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2026

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The Paradox Of Richness: A Discourse-Centered Framework For Equitable Visualization, Fangbo Wu, Canyu Jiang, Yanlin Yin, Yonghong Liu Jun 2026

The Paradox Of Richness: A Discourse-Centered Framework For Equitable Visualization, Fangbo Wu, Canyu Jiang, Yanlin Yin, Yonghong Liu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The proliferation of new technologies, notably GenAI, alongside augmented and virtual reality, has produced a paradoxical situation in visualization practice: while offering unprecedented multimodal richness, their complexity erects new barriers to entry, thereby exacerbating inequality and undermining design's democratic promise. Although research at the micro-level of visualization techniques abounds, a critical and systematic methodology for addressing the inherent power dynamics and design justice issues from meso- and macro-perspectives remains conspicuously absent. This paper intervenes by adapting an analytical framework from Critical Discourse Analysis to embed design justice within visualization practice. We propose a four-layer framework—Culture, Context, Meaning, and Expression (CCME)—as …

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Becoming Designers: Studio Instructors As Catalysts Of Designerly Identity Formation, Beril Gök Jun 2026

Becoming Designers: Studio Instructors As Catalysts Of Designerly Identity Formation, Beril Gök

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Embodiment, affect, and symbolic modelling remain underexplored dimensions of designerly identity formation, despite its recognition as a central outcome of design education. While existing research emphasizes cognitive-skill acquisition, little is known about how studio instructors shape identity through aesthetic, relational, and performative means. This study examines the influence of instructors within the socio-aesthetic ecology of the design studio. Using abductive thematic analysis of focus group interviews with teaching assistants across architecture, industrial design, interior design, and fashion design, the study highlights shared cross-disciplinary patterns across international contexts. Findings reveal that instructors shape designerly becoming not only through teaching but also …

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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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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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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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Where Regenerative Design Theory Meets Ground: A Case Study Of Xreef On Weizhou Island, Chengjun Li, Valentina Rognoli, Fuqing Xu Jun 2026

Where Regenerative Design Theory Meets Ground: A Case Study Of Xreef On Weizhou Island, Chengjun Li, Valentina Rognoli, Fuqing Xu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As the Anthropocene increasingly undermines natural systems, there is an urgent need for design to move beyond harm reduction toward active ecological restoration. Regenerative Design (RD) has emerged as a promising paradigm to complement sustainable design; however, fragmented knowledge and inconsistent terminology hinder designers’ systematic understanding. To bridge the gap between theory and practice, this study first reviews the philosophical stances and key approaches of RD, then examines its implementation in a coral reef restoration project on Weizhou Island. Reflection on the project revealed three major challenges: limited capacity for interdisciplinary collaboration, insufficient tools for stakeholder engagement, and inadequate dynamic …

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Mapping Design’S Contribution To Policymaking: A Framework For Understanding Design’S Roles Across Policymaking Levels, Amy Hyewon Lee Jun 2026

Mapping Design’S Contribution To Policymaking: A Framework For Understanding Design’S Roles Across Policymaking Levels, Amy Hyewon Lee

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper examines how design is conceptualised within design and policy literature in public-sector contexts, contributing to the expanding discourse on design for policy. Despite the growing adoption of design approaches in governance, robust evidence of their contribution remains limited. Using a qualitative meta-synthesis of 24 publications spanning design studies, policy design, and public administration, the study identifies four interrelated logics through which design is conceptualised in policymaking: systems learning and reflexivity; legitimacy and relational effectiveness; structuring and coherence; and adaptation and delivery. These logics are reframed as epistemic, relational, systemic, and operational dimensions of contributive capacity that describe how …

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Build & Connect: Designing A Constructive, Participatory Physicalization Activity & Toolkit For Community Reflection, Jenny Long, Caroline Gausden, Tara Capel, Uta Hinrichs Jun 2026

Build & Connect: Designing A Constructive, Participatory Physicalization Activity & Toolkit For Community Reflection, Jenny Long, Caroline Gausden, Tara Capel, Uta Hinrichs

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores how slow design and care can inform reflective data physicalization practices. Physicalization has been recognized to widen participation in data exploration, but how can it serve communities with varied relationships to power, access, and exclusion? We explored this question through a case study that aimed at supporting a long-term community project through physicalization activities. We found that language around data and representation created barriers to participation, even when demonstrated through established physicalization activities. Centering design processes around participants’ reservations we arrived at Build & Connect, a constructive, participatory physicalization activity and toolkit which, based on the analogy …

