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We Found Planet B. What Does This Mean For Design?, Candela Guyot, Victoria Rodriguez Schon Jun 2026

We Found Planet B. What Does This Mean For Design?, Candela Guyot, Victoria Rodriguez Schon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Planet B emerges as a practice-based-fiction responding ironically to the slogan “There is no Planet B.” The project speculates on the discovery of an alternate planet and the task of replicating Planet A under the principle “if it looks the same, it is the same.” Through absurd protocols for selecting the perfect rock, flower, and stick, the experience enacted a satire of technoscientific control. Developed within the School of Materialist Research’s exploration of Nature and Artifice, it asks: what sensory, political, and aesthetic implications would the discovery of a Planet B bring to the design practice? Children spontaneously took over …

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Reframing Design Through Events: Generative Events As Ontological Units In Object-Oriented Design Ontology, Fengjin Yu, Qiaozhi Zhao Jun 2026

Reframing Design Through Events: Generative Events As Ontological Units In Object-Oriented Design Ontology, Fengjin Yu, Qiaozhi Zhao

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study confronts the theoretical challenges arising from the increasing practical overlap of Participatory Design (PD) and Co-Design. Existing research, largely confined to method comparisons, lacks an ontological perspective capable of explaining its underlying integrative mechanisms. To address this critical gap, this paper argues for a fundamental ontological shift. We introduce the concept of 'generative events' as the basic ontological unit of design, a concept constructed by synthesising Object-Oriented Design Ontology (OODO) with Process Ontology. This framework reframes design as a dynamic generative process where humans and non-human objects collaboratively construct relationships and meaning within specific contexts. The contribution of …

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From Commodity To Commons: Creating Local Eco-Systems For The Design Of Sustainable Nhs Garments In Scotland, Lewis Urquhart, Paul Rodgers, Niki Taylor, Euan Winton, Lucy Welsh, Sophia Murden Jun 2026

From Commodity To Commons: Creating Local Eco-Systems For The Design Of Sustainable Nhs Garments In Scotland, Lewis Urquhart, Paul Rodgers, Niki Taylor, Euan Winton, Lucy Welsh, Sophia Murden

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates the transformation of NHS Scotland garment systems through a design-led, commons-based localist framework that challenges prevailing globalised procurement models. Drawing on co-design methodologies and sustainable material innovation, this project repositions garments - specifically surgical caps and scrubs - as relational artefacts embedded within systems of care, identity, and ecological responsibility. Collaborations with healthcare professionals, designers, and regional manufacturers have yielded prototypes utilising regenerative fibres such as lyocell and linen, made locally within Scotland. These interventions demonstrate the potential of commons-design to foster civic engagement, decentralised production, and circular economies. By embedding garment systems within local ecologies and …

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Minamata’S Ecological Encounters Codesheet: Designing Remembrance Lenses Through More-Than-Human And Media Archaeology, Lucas Ogasawara De Oliveira, Kouta Minamizawa Jun 2026

Minamata’S Ecological Encounters Codesheet: Designing Remembrance Lenses Through More-Than-Human And Media Archaeology, Lucas Ogasawara De Oliveira, Kouta Minamizawa

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Consumer media devices routinely expose humans and environments to sensing and data capture while obscuring their own operations, supply chains, and ecological impacts. This paper asks how such devices might instead support planetary awareness with care and transparency. Working with Minamata, Japan, as a paradigmatic case, we combine more-than-human design, media archaeology, and research-through-design evidence-based fieldwork to develop the Ecological Encounters Codesheet (EEC): a granular method for coding encounters across temporal strata, containment forms, risk regimes, opacity sources, and care practices. Applying the EEC to Minamata’s infrastructures, memorials, archives, and tourist ecologies, we derive a set of Remembrance Lenses that …

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Human-Centred Digital Twin Design For Elderly Care: Addressing Comorbidity And Wellbeing, Nan Sheng, Emmanuel Tskeleves, Paul Cureton, Qi Chen Jun 2026

