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Plural Exhibition Experiences: Co-Designing Multisensory Storytelling With An Indigenous Sámi Museum, Siiri Paananen, Emma Kirjavainen, Juri Etto, Eeva-Kristiina Nylander, Jonna Häkkilä Jun 2026

Plural Exhibition Experiences: Co-Designing Multisensory Storytelling With An Indigenous Sámi Museum, Siiri Paananen, Emma Kirjavainen, Juri Etto, Eeva-Kristiina Nylander, Jonna Häkkilä

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This article examines an Indigenous-led exhibition renewal at the Sámi Museum Siida, in which multisensory design and digital media were collaboratively developed with Sámi artists and museum experts. The exhibition was created primarily for the Sámi community, in a museum that also receives many international visitors. The study is based on a survey (n=35) and three focus groups (n=9) with participants representing diverse visitor perspectives to understand how people experienced and interpreted the exhibition’s sensory and technological elements. The results demonstrate that the exhibition created a sense of immersion through spatial and multisensory design grounded in local artistic and cultural …

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Urban Typography And Cultural Memory: A Literature Review In Support Of A Design-Led Approach To Heritage And Preservation, Carolina Short, Gareth Schott Jun 2026

Urban Typography And Cultural Memory: A Literature Review In Support Of A Design-Led Approach To Heritage And Preservation, Carolina Short, Gareth Schott

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Typography has increasingly been recognised as a valuable lens for cultural and urban analysis. This literature review extends such perspectives by examining how design-led approaches can support the documentation, reinterpretation, and revitalization of urban letterforms as cultural heritage. Drawing on typographic studies, geosemiotics, and design research, it focuses on urban typography — typographic landscapes — understood as spatial and multimodal carriers of memory, identity, and cultural value. While existing scholarship has explored the semiotic and aesthetic dimensions of typography in the urban environment, and some have proposed design-led interventions, connections between theory and practice remain open to further development. The …

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Participatory Design As Third Space: Iterative Ethic In Singapore’S Contemporary Multiculturalism, Cheng Chen Jun 2026

Participatory Design As Third Space: Iterative Ethic In Singapore’S Contemporary Multiculturalism, Cheng Chen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Participatory designers in Singapore work within Bhabha’s “third space,” where identities and practices are continuously negotiated across cultural boundaries. This qualitative study, based on interviews and ethnographic observation with 18 designers addressing social welfare for marginalized communities, examines how designers’ intersectional identities—such as female, queer, Chinese, and gig creatives—shape an ethic of care rooted in Asianised neighbourliness. Designers strategically inhabit in-between spaces, balancing top-down and bottom-up approaches through critical curiosity and cultural competence. Findings identify three interlinked personas: (1) Facilitator—mediating perspectives and trust; (2) Maker—engaging in embodied, situated making; and (3) Reflexive practitioner—cultivating curiosity across demographics. This iterative ethic enables …

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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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Design With Care: Theories, Practices, Methods, And Politics, Zixuan Wang, Jiashuo Liu, Bow Yiying Wu, John Vines, Karey Helms, Sarah Kettley, Paul Rodgers, Ann Light Jun 2026

Design With Care: Theories, Practices, Methods, And Politics, Zixuan Wang, Jiashuo Liu, Bow Yiying Wu, John Vines, Karey Helms, Sarah Kettley, Paul Rodgers, Ann Light

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This is an overview editorial of the track "Design with Care: Theories, Practices, Methods, and Politics" at the Design Research Society (DRS) conference 2026. In this track, we discuss how care could serve as a critical lens guiding research and design. Our track received 55 full paper submissions, and 21 of which have been accepted through a double-blind peer-review process. Together with three additional submissions from the open track, we organise these papers into four theme sessions: Knowing with Care, Practicing with Care, Co-designing with Care, and Making with Care. Collectively, the track demonstrates diverse ways of engaging with care …

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Transitional Materialities, Sofia Soledad Duarte Poblete, Camilo Ayala-Garcia Jun 2026

