Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
| 9:00am - 10:30am |
PAPERS: Power plays: Values, Place, and Community Location: Appleton Tower, LT1 Zoom Link Chair: Sine Celik, Delft University of Technology Chair: Geertje Slingerland, Delft University of Technology Empowerment for Aging Design: A Framework to reframe the design of solutions for Older Adults in the Global South Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia Designing for Themselves: The Gearbox Model of Value-Reclaiming Design within Grassroots Sports Communities the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China) Understanding power at the doorstep: Examining interpersonal power of smart doorbells through speculative design TU Delft, The Netherlands From Edgeland to Gentrified-land: Graphic Communication as Intermediary for Negotiating Place Identity in Hackney Wick, London University of Southampton, United Kingdom Figurations as a situated counter-device for participatory design: Exploring time and presence in design practice. 1: Independent researcher; 2: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA; 3: Linnaeus University, Sweeden; 4: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia Co-speculating future design research opportunities in community sharing with local sharing communities Univerisity of Edinburgh, United Kingdom |
PAPERS: Futuring Practices: Design-as-practice, Co-creation, and Design-in-Action Location: Appleton Tower, LT2 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-2-edinburgh Chair: Marco Mason, Northumbria University Chair: Raffaella Trocchianesi, Politecnico di MIlano Exploring co-design with people with disabilities in digital museums: A systematic review and outlook University of Canterbury, New Zealand Reimagining Cultural Heritage: Designing Game Jams as Learning Spaces 1: University College Copenhagen, Denmark, Denmark; 2: Aarhus University, Denmark How Sound Knowledge and Education Can Support Designers in Creating Museum Experiences: Insights from Semi-Structured Interviews with Experts in Acoustics/Sound 1: Beijing institute of technology, China; 2: Politecnico di Milano, Italy Mediating heritage through design: Participatory approaches to post-digital transformation 1: Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; 2: Aegean University, Greece Designing the echo. Practices for oral heritage in the digital age Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design Weaving visual language: Encoding Gaelic in tartan length to facilitate interaction with endangered languages 1: University of St Andrews, United Kingdom; 2: Independent Designer |
PAPERS: Experiences and experiential knowledge Location: Appleton Tower, LT4 Zoom link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-4-edinburgh Chair: Haian Xue, College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University Exploring Future Smellscapes with Smellwalks Tilburg University, Netherlands, The Dynamics in relating craft practices, distinguishing shifting emotional states to expand tacit knowledge transfer 1: Mines Saint-Etienne, Univ. Lyon, CNRS, UMR 5307 LGF, France; 2: ENSAD Paris, EnsadLab PSL Feeling as Raw Knowledge: A Method for Designing Future Experience 1: Design school, Hunan University, China; 2: Transport Safety Research Centre, School of Design and Creative Arts Attuned design practice: Embodied knowledge as a design vocabulary at the intersection of artistic and scientific inquiry. 1: University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 2: University of Antwerp, Belgium; 3: University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Framing the fuzzy: Mapping expert designers’ problem framing through C–K theory University of Canterbury, New Zealand From discontent to touchpoints: Analysing art festival experience design through participants’ critical feedback on social media 1: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China); 2: Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China) |
PAPERS: Participation in Policy making, Part I Location: Appleton Tower, LT5 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-5-edinburgh Chair: Scott Schmidt, Georgetown University Chair: Sabine Junginger, Northumbria University Erased By Default: Reorienting Digital Welfare Systems with Care and Participation South East Technological University, Ireland Countering tokenism in e-participation: Potentials of participatory design in democratic policymaking 1: Politecnico di Milano; 2: University of the Arts London Frictions and constraints of institutioning: Facilitating equitable participatory design with migrants in municipalities 1: Aalto University, Finland; 2: Tampere University, Finland From lab to line: mechanisms for anchoring human-centred design in public policy and service development 1: Delft University of Technology; 2: Karlstad University People-centred public innovation: A co-design model between university and state 1: Department of Design, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile; 2: Department of Planning and Territorial Ordering, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile; 3: Department of Design, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile; 4: Department of Informatics and Computing, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile; 5: Directorate of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), Chile Driving Public Service Innovation Through Internal Ecosystem Development: Reconfiguring the Internal Management and Service System of Nanhai Bus Station 1: Beijing Jiaotong University; 2: Chinese National Academy of Arts |
PAPERS: Responsible Retail and Branded Environments: Session 1 Location: 50 George Square, G.03 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Chair: Mia B. Münster, Malmö University Chair: Francesca Murialdo, Middlesex University From Waste to Opportunity, Upcycling Innovation in the South African Context: The Case of Clothes to Good 1: Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom; 2: University of Johannesburg, South Africa Exploring circular economy strategies in the fashion industry: a comparative case study analysis Politecnico di Milano, Italy Mapping the opportunity for circularity in fashion retail design and fit-out University of the Arts London, United Kingdom Restorative Retail: A Literature Review on Consumer Well-being in the Retail Environment Hasselt University, Belgium Between Consumption and Care: Restorative Design and Cultural Memory in Hong Kong Coffee Shops 1: School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; 2: School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Belonging across borders: a framework for transnationally resonant retail design University of Brighton, United Kingdom |
