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Understanding Digital Health Engagement Among Older Adults In India: A Cultural Probe Based Study, Radhika Sharma, Aakash Johry Jun 2026

Understanding Digital Health Engagement Among Older Adults In India: A Cultural Probe Based Study, Radhika Sharma, Aakash Johry

DRS Biennial Conference Series

India is moving towards a health crisis, with a rapidly increasing population of older adults who have to deal with chronic health issues and declining family support. Remote health monitoring technologies offer opportunities for improved healthcare management; however, existing design guidelines often fail to address the cultural realities of Indian senior citizens. In this study, we identified six critical interaction areas for remote cardiac health monitoring, including self-monitoring, emergency response, and assistance-seeking patterns. Targeted cultural probes were designed for each area to evoke natural behaviours from 27 participants, aged 59-86, across diverse living situations. This participatory approach revealed that elderly …


Plundergeist: Exploring Generative Ai Through Vibe Coding As Reflective Design Practice, Christian Nold Jun 2026

Plundergeist: Exploring Generative Ai Through Vibe Coding As Reflective Design Practice, Christian Nold

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Generative AI (GenAI) has sparked intense media debate, yet design research has often echoed these narratives rather than examining how GenAI reshapes everyday design practices. This paper presents a year-long auto-ethnographic study involving 34 games and apps created through vibe coding, a GenAI-native approach that uses natural-language prompts to generate code. The study reveals distinct qualities that unsettle design processes: playful intervention, creative forgetting, spectral echoes, inventive excess, and fragile limits. Two key insights emerge: designing with GenAI requires deliberate engagement with cultural archetypes and treating AI as an unruly collaborator. Drawing on John Oswald’s 1985 concept of ‘plunderphonics’, the …


Forking Futures: Fidelity And Resolution In Responsive Prototyping, Ricardo Sosa, Clare Mary Cooper Jun 2026

Forking Futures: Fidelity And Resolution In Responsive Prototyping, Ricardo Sosa, Clare Mary Cooper

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Prototyping offers ways to anticipate futures by supporting people to inhabit futures through hands-on experiences. Prototypes offer “invitations” to suspend disbelief and make believe. A canonical distinction is made between levels of fidelity in prototyping. Here, we critically re-examine “fidelity” by asking: How may fidelity inform prototyping practices and pedagogies? How may prototyping practices be more responsive, generative and ethical? How can fidelity in prototyping contribute to engagements with futures? Building on foundational ideas in prototyping and futuring, we put forward the FIRE (Fidelity/Resolution) map, a framework for distinguishing between fidelity and resolution and for navigating their spread and interplay …


Función-Nepantla: The “Other” Functionality Inspired By Mexican Philosophy For Rethinking Industrial Design In Mexico, José De La O Jun 2026

Función-Nepantla: The “Other” Functionality Inspired By Mexican Philosophy For Rethinking Industrial Design In Mexico, José De La O

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Design in Mexico, often disconnected from the local industry value chain, has long relied on arte popular as a self-referential cultural narrative to add value, establish identity, and find its “substance.” While this practice stems from a genuine search for rootedness and authenticity, it frequently leads to stagnation, raises concerns about cultural appropriation, neo-colonial dynamics between designers and craftspeople, neglect of functionality, and lack of innovation. This paper critiques this and proposes a framework for defining functionality, rooted in Mexican philosophy as an alternative value system. Drawing on thinkers such as Emilio Uranga and Grupo Hiperión’s work, it identifies parallels …


Projects As Actors In Design Education, Barak Pelman, Edith Bouton Jun 2026

Projects As Actors In Design Education, Barak Pelman, Edith Bouton

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study examines how design projects function as actors within studio-based pedagogy, drawing on Actor-Network Theory. Data were collected over a nine-month fieldwork at a higher education institution, covering courses in architecture, industrial design, and ceramics design. The study was conducted as a Research-Practice Partnership, uniting education researchers and design practitioners to shift the focus away from practitioners' specialized knowledge and experiences by positioning them alongside critical perspectives from K-12 educational research. Our findings demonstrate how students and instructors view projects as active actors in the design process across three main dimensions: 1) Through language: instructors and students personify projects, …


Disrupting Gender Binaries In Product Language: A Workshop On Gender Awareness, Martina Labarta Labrador, Francesca Mattioli, Silvia D. Ferraris Jun 2026

Disrupting Gender Binaries In Product Language: A Workshop On Gender Awareness, Martina Labarta Labrador, Francesca Mattioli, Silvia D. Ferraris