Transitional Materialities, Sofia Soledad Duarte Poblete, Camilo Ayala-Garcia

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Transitional Materialities brings together research that understands materials not as static substances, but as dynamic agents embedded in ecological, technological, and socio-economic transitions. This perspective highlights the evolving relationship between material innovation, planetary health, and design’s capacity to mediate and guide change. The track explores how designers move beyond passive material selection to engage actively in experimentation, critical reflection, policy making and the development of alternative, resilient futures. Contributions address material inspiration, education, and archives as means to support knowledge sharing and open-access dissemination; they also map materials and practices across contexts, from rethinking traditional material values and local specificities …

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Designing Strategic Change: Approaches, Methods, And Theories Of Strategic Design In Business Organizations, G. Mauricio Mejía, Violeta Clemente, Aroop Ratan Guha, Jeanne Liedtka, Beatrice D'Ippolito Jun 2026

Designing Strategic Change: Approaches, Methods, And Theories Of Strategic Design In Business Organizations, G. Mauricio Mejía, Violeta Clemente, Aroop Ratan Guha, Jeanne Liedtka, Beatrice D'Ippolito

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The DRS Edinburgh theme-track “Designing Strategic Change: Approaches, Methods, and Theories of Strategic Design in Business Organizations” includes a dozen papers that study the influence of strategic designers and strategic design practices in business organizations. This editorial describes and briefly assesses their contributions. While scholars have studied and explored the strategic role of design for organizational change, the papers show that designers and design practices must still contribute from their specific foundational mission and strengthen collaboration with other functions and senior management to materialise their potential. Future research should focus on solid case studies and the understanding of expert strategic …

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Relationality As Reconciliation – Designing For Equiponderance, Gwendolyn Kulick, Luis Garcia, Juan Montalvan Lume, Michael Hohl, Felix Kosok Jun 2026

Relationality As Reconciliation – Designing For Equiponderance, Gwendolyn Kulick, Luis Garcia, Juan Montalvan Lume, Michael Hohl, Felix Kosok

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Theme track 11.2 brings together six contributions that acknowledge the interdependence of all things and, as such, challenge consolidated suprematist thinking and systemic inequities through the lens of relationality. However, they do not seek pathways towards justice and equity through revenge, hardened frontiers, and divides, but through collaborative practices grounded in collective inquiry, between those affected by injustices and those who hold decision-making power. The research and design experiments, case studies, and theoretical musings of this track aim to achieve reconciliation among actors who represent diverse, sometimes conflicting, positions, knowledge systems, and practices, rather than those that reinforce polarization, even …

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Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage, Marco Mason, Raffaella Trocchianesi, Vince Dziekan, Ross Parry Jun 2026

Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage, Marco Mason, Raffaella Trocchianesi, Vince Dziekan, Ross Parry

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design is playing an increasingly important role in relation to cultural heritage, with designers and design researchers at the forefront of reimagining how cultural organisations, such as museums and galleries, operate in a mediatized, networked, and digitally mature world. In this light, the tools and methods, practices, and cultures of design are helping GLAMs navigate their postdigital condition and social, cultural, and technological complexities that this entails. This track (Futuring Digital Cultural Heritage) seeks to open new territory for design researchers to respond critically and creatively to how design engages with digital culture and can be used to interrogate, reconfigure, …

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Navigating Pluralism In Systemic Design: Global Perspectives And Diverse Vocabularies, Sine Celik, Hannah Goss, Jotte De Koning, Mari Suoheimo, Amina Pereno, Asja Aulisio, Silvia Barbero, Thomas Maiorana Jun 2026

Navigating Pluralism In Systemic Design: Global Perspectives And Diverse Vocabularies, Sine Celik, Hannah Goss, Jotte De Koning, Mari Suoheimo, Amina Pereno, Asja Aulisio, Silvia Barbero, Thomas Maiorana

DRS Biennial Conference Series

No abstract provided.