Human-Centred Digital Twin Design For Elderly Care: Addressing Comorbidity And Wellbeing, Nan Sheng, Emmanuel Tskeleves, Paul Cureton, Qi Chen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

China's rapidly ageing urban population faces complex mental health challenges, particularly with comorbid conditions. Current elderly care is nonpersonalised and unresponsive to support holistic wellbeing. To address the challenges of inclusive, responsive, and adaptable senior care, this study suggests a human-centred digital twin framework that incorporates service ecosystem design. This study employs a human-centred digital twin design methodology based on service ecosystem theory, focusing on how digital twins can mediate between users’ lived experiences and service innovation. The findings from the literature review and design practice indicate that digital twin technology has potential foster older adults’ life experience, social inclusion, …

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Redefining Design Practice As A Sensory And Decentred Experience, Azeem Hamid, Umar Hameed, Kristi Kuusk, Nithikul Nimkulrat Jun 2026

Redefining Design Practice As A Sensory And Decentred Experience, Azeem Hamid, Umar Hameed, Kristi Kuusk, Nithikul Nimkulrat

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how sensory focused practice can decentre the role of the design educator-researcher within design education, reframing learning as a relational and embodied form of practice-led design research. Drawing on a sensory workshop with foundation-year design students in Lahore, Pakistan, it explores how listening, movement, and tactile engagement foster reflective awareness and co-creation. Informed by theories of embodied cognition and relational pedagogy, the study considers how agency in learning environments extends beyond the educator to include materials, atmospheres, and collective experiences. Sensory practice is presented not as an adjunct to design but as integral to it, cultivating attentiveness, …

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Queer(Ing) Epistemology By Design: Tmi-Web—A Relational Knowledge System For Intersectional Data Science And Affective Queries, Jess Parris Westbrook, Coraline Ada Ehmke Jun 2026

Queer(Ing) Epistemology By Design: Tmi-Web—A Relational Knowledge System For Intersectional Data Science And Affective Queries, Jess Parris Westbrook, Coraline Ada Ehmke

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Queer(ing) is a practice of questioning, unsettling, and liberating that resists normative ways of knowing. This paper advances a Queer(ing) epistemology for intersectional data science and offers TMI (Too Much Information)-WEB as a working case. This open source, theory-driven qualitative data analysis ecosystem treats identity, lived experience, and power as relational, contextual, and co-constructed. Built on a human-centered graph data model, it reimagines databases as dynamic knowledge systems rather than neutral containers. Authentic, identity-driven personas emerge from participants’ own narratives, while affective queries invite researchers to explore (and experience) patterns of harm, coping, joy, and self-acceptance across intersectional lives and …

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Investigating The Embodied Aesthetics Of Kinetic Structures At Biennales And World Expos, Hatice Hilal Topuz, Güzin Şen Jun 2026

Investigating The Embodied Aesthetics Of Kinetic Structures At Biennales And World Expos, Hatice Hilal Topuz, Güzin Şen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In biennales and world expos, where creative ideas, cultural values, and technological developments in art and architecture are exhibited, kinetic systems are increasingly used in installations and pavilions. This paper frames kinetic structures in relation to embodied aesthetics and investigates how such kinetic structures go beyond mere display to offer visitors a holistic aesthetic experience. It introduces a selection of kinetic structures presented in diverse biennales and expos by utilizing publications, commentaries, and curatorial statements; deconstructs and analyzes their designs regarding types of movement, body-space-time relations, participation modes, embodied metaphors, and conceptual narratives. Thus, the paper shows how kinetic structures …

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Images Of Humans In Public Sector Design, Mieke Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, Jennie Winhall Jun 2026

Images Of Humans In Public Sector Design, Mieke Van Der Bijl-Brouwer, Jennie Winhall