DRS Biennial Conference Series

When introduced to product language—the interplay between aesthetic qualities and conveyed meanings—design students often learn that objects embody gender. Soft, curved, and organic shapes are typically framed as feminine, while monolithic and sturdy shapes are most likely labelled as masculine. Although this vocabulary bridges human communication and aesthetics, it also risks reinforcing stereotypes. Building on ongoing doctoral research investigating how product language can reproduce or challenge discrimination, a five-day workshop with 23 bachelor's design students was developed. Through reflective and analytical activities, participants examined gender beyond the binary, exploring how products convey gender norms and how aesthetic qualities embed narratives …


Reimagining Body–Instrument Relations Through Feminist Design Practice: Reflections On An E-Textile Musical Interface, Qiaosheng Lyu, Ryo Ikeshiro Jun 2026

Reimagining Body–Instrument Relations Through Feminist Design Practice: Reflections On An E-Textile Musical Interface, Qiaosheng Lyu, Ryo Ikeshiro

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper explores how e-textile musical interface can reimagine the relationship between body and instrument from a feminist perspective. Drawing on a practice-based research project, the study examines how soft, deformable materials and embodied interaction can challenge the masculine-coded logic of control that dominates digital musical instrument (DMI) design. Constructed from knitted conductive textiles, the interface functions both as musical controller and prostheses that redistributes agency between performer and instrument. Through design practice, reflective performance, and a somatic experiment with another performer, the research investigates the entangled relationship between performer and instrument from a feminist perspective. The findings suggest that …


Situating Textile Design: Practice Research In Interdisciplinary Material Science Projects, Rebecca Earley, Laetitia Forst Jun 2026

Situating Textile Design: Practice Research In Interdisciplinary Material Science Projects, Rebecca Earley, Laetitia Forst

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Textile design practice research (TDPR) has recently been used in the delivery of multiple largescale material science-based projects. This paper considers the role TDPR played in the EU-funded HEREWEAR project and how has it contributed to theories of design practice research. The full range of textile experimentation - including engineering and design-led sampling - is mapped; then three TDPR interventions are explored using annotated portfolio approaches (Gaver & Bowers, 2012) framed by ‘sited’, ’situated’ and ‘situating’ conditions (Kaszynska & Kimbell, 2024). The authors examine the results from the TDPR within the context of various communities of validation, presenting how TDPR …


Constraints As Knowledge Amplifiers: Understanding How Research-Through-Design Makes Design Knowledge Visible, Amit Kundal, Tina Mangwani Jun 2026

Constraints As Knowledge Amplifiers: Understanding How Research-Through-Design Makes Design Knowledge Visible, Amit Kundal, Tina Mangwani

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Research-through-Design (RtD) continues to grapple with how prototypes can generate comparable design knowledge beyond stand-alone studies. This paper addresses that gap by studying how knowledge takes shape in constrained design settings, where limitations themselves become sources of insight. Using the case of affordable dental care in India, chosen for its material, spatial, and procedural limitations, the study shows how constraints can make tacit design understandings more visible. From this work, three categories of knowledge emerged: embodied negotiation of ergonomics, enacted hygiene, and modularity-for-resilience. These categories describe how designers learn through doing, maintaining, and adjusting within limitations. Rather than focusing on …


The Future Of Architectural Design Research: An Emerging Niche In Digital Transition, Angela Rout, Michael Tjia, Marija Mateljan Jun 2026

The Future Of Architectural Design Research: An Emerging Niche In Digital Transition, Angela Rout, Michael Tjia, Marija Mateljan

DRS Biennial Conference Series

To remain effective in an era of technological flux and AI-driven tools, architects must continuously expand their knowledge base. Architectural research and education must evolve alongside these digital transitions to secure legitimacy and funding within academic institutions. This paper asks how the architectural design research community can self-manage in response to these changes. Using the lens of Strategic Niche Management (SNM), we examine how design research behaves as an emerging niche seeking to participate in broader academic regimes. We conducted a multi-stage review of the Design Research Society (DRS) Conference Biennale Series (2002–2024), involving a quantitative analysis of over 2,000 …


Reciprocal Value Between Learning And Circular Practices, Franchesca Michaela De Moura, Nonkululeko Grootboom, Christina Breed Jun 2026

Reciprocal Value Between Learning And Circular Practices, Franchesca Michaela De Moura, Nonkululeko Grootboom, Christina Breed