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Design Education In Its Teenage Years: Growth With Tensions, Nicole Lotz, Ricardo Sosa, Violeta Clemente Jun 2026

Design Education In Its Teenage Years: Growth With Tensions, Nicole Lotz, Ricardo Sosa, Violeta Clemente

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design education research is one of the largest clusters of contributions at the Design Research Society 2026 Conference. This editorial reflects on the thirty papers of this cluster presented across five sessions. It identifies emerging concerns and persistent tensions in the field. Drawing on a synthesis of themes including creativity and identity, systemic and situated pedagogies, reflective practices, cultures and knowledges, and AI in design education, the editorial characterises the field as being in a productive phase of transition. Like an adolescent discipline, design education research shows signs of rapid growth alongside enduring continuities and noticeable leaps. Across the papers, …

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Strategic Design In Practice: Mapping Strategy Formulation And Implementation In Nordic Design Job Advertisements, Paulo Roberto Nicoletti Dziobczenski, Tua Björklund Jun 2026

Strategic Design In Practice: Mapping Strategy Formulation And Implementation In Nordic Design Job Advertisements, Paulo Roberto Nicoletti Dziobczenski, Tua Björklund

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates strategic design in practice by analysing how organizations describe designers’ work in 232 job advertisements across the Nordic countries. Building on literature that positions strategic design as both strategy formulation (SF) and strategy implementation (SI), we identified explicit signs of SF and SI in the descriptions of designers’ tasks in the ads. Our findings show that Strategy implementation appeared in all ads, while strategy formulation was present in 104 roles (44.8%), mainly in senior-level positions. These SF activities included, for example, aligning design and product strategies with business objectives, leading product development and product management, driving strategic …

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Participatory Design As Emotional Infrastructure: Supporting Collective Reflection And Resilience After The Pandemic, Xinyu Zhang Jun 2026

Participatory Design As Emotional Infrastructure: Supporting Collective Reflection And Resilience After The Pandemic, Xinyu Zhang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

COVID-19 has left enduring emotional distress for many citizens even as public attention to the crisis has faded. In this context, participatory design (PD) is increasingly recognised as a dialogic and restorative practice that enables collective reflection and emotional recovery through shared meaning-making. This study examines how participatory design supports citizens in reflecting on pandemic-related psychological distress, with particular attention to war metaphors widely used in governmental and media communications during COVID-19. While these metaphors mobilised collective action, they also intensified perceptions of risk and vulnerability. The research is based on a year-long participatory design project, W&M, involving nine participants, …

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Locality As A Driver For Transitional Materialities, Gökçe Deniz, Owain Pedgley, Camilo Ayala-Garcia Jun 2026

Locality As A Driver For Transitional Materialities, Gökçe Deniz, Owain Pedgley, Camilo Ayala-Garcia

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Material designers worldwide are transforming how innovation emerges through local engagement, moving beyond conventional material selection to create materials that reflect and embody their originating contexts. This research examines how locality influences design motivations, resource utilisation, and collaborative approaches through a systematic analysis of 635 material design projects across 56 countries, complemented by questionnaire responses from 19 practitioners across 14 countries. The mixed-methods research establishes the state of the art by mapping ingredient sourcing patterns, fabrication processes, and stakeholder engagements across diverse geographical contexts, while illuminating designers' conceptual frameworks regarding the role of locality in material development. The research reveals …

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Design For Adversarial Growth: Post-Traumatic Growth, Resilience And Subjective Wellbeing, Xueliang Li, Haian Xue, Siyuan Huang Jun 2026

Design For Adversarial Growth: Post-Traumatic Growth, Resilience And Subjective Wellbeing, Xueliang Li, Haian Xue, Siyuan Huang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Adversity is an inherent part of human life. This paper adopts a transformative approach to adversity, viewing it as fertile ground for personal growth. Through a theory-driven narrative review, we synthesise insights from positive psychology, post-traumatic growth, resilience, and wellbeing-driven design to introduce the Design for Adversarial Growth (DAG) framework, a guide for shaping designers' motivations and cultivating their sensibilities when designing for adversarial growth. This framework encompasses three key components of adversarial growth, each illustrated through design examples. We further discuss its contributions to design research and practice, as well as the ethical considerations for its application. With this …

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Pro-Des. Localising Design Research For Scientific Publishing. A Case Study Of Research And Experimentation In Italy, Elena Formia, Eleonora Lupo, Lorela Mehmeti Jun 2026

Pro-Des. Localising Design Research For Scientific Publishing. A Case Study Of Research And Experimentation In Italy, Elena Formia, Eleonora Lupo, Lorela Mehmeti

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper deals with the issue of scientific publishing of design research basing on a national scale approach, that can become a reference and be transferable and replicable in other contexts. In 2023, within SID -Società ltaliana di Design (Italian Design Society), the national research group Pro-Des.Scientific production of Design has been established, committing with the aim of researching and experimenting the complex phenomenon of scientific publication of design. Over the last two years, the group has coordinated and developed several activities to position the topic and set the discussion at the national level by looking at the international panorama …

