee Raber, Jon Hannan

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Emerging from a three-year arts-based participatory design and research collaboration, the Who Cares? Approach is a framework for social change developed to understand how a community in rural British Columbia could cultivate a system of support for aging. Through iterative cycles of team retreats, including creative engagement and group interviews, project members developed a framework grounded in values of trust, presence, creativity, storytelling, relationality, and acknowledgement of the unknown. By transforming value statements into diagrams, installations, and participatory events, the project demonstrated how design artifacts can act as mediators of shared meaning and catalysts for ethical reflection. The resulting visual …

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Is This The “Me” They Want To See? Exploring Near-Future Adaptations Of Ai For Professional Visibility And Self-Presentation, Forouzan Ebrahimi, Mahan Mehrvarz, Nazli Cila Jun 2026

Is This The “Me” They Want To See? Exploring Near-Future Adaptations Of Ai For Professional Visibility And Self-Presentation, Forouzan Ebrahimi, Mahan Mehrvarz, Nazli Cila

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As professional collaboration increasingly shifts to digital and asynchronous modes, workers use collaboration technologies not only to coordinate tasks but also to manage their professional visibility and reputation. To examine how these practices could evolve as AI becomes more embedded in the collaboration environment, a speculative design approach was adopted to make near-future scenarios experiential. We prototyped speculative AI systems that support visibility through employee self-report reflection, performance scoring, AI-enhanced meeting appearance, communication delegation, and AI-use disclosure as probes for a series of immersive and interactive scenario-based interviews. The findings uncover selective disclosure of AI use to manage professional image, …

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A Slow Ethos In A Fast World: Persistence And Compromise In Craft Commercialization, Shih Chieh Shen, Yueh Hsiu Giffen Cheng Jun 2026

A Slow Ethos In A Fast World: Persistence And Compromise In Craft Commercialization, Shih Chieh Shen, Yueh Hsiu Giffen Cheng

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study explores how a micro craft brand sustains its original sincerity toward craftsmanship while confronting the challenges posed by industrialized production processes and economic constraints. Based on a fifteen-year practice-led case of craft entrepreneurship, it analyzes reflective negotiations between persistence and compromise, ideal and capital, craft and industry. Employing the Double Diamond model and Aristotle’s Four Causes, the research interprets the process of craft commercialization and examines the underlying motivations that sustain the existence of micro craft brands. The findings reveal that practical limitations can be transformed into drivers of creativity. “Compromise” no longer signifies failure but, when approached …

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Speculative Socially Engaged Design Interventions In Menopause Health And Post-Extractive Environmental Regeneration, Chantelle Baistow, Katherine Moline Jun 2026

Speculative Socially Engaged Design Interventions In Menopause Health And Post-Extractive Environmental Regeneration, Chantelle Baistow, Katherine Moline

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Rarely does speculative socially engaged design reflectively compare different approaches. This paper reflects on two speculative socially engaged design projects that employ materials-based participatory methods to explore the supports and barriers to the continuity of healthcare and the remediation of environmental pollution. The first project, TheChange@Work, engaged hospital staff and outpatients in exploring menopause-related workplace stigma through colour, collage, and textiles, to reflect on diverse experiences of dynamic hormones. The second project, From Waste to Care, involved communities in 3D-printing ceramics from coal ash waste, addressing the remediation of toxic materials remaining from energy production. We analyse the blind spots …

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Between Consumption And Care: Restorative Design And Cultural Memory In Hong Kong Coffee Shops, Ada Ying Man Chan, Victor Manuel Serrano Jun 2026

Between Consumption And Care: Restorative Design And Cultural Memory In Hong Kong Coffee Shops, Ada Ying Man Chan, Victor Manuel Serrano

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Hong Kong’s specialty coffee shops embody a paradox in the city’s cultural landscape. They are products of consumption with atmospheres curated to attract customers while many also draw on “Old Hong Kong” material culture to invoke a sense of care for the past. This paper explores the tension between consumption and responsibility by investigating how coffee shops in Hong Kong mobilise adaptive reuse design practices. Building on a previous survey of 706 coffee shops, the study identifies four interlinked modes of practice: material reuse, spatial staging, narrative framing, and participatory engagement. These modes enact forms of restorative design, revealing how …

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Is The Trend Your Friend? Exploring The Interior Shape And Material Use Across Australian ‘Car Of The Year’ Winners, Jesse Goddard, Rafael Gomez, Shayne Beaver, Robbie Napper Jun 2026

