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Beyond Assumptions: Identity Mapping As A Tool For Inclusive Public Design Learning, Corie Seed, Chiara Del Gaudio Jun 2026

Beyond Assumptions: Identity Mapping As A Tool For Inclusive Public Design Learning, Corie Seed, Chiara Del Gaudio

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Recent studies in Design Education emphasize the importance of teaching Design as a contextually situated practice, and ways for leveraging local knowledges and embracing plural epistemologies. Within this framework, it becomes crucial for designers to be able to acknowledge their own assumptions, biases, and identities and how they influence their design decisions when dealing with cultural complexity. Yet, an effective practice for cultivating this awareness, defined as critical self-reflection, remains underexplored in Design Education. This paper aims to outline key ways to foster the practice of critical self-reflection in teaching and learning Public Design. Drawing on interviews with design educators, …

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Sketching Social Robots: Visualising Futures Of Human–Robot Interaction Through Participatory Imagination, Nicholas Vanderschantz, Jessica Turner, Jemma Konig, Claire Timpany, Rafeea Siddika, Nathan Shakes Jun 2026

Sketching Social Robots: Visualising Futures Of Human–Robot Interaction Through Participatory Imagination, Nicholas Vanderschantz, Jessica Turner, Jemma Konig, Claire Timpany, Rafeea Siddika, Nathan Shakes

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In this paper, we explore sketching as a speculative and reflective practice for imagining social robots. Through a series of participatory design workshops, participants observed two prototype robots and then produced sketches and word maps envisioning possible appearances, behaviours, and social roles for robots in everyday life. Analysing the artefacts of these workshops reveals how non-expert human users perceive and imagine future robots in their worlds. We examine common themes of emotion, familiarity, discomfort, and relational values in the artefacts produced by the workshop participants. Our work highlights a way that sketching and written idea generation by non-designers can serve …

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Speculative Design Through Synthetic Data: Exploring How Synthetic Data Be Used To Represent Missing ‘More-Than-Human' Data, Michael Dunbar, Chris Speed Jun 2026

Speculative Design Through Synthetic Data: Exploring How Synthetic Data Be Used To Represent Missing ‘More-Than-Human' Data, Michael Dunbar, Chris Speed

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Smart city data infrastructures largely reinforce anthropocentric paradigms, neglecting the entangled relationships that shape more-than-human worlds. This paper explores synthetic data as a transformative tool to address these omissions, offering alternative ways to represent missing non-human perspectives. Through a research-through-design approach, we present Kin Bank: a speculative interface that uses synthetic data to generate poetic, transactional representations between human and non-human actors. Adopting the metaphor of a shared bank account, the system foregrounds ecological and financial interdependencies while challenging reductionist data practices. Findings from a user study show how synthetic data can surface unseen relationships, embrace ecological complexity, and provoke …

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Design-Led Ecodesign Implementation: Enabling Product And Organisational Transformation For Sustainability Transitions, Enrica Monticelli, Francesco Zurlo Jun 2026

Design-Led Ecodesign Implementation: Enabling Product And Organisational Transformation For Sustainability Transitions, Enrica Monticelli, Francesco Zurlo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

A research project conducted in a major appliance company investigates how Ecodesign, when implemented through a design-led and cross-functional process, can evolve from a technical activity into a catalyst for organisational transformation. The study examines the application of a company-specific Ecodesign tool designed to guide product development teams and support adaptive change. A conceptual framework integrating Design-Led Innovation, Dynamic Capabilities, and the Multi-Level Perspective is adopted to interpret how design mediates learning across functions. The paper focuses on the Seize phase, when Ecodesign is integrated into new product development routines through pilot projects. These pilots act as experimental settings in …

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Inclusive Co-Learning In Transnational Design Classrooms: Bridging Linguistic And Cultural Gaps Between Chinese Students And British Curricula, Linli Zhang, Jinze Hao, Yaqi Wang, Liang Xiao Jun 2026

Inclusive Co-Learning In Transnational Design Classrooms: Bridging Linguistic And Cultural Gaps Between Chinese Students And British Curricula, Linli Zhang, Jinze Hao, Yaqi Wang, Liang Xiao

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study explores inclusive co-learning strategies in transnational design education, focusing on Chinese students enrolled in a joint program jointly delivered by Beijing Jiaotong University and Lancaster University within China. These students complete their entire undergraduate studies domestically, without the opportunity to immerse themselves in an English-speaking or multicultural environment. As a result, they often rely on translation tools to overcome linguistic and cultural barriers when engaging with British pedagogy. Drawing on classroom observations, student interviews, and reflective teaching practices, the study proposes an Inclusive Co-Learning Framework that integrates linguistic scaffolding and cultural mediation to foster language development, cultural understanding, …