PAPERS: Rethinking Inclusive Design Location: 50 George Square, G.04 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Chair: Hua Dong, Royal College of Art Chair: Abdusselam Cifter, Brunel University of London Inclusive design revisited: A paradigm of trustworthy connectedness 1: University of Twente, The Netherlands; 2: Fontys University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands Rethinking Communication and Power Relations in a Collaboration between Designers and Welfare Communites/Organisations School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, The United Kingdom Between Assistance and Autonomy: The Home as a Field for Inclusive Design CNAM, France Inclusive Co-Learning in Transnational Design Classrooms: Bridging Linguistic and Cultural Gaps between Chinese Students and British Curricula 1: Beijing Jiaotong University, CN; 2: Lancaster University,UK; 3: Tsinghua University,CN; 4: RMIT University, AU Designing social inclusion in circular transitions: A participatory study of repair initiatives in Germany 1: Dresden University of Technology, Germany; 2: New Design University, Austria Aesthetics as a Driver for Inclusion: What Recycling Rooms Reveal About Participation in Everyday Society 1: Mid Sweden University, Sweden; 2: Lund University, Sweden |
| PAPERS: Sonic boundary object under construction Location: 40 George Square, LG.09 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-40-lecture-theatres Chair: Stefano Delle Monache, Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music Chair: Nicolas Misdariis, Ircam Make it So(und): Speculative Sonic Metaphors as Boundary Objects for Design Research Carleton University, Canada The intrusive sounds of ReSilence. 1: Casa Paganini-InfoMus Research Center, University of Genova, Genova, Italy; 2: Information Technologies Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Thessaloniki, Greece Mediating Borders Through Sound: Sonic Boundary Objects in Infrastructural Listening Northeastern University, United States of America Beyond ephemerality: Boundary objects and the plasticity of listening in collaborative design 1: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music, France; 2: Delft University of Technology Performer, Technologist, Machine: Co-Creating the Soul Song Sensorium Arts University Bournemouth, United Kingdom Co-designing culture: A grounded theory of participatory practice in Indian folk music 1: Anahad Foundation, New Delhi, India; 2: Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India |
PAPERS: Strategic Design Practices for Learning, Attention, and Co-Creation Location: 40 George Square, LG.11 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-40-lecture-theatres Chair: Ross Brisco, University of Strathclyde Inter-Poly-Creation (IPC): Unifying Mass Customisation and Co-Creation Loughborough University, United Kingdom The Studio model - creating space for continuous change Princeton University, University of Technology Sydney, Australia Linking an attention-based view of the firm and critical design in strategizing: Attention to harmful consequences University of Lapland, Finland |
PAPERS: Doing and Undoing Post Anthropocentric Design, session 1 Location: McEwan Hall Auditorium Zoom Link Chair: Tau Ulv Lenskjold, University of Southern Denmark Chair: Laura Forlano, Northeastern University Winds, Sand, Companions, humans: Attuning bodies for post-antropocentric Worlds 1: Universidad de los Andes, Colombia; 2: Universdidad Atlantida; 3: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Toward speculation otherwise: Correspondence and contamination in design engagements with urban renewal IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark Mechanical Jewellery as Epimethean Practice: Staying with the Trouble of Human–Machine Entanglement 1: School of Design, Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; 2: College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University,Zhejiang,China Función-Nepantla: The “Other” Functionality Inspired by Mexican Philosophy for Rethinking Industrial Design in Mexico Pratt Institute, United States of America |
PhD HUB: Practice made Visible: Documenting & Communicating Design Process as Research Knowledge Practice made Visible: Documenting & Communicating Design Process as Research Knowledge Location: 50 George Square, G.06 (Room C1) Zoom Link Abid Abbas (Edinburgh); Xiaozhuang Gao (Edinburgh) How do you explain a design decision that felt right but is hard to put into words? In design practice, the process is often where the real knowledge lives. However, it can be messy, tacit and difficult to communicate. This workshop invites you to make your design process visible. Together, we explore why audit trails matter in practice-based research and experiment with visual tools to help externalise the reasoning behind our design moves. You will then exchange your visualisations with peers and ask: Can I follow your process? Which steps feel convincing? Leave with a new visual representation of your own process, fresh conversations about how others document their practice, and a welcome break from the intensity of DRS. Before you arrive: please reflect on a recent project: how have you been documenting your process, and are there decisions you have found difficult to articulate? Optionally, bring any artifacts that help share your story. |
CONVERSATION: Educating Within the Trouble: A Risky Experiment in Design Pedagogy Location: Appleton Tower, 2.12 (Room C2) Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-tower Design education is increasingly tasked with responding to complex global challenges, yet innovative pedagogies are often stifled by institutionalisms: rigid assessment frameworks, "bums on seats" metrics, industry-facing reactions while also meeting the expectations of parents and funded research agendas. While educators are experimenting with new forms of learning, critical lenses like ‘ungrading’ and integrating cross-discipline, participation-based activities within coursework these efforts often remain isolated. This DRS Conversation explores the potential of ‘riskiness’ as a core pedagogical value. We define riskiness not as recklessness, but as a purposeful opening to uncertainty, failure, improvisation with the result being resilience and confidence. This takes education beyond the responsibility of the institution to create employable graduates towards a position that accepts accountability for learning (for all those involved); new knowledge created through risky experiences. This session invites participant design educators to move beyond the ‘safe’ status quo and collectively imagine how design education can become a site of systemic friction and transformative learning for the student but also the educator. Educating within the Trouble: A Risky Experiment in Design Pedagogy 1: LUCA School of Arts, Inter-actions Research Group, Belgium; 2: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands; 3: OsloMet, Norway; 4: Srishti Manipal Institute, India; 5: Sheffield Hallam University, UK |