Is The Trend Your Friend? Exploring The Interior Shape And Material Use Across Australian ‘Car Of The Year’ Winners, Jesse Goddard, Rafael Gomez, Shayne Beaver, Robbie Napper

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As car interiors transition toward emerging sustainable materials, exploring historical patterns of material use may inform future iteration and adoption. While automotive exterior literature is abundant, historical studies of interior trend evolution are rare. This study investigates over 60 years of interior material and form trends using Australian Wheels magazine’s annual ‘Car of the Year’ winners (1963-2024). Objective visual observations of 57 car interior image-sets built an abductive-coded matrix, followed by visual pattern analysis. This identified a cyclical trend in metal usage, and an evolutionary transition of gloss to matte surface finishes. Subjective scoring of interior shape using scales of …

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Whose Voice Is It Anyway?: Design Resources For Safely Navigating Deceptive Ai Voice Scams, Dominique Carlon, Awais Hameed Khan, Anthony Mccosker, Tracy De Cotta Jun 2026

Whose Voice Is It Anyway?: Design Resources For Safely Navigating Deceptive Ai Voice Scams, Dominique Carlon, Awais Hameed Khan, Anthony Mccosker, Tracy De Cotta

DRS Biennial Conference Series

AI-powered voice scams are a fast-evolving public threat, combining rapid advances in synthetic speech technologies with sophisticated social engineering tactics. These scams are difficult to detect, exploit trust and familiarity, often resulting in deeply stigmatising experiences for those targeted. While anyone can be affected by scams, building awareness and confidence in navigating AI-related risks requires approaches tailored to the needs of diverse communities, particularly those who are more digitally excluded or marginalised. To address this, we developed AI & You—a suite of accessible, modular, and adaptable public education resources, collaboratively designed with the digital advocacy group Tactical Tech. We evaluated …

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Design-Driven Reflection: A Children's Metacognitive Cultivation System Integrating Physical Interaction And Digital Narrative, Yi Li, Yanfei Xu, Yu Gao, Zihui Jiang, Xinming Zhou, Xiaofang Jiang Jun 2026

Design-Driven Reflection: A Children's Metacognitive Cultivation System Integrating Physical Interaction And Digital Narrative, Yi Li, Yanfei Xu, Yu Gao, Zihui Jiang, Xinming Zhou, Xiaofang Jiang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Reflection is a crucial component for the development of children's metacognitive abilities, which is foundational for their overall growth. However, current preschool practices often lack structured approaches for facilitating reflection. To promote children's reflection after autonomous play and thereby foster their metacognitive abilities, this study introduces a reflection system that integrates physical interaction and digital narrative. Using tangible icons, the system guides children in reconstructing their play experiences, which are then converted into personalized digital comics. Implementation in kindergarten settings demonstrates the system's high usability and its effectiveness in eliciting children's metacognitive statements. Furthermore, the socially shared reflective situations significantly …

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How Can A Participatory Process Improve The Patient Experience During Oncology Consultations? An Emotional Design Approach, Yeray Sañudo, Laura Aguado-González, Alba Medina-Castillo, Erika Renedo Illarregi, Anne M. Stiggelbout, Jorge Sierra-Pérez Jun 2026

How Can A Participatory Process Improve The Patient Experience During Oncology Consultations? An Emotional Design Approach, Yeray Sañudo, Laura Aguado-González, Alba Medina-Castillo, Erika Renedo Illarregi, Anne M. Stiggelbout, Jorge Sierra-Pérez

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study explores how participatory and emotional service design can improve patient experiences and equity. Conducted in a Spanish public hospital, it involved breast and melanoma oncology patients as well as healthcare professionals, highlighting the importance of effective communication during initial consultations to help patients better cope with treatment and engage in self-care. The objective of this study is to analyse how oncology patients’ experiences change, from an emotional perspective, when a co-designed prototype is introduced in initial consultations. A comparative analysis between the initial state and post-redesign process was conducted using the EMPATHS methodology, which identifies patients’ emotional variations …

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Pedagogies Under Pressure In A Design-For-Transitions Era, Rebecca Price Jun 2026