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Relational Embodiment: Rethinking Artifacts As Mediators Of Being-With-Others, Yufei Zeng, Junjie Zhang Jun 2026

Relational Embodiment: Rethinking Artifacts As Mediators Of Being-With-Others, Yufei Zeng, Junjie Zhang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Grounded in theories of embodied cognition, extended mind, and mediating artifact, this paper proposes a human–artifact–human perspective to explore the relational mediation of artifacts in social interaction. Through a systematic review of 30 key studies published between 2010 and 2025, a four-dimensional analytical framework is constructed—embodied cues, interaction modes, mediating artifact features, and affective outcomes—to reveal how embodied design generates relations among the body, artifacts, and society. The analysis shows that embodied interaction is shifting from functional control toward relational generation, presenting four tendencies: micro-intimacy, ambient co-presence, culturally embedded bodily rituals, and slow relational rhythms. Building on these insights, the …

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Designerly Ethics: Reflections On Shadowing Cancer Patients And Ideas For Embedding Ethics In Practice, Erika Renedo Illarregi, Laura Hartman, Yeray Sañudo Recacha, Laura Aguado González, Jorge Sierra-Pérez, Alba Medina Castillo, Victoria Artigas Ortega, Carlos Romero Piqueras Jun 2026

Designerly Ethics: Reflections On Shadowing Cancer Patients And Ideas For Embedding Ethics In Practice, Erika Renedo Illarregi, Laura Hartman, Yeray Sañudo Recacha, Laura Aguado González, Jorge Sierra-Pérez, Alba Medina Castillo, Victoria Artigas Ortega, Carlos Romero Piqueras

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Procedural ethics—applying for approval—alone may fail to address many issues that arise during fieldwork (ethics in the field), particularly when designers enter sensitive contexts such as healthcare. Building on our earlier contribution (DRS 2024: Embedded Ethics in Practice), we reflect on shadowing recently diagnosed cancer patients through a set of ethical considerations. Using framework analysis, we examine challenges encountered by what we term shadowers—five designers and one nurse who accompanied 14 patients throughout the service journey, from consultations to treatment. By noting the actions taken and feelings experienced as ethical issues emerged, we question how to navigate such complexities. Examining …

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The Fuzzy Edges Of Studio: Towards Inclusive Online Education, Nicole Lotz, Derek Jones, Tina Deiml-Seibtb Jun 2026

The Fuzzy Edges Of Studio: Towards Inclusive Online Education, Nicole Lotz, Derek Jones, Tina Deiml-Seibtb

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores how online design studios can become more inclusive by embracing their inherently ‘fuzzy’ nature as characterized by negotiated visibility, ambient awareness, and flexible participation. Through a series of co-design workshops with students, educators, and practitioners, we examined learner experiences and co-designed recommendations for future online studios. Findings reveal ten core studio values, including respect, care, agency, and joy, operationalized through tangible design features such as dynamic visibility, serendipitous interactions, and multi-dimensional content views. Mapping these recommendations to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines demonstrates strong alignment, suggesting that inclusive practices can emerge organically when learners actively shape …

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Design As A Mediator: Bridging Traditional Cosmologies And Scientific Knowledge For Climate Change Adaptation Through Value-Led Design, Natascha Ng, Alphayo Lutta Jun 2026

Design As A Mediator: Bridging Traditional Cosmologies And Scientific Knowledge For Climate Change Adaptation Through Value-Led Design, Natascha Ng, Alphayo Lutta

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Sub-Saharan Africa is at the frontline of climate change, with impacts particuarly acute in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs). This study examines how value-led design can mediate between traditional cosmologies and scientific climate knowledge to strengthen adaptation. Focusing on pastoralist communities in Kenya’s Maasai Mara region, it applies the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) as a participatory reflection tool. Findings show how value-led design can advance equity by embedding community voices and centring values in decision-making, contributing to broader debates on design’s role in fostering systemic transitions amid climate uncertainty, safeguarding against maladaptation. It presents the MLP as a tool for value-led …