EXPLORATION: Exploring Everyday Heritage Through Multimodal Storytelling in Historic Settings Location: 50 George Square, G.05 (Room E1) Zoom Link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 While the democratic and identity-related goals of everyday heritage are well recognized, the role of aesthetics, encompassing embodied, emplaced and sensory experiences, as well as engagements remains underexplored (Ireland et al., 2024). However, recent urban practices such as soundwalks (Gallagher, 2015; McCartney, 2010) and scent mapping (Henshaw, 2013), which invites participants to move through space while engaging multiple senses, emphasize the role of bodily presence, mobility, and perception in the physical environment. This workshop explores the intersection of urban heritage, storytelling, and sensory perspectives to move beyond grand heritage narratives and foster deeper, situated connection with place. Through a combination of narrative and sensory-based practices, participants will engage with local urban setting, reflecting on personal experiences, everyday heritage significance, and alternative ways of telling and experiencing place-based stories. By foregrounding the notion of everyday heritage, the session examines how heritage is constructed through everyday stories, emplaced memories and embodied encounters rather than only through officially designated narratives. Exploring everyday heritage through multimodal storytelling in historic settings Loughborough University, United Kingdom |
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| EXPLORATION: Listening Like a Tree: Designing Sonic Experiences With Community Partners for Nature Connectedness Location: 50 George Square, G.01 (Room E5) Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 A sonic immersion at The Meadows, an iconic Edinburgh park reached by a seven-minute walk. Following an introduction at 50 George Square we leave for Boys’ Brigade Walk, home to an avenue of seventy-five Sakura cherry trees, renowned for their remarkable blossom to deliver our immersive sonic activity then return with participants to the conference site. Listening Like a Tree is an outcome of AHRC funded “Reperceiving Communities: Prototyping the More-Than-Human Community Toolkit”, a collaboration between The School of Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, The Angela Marmont Centre for UK Nature at The Natural History Museum, and Phoenix Community Housing. The project empowered community groups in Lewisham as agents for pro-environmental and pro-social behavioural change. Through a series of listening events in Lewisham parks with community housing and informal education groups, a set of 3D-printed tools and attachments were iteratively designed, to extend the utility of affordable field recording equipment to enable listeners to experience the audio resonances of urban treescapes Through this Explorations session, we invite DRS2026 participants to directly experience the neighbourhood of resonances within which a tree is entangled, enabling discussion about the potential for nature-connectedness through the design of immersive sonic experiences. The aim of the Exploration is to provide a grounded experience with DRS26 participants to support reflection and discussion. We ask how the methods and approaches of community-designed sonic platforms support the ambition for nature-connectedness. How should we record and share sonic events for others? How might we share the tools and approaches of sonic experiences in nature with a broader community? Listening Like a Tree: Designing Sonic Experiences with Community Partners for Nature Connectedness Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom |
EXPLORATION: Sketching in Space: An Interior Exploration Location: Edinburgh Futures Institute, Maker Teaching Space (Room 0.70) Zoom Link Accessbility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/edinburgh-futures-institute-efi Sketching in Space is a participatory methodology for interior design research. The research question framing the session asks how design-build approaches, most often situated in architectural or exterior contexts, might be translated into interior environments as a means of inquiry, spatial reasoning, and shared knowledge production. Interior design research frequently relies on representational practices that separate design intention from material engagement(Hewitt, 2020). Sketching in Space is proposed as a methodological response to this condition, repositioning interior space as something that can be explored through direct, collective construction rather than prior representation. Consciously stepping outside habits of drawing on paper, CAD, or making scale models allows a critical perspective on conventional design practice. Modelling in space, on site using slim light weight timber battens allows participants immersion in the human scale. Working in this way permits the co-evolution of form with immediate, haptic feedback on the user experience - a precondition for the immersive state of flow (Tse et al., 2022) The methodology combines the immediacy associated with sketching and the social character of collective making. Historically, shared making practices embedded design knowledge in material processes and in place, rather than in authored representations (Sennett, 2012, 2009). By contrast, contemporary design practice often privileges individual ideation and formalised drawing as the primary site of decision-making. Drawing, modelling, and digital simulation are effective tools for abstraction and communication, yet they also defer contact with scale, resistance, occupation, and atmosphere. These separations become particularly pronounced in interior contexts, where proximity, enclosure, movement, and use are central to spatial understanding. Sketching in Space seeks to reconnect these domains by using lightweight, reconfigurable materials to enable spatial propositions to be assembled, inhabited, and adjusted at full scale during the design process. Sketching in Space: an Interior Exploration Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom |
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| 11:00am - 12:30pm |
PAPERS: Methods that matter: Surfacing and operationalizing values Location: Appleton Tower, LT1 Zoom Link Chair: Deger Ozkaramanli, Delft University of Technology Chair: Natalia Gulbransen-Diaz, University of Sydney Value co-creation, co-displacement, and co-destruction in design: Bridging value and values in human-data interaction 1: The University of Exeter; 2: The University of Edinburgh; 3: New Jersey Institute of Technology; 4: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Towards an operational framework for Design for Values: An exploration through systematic literature review College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, China Reconciling Values in Multidisciplinary Design Teams through Structured Dialogue Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Negotiating authenticity, vividness, and engagement: A design framework for GenAI in heritage co-creation 1: School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; 2: Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan Democratizing the newsroom: A participatory design approach to empower citizen-participatory journalism and civic knowledge Department of Design, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Republic of Korea QUILT: Designing a values-driven toolkit for surfacing participant-led impact assessment of participatory design and making experiences Arts University Bournemouth, United Kingdom |