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Human-centred design is an essential element of the application of design in public and social sectors. What has remained largely unexpressed in the field is the way in which design is influenced by how we see humans, and how that is informed by our worldviews and dominant paradigms. In this conceptual paper, we investigate five common views on humans – user, worker, fallible individual, consumer, and whole and social being - based on four dimensions. The dimensions include 1) depth, 2) personal focus, 3) social focus, and 4) level of agency. Based on a case study of youth unemployment, we …

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The Ecology Of Effort: Aesthetics Of Resistance In The Age Of Frictionless Design, Stefano Caggiano Jun 2026

The Ecology Of Effort: Aesthetics Of Resistance In The Age Of Frictionless Design, Stefano Caggiano

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how design can restore cognitive and sensory depth within a culture shaped by frictionless digitality. The dominance of frictionless design—defined by speed, ease, and seamlessness—has optimized usability but diminished the experiential conditions that make meaning possible. Meaning emerges through resistance: the effort, uncertainty, and interpretive engagement that activate attention and reward. Drawing on embodied cognition and semiotic theory, the paper argues that cognitive effort and sensory resistance are essential to perception and value. Physical and spatial artefacts, through material texture, spatial articulation, and perceptual complexity, can reintroduce friction into everyday experience, inviting interpretive participation rather than passive …

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Contextual Intelligence For Ai In Design: A Liberal Education Lens, Amit Kundal, Shamit Shrivastav, Tina Mangwani Jun 2026

Contextual Intelligence For Ai In Design: A Liberal Education Lens, Amit Kundal, Shamit Shrivastav, Tina Mangwani

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) becomes embedded in design education and practice, global experts highlight a key challenge: preparing design students to engage with AI responsibly and contextually. This paper explores how liberal education’s interdisciplinary approach builds contextual understanding for designers to leverage AI tools effectively. ​​Informed by the philosophy of an Indian design school that is rooted in liberal education, along with insights from global design experts, the study introduces a conceptual model: CI-AID (Contextual Intelligence for AI in Design). CI-AID extends on the traditional double diamond, where interdisciplinary knowledge enables a comprehensive discovery of the context that the design …

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Designing Preparatory Haptics: Relational Timing And Bodily Anticipation In Industrial Driving Contexts, Zhe Dai, Yonghong Liu, Pingping Fang, Xiangtian Bai, Yifei Xue, Fan Wu, Qian Ou Jun 2026

Designing Preparatory Haptics: Relational Timing And Bodily Anticipation In Industrial Driving Contexts, Zhe Dai, Yonghong Liu, Pingping Fang, Xiangtian Bai, Yifei Xue, Fan Wu, Qian Ou

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In safety-critical industrial contexts, visual alerts often fail under high cognitive load. This paper introduces Preparatory Haptics, framing haptic timing as a relational medium that reshapes bodily anticipation. We developed a wearable haptic prototype synchronized with auditory cues to investigate how temporal coordination and vibration modes influence attention and readiness. A driving-simulation study showed that advance-timing haptic cues foster proactive anticipation, whereas sustained vibrations are perceived as bodily resonance rather than interference, particularly under complex task conditions. These findings ground the Preparatory Haptics Framework, which treats temporal materiality as a generative element of embodied interaction and offers theoretical and practical …

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Not Post-Digital But More-Than-Human: Rethinking Digital Design For Regional Natural History Museums, Katt Grover, Argenis Ramirez Gomez, Claire Bailey Ross Jun 2026

Not Post-Digital But More-Than-Human: Rethinking Digital Design For Regional Natural History Museums, Katt Grover, Argenis Ramirez Gomez, Claire Bailey Ross

DRS Biennial Conference Series

What if the future of digital design in museums isn’t found in cutting-edge institutions, but in the often-overlooked ecologies of regional natural history collections? This paper repositions small regional museums not as lagging behind in digital transformation, but as fertile grounds for exploring more-than-human digital design. Drawing on an ongoing collaborative project between the Portsmouth Natural History Museum and the University of Portsmouth, we reflect on the interactive experiences using low-cost holograms and motion-capture avatars as mediators between human and non-human actors within museum ecologies. Giving collections voices and personalities engaged audiences, yet in attempting to become more-than-human, the collections …