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Design Games As Rehearsals For Collaborative Innovation: Playing Out The Future System To Learn The Collaborative Game, Diana Saleh, Mia Hesselgren Jun 2026

Design Games As Rehearsals For Collaborative Innovation: Playing Out The Future System To Learn The Collaborative Game, Diana Saleh, Mia Hesselgren

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Moving across time horizons and system levels is challenging in collaborative innovation, where multiple agendas amplify complexity. As designers increasingly engage in processes aimed at transforming systems and fostering collaboration across boundaries, questions arise about how to navigate such complexity and orchestrate collaborative innovation. Situated within a collaborative innovation research project, this study draws on two empirical components: interviews with experienced design practitioners leading the multi-actor innovation processes, and the development and testing of a parallel design game. Design activities used for orchestrating collaborative innovation, identified through the interviews, informed the principles of the design game. The study presented here …

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Conversing With Scenario Data: Exploring Experienced Designers’ Data-Informed Reasoning Strategies In Smart Product Concept Exploration, Yaqin Peng, Xiang Yuan, Yuxuan Tan, Zikun Song Jun 2026

Conversing With Scenario Data: Exploring Experienced Designers’ Data-Informed Reasoning Strategies In Smart Product Concept Exploration, Yaqin Peng, Xiang Yuan, Yuxuan Tan, Zikun Song

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Smart product concept exploration unfolds in dynamic and diverse use situations (DDUS) that yield fragmented, multimodal scenario data, yet how experienced designers organise design reasoning in data-intensive environments to support problem framing remains underdescribed. We used a Scenario-Data-Informed (SDI) Canvas to make designer-data conversations visible and ran task-based sessions with 18 designers. From coded think-alouds and canvas inscriptions, we report three findings: first, three reasoning stances that structure work with scenario data; second, three language-in-use strategies and an actor-network mapping that renders translations among contexts, artefacts, and intentions as a traceable network; third, shareable cues that support collaboration and surface …

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A Hierarchical And Ontology-Based Taxonomy Of Stimuli–Smart Materials–Transformation Effects In 4d Printing As A New Interactive Modality, Jiayue Qin, Eujin Pei, Abdusselam Selami Cifter Jun 2026

A Hierarchical And Ontology-Based Taxonomy Of Stimuli–Smart Materials–Transformation Effects In 4d Printing As A New Interactive Modality, Jiayue Qin, Eujin Pei, Abdusselam Selami Cifter

DRS Biennial Conference Series

4D printing functions not merely as a smart manufacturing technique but as an interactive material technology: materials respond to human or environmental stimuli and generate a direct feedback loop. This study proposes a taxonomy that links Stimuli, Smart Materials, and Transformation Effects, developed through a combined Hierarchical Classification and Ontology-Based Classification approach grounded in a systematic literature review and ontology mapping. By organising complex stimulus–material–effect relationships into a designer-accessible structure, the taxonomy supports non-technical designers in identifying feasible pathways from intended interactions to material outcomes. It also provides a structured data foundation for developing 4D printing design guidelines and toolkits, …

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Infodesign Journal: Tensions And Contradictions In Twenty Years Of Information Design Research In Brazil, Sara Miriam Goldchmit, Tiago Barros Pontes E Silva, Cláudia De Souza Libânio Jun 2026

Infodesign Journal: Tensions And Contradictions In Twenty Years Of Information Design Research In Brazil, Sara Miriam Goldchmit, Tiago Barros Pontes E Silva, Cláudia De Souza Libânio

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The Brazilian InfoDesign journal specializes in the subject of information design (ID), with a historical trajectory that reflects efforts in establishing a Brazilian perspective on the traditionally Anglo-American ID epistemology. Recently, the paradox of indexing to gain international scientific recognition marked an inflection point for this knowledge ecosystem, posing new editorial challenges and language barriers while opening avenues for the dissemination of pluriversal approaches. Aiming to map tensions and contradictions in the evolution of information design research in Brazil, this paper presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the InfoDesign journal database, containing 397 publications spanning from 2004 to 2024. Findings …