PAPERS: Futuring Principles: Ethics, Agency, and More-than-Human Heritage Location: Appleton Tower, LT2 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-2-edinburgh Chair: Marco Mason, Northumbria University Chair: Raffaella Trocchianesi, Politecnico di MIlano The place of aesthetics in museums Breda University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, The, University of Bergamo Not Post-Digital but More-than-Human: Rethinking Digital Design for Regional Natural History Museums 1: University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom; 2: University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom; 3: University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom Decolonising digital practices in Intangible Cultural Heritage. Implications from literature and funded EC research projects towards a framework of design principles Politecnico di Milano, Italy The Memory Loom: Reweaving Curatorial Power Relations with Source Communities in Virtual Reality Cultural Heritage Exhibitions Beijing Institute of Technology, China Generative AI in Digital Cultural Heritage Design Workflows: A Systematic Literature Review 1: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China; 2: School of New Media Art and Design, Beihang university, China; 3: School of Digital Media and Design Arts, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China |
PAPERS: Material-led design and prototyping Location: Appleton Tower, LT4 Zoom link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-4-edinburgh Chair: Nithikul Nimkulrat, OCAD University Material awareness and meaning-making: Leather in handbag design Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia From matter to method: Situated and relational approaches through geothermal clays Aalto University, Finland Constraints as knowledge amplifiers: Understanding how Research-Through-Design makes design knowledge visible FLAME University, India Forking Futures: Fidelity and Resolution in Responsive Prototyping 1: University of Waikato, Aotearoa NZ; 2: University of Sydney, Australia More than Concrete: The Tacit Knowledge of Construction Workers Through Material Cognition and Embodied Experiences Southern University of Science and Technology, China, People's Republic of Touch Wood: Stuckness, Risk assessment, and Embodied Knowledge in Practice Northumbria University, United Kingdom |
PAPERS: Participation in Policy making, Part II Location: Appleton Tower, LT5 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-5-edinburgh Chair: Scott Schmidt, Georgetown University Chair: Sabine Junginger, Northumbria University Designing safer school routes in Busan, South Korea: Living Lab approach to child-centered traffic safety Dongseo University, Korea, Republic of (South Korea) Participatory design as an epistemic practice: Designing for institutional responsiveness in the Scottish Parliament The Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom A systemic design approach to supporting children with different language parents Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium Agency in the In-Between: A Reflexive Civic Design Inquiry into Agency Drift 1: Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands, The; 2: University of applied science Utrecht (HU), Netherlands, The No one knew. They came. Exploring photo-elicitation in societal development 1: Regional Development Department, Region Västmanland, Västerås, Sweden; 2: Department of Health Sciences, Innovation and Design, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden From Participatory Processes to Systemic Transformation: a Service Design perspective on four Italian Case Studies 1: Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; 2: ISIA Florence - Higher Institute of Artistic Industries, Italy; 3: Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Italy |
PAPERS: Responsible Retail and Branded Environments: Session 2 Location: 50 George Square, G.03 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Chair: Katelijn Quartier, Hasselt University Chair: Zakkiya Khan, University of Brighton Reimagining Materiality: Responsible and Experiential VR Design for Fashion E-Commerce in India London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom Consumer-facing technologies in stores: A longitudinal study of their impact on customer experience 1: Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom; 2: London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London Becoming a coffee shop regular: Factors shaping regularity in contemporary coffee shops 1: Malmö University, Sweden; 2: The Ohio State University, USA; 3: Royal Danish Academy, Denmark Measuring the ‘in-between’: From spatial grammar to brand re-contextualisation and localisation. A case study approach in east Asian fashion flagships Design, Monash University Faculty of Art Design and Architecture, Caulfield East, Australia A 4R-supported circular product–service system for luxury branded events 1: College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, China; 2: Auditoire Asia; 3: School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China Constructing a scenario-driven model for contextual brand experience: The case of chain coffee brands National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan |
PAPERS: Studying Older People - Theories and Methods Location: 50 George Square, G.04 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Chair: Stella Boess, Delft University of Technology Chair: Abdusselam Cifter, Brunel University of London Design for Healthy Ageing: Developing and Applying a Resource Model 1: Jiangnan University; 2: Royal College of Art; 3: Delft University of Technology From compliance adoption to co-design: An exploratory study of older adults’ engagement with technology National University of Singapore, Singapore Living with Multimorbidity: How Design Might Support Older Adults Use of Health Technology for Self-management. Loughborough University, United Kingdom Making the invisible visible: Supporting older adults’ expression of emotional needs for companion robots through visual co-design tools 1: Design School, Brunel University of London, United Kingdom; 2: The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, United Kingdom; 3: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Brunel University of London, United Kingdom Designing Inclusive Virtual Reality Experiences for Older Adults: Enhancing Digital Engagement and Challenging Digital Ageism 1: University of Southampton, United Kingdom; 2: Guangxi Normal University, China An early-stage framework: Exploring narrative and co-design methods in the social care decision-making process for older people Glasgow School of Art, United Kingdom |