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Research Through Game Design, Oliver Bates, Ben Kirman, Marcia Tavares Smith, David Philip Green Jun 2026

Research Through Game Design, Oliver Bates, Ben Kirman, Marcia Tavares Smith, David Philip Green

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Games are common artefacts and systems for design research, appearing as engagement tools with publics or specific audiences, expressions of ideas, and as tools for speculation. Games have proven value as instruments or outputs supporting this work, but the process of designing games is rarely centered as a moment of production of new knowledge and understanding. Taking inspiration from Research through Design more broadly, we position Research through Game Design as an approach that delineates space to challenge systems, break from norms, provoke, critique, explore, experiment, critically design, and reflect on the frictions and boundaries of ideas, artefacts, and systems. …

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Cultureaction! An Interaction And Experience Design Project To Explore San Marino’S Historic Center As A Living Archive., Silvia Gasparotto Jun 2026

Cultureaction! An Interaction And Experience Design Project To Explore San Marino’S Historic Center As A Living Archive., Silvia Gasparotto

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This research explores how design-driven approaches can boost engagement with cultural heritage and archives, centering on an experimental initiative in San Marino's historic center. The project envisions the city as a dynamic archive brought to life through interactive installations. A system featuring an interactive device called Iride and six site-specific installations was created to reveal the hidden historical and meaningful layers within the urban landscape. These installations use multisensory components to craft experiences that enhance visitors' cognitive and emotional connections with local cultural stories. This method illustrates how design and digital technology can connect tangible and intangible heritage, institutional archives …

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Becoming A Coffee Shop Regular: Factors Shaping Regularity In Contemporary Coffee Shops, Mia B. Münster, Rebekah Matheny, Kirsten Marie Raahauge Jun 2026

Becoming A Coffee Shop Regular: Factors Shaping Regularity In Contemporary Coffee Shops, Mia B. Münster, Rebekah Matheny, Kirsten Marie Raahauge

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study explores customers’ motivations to become regulars at contemporary specialty coffee shops and identifies the features that make these places meaningful enough for repeated visits. Drawing on observations and in situ interviews with staff and regular customers in Hong Kong, Copenhagen, and Columbus, the study examines how regular destinations emerge in contemporary café culture. The analysis identifies recurring characteristics of places that individuals consider their regular spots: (1) high-quality offerings, including quality products and professional service; (2) convenient and attractive locations; (3) the resources to accommodate different types of visits; (4) connectedness, or a sense of community and shared …

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Design As Interface: From Architectural Design To Circular Systems Design, Georgios Triantafyllidis, Lizhen Huang Jun 2026

Design As Interface: From Architectural Design To Circular Systems Design, Georgios Triantafyllidis, Lizhen Huang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Circular economy planning for the built environment is a wicked problem: data are fragmented, tools are siloed, and the goals of material reuse are contested. Those aspects collectively contribute to generating systemic barriers towards circular economy transition. This study targets this challenge by proposing the Circular City Twin as a conceptual open system-of-systems that enables shared inquiry and collaborative action between city and building scales. Drawing on second-order cybernetics and meta-design principles, the Circular City Twin acts as an architectural interface: a modular, scalable, extensible digital infrastructure that integrates cadastral data, parametric BIM generation, and semantic models to deliver high-granularity …

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Neurodesign In Urban Environments: Fmri Insights For Designing Cognitively Supportive Cities, Saijal Sharma, Tian Cheng, Gerhard Bruyns Jun 2026

Neurodesign In Urban Environments: Fmri Insights For Designing Cognitively Supportive Cities, Saijal Sharma, Tian Cheng, Gerhard Bruyns