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Decolonising Digital Practices In Intangible Cultural Heritage. Implications From Literature And Funded Ec Research Projects Towards A Framework Of Design Principles, Eleonora Lupo Jun 2026

Decolonising Digital Practices In Intangible Cultural Heritage. Implications From Literature And Funded Ec Research Projects Towards A Framework Of Design Principles, Eleonora Lupo

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In the context of a digitally mature world in which the relationship between Cultural Heritage and digital technologies is under re-evaluation, this paper critically rethink the use of digital technologies for preserving and valorising Intangible Cultural Heritage through a decolonising lens. A criticall literature review is provided and a comparative analysis is conducted on EC funded reserachprojects in order to depict from rhetoric misuses to real transformative uses of digital technologies, in avoiding excluding actors depending on their gender, cultural inclination or digital literacy, generating a genuine capacitation and participation of the whole ecosystem and distributing leadership and agency. This …

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Maintaining Counterpublics: Archival Recursion And Prefiguration, Seojoo Han Jun 2026

Maintaining Counterpublics: Archival Recursion And Prefiguration, Seojoo Han

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study examines Interference Archive, a collectively run archive of social movement ephemera in Brooklyn, as a site where archival practice and design converge in continuous public formation. Through an analysis of exhibitions, interviews, and institutional materials, it demonstrates how archives employ the design tactics of tracing and projection not as discrete interventions but as recursive practices embedded in long-term infrastructuring. Tracing reveals genealogies of struggle, enabling participants to locate themselves within shared histories, while projection transforms this awareness into forward-looking artifacts and events that circulate beyond the archive. Unlike conventional participatory design or speculative futuring, IA cultivates a prefigurative …

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Patterns Of Everyday Care: Translating Cultural Practices For Online Communities, Austin Toombs, Seora Park, Tilar Manion, Xinyun Zhang Jun 2026

Patterns Of Everyday Care: Translating Cultural Practices For Online Communities, Austin Toombs, Seora Park, Tilar Manion, Xinyun Zhang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design research in social computing has used the concept of care to describe how technologies help or hinder interpersonal support online. Yet opportunities remain to explore how the subtle, everyday forms of care that have long sustained communities can inform social technology design. Addressing this, we present a collection of design patterns that translate culturally specific, everyday social practices like passeggiata (Italian social stroll) and sobremesa (Spanish post-meal lingering) into design prompts for digital platforms. Our collection has five pattern families: Shared Habits and Routines, Atmospheric Qualities, Collective Identities, Facilitation Roles, and Boundary Practices. The patterns map these families to …

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The Language Of Reflexivity: Investigating Limitations And Opportunities For Reflexivity In Prevailing Design Process Models, Asa River Jackson Jun 2026

The Language Of Reflexivity: Investigating Limitations And Opportunities For Reflexivity In Prevailing Design Process Models, Asa River Jackson

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Prevailing design methodologies and models tend to contain language specific to pragmatic and contextual foundations of design history and culture. Consequently, these models provide limited support for the diverse and constructive nature of contemporary design practice, and particularly, lack the presence of embedded reflexivity. This paper seeks to determine the predominant and excluded language of 66 design process models, which function as projections of instruction and value in design dissemination. In the analysis, special attention is given to omissions within these process models, as well as their differences among more recently documented methodologies. As a result, the paper explores reflexive …

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Surfacing Wetlands Through Design Ethnography And Critical Visualisation, Alexandra Crosby, Sarah-Jane Jones, Holly O'Neil Jun 2026

Surfacing Wetlands Through Design Ethnography And Critical Visualisation, Alexandra Crosby, Sarah-Jane Jones, Holly O'Neil

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores the visualisation of wetlands and waterways as a more-than-human design practice that can generate situated and relational understandings of colonised urban wetlands and waterways in Australia. We analyse three design research projects that create online visualisations of wetlands in Australia: The Sound of Water, Environmental Flows in Nap Nap Swamp (2021); The Rippon Lea Water Story (2023); and Dyarubbin the real Secret River (2020). These projects are brought together in this paper to open discussion about the role of design research place-based ethnography and critical visualisation in communicating with and about water places. We make the argument …

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Queering Design With A Queer Community: Co-Creation, Translation, And Application Of Queer-Positive Design Principles, Colin Putman Jun 2026