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Learning How To Use Bodystorming In Service Design For Generating New Insights And Ideas: An Application To Out-Of-Hours Primary Care In The Netherlands, Ömer Taha Döver, Monisha Mohan, Dirk Snelders, Nikita Arora, Ruihong Geng, Paula Melo Signerez, Mathé Delissen Jun 2026

Learning How To Use Bodystorming In Service Design For Generating New Insights And Ideas: An Application To Out-Of-Hours Primary Care In The Netherlands, Ömer Taha Döver, Monisha Mohan, Dirk Snelders, Nikita Arora, Ruihong Geng, Paula Melo Signerez, Mathé Delissen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Bodystorming is a design method for generating new insights and ideas for service improvement through improvised, embodied roleplay. However, it is not easy to learn how to use bodystorming as a generative method. Guidance for learning focuses on how to engage in embodied social-technical interactions, but it does not specify clear goals for wanting to do so. In a case study of an out-of-hours primary care service we explored how goal setting can stimulate novice users to use bodystorming to generate insights and ideas. Over three iterations of bodystorming, a group of novice bodystormers focused on goals that they derived …

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Design For Well-Being: A Preliminary Investigation On Design Interventions In The Context Of Loneliness Economy, Jinxia Liu, Angela Giambattista, Loredana Di Lucchio Jun 2026

Design For Well-Being: A Preliminary Investigation On Design Interventions In The Context Of Loneliness Economy, Jinxia Liu, Angela Giambattista, Loredana Di Lucchio

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Loneliness has become a prominent public health issue that causes negative consequences at both individual and social levels. Concurrently, the market is actively responding and gradually forms the loneliness economy, addressing human emotional needs by offering related products and services. However, the largely implemented digital solutions remain problematic. This paper aims at investigating how design research has addressed the loneliness issue and what roles design plays in addressing loneliness. A mixed methodological approach was adopted, combining analysis of keyword co-occurrence and a meta-narrative review. The results identify the threefold design contributions: building and enhancing social connectedness, creating artificial companions and …

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Mediating Borders Through Sound: Sonic Boundary Objects In Infrastructural Listening, Paula Martin Rivero, Dietmar Offenhuber Jun 2026

Mediating Borders Through Sound: Sonic Boundary Objects In Infrastructural Listening, Paula Martin Rivero, Dietmar Offenhuber

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Through Tower of Babel, a spatialized sound installation based on field recordings at the U.S.–Mexico border, we examine how sonic boundary objects translate bureaucratic infrastructures into embodied, perceptual encounters. The installation treats borders as culturally constructed virtual spaces rather than geometric lines, enabling movement across sonic channels and challenging fixed notions of data and identity. We argue that sound-driven artifacts can function as boundary objects in design contexts by mediating knowledge, exposing hierarchies, and fostering collective sense-making. These artifacts support cooperation across diverse stakeholders through sonic habitability: auditory conditions that reframe relations among human, technological, and environmental actors. While auditory …

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Touch Wood: Stuckness, Risk Assessment, And Embodied Knowledge In Practice, Hugo Glover Jun 2026

Touch Wood: Stuckness, Risk Assessment, And Embodied Knowledge In Practice, Hugo Glover

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This practice-based research explores stuckness in creative work not as a problem to eliminate, but as a threshold state where tacit knowledge becomes operative. Drawing on autoethnographic narrative, I examine how attending to stuckness reveals the autonomic nervous system's (ANS) role in embodied knowing. Through a close reading of wood carving practice, I document how physical engagement with materials offered a way to work with, rather than overcome, stuckness. When invited to exhibit this work, I experienced acute stress that led me to adapt a Risk Assessment form—typically used for physical hazards—to map emotional risks such as shame and humiliation. …

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Computational User Research For A Public Helpline For Continuous Service Improvement: Parents Anonymous® As A Service Ecosystem, Ali O. Ilhan, Elizabeth C. Harris, Isil Oygur Jun 2026

Computational User Research For A Public Helpline For Continuous Service Improvement: Parents Anonymous® As A Service Ecosystem, Ali O. Ilhan, Elizabeth C. Harris, Isil Oygur

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Parents Anonymous®, a social service agency, provides a comprehensive ecosystem of supports to parents through its National Parent & Youth Helpline and mutual support groups. The verbal support provided through the Helpline is the core of this public service. We present a computational user research approach that learns from call transcripts to guide continuous improvement across the helpline–group system. From real conversations, we extract clear, actionable signals: how emotions shift during a call, which needs recur over time and when people are most likely to reach out. These insights feed back into everyday practice: refining counsellors’ training and responses, timing …