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Advances in neuroscience and neuroimaging have created new pathways to interpret how urban environments shape spatial cognition, psychological well-being, mobility, behaviour, and related outcomes across different age groups. This review examines the use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in urban settings and assesses its contribution to an age-inclusive, longevity-focused environment. It synthesises interdisciplinary research into a concise framework that integrates fMRI-based pattern recognition with stimuli mapping to generate design insights. Within this context, fMRI is positioned as a complementary methodological approach to be used alongside ethnographic, participatory, and experiential methods in generating neuro-informed design knowledge. The review highlights design-relevant …

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Unwording Design: Demilitarizing The Imaginaries Of Design, Xaviera Sánchez De La Barquera Estrada, Sergio Dávila Urrutia Jun 2026

Unwording Design: Demilitarizing The Imaginaries Of Design, Xaviera Sánchez De La Barquera Estrada, Sergio Dávila Urrutia

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design’s vocabulary is saturated with metaphors of control (targets, strategies, impacts), revealing a militarized ontology that frames design as domination over problems, contexts, and futures. This paper examines the politics of wording and introduces Unwording Design as a practice of ontological care: dismantling violent grammars that sustain extractive imaginaries and cultivating vocabularies grounded in affection, reciprocity, and relational ethics. Drawing on Haraway’s insight that the thoughts we use to think matter (2016), Butler’s performativity (2006), and Escobar’s ontological design (2018), we argue that transforming language transforms the worlds design brings into being. Unwording shifts from languages of war to languages …

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Divergent Thinking To Design A Musical Instrument, Ermanno Aparo, Liliana Soares, Rita Almendra Jun 2026

Divergent Thinking To Design A Musical Instrument, Ermanno Aparo, Liliana Soares, Rita Almendra

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores how divergent thinking generates creativity and innovative ideas, exploring multiple possibilities and connections. Designing a musical instrument is an opportunity for knowledge and experimentation, combining the need for high performance with aesthetic qualities and, the tradition of handmade production with cutting-edge technologies and materials. Methodologically, the study is exploratory based on qualitative research methods. It comprises academy and the local productive sector, which includes luthiers, musicians, and an audiovisual and film studio. The paper highlights other research projects that demonstrate this team's ability to create connections with design, music, culture, and social issues. The creation of a …

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Co-Creating With Fungi: Mycelium Toys And Pedagogies For Regenerative Futures, Flavia Alice Mameli, Robbi Zidna Ilman Jun 2026

Co-Creating With Fungi: Mycelium Toys And Pedagogies For Regenerative Futures, Flavia Alice Mameli, Robbi Zidna Ilman

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This practice-based research project presents BLX, a series of mycelium-based educational toys. Shaped like inflated building blocks, BLX invites children (early years to primary education) to construct playful structures whilst materialising biological and anthropogenic circularity through design. Unlike plastic toys that embody permanence, BLX can be played with, composted, or repurposed as plant pots—rendering regenerative processes tangible. Drawing on speculative design and material studies, the project positions mycelium as both educational medium and more-than-human collaborator. By embracing decay as (re-)generative, BLX challenges material cultures of permanence and offers children embodied encounters with temporality and transformation. This contribution is threefold: methodological …

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The Environmental Citizen’S Playbook: A Catalogue Of Playful Participation For Environmental Action, Savannah Vize, Ferran Altarriba Bertran, İdil Gaziulusoy Jun 2026

The Environmental Citizen’S Playbook: A Catalogue Of Playful Participation For Environmental Action, Savannah Vize, Ferran Altarriba Bertran, İdil Gaziulusoy

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Sustainability problems are complex and overwhelming, with terms like eco-anxiety now commonplace. Sustaining engagement therefore requires attention beyond systemic levers towards relational, social, and emotional dimensions. This paper explores play as a participatory tool to foster wellbeing, maintain engagement and reframe environmental action. Play is known to support healthy development, reduce stress, and connect socially as an antidote to fatiguing emotions. Research has additionally explored play’s transformative potential to disrupt existing structures and imaginaries. This study examines how play can be leveraged to support more inclusive and emotionally sustainable engagement with environmental action. Using a participatory research-through-design process (Situated Play …