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Exploring Everyday Heritage Futures: Co-Creating Urban Narratives Through Cultural Probes, Guo Chen, Robert G. Harland, Michael Wilson Jun 2026

Exploring Everyday Heritage Futures: Co-Creating Urban Narratives Through Cultural Probes, Guo Chen, Robert G. Harland, Michael Wilson

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Narrative has long been used in cultural heritage for interpretation and communication, primarily within institutions and historic sites. Everyday heritage, however, foregrounds seemingly modest places and is constituted through routine interactions and practices, emphasising a continuing narrative between place and everyday life. Ubiquitous digital technologies make multi-layered narratives possible and bring underrepresented stories to light in situ. This pilot study in Loughborough’s Market Place, UK, explores narratives rooted in lived experiences that convey cultural-heritage significance. We designed and deployed cultural probes (a set of creative and speculative tasks) to prompt and record place-based stories. The analysis identified four themes: spatiality, …

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Desiring Production: Design As An Ethical Action, Yihui Yang, Li Zhang Jun 2026

Desiring Production: Design As An Ethical Action, Yihui Yang, Li Zhang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Contemporary design theory and practice have long taken user need-oriented as the core principle. Need has become the ethical and practical foundation of design. It has suppressed the creativity and initiative of both users and designers in the name of functionality. Tracing the origin and evolution of need in design history, this paper points out its inadaptability to complex contemporary design scenarios and diverse demands. On this basis, it introduces the Desiring Production theory of Deleuze and Guattari, reinterprets desire as a more productive and relational life power than need, and explores the feasible path for the ethical intervention of …

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From Co-Design To Co-Execution: A Knowledge Map Of Real-Time User Participation In Service Settings (2008-2024), Yue Cao, Yihan Zhao Jun 2026

From Co-Design To Co-Execution: A Knowledge Map Of Real-Time User Participation In Service Settings (2008-2024), Yue Cao, Yihan Zhao

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This bibliometric study analyzes 236 articles from Web of Science (2008-2024) to map the intellectual structure of real-time user participation in service encounters (RUP-SE). The field has transitioned from exploration (2008-2013) to maturity, with post-2020 publications averaging 29.5 annually. Three core research clusters emerge: real-time co-creation and participation, digitally-driven service innovation, and value creation-destruction dynamics. Theoretically grounded in service-dominant logic and value co-creation frameworks, the field addresses how technological advancement and COVID-19 have accelerated the shift from co-design to co-execution. However, platform architectures introduce governance logics that render co-execution inherently asymmetrical, and value co-destruction in algorithmic contexts may be structurally …

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Fine Observation And Material Care: An Interactionist Approach To Design Aesthetics, Washington Morales-Maciel Jun 2026

Fine Observation And Material Care: An Interactionist Approach To Design Aesthetics, Washington Morales-Maciel

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper argues that the question “How does the awareness of material sustainability change perceptions of aesthetics?” requires an interactionist framework from philosophical aesthetics, against both eliminativist and formalist models. Without treating materials as morally valuable entities, there is no room to integrate the ethical dimension into aesthetic evaluation. However, the question can be inverted, since aesthetic perceptions also contribute to how we ethically treat materials. Central to the argument is the claim that aesthetic properties, by virtue of their affective character, are partly constitutive of the moral dimension of visual representations, not mere embellishments but active elements in shaping …

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Keeping It Real With Responsible Futuring: Reflecting On The Epistemic And Political Ambition Of A Transdisciplinary Approach For Societal Transitions, Cristina Zaga, Julieta Matos Castaño, Mascha Van Der Voort Jun 2026

Keeping It Real With Responsible Futuring: Reflecting On The Epistemic And Political Ambition Of A Transdisciplinary Approach For Societal Transitions, Cristina Zaga, Julieta Matos Castaño, Mascha Van Der Voort

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Amidst the upheaval of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the threat of the Sixth Extinction, designers focus on approaches that help communities connect and imagine alternative, desirable futures. Transdisciplinary approaches promise more sustainable and just transitions by valuing and integrating diverse forms of knowledge to co-shape more equitable design interventions. However, these ambitions often fall short. Transdisciplinary practices may be reduced to justice-washing or corporate co-optation, frequently failing to achieve epistemic and social justice. This paper introduces Responsible Futuring, a transdisciplinary design-led approach that enables communities to actively shape their future trajectories, embracing collaboration and diverse perspectives as catalysts for …

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From Waste To Opportunity, Upcycling Innovation In The South African Context: The Case Of Clothes To Good, Jennifer Murray, Lindsey Carey, Desiree Smal, Adelaide Sheik Jun 2026