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Between Assistance And Autonomy: The Home As A Field For Inclusive Design, Eloïse Ravet Jun 2026

Between Assistance And Autonomy: The Home As A Field For Inclusive Design, Eloïse Ravet

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As new forms of bodily vulnerability emerge, personal objects play a crucial role in preserving identity and protecting everyday routines. In the context of home care, the domestic environment becomes a site of ongoing adjustment, where objects are assessed and modified in response to changing physical abilities. This paper proposes a reflection on the potential of inclusive design when applied to the home environment, and its role in supporting ageing at home. Drawing on observations of domestic situations and interviews conducted with residents and healthcare professionals, we aim to reveal the tension between assistance and autonomy, between the adaptability of …

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Support Designer’S Wellbeing: Understanding Resilience In Design Education As A Wicked Challenge, Yilin Quan, Matthew Isherwood, Ji Han Jun 2026

Support Designer’S Wellbeing: Understanding Resilience In Design Education As A Wicked Challenge, Yilin Quan, Matthew Isherwood, Ji Han

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design students are expected to engage with wicked problems as part of their learning. Since these problems have no definitive solutions, the learning process can be challenging and may negatively affect students’ wellbeing. Cultivating resilience becomes critical. Although the conceptualisation of designer resilience has gained attention, it remains underexplored. This paper proposes a new conceptual model of resilience in design education, suggesting two capacity clusters: one emphasising short-term recovery and balance restoration, and the other focusing on long-term sustained engagement. It further frames resilience cultivation in design education as a wicked problem in itself, characterised by the inherent complexity within …

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Exploring Circular Economy Strategies In The Fashion Industry: A Comparative Case Study Analysis, Gabriela Fabro Cardoso, Alessandra Spagnoli Jun 2026

Exploring Circular Economy Strategies In The Fashion Industry: A Comparative Case Study Analysis, Gabriela Fabro Cardoso, Alessandra Spagnoli

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The transition toward a more circular economy is closely linked to the extent to which fashion brands incorporate sustainability principles into their retail communication, and operational practices. This paper explores circularity strategies within the fashion industry through a comparative case study analysis and data were collected through a systematic desktop review of publicly available sources. The analytical framework is structured around three key themes (Advocacy, Actions, and Transparency) through which brands engage consumers, implement circular operations, and communicate measurable impact specifically within the distribution and consumption phase. Additionally, the study discusses the role of Design as an enabler of circularity, …

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From Appraisal To Affect: Designing A Playful Activity For Social Emotional Learning Among Children, Jonathan Sawian, Aditi Sharma Jun 2026

From Appraisal To Affect: Designing A Playful Activity For Social Emotional Learning Among Children, Jonathan Sawian, Aditi Sharma

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The National Education Policy of India (2020) states that Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is essential towards student’s holistic development. While existing curricula provide structured guidance and learning, they often lack playful and participatory elements to engage children in the learning process. This paper describes the design and evaluation of a non-digital, co-operative and playful activity called Bhavna Chakra (Wheel of Emotions) which aims to teach children about emotional awareness using Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions. The study proposes a design framework based on cognitive appraisal theory, narrative structure and social play. A within-subjects study with 40 students (ages 11–12) from low …

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Material Agents At Work In Alternative Food Networks, Cagri G. Varli, Stefano Maffei Jun 2026

Material Agents At Work In Alternative Food Networks, Cagri G. Varli, Stefano Maffei

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Despite growing interest in sustainable food systems, their material dimension as active design agents (artefacts and infrastructures) remains largely unrecognized. This study challenges the positioning of packaging and distribution tools as passive elements, repositioning them as entities that shape the ongoing negotiation of ethics, responsibility, and co-dependence within food systems. Drawing on interviews, thing ethnography, and relational mapping across two alternative food network case studies, the study examines the roles of these material agents. The findings show that material artefacts contribute to the organization of care, responsibility, and continuity across both pragmatic and symbolic dimensions of food networks. Differences in …

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Drawing In The Minor Key: An Approach For Multi-Actor Designing For Societal Transformation, Caroline Hummels Jun 2026

Drawing In The Minor Key: An Approach For Multi-Actor Designing For Societal Transformation, Caroline Hummels