| PAPERS: Sonic boundary objects in action Location: 40 George Square, LG.09 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-40-lecture-theatres Chair: Stefano Delle Monache, Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music Chair: Nicolas Misdariis, Ircam The Atmospheric Jukebox - A sonic boundary object for multi-sensory exhibition design Kolding School of Design, Sonic College - UC SOUTH DENMARK From boundaries to bindings. Reframing sound-driven design in narrative exhibitions 1: Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy; 2: Beijing Institute of Technology, China Sounding out service: explaining representational capacity of sound in service design Linköping University, Department of Information and Computer Science, Linköping, Sweden Investigating context in sonic interaction design for sleep: Bridging users and designers through participatory and ideation workshops 1: KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden; 2: Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain A Design Continuum for Autographic Sonification 1: Independent, Graz, Austria; 2: Northeastern University, Boston, USA; 3: Faculty of Engineering, University of Deusto, Bilbao, Spain & Ikerbasque Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain |
PAPERS: Human Experience in Product and Interface Design Location: 40 George Square, LG.11 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-40-lecture-theatres Chair: Anca Horvath, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology When can ASMR sound improve consumer product evaluation? Exploring the joint influences of ASMR sound and visual richness Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China, People's Republic of Understanding the Electric Vehicle Purchase Decision through the Lens of Experience National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan Can the Thumb Point Effectively in VR? An Evaluation of Different 3D Pointing Techniques 1: Modern Industrial Design Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; 2: iQOO Software Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China Design considerations for effective in-vehicle interaction: The effects of icon type and individual heterogeneity Hunan University, China, People's Republic of Designing Motion Identity: Exploring the Aesthetic Expression of Brand Style through System Motion 1: Hunan University, China, People's Republic of China; 2: Lushan Laboratory, People's Republic of China Strategic thermal design for smartphones: An experimental analysis of zonal heat perception across hand contact regions School of Design,Hunan University, People’s Republic of China |
PAPERS: Doing and Undoing Post Anthropocentric Design, session 2 Location: McEwan Hall Auditorium Zoom Link Chair: Li Jönsson, Malmö University Chair: Alex Wilkie, Goldsmiths University of London Epimethean design in practice: Infrastructuring reproductive labour in the maternity ward 1: The Royal Danish Academy, Architecture, Design, Conservation, Denmark; 2: University of Southern Denmark Tracing oppression through things: Facilitating a slow critique in post-anthropocene design 1: Internationale Filmschule Köln (IFS), Germany; 2: University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka We found Planet B. What does this mean for design? 1: Independent Researcher, Barcelona, Spain; 2: Politecnico di Milano, Design Department, Italy Unfashionable Knowledge: Patina, Repair, and the Philosophy of Endurance in Design RMIT University Vietnam, Vietnam Interspecies: a collaborative curatorial inquiry into New Romanticism Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal |
CONVERSATION: Finding Our Common Ground - Potential, Resistance and Power in Creative Technology for Design Research Location: 50 George Square, G.06 (Room C1) Zoom Link Nearly all design is interaction design (Wiltse, 2025). You may, however, have noticed that the world and its digital twin aren’t looking too healthy right now. We take the position that Big Tech and its unrelenting advances towards winner-take-all-AI is harming society and the planet. Through our panel’s collective experience in design, research, teaching and practice in creative technology, we have seen the techno-optimistic landscape of digital technologies and the internet that was held at the start of this century turn into a dystopian battleground for just a handful of gatekeeper corporations. Creative tech approaches have been used to turn the design lens from making-the-machine to revealing the machine. Work such as Chatting’s (2024) Designerly Hacking, creative approaches to materialising data (Shorter et al, 2022), Culén et al’s (2023) investigation of technologies and democracy, Pilling et al (2023)’s combination of technology repair with design fiction, and Fass et al’s (2022) combination of technology with placemaking, and many more, all sit broadly within a Critical Design paradigm (Dunne and Raby, 2001). This Conversation proposes a space for the DRS community to collectively examine the question “What now for creative technology?” in light of the intersecting crises of democracy, climate, and social inequality. Drawing on perspectives from design research, critical making, speculative design, civic technologies, and socio-technical studies, the conversation aims to surface shared concerns, tensions, and emerging questions. The DRS community includes many researchers who are also educators, and questions around how designers learn and understand through making, prototyping, and studio environments (e.g. Jones et al, 2022) resonate with issues of openness in technologies. Finding our common ground - potential, resistance and power in creative technology for design research. 1: University of St Andrews, United Kingdom; 2: University of Northumbria, United Kingdom; 3: Norwich University of the Arts, United Kingdom; 4: Quicksand, India; 5: University of Dundee, United Kingdom |
CONVERSATION: Pluriversal Design Research for Equitable Transcultural Collaborations: Is It a Dream? Location: Appleton Tower, 2.12 (Room C2) Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-tower As eight co-convenors of DRS's Pluriversal SIG and pluriversal design researchers ourselves, we come together at DRS 2026 to offer a "liberatory and radical space" for an embodied and generative conversation about how design research is, can, and must be pluriversal, which we define broadly as valuing diverse ontologies (ways of being) and epistemologies (ways of knowing). Our central question is: How can design research authentically embody pluriversal values? The following sub-questions will support this discussion: ● How might we foster and cultivate equitable collaborations and mutual learning in and through design research? ● What design approaches and engagement methods might be exclusionary or harmful? How might we remake these so they value diverse ecologies of knowledges and making? ● What boundaries or limitations do we currently experience when attempting equity in pluriversal collaborations? ● What are some ways to move beyond the idea of transactional "projects” when seeking to build pluriversal relationalities? ● How might we foster transversality in pluriversal dialogues and interactions within–and beyond–the design field? ● How might we navigate the limitations of language, meanings, and translation to reduce the "illusion of understanding" inherent in translation? Everyone interested in these topics is welcome to join. We recognize that perspectives and lived experiences traditionally excluded can offer invaluable insights into contexts, questions, and knowledges that have so far been neglected in design research. Pluriversal Design Research for Equitable Transcultural Collaborations: Is It a Dream? 1: University of Salford, United Kingdom; 2: Malmö University, SE; 3: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Perú; Lancaster University, UK; 4: University of Notre Dame, USA; 5: National Institute of Design, India; 6: Carnegie Mellon University, USA; 7: German University in Cairo, Egypt; 8: University of Florida, USA |