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study investigates how adaptive reuse servicescapes may contribute to sustainable transformation through learning, by leveraging circular practices as experiential learning tools. Research on circular economy rarely adopts a human-centred lens or explores its links to learning, especially in the Global South, where the value of alternative epistemologies and informal economies often remains unrecognised. To address this gap, a qualitative case study approach was employed, combining participant observation and semi-structured interviews at educational initiatives in an adaptive reuse precinct in inner-city Johannesburg, South Africa. The findings reveal a reciprocal relationship between education and circular practices in generating value for sustainable …


Tracing Oppression Through Things: Facilitating A Slow Critique In Post-Anthropocene Design, Thanussayan Karunakaran, Dilina Nawarathne Jun 2026

Tracing Oppression Through Things: Facilitating A Slow Critique In Post-Anthropocene Design, Thanussayan Karunakaran, Dilina Nawarathne

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper reconsiders what it means to be critical in design studies under Post-Anthropocene conditions. It proposes slow relational critique as an orientation. In doing so, it stays with the fragile entanglements through which oppression is enacted by both human and more-than-human entities. Drawing on Actor–Network Theory, the paper revisits a case of a cradle in a caste-oppressed community in Sri Lanka to show how power and inequality are relationally produced through mundane associations of “things.” The analysis demonstrates how critique can remain empirical and attentive to objects while resisting the purification of problems into grand Anthropocene social explanations. Rather …


Reciprocal Sensing: Expanding Body Mapping Through Lenca And Mestizo Ontologies Of Relational Embodiment, Thaís Alvarenga Medina, Michael Nitsche Jun 2026

Reciprocal Sensing: Expanding Body Mapping Through Lenca And Mestizo Ontologies Of Relational Embodiment, Thaís Alvarenga Medina, Michael Nitsche

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Reciprocal Sensing is an alternative way of body mapping that draws from Indigenous Lenca ontologies, which understand matter as animate and relational. It expands body mapping to account for culturally specific contexts and ways of knowing. The proposed method invites participants to (1) link each felt experience to a worldly source (the non-human agent or co-actor) and (2) visualize the direction of these sensory flows. Using an autoethnographic approach, iterative body mapping sessions revealed recurring patterns of exchange between the body and its material environment. This informed the development of Reciprocal Sensing as a culturally situated, more-than-human perspective to soma …


Designing The Service Exposome: Applying The D4l Unclock Framework To Longevity Challenges, Sheng-Hung Lee Jun 2026

Designing The Service Exposome: Applying The D4l Unclock Framework To Longevity Challenges, Sheng-Hung Lee

DRS Biennial Conference Series

In an emerging longevity society, reimagining social infrastructure has become increasingly essential. The World Health Organization (2025) projects that the global population aged 60 and over will nearly double from 12% in 2015 to 22% by 2050, raising urgent questions about how people live and interact with services over time. This study introduces the service exposome, extending Wild’s (2005, 2012) exposome concept to consider the cumulative service-related exposures that shape well-being across the lifespan. Using the Design for Longevity (D4L) Unclock Framework—a tool that helps designers explore intersections across longevity, service, system, design, technology, and society—the research examines how early-stage …


A Design Continuum For Autographic Sonification, Kajetan Enge, Dietmar Offenhuber, Sara Lenzi Jun 2026

A Design Continuum For Autographic Sonification, Kajetan Enge, Dietmar Offenhuber, Sara Lenzi

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Sonification and visualization practices usually take "data" as a given, without considering the complex ways in which data is collected or the complexity of the phenomena that data represents. Autographic design is an emerging field approaching this issue by starting the design process before data collection with the phenomenon itself, treating data as a material trace rather than an abstract reference. An autographic display uses a phenomenon's self-inscription, rather than its mediation and representation in symbolic encodings. While the existing framework of autographic design has a strong relation to the visual domain, a phenomenon may also reveal itself through its …


Sketch-Based Ai: How Ai-Influence Levels Shape Perceived Authorship And Creativity In The Design Process, Byungsoo Kim, Haeyoung Kim Jun 2026

Sketch-Based Ai: How Ai-Influence Levels Shape Perceived Authorship And Creativity In The Design Process, Byungsoo Kim, Haeyoung Kim