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As a society, we are confronted with polycrisis. An epistemic shift, that means shifting our way of knowing and changing our ways of looking at complex societal issues, is necessary to be able to transform our practices. Tim Ingold offers such an epistemic shift through the concept of ‘minor key’, fostering open-endedness, imagination, and experimentation. Designing for transformation in the minor key requires different forms of co-creating and communicating. In contrast to a major key, closed style of visualising, minor key drawing might fit, due to its potential for imperfection, open-endedness and imagination. In this pictorial, I’ll reflect on a …

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Efficiency And Empathy: Integrating Ai Into User Research In An Undergraduate Ux Design Course, Nan Hu Jun 2026

Efficiency And Empathy: Integrating Ai Into User Research In An Undergraduate Ux Design Course, Nan Hu

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The integration of AI into UX design presents both opportunities and challenges for UX education-how to leverage AI’s efficiency while developing students’ human skills. This pilot study examines LLMs as an analytical AI co-pilot in undergraduate user research. Students (N=17) conducted two cycles of user research: one using traditional methods, and another with Claude-assisted analysis. Findings show 14 (82%) of students perceived the Claude-assisted approach as faster in synthesizing data and extracting insights. However, the results also reveal a trade-off: AI's efficiency may reduce empathy-building, with 6 (35%) students reporting diminished user connection. This research illuminates the inherent tension in …

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Cianalas: How Scottish Dementia Friendly Communities Shaped Design For Wellbeing Research, Lucy Robertson, Christopher Sze Chong Lim Jun 2026

Cianalas: How Scottish Dementia Friendly Communities Shaped Design For Wellbeing Research, Lucy Robertson, Christopher Sze Chong Lim

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper reflects on how two dementia-friendly communities (DFCs) in Scotland shaped participatory research exploring interactive textiles for wellbeing. Drawing on two practice-based studies in Scotland, study 1 which was based in the Outer Hebrides and the study 2 based in both the Outer Hebrides and East Lothian; it explores how place, geography, culture, and community influence participation and sense-making. Using Research through Design (RtD) and person-centred methods, both projects engaged participants using or making interactive textiles. Comparing the two locations shows that the remoteness of the Hebrides, the Gaelic language, the historical textile industry and the surrounding environments fostered …

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Framing Data Choices: How Pre-Donation Exploration Designs Influence Data Donation Behavior And Decision-Making, Zeya Chen, Zach Pino, Ruth Schmidt Jun 2026

Framing Data Choices: How Pre-Donation Exploration Designs Influence Data Donation Behavior And Decision-Making, Zeya Chen, Zach Pino, Ruth Schmidt

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Data donation, an emerging user-centric data collection method for public sector research, faces a gap between participant willingness and actual donation. This suggests a design absence in practice: while promoted as "donor-centered" with technical and regulational advances, a design perspective on how data choices are presented and intervene on individual behaviors remain underexplored. In this paper, we focus on pre-donation data exploration, a key stage for adequately and meaningful informed participation. Through a real-world data donation study (N=24), we evaluated three data exploration interventions (self-focused, social comparison, collective-only). Findings show choice framing impacts donation participation. The "social comparison" design (87.5%) …

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Design For Coastal Futures: Rethinking Space And Time With A More-Than-Human And Transcultural Lens., Serena Pollastri, Juan Montalvan Lume, Louise Mullagh, Suzana Ilic Jun 2026

Design For Coastal Futures: Rethinking Space And Time With A More-Than-Human And Transcultural Lens., Serena Pollastri, Juan Montalvan Lume, Louise Mullagh, Suzana Ilic

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Amid the intensifying challenges of climate change, there is an emerging consensus within coastal academic and practitioner networks on the importance of integrating design led-approaches that enhance resilience and foster the long-term adaptation for coastal communities. However, coastal environments present peculiar contexts for design actions, as the movement of water consistently challenges the boundaries between water and land, along with the relational interactions between human and non-human communities—both in cyclical and unpredictable ways. Drawing from the authors’ experiences in tidal coastal and estuarine areas across diverse geographies, this article proposes ways to cultivate design’s response-ability (Haraway, 2016) to the more-than-human …

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A Messy Substance: Mediating The Stigma And Lived Experience Of Endometriosis Through Participatory Design, Carolina Vaz-Pires, Ricardo Melo Jun 2026

A Messy Substance: Mediating The Stigma And Lived Experience Of Endometriosis Through Participatory Design, Carolina Vaz-Pires, Ricardo Melo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Endometriosis is a chronic condition often surrounded by taboo, silence, and misunderstanding. Although diagnostic uncertainty and epistemic tensions shape endometriosis care, little is known about how design can address the communicative and relational gaps between patients and gynaecologists. This article investigates how participatory and speculative design can support communication between these groups. Using a Research through Design approach, three co-design workshops were conducted with six individuals with endometriosis and five doctors. Participants created analogue artefacts including empathy maps, body maps, clay representations, written narratives, speculative futures and collective posters that materialised embodied pain, emotional burden and clinical perspectives. The workshops …