EXPLORATION: Unfolding Dialogues: Annotating Teaching Statements and Mapping Pedagogical Reciprocity in Design Education Location: 50 George Square, G.05 (Room E1) Zoom Link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 This exploration centers reciprocity, dialogue and community within design education. It begins from a shared recognition that teaching is relational work. It is rooted in care, yet at times made invisible within institutional cultures that can reward competition and individual output. Our goal is to create conditions for openness, reflection and mutual learning amount design educators, design practitioners and those engaged in teaching and learning. This workshop will extend an existing longitudinal project that began with our 2025 paper Unfolding Dialogue: Pedagogies of Reciprocity and Community in Design, which explored correspondence between educators as a reflective research method. As emerging educators, we are interested in how sustained exchange through shared documents, informal correspondence, and continued reflection can foster more collective, transparent, and supportive approaches to teaching and learning together. Ultimately, this session aims to build and sustain a network of educators committed to learning from and with one another over time. It will provide a platform for generative exchange that encourages continued reflection and experimentation in collective teaching practice. By cultivating dialogue that unfolds in the spaces between formal academic endeavours, we seek to model a relational pedagogy grounded in care, openness, and community. Unfolding Dialogues: Annotating Teaching Statements and Mapping Pedagogical Reciprocity in Design Education 1: The Ohio State University, United States of America; 2: Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Canada |
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| EXPLORATION: An Exploration of Ethical Dilemmas Through Two Design Artefacts Location: 50 George Square, G.02 (Room E4) Zoom Link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Objects are never simply objective; they actively mediate how humans experience the world, as post-phenomenological philosophers Don Ihde and Peter-Paul Verbeek have argued in their accounts of technological mediation and human–technology relations. Within design research, material artefacts and prototypes therefore operate as more than neutral prompts: they function as applied thought experiments that configure what can be said, felt and decided in a given situation. In response to the DRS2026 theme “Designing for and with Taboo,” this exploration stages two artefacts— a research object and a design proposal. Both designed for the same function: acute cerebral anoxia—obstructing blood flow to the human brain—but with radically different intentions, one to save lives, the other to end lives. This exploration aims to use these two objects as applied thought experiments to help explore their inherent ethical dilemmas. An exploration of ethical dilemmas through two design artefacts 1: Amsterdam university of applied sciences, Netherlands, The; 2: LUCA School of Arts, University, Campus C-Mine, Genk, Belgium |
EXPLORATION: Exploring Data Otherwise: Countermapping More-Than-Human Design Practices Location: 50 George Square, G.01 (Room E5) Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Data has become a dominant lens through which planetary crises are perceived and addressed. Yet the infrastructures through which data comes to matter, including platforms, states, and industries, are primarily shaped by logics of efficiency, optimisation, and extractive governance. Within these regimes, data is often treated as neutral and given, obscuring the choices and configurations through which phenomena and ecosystems are represented. As a result, dominant data practices tend to reproduce anthropocentric, extractive, and colonial dynamics, foreclosing the epistemic and political possibilities offered by plural ways of knowing and being that are urgently needed to respond to planetary crises (Briggs et al., 2025; Dunbar & Speed, 2024; Gabrys et al., 2025; Giaccardi et al., 2025; Tironi & Albornoz, 2025). This Exploration invites participants to reimagine, and potentially trouble, the very notion of data itself. Rather than assuming data as a stable or given entity, the Exploration asks how data comes into being through situated relations, practices, and agencies. It seeks to collectively articulate which questions need to be asked, and which directions explored, when what counts as data is co-produced across human, nonhuman, and computational agencies. In doing so, it foregrounds the frictions, trade-offs, and axes of negotiation that emerge when attempting to connect MTH frameworks with the practical realities of technological design and governance. Exploring Data Otherwise: Countermapping More-than-human Design Practices 1: Politecnico di Milano, Italy; 2: RMIT University, Australia; 3: University of Deusto, Ikerbasque Basque Foundation for Science, Spain; 4: The University of Melbourne, Australia; 5: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; 6: MIT, USA |
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| 12:45pm - 1:45pm |
Biennial General Meeting Location: 50 George Square, G.03 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 2026 DRS Biennial General Meeting |
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| 2:00pm - 3:30pm |