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Understanding perceived authorship and creativity is critical for novice designers to improve efficiency and engagement in human-AI collaboration. This study explores how different AI influence levels (100% = high human-drawing influence, 0% = low drawing influence) affect perceived authorship and creativity, and how these levels relate to design intents that shape authorship and support the process-oriented nature of creativity. Vizcom workshop post-surveys measured perceived authorship and creativity (N=45). Regarding authorship, when high AI influence (low authorship threshold), basic resemblance to the sketch was enough; when low AI influence, participants expected signature cues and minimal AI changes. Regarding perceived creativity, high …


Make It So(Und): Speculative Sonic Metaphors As Boundary Objects For Design Research, Kc Collins Jun 2026

Make It So(Und): Speculative Sonic Metaphors As Boundary Objects For Design Research, Kc Collins

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates how speculative sound design can employ metaphors as boundary objects to mediate shared understanding across users and designers. Because sound is ephemeral and difficult to describe, participants often rely on metaphor, drawing on nature, human behaviour, or emotion. We surveyed 72 people online to respond to textual prompts with descriptions of futuristic sound objects, and analysed their responses using several methods. We present results and outline suggestions for re-deploying sonic metaphors as design prompts, and discuss their potential to support sound design.


The Meandering Practitioner: When Research Emerges In Relational Resistance And Intentional Ambiguity, Markus Wernli, Kam-Fai Chan, Jonathan Yu, Josh Wolper Jun 2026

The Meandering Practitioner: When Research Emerges In Relational Resistance And Intentional Ambiguity, Markus Wernli, Kam-Fai Chan, Jonathan Yu, Josh Wolper

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper theorizes meandering as a dispositional heuristic in design research, foregrounding how researchers can encounter complexity through nuanced, situated journeying. Drawing on the case of SoilTrust nutrient-cycling praxis in Hong Kong, the study identifies four key dispositions – nimble resistance, contextual reasoning, temporal suppleness, and deliberate ambiguity – that enable practitioners to respond to structural challenges with humility, curiosity, and strategic indirection. Rather than pursuing fixed goals, meandering researchers cultivate relational awareness, embrace uncertainty, and reconfigure material and social systems through iterative, practice-led inquiry. Anchored in agential realism and indirect action, meanderability reframes design as a life-embedded mode of …


Cooking Rush: Designing And Evaluating A Cross-Cultural Dietary Board Game For Chinese International Students Through Research Through Design, Yuan Qin Jun 2026

Cooking Rush: Designing And Evaluating A Cross-Cultural Dietary Board Game For Chinese International Students Through Research Through Design, Yuan Qin

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study addresses the dietary challenges faced by Chinese international students by developing Cooking Rush, a serious card-based board game. Using a Research through Design paradigm and Social Practice Theory, the project integrates Western nutrition with Traditional Chinese Medicine energetics. The game translates cultural beliefs into a quantified Balance of Thermal Intake (BTI) mechanism. Evaluation results from 14 participants show improved confidence in resource management and internalised dietary knowledge. Furthermore, the intervention shifts the perception of cooking from a burden to a practice of self-care. This research provides a scalable framework for cross-cultural health interventions by aligning local food logics …


Biodiverse Design And The Ethics Of Bioempathy In Practice, Delphine Lewandowski Jun 2026

Biodiverse Design And The Ethics Of Bioempathy In Practice, Delphine Lewandowski

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates biodiverse design as a practice through which environmental ethics can inform architectural production. Drawing on the concept of bioempathy—understood as the recognition of the intrinsic value of the biotic community—it develops an ethical and operational framework for guiding design reasoning. This framework is then applied to a reflective analysis of biodiverse wall prototypes developed by the author with an interdisciplinary team, used as an empirical ground to examine how ecological intentions were translated into material and spatial decisions, and how observations of plant establishment and spontaneous colonisation contribute to reassessing the assumptions embedded in those intentions. The …


Designing For Generativity And Wellbeing: Insights From Visitors At The Hong Kong Space Museum, Cerella Yueru Chen, Amy Law, Jiarui Cao, Xun Li Jun 2026

Designing For Generativity And Wellbeing: Insights From Visitors At The Hong Kong Space Museum, Cerella Yueru Chen, Amy Law, Jiarui Cao, Xun Li

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper investigates how generativity, understood as showing care and contributing to the next generation's lives, shapes visitors’ engagement, experience, and psychological wellbeing in the Hong Kong Space Museum. We conducted fifteen semi-structured interviews to explore how generativity unfolds in museum interactions. Building on Fan and Luo (2022), we extend the generativity model by introducing bidirectional and recursive relationships among generativity, engagement, and experience. Our findings show that generativity can be understood as a designable, relational and temporal pathway to wellbeing. Thematic analysis further reveals that different types of installations scaffold generativity and wellbeing through distinct design features such as …