From Waste To Opportunity, Upcycling Innovation In The South African Context: The Case Of Clothes To Good, Jennifer Murray, Lindsey Carey, Desiree Smal, Adelaide Sheik

DRS Biennial Conference Series

South Africa is a country which is facing significant textile waste problem. High volumes of second-hand products are entering the marketplace and represent an opportunity to SMEs and micro-businesses. Clothes to Good (CTG), a South African charitable organisation, are working to offset this challenge by creating upcycling programmes which repurpose these products through micro-business models designed to empower mothers of neurodivergent children. Neurodiversity is rising in South Africa and sensory stimuli products are an opportunity to repurpose second-hand clothing to products to support these consumers. This research represents the pilot study of a larger project investigating micro-business programmes creating weighted …

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Attuned Design Practice: Embodied Knowledge As A Design Vocabulary At The Intersection Of Artistic And Scientific Inquiry., Anne Marleen Olthof, Jouke Verlinden, Somaya Ben Allouch Jun 2026

Attuned Design Practice: Embodied Knowledge As A Design Vocabulary At The Intersection Of Artistic And Scientific Inquiry., Anne Marleen Olthof, Jouke Verlinden, Somaya Ben Allouch

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This article introduces Attuned Design Practice (ADP) as an umbrella term for studying embodied knowledge at the intersection of artistic and scientific inquiry. It addresses an epistemological gap across design and human–computer interaction, dance and somatics, and disability studies. Building on an existing framework of embodied knowing, we examine domain-specific traditions and expose the threshold between these knowledge domains. We propose Open Rehearsals as experimental settings for co-performance among human and non-human actors. Within this context, attunement is introduced as a performative materiality that enables relational, situated, and operational forms of understanding across disciplines. An eighteen-month field study in design, …

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Enhancing Social Connections Through Co-Illustration Workshops Among Solo-Living Young Adults, Jueshuang Wang, Emma Rose, Mirian Calvo Jun 2026

Enhancing Social Connections Through Co-Illustration Workshops Among Solo-Living Young Adults, Jueshuang Wang, Emma Rose, Mirian Calvo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The rising prevalence of social loneliness among solo-living young adults indicates an urgent need for support. However, research addressing this issue, especially in Asia, is limited. This study aims to bridge this gap by introducing co-illustration workshops as a novel method to enhance social connections and wellbeing in this demographic. Employing a participatory action research (PAR) methodology, the study engages participants in five iterative co-design cycles to enhance social connections. The findings suggest that temporary co-illustration workshops serve as a conduit for conversation and facilitate the formation of high-quality weak ties, thereby alleviating social loneliness. This paper provides guidance and …

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Menopause Technologies Beyond Ableism And Normativity, Omleila Mohammadi, Sabine Thayer, Bernhard Maurer, Verena Fuchsberger Jun 2026

Menopause Technologies Beyond Ableism And Normativity, Omleila Mohammadi, Sabine Thayer, Bernhard Maurer, Verena Fuchsberger

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Many technologies are available that address menopause, yet more or less exclusively reflect and reinforce dominant narratives of ableism and normativity. To uncover untold stories of the menopause journey and add perspective to the pluralistic menopause experience, we conducted two workshop sessions with cis women and gender-diverse individuals who have experienced menopause. Through feminist and reflexive methodology and using critical disability studies (CDS) as an analytical lens, we present how menopause experiences are shaped through bodily transformations and relational social practices. Finally, we discuss possible future design directions for shaping the menopause experience beyond its conventional notion. We call for …

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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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Visualisation For Citizen Participation: Data Practices In The Copenhagen Climate Citizens' Assembly, Daniele Dell'orto, Amalia De Götzen, Mathieu Jacomy Jun 2026

Visualisation For Citizen Participation: Data Practices In The Copenhagen Climate Citizens' Assembly, Daniele Dell'orto, Amalia De Götzen, Mathieu Jacomy

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The recent popularisation of data and their visualisation has offered new opportunities for spaces of citizen participation around contested issues, such as climate assemblies. The potential of data visualisation in opening and supporting discussions has been widely recognised, but so has the risk it carries of naturalising certain perspectives and delegitimising others. Still, the roles played by data visualisation in the specific context of climate assemblies remain unaddressed. This paper investigates those roles through field observation and desk research around a case study, the Københavnernes Klimaborgerting. The study explores which data were visualised, how, by who and why. What emerges …