PAPERS: Dignity by Design: Ethics, Values, and Justice Location: Appleton Tower, LT1 Zoom Link Chair: Sine Celik, Delft University of Technology Chair: Fatima-Zahra Abou Eddahab-Burke, Delft University of Technology Cultivating careful design responses to homelessness through practice, theory and education 1: University of Twente, Netherlands, The; 2: University of Antwerp, Belgium; 3: Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, The Exploring designing for dignity in the context of digital community platforms 1: Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Delft University of Technology; 2: Erasmus School of Philosophy, Erasmus University Rotterdam Visualising Values in Women’s Digital Labour: Design Ethics for Assembling Social Justice Tongji University “I didn’t choose to write my life”: Trauma-informed values in the design of social care records The Glasgow School Of Art, United Kingdom Designing for Dignity: A Method to Explore Emotional Lived Experiences of Stigma and Dignity in Perinatal Mental Health Environments University of Twente, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Netherlands, The Design as a mediator: Bridging traditional cosmologies and scientific knowledge for climate change adaptation through value-led design 1: Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Oxford Centre, UK; 2: Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Africa Centre, Kenya |
PAPERS: Futuring Experiences: Multisensory, Material, and Hybrid Worlds Location: Appleton Tower, LT2 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-2-edinburgh Chair: Marco Mason, Northumbria University Chair: Raffaella Trocchianesi, Politecnico di MIlano Plural exhibition experiences: Co-designing multisensory storytelling with an Indigenous Sámi museum 1: University of Lapland; 2: Giellagas Institute, University of Oulu Designing for emotion: A scoping review of phygital emotional experience design in historical museums 1: College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University; 2: Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University; 3: Design Department, Politecnico di Milano; 4: College of Arts and Media, Tongji University Investigating the embodied aesthetics of kinetic structures at biennales and world expos 1: Middle East Technical University, Türkiye; 2: Karabuk University, Türkiye Why is the artwork no longer enough? Phygital narratives as an interplay between the real and the digital Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy Research on Integrated Immersive Interaction Design for Revolutionary History Museums: A Case Study of the Hongyan Revolutionary Memorial Museum Chongqing University, China, People's Republic of |
PAPERS: Co-creation and making Location: Appleton Tower, LT4 Zoom link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-4-edinburgh Chair: Spyros Bofylatos, Royal College of Art Fostering human-material co-creative dialogical relationship: Operationalizing the Art of Making through degeneration College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University Making with virtual materials: Reframing “making as knowing” for situated narratives in large-scale VR Beijing Institute of Technology, China Dwelling, making, and digital mediation: Mani stone piles in Eastern Tibet 1: Tianjin University; 2: TIANJIN RENAI COLLEGE |
PAPERS: Hope & Imagination Location: Appleton Tower, LT5 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-5-edinburgh Chair: Scott Schmidt, Georgetown University Chair: Sabine Junginger, Northumbria University Designing hope: Civil society, empathy and peace, or avoiding World War III 1: Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom; 2: University of New South Wales, Australia; 3: University of Ulster, United Kingdom Civic imagining: Participatory speculative design and its opportunities in civic service design Parsons School of Design, The New School, United States of America Weaving relational dynamics: Civil servant agency in service design collaboration Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Finland Sustained Memory for Public Design in Latin America Northeastern University Images of humans in public sector design 1: Erasmus University Rotterdam; 2: System Shift Holding paradoxes together: Navigating institutional complexity in public design 1: School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, United States; 2: Department of Public Administration and Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands |
PAPERS: Making Design Work: Organizational Realities and Strategic Impact Location: 50 George Square, G.03 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Chair: Peiyao Cheng, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen Dilemmas of Institutionalizing Human-Centered Design in Startups Tongji University, People's Republic of China Navigating AI in design leadership: Insights on emerging competencies and cultural challenges in China 1: ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University, United Kingdom; 2: School of Arts, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK Strategies for successful collaborative engagement: Navigating organizational dynamics Tata Consultancy Services, India From speculation to strategy reflection: A case study of design-led foresight workshops at Revigrés 1: ID+, DeCA, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal; 2: ID+, DeCA, Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal From Co-Design to Co-Execution: A Knowledge Map of Real-Time User Participation in Service Settings (2008-2024) 1: Tongji University, China, People's Republic of; 2: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, People's Republic of Optimizing design processes through data intelligence under resource constraints: A qualitative interview study in industry 1: College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University; 2: School of Software Technology, Zhejiang University; 3: Faculty of Innovation and Design, City University of Macau; 4: Department of Design, Northwestern Polytechnical University; 5: College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University |
PAPERS: Neurodivergent Groups - Adults and Children Location: 50 George Square, G.04 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Chair: Yumei Dong, Jiangnan University Chair: Abdusselam Cifter, Brunel University of London MetaTrain：a metacognitive framework–based gamified executive function training for children with ADHD ZheJiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China “it's going to be a really good place to hang out“: Supporting Diversity in Community Indoor Environments by Eliciting Autistic Adults’ Preferences 1: Keio University, Japan; 2: Delft University of Technology, Netherlands Co-Designing Co-Design Workshops with ADHD Adults University of Nottingham, United Kingdom Design for Trust: A Study on the Emotional Design Method of AI Educational Robots for Children with Autism School of Design, Hunan University, People's Republic of China Design Methods as Cognitive Tools: Understanding Method Usage through Cognitive Theories Aalto Design Factory, Aalto University, Finland |
| PAPERS: Relational Frameworks and Practices Location: 40 George Square, LG.09 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-40-lecture-theatres Chair: Herlo Bianca, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Chair: Bianca Kóczán, HBK Braunschweig Collaging queer decolonial worlds: Applied techniques in design 1: University of California, Santa Barbara, USA; 2: University of Utrecht, Netherlands From appraisal to affect: Designing a playful activity for social emotional learning among children Tata Consutancy Services Ltd, Pune, India Reframing design activism through affirmative, relational and pluriversal practices RMIT University, Australia A gentlewoman’s agreement: Designing relational frameworks for PhD supervision Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, The From tool-first to intention-first pedagogy: A framework for evaluating and selecting empathy tools in design education 1: MADA, Monash Univeristy, Australia; 2: IDC, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Reconfiguring industrial heritage: Human-centered narrative design for reconciliation and inclusive storytelling 1: Hunan Normal University, China; 2: Politecnico di Milano, Italy |