Pedagogies Under Pressure In A Design-For-Transitions Era, Rebecca Price

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Designers are increasingly called upon to address complex systemic crises, yet these expanding ambitions for impact risk overburdening both practitioners and students. This paper draws attention to the mounting pedagogical pressures within design education as students navigate problem-based, project-based, inquiry-based and transformative learning frameworks. I argue that as systemic aspirations for impact are integrated into curricula, the emotional and cognitive demands on learners intensify, threatening discovery, joy, and sustained engagement. Drawing upon care-based pedagogy and educational scaffolding, I propose approaches to support emerging designers learning to work amidst uncertainty, vulnerability and urgency. Positioned in contrast to design-for-transition literature that emphasises …

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Making With Virtual Materials: Reframing “Making As Knowing” For Situated Narratives In Large-Scale Vr, Shijie Ming, Ziqiang He, Ning Zhao, Haopeng Yuan, Furui Sun, Ke Jiang Jun 2026

Making With Virtual Materials: Reframing “Making As Knowing” For Situated Narratives In Large-Scale Vr, Shijie Ming, Ziqiang He, Ning Zhao, Haopeng Yuan, Furui Sun, Ke Jiang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Classic “Making as Knowing” relies on tangible resistance from physical materials, but this framework is insufficient for intangible virtual materials in Large-Scale VR, often leading to the “problem of spectacle.” This research explores how “Making as Knowing” is reframed in this context, using a Research through Design (RtD) approach with a novel “Mandated Design Rationale Protocol.” The paper argues that “making” transforms into a rigorous epistemic practice of “systemic and experiential tuning” to generate “Knowledge of Experience” (K-OF). A reception study (N=31) confirmed a strong alignment between the designer’s K-OF targets and visitors’ takeaways. This work offers a traceable RtD …

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Perceived Quality And Future Applications Of Transparent Wood: Insights From An International Focus Group, Eva Vanessa Bruno, Beatrice Lerma, Doriana Dal Palù Jun 2026

Perceived Quality And Future Applications Of Transparent Wood: Insights From An International Focus Group, Eva Vanessa Bruno, Beatrice Lerma, Doriana Dal Palù

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Transparent wood (TW), obtained by removing lignin from natural wood and infiltrating it with bio-resin or bioplastic, has attracted renewed scientific and industrial interest over the past fifteen years as an effective alternative to plastics and glass. The research explores how this perceptual hybrid can be meaningfully presented in professional design contexts to support future use of TW. A twofold action was carried out during a focus group involving 12 international project professionals. On one hand, a sensory–perceptual analysis was conducted to identify the distinctive characteristics of the material; on the other, future application scenarios were explored through creative techniques …

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Toward An Ecology Of Imagination In Benwell, Ivan Pecorari, Clara Crivellaro, Usue Ruiz Arana, Ahmed Kharrufa, Vasilis Vlachokyriakos Jun 2026

Toward An Ecology Of Imagination In Benwell, Ivan Pecorari, Clara Crivellaro, Usue Ruiz Arana, Ahmed Kharrufa, Vasilis Vlachokyriakos

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates the emergence of imagination as a participatory ecological process among children and adolescents in a deprived post-industrial area of Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Responding to ongoing debates about representation and agency in More-than-Human design, we advance an ecology of imagination as a theoretical framework. We situate imagination as a dynamic, evolving network of relations among diverse and ephemeral spatial-temporal actors. Drawing on a summer of ethnographic fieldwork, the paper analyses three examples of imaginative play to illustrate how spatial, material, and affective interactions generate conditions for collective creative play between humans and non-humans. The discussion explores …

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Can The Thumb Point Effectively In Vr? An Evaluation Of Different 3d Pointing Techniques, Haoran Wei, Hanjia Zheng, Ningfeng Tang, Boyi Lian, Chen Feng, Xintang Wang, Chunlei Chai Jun 2026

Can The Thumb Point Effectively In Vr? An Evaluation Of Different 3d Pointing Techniques, Haoran Wei, Hanjia Zheng, Ningfeng Tang, Boyi Lian, Chen Feng, Xintang Wang, Chunlei Chai

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Technological advances have made VR interactions more natural, yet fatigue and social awkwardness persist. Microgestures offer a promising solution. However, prior research has focused mainly on the index finger, leaving the thumb’s potential as a stable, low-fatigue ray-casting modality underexplored. This study conducted two experiments to examine whether the thumb can function as an effective technique for 3D pointing in VR. Experiment 1 compared four input methods: VR controller, hand tracking, index-finger pointing, and thumb pointing. The controller was most efficient, while hand tracking provided greater stability but higher fatigue. Both microgestures outperformed hand tracking in efficiency and fatigue reduction. …

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