Queering Design With A Queer Community: Co-Creation, Translation, And Application Of Queer-Positive Design Principles, Colin Putman

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Trans and queer individuals, particularly transmasculine, transfeminine, nonbinary and genderqueer folks, remain underrepresented in contemporary design practice despite a growing awareness of the community’s existence. This project creates a set of translational materials co-created by members of the queer community. These materials are intended to educate industry professionals on queer perspectives and provide actionable methods to help design solutions that meet the needs of queer people. Co-creation processes centering the queer community were used to identify and describe key queer-inclusive design principles: discretion, perception, inclusion, and motion. These principles were then translated into an educational zine intended for creative professionals, …

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Designing For Node-Based Ai Tools: An Analysis And Synthesis Of Design Principles, Shunan Zhang, Yi Xiao Jun 2026

Designing For Node-Based Ai Tools: An Analysis And Synthesis Of Design Principles, Shunan Zhang, Yi Xiao

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Node-based interfaces are rapidly gaining traction in AI-driven design tools, yet a clear and comprehensive design framework remains essential. This paper addresses this critical need by presenting 10 carefully distilled design principles. These principles emerged from a thematic literature review of 14 recent, impactful papers published between 2020 and 2025, specifically focusing on Human-AI Interaction and visual programming. We meticulously grouped these principles into three core categories: Interaction & Usability, Human-AI Co-Creation & Creativity Support, and Explainability & Extensibility. Crucially, we also analysed how these principles intricately interconnect at a detailed level, highlighting their dynamic relationships. Based on this foundational …

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Imperfect Utopias: Norms In Vr Design And Queer Counter-Strategies, Alexandra Chalmers Braithwaite Jun 2026

Imperfect Utopias: Norms In Vr Design And Queer Counter-Strategies, Alexandra Chalmers Braithwaite

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper puts forward a set of strategies for designing queer experiences for virtual reality. First, the paper will outline The Body Traces Archive VR experience, the primary practice-based outcome of my doctoral research. This will be followed by a discussion of the medium of virtual reality and three industry-standard design norms that serve to limit and foreclose the possibilities of virtual reality: militaristic mastery and control, seamless (dis)embodiment, and prioritisation of comfort. For each industry standard norm, I propose a queer counter-strategy that works to re-align VR towards other possibilities. In turn, they are: utopian worldbuilding, embodiment via friction, …

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From Lab To Line: Mechanisms For Anchoring Human-Centred Design In Public Policy And Service Development, Maike Klip, Jasper Van Kuijk Jun 2026

From Lab To Line: Mechanisms For Anchoring Human-Centred Design In Public Policy And Service Development, Maike Klip, Jasper Van Kuijk

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Human-Centred Design (HCD) is increasingly proposed as a way to align government policies and services with citizens’ needs and capabilities. However, embedding HCD in everyday government practice remains challenging. This paper reports on a 2.5-year longitudinal action research study within the CGDC programme, where eight national agencies jointly redesigned debt-repayment services. The study combines observations, interviews and workshop data to analyse barriers and enablers for HCD practices in a politically and organisationally complex environment. Findings identify six recurring mechanisms: 1) Normalising user involvement, 2) Organising mandate for user needs, 3) Building multidisciplinary collaboration, 4) Creating facts on the ground, 5) …

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Designing For Self-Tailoring In Adolescent Health Behavior Change, Timothy A. Houtman, Froukje Sleeswijk Visser, Ece Şekerli, Valentijn Visch Jun 2026

Designing For Self-Tailoring In Adolescent Health Behavior Change, Timothy A. Houtman, Froukje Sleeswijk Visser, Ece Şekerli, Valentijn Visch

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Digital behavior change tools increasingly use system-driven tailoring to guide users toward healthier choices. While well-intentioned, such approaches may undermine autonomous behavior change by removing users from decision-making processes and limiting opportunities to develop self-knowledge: a practical understanding of what works for oneself that can help regulate current and future behaviors. This is particularly consequential for adolescents, who are developing personal autonomy at a time when the health behaviors they establish can have long-term consequences. We propose that self-tailoring can enhance autonomy by actively involving users in constructing and adapting approaches to their own contexts. Through two studies, we investigated …

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