Evaluating Visual Accessibility Of Ai-Generated Interfaces, Mutong Rao, Jody Watts Jun 2026

Evaluating Visual Accessibility Of Ai-Generated Interfaces, Mutong Rao, Jody Watts

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Large Language Models are increasingly integrated into UX design. However, their effectiveness in meeting visual accessibility requirements is under-explored. This research evaluates ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot to generate visually accessible interfaces using a Research through Design methodology. First, an accessibility scoring system was created from the Apple, WCAG 2.2, and Microsoft accessibility guidelines. Second, design experiments were conducted using ChatGPT and Copilot, and the outputs were evaluated using the new scoring system. Findings indicate ChatGPT and Copilot can respond effectively to well-structured prompts, but they demonstrate low competence in executing visually accessible interfaces. This research makes two valuable contributions to …


Towards A More Sustainable Industrial Design Sketch Modelling Practice: An Overview Of Associated Materials And Their Life Cycles, Mario Cvetkoski, Hossein Najaf Zadeh, Thomas Woods Jun 2026

Towards A More Sustainable Industrial Design Sketch Modelling Practice: An Overview Of Associated Materials And Their Life Cycles, Mario Cvetkoski, Hossein Najaf Zadeh, Thomas Woods

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study supports the shift towards more sustainable industrial design sketch modelling (the making of expressive models for problem solving) by detailing the material needs and sustainability concerns that result from the practice’s disposable nature. This transition also provides another opportunity to embed sustainable thinking throughout industry, as sketch modelling is taught early in a designer’s education. This study is centred around an overview of the literature on the roles and life cycles of commonly associated materials, with a focus on paper derivatives, polystyrene and polyurethane foam. The polymer foams, in particular, can result in widespread environmental harm, from their …


Frame Excavation: Revealing And Critiquing Existing Problem Frames To Improve Migrants’ Awareness Of Public Services, Amir Pakpour, Ville-Veikko Minkkinen, Parnian Ghaderiazad, Oğuz Buruk, Thomas Olsson Jun 2026

Frame Excavation: Revealing And Critiquing Existing Problem Frames To Improve Migrants’ Awareness Of Public Services, Amir Pakpour, Ville-Veikko Minkkinen, Parnian Ghaderiazad, Oğuz Buruk, Thomas Olsson

DRS Biennial Conference Series

The prowess of design to reframe complex sociotechnical issues has made it appealing for tackling wicked problems faced by the public sector. Effective reframing requires an understanding of the problem frames in use and their shortcomings to avoid past mistakes. Literature on this groundwork for reframing is sparse. To address this gap, we report a case study on assisting migrants’ awareness of public services, involving interviews with service coordinators working in a Finnish municipality and migrants, and a co-design workshop to surface assumedly problematic frames. We then concretized the frames through an investigation of solution artifacts, encompassing in-person services, websites, …


Translating Nature's Emotions: Building An Affective Design Framework Rooted In Classical Chinese Poetry, Yi Li, Shuzhan Ji, Yifan Chen, Wanhao Luo, Yuyan Ma, Yu Gao, Xinming Zhou Jun 2026

Translating Nature's Emotions: Building An Affective Design Framework Rooted In Classical Chinese Poetry, Yi Li, Shuzhan Ji, Yifan Chen, Wanhao Luo, Yuyan Ma, Yu Gao, Xinming Zhou

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Current human-computer interaction and more-than-human design increasingly emphasize affective experiences emerging from the dynamic interplay between humans and their environments. However, research in this domain remains largely anthropocentric, often translating non-human emotions in anthropomorphic terms and thereby neglecting their distinctive affective expressions and relational nuances. This paper draws on classical Chinese poetry, renowned for its profound sensory and affective engagement with nature, to analyze how nonhuman entities convey complex emotions such as tranquility, melancholy, and transience. Using grounded theory, we systematically code and categorize the representations of Shui (水, Water), flora, and fauna in poetic excerpts that convey specific affective …


Redesigning Transition Arenas For Power-Sensitive Participation, Tomi Rantanen, Tatu Marttila, Idil Gaziulusoy Jun 2026

Redesigning Transition Arenas For Power-Sensitive Participation, Tomi Rantanen, Tatu Marttila, Idil Gaziulusoy