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Co-Creation With Carbon Data: Reframing The Designer’S Role In The Decarbonization Of The Built Environment, Halina Veloso E Zarate, Manuela Triggianese, Jantien Stoter, Maarten Van Ham Jun 2026

Co-Creation With Carbon Data: Reframing The Designer’S Role In The Decarbonization Of The Built Environment, Halina Veloso E Zarate, Manuela Triggianese, Jantien Stoter, Maarten Van Ham

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Cross-scale, multidisciplinary design projects such as station area redevelopment are inherently complex, with many stakeholders and vast amounts of data relevant to decision-making. In the Netherlands, these projects face a dual challenge: meeting housing demands while reducing the embodied carbon emissions associated with construction. Early integration of carbon data is essential, yet the abundance and heterogeneity of supporting datasets required for Life-Cycle Assessment beyond the building scale can hinder progress. This paper presents a collaborative workshop method that enables a data-supported design process for informed decision-making. Sessions with station architects, urban designers, railway operators, and carbon specialists co-create a curated …

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Strategic Design For Circular Transitions: Co-Defining Servitisation Strategies With A Furniture Company, Mattia Italia, Silvana Migliozzi, Michele Melazzini, Daniela Maurer, Xue Pei Jun 2026

Strategic Design For Circular Transitions: Co-Defining Servitisation Strategies With A Furniture Company, Mattia Italia, Silvana Migliozzi, Michele Melazzini, Daniela Maurer, Xue Pei

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The furniture industry is currently facing profound environmental and systemic challenges that demand radical transformation. Servitisation, understood as the shift from selling products to delivering value through integrated product–service systems, offers a potential pathway to foster circularity and long-term competitiveness. However, this change requires the adaptation and integration of circularity strategies within the sector. Strategic Design and Transition Design can provide solid theoretical and practical foundations to support this integration. Therefore, this article explores how participatory processes supported by design can assist companies in co-defining circular strategies through servitisation. Using Participatory Action Research within a leading Italian furniture manufacturer, the …

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Understanding Sleep Challenges In Shared Dormitories: A Co-Design Inquiry, Zheng Wang, Adrian Gradinar, Lisa Thomas Jun 2026

Understanding Sleep Challenges In Shared Dormitories: A Co-Design Inquiry, Zheng Wang, Adrian Gradinar, Lisa Thomas

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Shared dormitories are the most common living arrangement for Chinese university students and have a crucial impact on their sleep and well-being. Most studies on sleep among this group primarily focus on the physical environment and the individual person, giving far less attention to the interpersonal and social aspects of living in shared dormitories. To address this gap, this paper presents the findings of a co-design workshop with 23 participants which explored their experiences of shared sleeping spaces and involved them in prototyping interventions for improving sleep experience. Findings reveal interpersonal interference as a major factor behind sleep disruption. Even …

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A Product-Service System Design Approach For The Frame Innovation Of Automated Robotaxi Interior Space Cleaning, Zhiqian Hu, Yaojia Zhang, Peiyuan Ge, Leijie Ding, Mager Birgit, Li Zhang Jun 2026

A Product-Service System Design Approach For The Frame Innovation Of Automated Robotaxi Interior Space Cleaning, Zhiqian Hu, Yaojia Zhang, Peiyuan Ge, Leijie Ding, Mager Birgit, Li Zhang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Robotaxi services are expanding rapidly, but interior cleanliness, valued by passengers, remains a critical weak link. This study examines embedding the Automated Robotaxi Interior Space Cleaning (ARISC) framework in existing operations via a product service system (PSS) architecture without reducing fleet availability. Methodologically, frame innovation is undertaken from companies’ internal processes and governance: first, the study benchmarks DiDi Autonomous Driving, Baidu’s Apollo Go, and SAIC Mobility Robotaxi, and maps existing Robotaxi service systems; second, eleven semi structured interviews with cleaning providers, company staff, and passengers yield 384 records indicating functional needs (air circulation, surface cleaning, waste removal) and value needs …