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Reconfiguring Industrial Heritage: Human-Centered Narrative Design For Reconciliation And Inclusive Storytelling, Yiling Fu, Marco Borsotti Jun 2026

Reconfiguring Industrial Heritage: Human-Centered Narrative Design For Reconciliation And Inclusive Storytelling, Yiling Fu, Marco Borsotti

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This article takes the Shenyang China Industrial Museum as an example to expose the interpretation and design of China's representative industrial heritage museums dominated by authoritative narratives and technocratic biases. Through the case study of the “Steel Home Still” exhibition, explore how narrative design can reconstruct industrial archives and challenge their power structure. This article conducts a comparative analysis of two cases based on three parameters: narrative themes and strategies, representation of individuals and workers, technology narratives and human engagement, discussing how human-centered exhibition narratives reposition human memory at the core of industrial heritage, transforming it from static representations of …

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Craft As Experiential Knowledge: Designing Workshops And Record-Keeping Practices For Cultural Transmission Among Young Generations, Kai Kishita Jun 2026

Craft As Experiential Knowledge: Designing Workshops And Record-Keeping Practices For Cultural Transmission Among Young Generations, Kai Kishita

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study demonstrates the potential of an experiential learning approach combining craft production experiences, dialogue with craftsmen, and record-keeping activities for young people. An ageing workforce and declining demand contribute to the loss of cultural identity and intangible value that craftsmanship culture provides to contemporary Japanese society. However, opportunities to engage with crafts beyond mere consumption remain limited. Using Kyoto roof tiles (京瓦 / Kyō-gawara) making as a primary case study, this research examines how experiential knowledge can promote cultural transmission and education through workshops and record-keeping (聞き書き / kikigaki). Through hands-on making and record-keeping, participants gained technical skills and …

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Design Things In Search For Public Concern: A Study Of How Urban Lighting Is Scripted In The City Of Gothenburg, Christina Vildinge, Elena Raviola Jun 2026

Design Things In Search For Public Concern: A Study Of How Urban Lighting Is Scripted In The City Of Gothenburg, Christina Vildinge, Elena Raviola

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Light is gaining attention as a design element in public space. Its relational and ephemeral aesthetics enable urban transformations beyond the built environment, offering new possibilities for sustainable and inclusive cities. Yet, artificial light remains a relatively new concern in planning, traditionally excluded in drawings and regulations. This paper examines how light’s relational materiality is translated within urban planning and design, and travels as a matter of concern in city governance to become a public thing. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, we analyze municipal lighting policymaking in Gothenburg, Sweden, showing how light’s multiple dimensions—its aesthetics, sustainability, safety, environmental —are mediated through …

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From Edgeland To Gentrified-Land: Graphic Communication As Intermediary For Negotiating Place Identity In Hackney Wick, London, Angelina Hang Pan, Jennifer Mchugn, Jingnan Bian Jun 2026

From Edgeland To Gentrified-Land: Graphic Communication As Intermediary For Negotiating Place Identity In Hackney Wick, London, Angelina Hang Pan, Jennifer Mchugn, Jingnan Bian

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Hackney Wick has long been regarded as an urban edgeland, marked by significant poverty since the 1860s, with distinctive topographic and socio- economic features. Yet in the early 2000s, it saw a rapid transformation into a creative space as artists began to occupy abandoned warehouses, building a live- work culture and quickly establishing itself as one of Europe’s most vibrant artistic communities. More recently, the development of the London Olympic infrastructure and government-led urban regeneration initiatives have accelerated gentrification and drive for social capital, whilst intensifying social exclusion and community marginalisation amongst disadvantaged communities. This paper integrates visual ethnography (graphic …

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More-Than-Human Data Practices, Elisa Giaccardi, Sara Lenzi, Chris Speed, Vasiliki Tsaknaki, Jiwei Zhou Jun 2026

More-Than-Human Data Practices, Elisa Giaccardi, Sara Lenzi, Chris Speed, Vasiliki Tsaknaki, Jiwei Zhou

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Grounded in post-anthropocentric and post-humanist perspectives, this track explores more-than-human data practices that challenge dominant data paradigms and cultivate alternative modes of engagement with the world, from the microbial to the planetary. Rather than treating non-human life as objects of measurement and classification, as data subjects, the contributions in this track ask what it would mean to recognize organisms, systems, and processes as data co-producers, whose perceptual worlds, temporal rhythms, and relational entanglements actively participate in what counts as knowledge. This reorientation carries profound consequences for the designer. Co-producing data with more-than-human others is a political, epistemic, and ontological commitment …