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Transition arenas are organised to facilitate and guide sociotechnical system change. The organisers invite identified stakeholders in the set problem area to design desirable futures and develop transition pathways. Typically, a transition arena is organised by a transition team who wield power and authority in the transition context. Our broader research project develops transition arenas to facilitate a transition towards gender-equal futures in the Finnish music industry. This research-through-design study investigates how transition arenas can be organised in alignment with intersectional feminist values, specifically focusing on the establishment phase of the process. Through workshops with industry stakeholders, we explore avenues …


Integrating Attachment And Social Identity Theories In The Co-Design Of A Hokkien Nursery Rhymes App, Kaiqing Chen Jun 2026

Integrating Attachment And Social Identity Theories In The Co-Design Of A Hokkien Nursery Rhymes App, Kaiqing Chen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This study presents the co-design of Hokkien Nursery Rhymes, an educational app supporting intergenerational language learning and cultural transmission. Grounded in Attachment Theory, the design promotes parent–child co-use to strengthen emotional bonds and create a secure, trusting learning atmosphere. Social Identity Theory informs the app’s cultural framing, reinforcing children’s sense of belonging to their linguistic and cultural heritage. Using participatory methods creative workshops with children and interviews with families from diverse sociocultural backgrounds—the study translated insights into tangible design features: emotionally responsive virtual companions, collaborative parent–child tasks, culturally meaningful narratives, reward mechanisms, and personalized audio from caregivers. These elements foster …


Agency In The In-Between: A Reflexive Civic Design Inquiry Into Agency Drift, Saskia Pouwels, Koen Van Turnhout, Gabriele Ferri Jun 2026

Agency In The In-Between: A Reflexive Civic Design Inquiry Into Agency Drift, Saskia Pouwels, Koen Van Turnhout, Gabriele Ferri

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Citizen participation initiatives often struggle to engage diverse communities meaningfully. 'In-between' spaces are celebrated as sites where power asymmetries can be renegotiated, yet this spatial metaphor obscures critical temporal dynamics. Through reflexive analysis of a ten-month design justice collaboration with Amsterdam's Stedelijk Team Participatie, this paper examines how temporal positioning shapes agency strategies within participatory processes. Applying temporal-relational agency theory, we identify a phenomenon we term "agency drift", the multidirectional movement across agency strategies as participants navigate institutional and community temporal orientations. Our findings show that making these temporal dynamics visible transforms in-between spaces from sites where drift simply happens …


Living With Multimorbidity: How Design Might Support Older Adults Use Of Health Technology For Self-Management., Zhuoning Fu, Emilene Zitkus, Sharon Cook, Luke Harmer Jun 2026

Living With Multimorbidity: How Design Might Support Older Adults Use Of Health Technology For Self-Management., Zhuoning Fu, Emilene Zitkus, Sharon Cook, Luke Harmer

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Older adults face complex challenges in managing multimorbidity. As the ageing population increases, digital health technology (DHT) offers significant potential to address these challenges while supporting independent living. However, current research remains largely condition-specific and technology-driven, providing limited insight into how digital health can support older adults with multimorbidity (OAwM) in self-management for independent living. This study investigates how digital health technologies can be inclusively designed to support older adults living with multiple and complex health conditions. Drawing on qualitative inquiries into older adults’ self-management practices, it develops an understanding of the challenges existing in multimorbidity management within independent living …


“Even If I Do It, I Cannot See Any Differences”: Designing Strategies To Facilitate Adolescents’ Low-Carbon Behavior, Rui Shan, Wenhao Zhou, Huanshu Jiang, Wanlin Zhang Jun 2026

“Even If I Do It, I Cannot See Any Differences”: Designing Strategies To Facilitate Adolescents’ Low-Carbon Behavior, Rui Shan, Wenhao Zhou, Huanshu Jiang, Wanlin Zhang

DRS Biennial Conference Series

Climate change, an urgent threat to millions of lives, requires collective efforts to advance a low-carbon transition. In particular, as future citizens, adolescents play a key role in shaping a low-carbon future. To understand how their potential can be supported, this study examines how design, particularly through human-computer interaction as a technology-mediated approach, can encourage adolescents to adopt low-carbon behavior. To do so, a formative study was conducted. First, we conducted a survey to understand adolescents’ cognitive levels and behavioral characteristics. Findings from this stage reveal that adolescents’ low-carbon behavior can be cultivated before a conscious understanding is established. Building …