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Exploring Embodiment’S Impact On Autonomy And Agency In Behavioral Design, Ruth Schmidt Jun 2026

Exploring Embodiment’S Impact On Autonomy And Agency In Behavioral Design, Ruth Schmidt

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The field of behavioral design uses insight into humans’ cognitive tendencies to help people make better, more rational choices. Yet individuals’ perceptions of what seems rational—let alone viable, or even conceivable—are not universally shared and are often informed by their embodiment as much as cognition. For example, fear of being scolded can inhibit overweight or obese individuals from seeking preventive healthcare, people with ‘invisible’ disabilities may feel pressured to pass as able-bodied to fit in, and Black individuals may avoid ordinary activities likely to prompt ‘birding while Black’ confrontations. Depicting cognition as the single site of judgment and decision-making therefore …

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Data And The Changing Landscape Of Architectural Intelligence, Elizabeth Bowie Christoforetti, Andrew Witt Jun 2026

Data And The Changing Landscape Of Architectural Intelligence, Elizabeth Bowie Christoforetti, Andrew Witt

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The paper addresses emerging and potential changes to the core expertise and structural frameworks of architectural practice in an era of human-machine collaboration and transdisciplinary design, utilizing history and theory to situate the current condition of the profession and its socio-technical infrastructure. The role and relationships defining the architect within society are dissected in light of practical uses of artificial intelligence, highlighting the rapidly evolving ways in which our relationships with site, construction, collaborators, and even the fundamental DNA of the building as an artifact are shifting in the transition from digitization to digitalization. Activities surrounding data collection, classification, process …

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Design For Healthy Ageing: Developing And Applying A Resource Model, Yumei Dong, Hua Dong, Tingting Wang, Richard H. M. Goossens Jun 2026

Design For Healthy Ageing: Developing And Applying A Resource Model, Yumei Dong, Hua Dong, Tingting Wang, Richard H. M. Goossens

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The sustainable development of an ageing society necessitates active participation of older people, requiring effective integration of their individual and collective resources into design. However, designers’ understanding of older people’s resources is rather limited. This study aims to develop a conceptual model of older people’s resources to support design for healthy ageing. Through literature review and interviews with 19 recently retired Dutch seniors, twelve resource types were identified, categorised into six dimensions: practical, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, and time. These categories were synthesised into a Diamond Model of Resources. The framework, encompassing both resource categories and the Diamond Model, was …

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Digital Platform To Foster Social Engagement For The Visually Impaired, Mônica Moura, Cristina Portugal, Márcio Guimarães Jun 2026

Digital Platform To Foster Social Engagement For The Visually Impaired, Mônica Moura, Cristina Portugal, Márcio Guimarães

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper details the development and impact of the "Lembrei de Você" (I Remembered You) project, an inclusive design initiative that created a digital platform to combat loneliness and promote autonomy among the visually impaired, especially the elderly, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Using participatory methods, the research led to the creation of a platform that manages and distributes audio messages through a solidarity network of readers and listeners. The study describes the design process, from accessibility requirements to implementation using WordPress. Results show the platform successfully optimized project logistics and fostered an inclusive digital environment, enhancing social interaction …

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Responsible Retail And Branded Environments, Katelijn Quartier, Mia Münster, Bethan Alexander, Zakkiya Khan, Marina Ricci, Francesca Murialdo Jun 2026

Responsible Retail And Branded Environments, Katelijn Quartier, Mia Münster, Bethan Alexander, Zakkiya Khan, Marina Ricci, Francesca Murialdo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

As spaces of consumption adapt to social, environmental, and technological shifts, design is emerging as a powerful agent of change. This track investigates the future of retail, hospitality, and other consumer-facing environments—including cafés, concept stores, and hybrid formats—through the lens of responsibility. Topics addressed include, but are not limited to: Restorative and regenerative approaches to consumption are gaining momentum, alongside wellbeing-driven design that recognises how the built environment can support mental, physical, and emotional health. At the same time, socially and environmentally sustainable practices—often grounded in circular economy principles—are redefining how we think about materiality, consumption, spatial design, and business …

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