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From Sustainable Campuses To Regenerative Governance: A Design Perspective On Participation And Institutional Learning In The Pays De La Loire University Ecosystem, Rajmonda Zajmi Avignon Jun 2026

From Sustainable Campuses To Regenerative Governance: A Design Perspective On Participation And Institutional Learning In The Pays De La Loire University Ecosystem, Rajmonda Zajmi Avignon

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Universities are increasingly recognised as laboratories for socio-ecological transition, yet higher education sustainability frameworks in France remain largely managerial, privileging compliance and infrastructure over participation. This paper examines how three national and regional instruments, including the Plan Climat–Biodiversité, the Note de cadrage TEDS, and the SRESRI 2021–2027, are translated into governance practices within two university campus ecosystems in the Pays de la Loire region: Chantrerie (Nantes) and Belle-Beille (Angers). Adopting a systemic design perspective, the study conceptualises governance as a process mediated through design practices involving feedback, coordination, and institutional learning. Through a comparative analysis of these models, it identifies …

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Darker Affordances: Designing With Values As Vulnerabilities In An Age Of Disinformation, Laura Knight Jun 2026

Darker Affordances: Designing With Values As Vulnerabilities In An Age Of Disinformation, Laura Knight

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In an age of pervasive disinformation, values function as conceptual anchors for comprehending complex information. Design-for-values approaches frame values as alignment opportunities. But the same values that enable ethical, resonant communication can be exploited for manipulative and unethical purposes. This paper argues that values in graphic communication design function as 'darker affordances' — relational properties affording both ethical communication and manipulation with equal reliability. Drawing on Master's students' reflections from a project in which they designed paired climate communication — one ethically aligned, one disinformation — it examines how contrastive pedagogy develops ethical literacy around values' dual nature. Analysis reveals …

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Co-Designing Culture: A Grounded Theory Of Participatory Practice In Indian Folk Music, Abhinav Agrawal, Mudit Chaturvedi, Gaurang Agrawal Jun 2026

Co-Designing Culture: A Grounded Theory Of Participatory Practice In Indian Folk Music, Abhinav Agrawal, Mudit Chaturvedi, Gaurang Agrawal

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Prevailing accounts of co-design remain anchored in Western formal practice. This study repositions Indian folk music as a culturally embedded site of collaborative design. Drawing on Murphy’s anthropology of design and a grounded theory approach, we analysed 1,621 coded segments from interviews with 23 first-generation folk artists across 14 Indian states. We show that musicians function as cultural designers who translate lived experience and shared moral economies into adaptive musical forms through participatory routines: community observation, collective ideation, performance-based prototyping, and iterative calibration through audience feedback. We formalise these dynamics in the Cultural Co-Design Flow model, illuminating how layered semantics, …

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Design For Dignified Longevity: Olfactory-Enhanced Vr Meditation For Sustained Mindfulness Practice, Lei Xia, Xiaomei Li, Dan Li, Ling Fan Jun 2026

Design For Dignified Longevity: Olfactory-Enhanced Vr Meditation For Sustained Mindfulness Practice, Lei Xia, Xiaomei Li, Dan Li, Ling Fan

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Mindfulness meditation supports psychological wellbeing and stress regulation—factors closely associated with healthy aging and longevity. However, practitioners often struggle to sustain attentional depth over time. While virtual reality (VR) has been explored as a tool for immersive meditation, most systems rely primarily on audiovisual stimuli and overlook olfactory cues despite their strong influence on emotion and environmental perception. This study introduces ScentSync, an olfactory-enhanced VR meditation system integrating AI-generated environments with synchronized scent delivery. A controlled experiment with 54 experienced meditators compared traditional meditation (Non-VR), VR meditation (VR), and olfactory-enhanced VR meditation (VR+Olfactory). Results show that the VR+Olfactory group achieved …

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