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Understanding Food Waste Practices In Cross-Cultural Food Adaptation: The Case Of Chinese Students In The Uk, Xuecheng Dai, Emmanuel Tsekleves, Yekta Bakırlıoğlu Jun 2026

Understanding Food Waste Practices In Cross-Cultural Food Adaptation: The Case Of Chinese Students In The Uk, Xuecheng Dai, Emmanuel Tsekleves, Yekta Bakırlıoğlu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Food waste is a global sustainability concern, yet its connection to cross-cultural adaptation remains underexplored. For international students, adapting to unfamiliar food environments involves cycles of trial, error and waste. Among Chinese students in the UK (one of the largest international student populations), cultural differences and short stays intensify these processes, resulting in distinct forms of waste. This study explores how food adaptation relates to waste among first-time Chinese students in the UK, attempting to reveal areas for design interventions. Seventeen students completed seven-day cultural probes, combining daily tasks with self-reflection on food practices. The analysis revealed various types of …

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Winds, Sand, Companions, Humans: Attuning Bodies For Post-Antropocentric Worlds, Eliana Sánchez-Aldana, Laura Novik, Pablo Hermansen Jun 2026

Winds, Sand, Companions, Humans: Attuning Bodies For Post-Antropocentric Worlds, Eliana Sánchez-Aldana, Laura Novik, Pablo Hermansen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This Laboratorio de Futuros held in Mar del Plata (Argentina), brought together architecture and design professors and master’s students from Argentina, Chile, and Colombia to explore an Epimethean approach to design—acting after rather than ahead of action, embracing delay, reflection, and care. Rooted in voices and material practices from the Global South, participants engaged in embodied exercises fostering inter-learning through reciprocity and complementarity. We explored the territory holistically with our whole bodies, attuning to wind, sand, sea, and insects, and reframing design as the enactment of relational infrastructures through affective attunement and planetary excesses. Our bodies became sensors, registering the …

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Caring For Memory: A Neuroscientific Framework For Commemorative Exhibition Design, Caterina Vettraino Jun 2026

Caring For Memory: A Neuroscientific Framework For Commemorative Exhibition Design, Caterina Vettraino

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Contemporary memorial exhibitions presume emotional intensity produces durable memory, employing affective saturation strategies that neuroscientific research reveals as counterproductive. Emotional arousal consolidates central affective impressions whilst compromising contextual understanding: visitors retain visceral sensations but lose historical processes. This paper develops a theoretical framework integrating Assmann's cultural memory theory, neuroscience of memory consolidation, and care ethics to inform commemorative exhibition design. A four-modality taxonomy, individual, collective, spatial, and sensory, translates psychological memory categories into operationally distinct design approaches. Digital mediation constitutes a transversal narrative apparatus serving memory transmission across all four modalities, functioning as infrastructural support. Design parameters specify spatial configurations, …

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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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Reconfiguring Care: Envision Postpartum Support For Women In Southern China Through The Lens Of Home-Based Iot, Wentao Deng, Yunfei Chen, Yingying Luo, Ying Hu, Yiwen Wang Jun 2026

Reconfiguring Care: Envision Postpartum Support For Women In Southern China Through The Lens Of Home-Based Iot, Wentao Deng, Yunfei Chen, Yingying Luo, Ying Hu, Yiwen Wang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study explores design opportunities to support postpartum mothers during “zuòyuèzi,” a culturally significant confinement practice in southern China, through the lens of home-based Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Grounded in feminist ethics of care, the research employs a three-phase methodology combining digital ethnography, co-design workshops, and thematic analysis. Participants from multigenerational households shared experiences and envisioned the roles of IoT systems to facilitate postpartum transitions. Findings reveal that users expect technologies to function as empathetic intermediaries that foster emotional well-being, facilitate caregiving management and negotiate relationships. Distinct patterns emerged across care distribution, interpersonal communication, and interaction, underscoring the cultural …

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Queering Empathy In/For/With/By Design, Jessica Meharry Jun 2026

Queering Empathy In/For/With/By Design, Jessica Meharry

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Empathy is widely used as the initial stage of the design process to understand users and meet their needs and desires. Recently these methods have been critiqued for commodifying empathy in commercial practice, centering the designer instead of the user, and failing to account for power dynamics. Empathy is also under attack in political spheres, increasing the dehumanization of others. To address these criticisms, we explore the value of empathy in design processes and examine how queer theory and queering methodologies can help designers move past “walking in someone else’s shoes” towards intersectional design processes rooted in political responsibility. Synthesizing …

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