CONVERSATION: Exploring Temporalities for Transformative Futures Location: 40 George Square, LG.11 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-40-lecture-theatres How can design help us explore questions of both possible futures ahead of us, and possible futures that never came to pass but continue to affect us? How could thinking about temporalities and dimensions be valuable for designers engaging with transformation, transitions, complexity, and pluriversal approaches to research and practice? Following popular Conversations at DRS 2022 (‘Designing Transformative Futures’: Light et al, 2022) and DRS 2024 (‘Mapping Constellations for Transformative Futures’: Speed et al, 2024), we propose a third in the series, turning our focus to time and temporalities in design’s relationships with futures. This highly participatory session combines ideas developed through previous Conversations with new perspectives from participants, to arrive at a shared, embodied creative mapping activity. In 2022 (Figure 1, left) with 100 participants, in-person and online, we explored what it feels like to be a designer situated within a world of uncertainties and structural forces, and how questioning our own practices can sow seeds of more radical transformation. In 2024 (Figure 1, centre / right) with 60 participants we used systemic constellation mapping, with participants positioning themselves into ‘constellations’ in which stances on ways the world could—or ought to—be come into tension with other conditions and actors. Exploring Temporalities for Transformative Futures 1: Norwich University of the Arts, United Kingdom; 2: Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands; 3: RMIT University, Australia; 4: RMIT University, Spain; 5: Malmö University, Sweden; 6: University of Sussex, United Kingdom; 7: Northeastern University, United States; 8: Indiana University Bloomington, United States |
PAPERS: Longevity and Environment Location: McEwan Hall Auditorium Zoom Link Chair: Sheng-Hung Lee, University of Michigan Chair: Bruce Hanington, Carnegie Mellon University Designing the service exposome: Applying the D4L Unclock Framework to longevity challenges 1: University of Michigan, Urban Technology; 2: d-mix lab Age-Ready Suburbia: Designing Distributed Care and Housing Transitions for Longevity Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States of America City of Longevity: a framework to integrate emerging technologies and participatory design into urban environments 1: Voice Italia, Italy; 2: UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing, University of Newcastle, United Kingdom Time Travelers: Bridging Generations in Boston’s Seaport Northeastern University, United States of America Human-Centred Digital Twin Design for Elderly Care: Addressing Comorbidity and Wellbeing 1: Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China; 2: Lancaster University, United Kingdom |
CONVERSATION: Suspending Institutional Permanence: How Designing Engagements Can Operationalise Human Rights in Times of Opaque Governance Location: Appleton Tower, 2.12 (Room C2) Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-tower How can design research foster stronger, more meaningful engagement between public institutions, legal bodies, and ‘real people’, better shaping and protecting rights collectively? Growing global conflicts leave people feeling powerless and uncertain when it comes to their rights. While BigTech think-tanks and large oil companies are generally well able to navigate complex international policies, the rights of climate-crime and abuse-of-power victims remain endangered (Wetzels and Keepe). Though public institutions are crucial for providing legitimacy and organising collective action (Klijn and Koppenjan 143), their reliance on outdated methods to address growing societal challenges (Romme et al. 2) and lack of inclusive design often leaves people alienated from their rights (Bosman). This pushes social resilience further out of reach in times where trust in just governance is critical (OECD). While growing consensus amongst scholars calls for a fundamental shift of institutional research towards real-world and design-based methods (Romme et al. 2), criteria for effective institutional design remain “too general and abstract” (Neef et al. 418). We aim to contribute to this discussion by challenging conventional definitions of design / design research and exposing practical approaches – across design, journalism, law, health care, and more – that operationalise human rights and reimagine lasting change. Suspending institutional permanence: how designing engagements can operationalise human rights in times of opaque governance 1: Foundation We Are; 2: Fontys University of Applied Sciences; 3: Penal Reform International; 4: Independent |
EXPLORATION: Storytelling Pluriversality: On the Titanic, Towards a Pluriversal Archipelago Location: 50 George Square, G.05 (Room E1) Zoom Link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 This exploration aims to enhance the understanding of the pluriverse through a storytelling and experiential workshop. Over the last 10 years, the design field —and DRS in particular — has opened up to address the historic dominance of white European and North American men in design discourse and research. We have seen the emergence of multiple voices, perspectives, initiatives, concepts, and theories under the labels of decolonial, diverse, inclusive, pluriversal, multicultural, participatory, situated, and equitable, among others. However, sometimes such “plural” terms have been used interchangeably. We argue that each one of those terms is important, valid, and valuable in itself, representing different theories of change, specific objectives, strategies, and conceptual frameworks. Each emerging from different groups of people with particular histories. Placing them in the same box only limits their power to promote genuine and substantial transformation to design research and practice. Metaphorically, we can think of placing several dots of colored ink on a palette. These colorful ink dots can be used to paint any form we imagine. However, if we mix the dots before we paint, all we have is grey or greyish brown. The goal of this exploration is to pay attention to the particular hue of pluriversality —so we can understand how it can be used in tandem with other transformative hues across multiple color schemes. Storytelling Pluriversality: On the Titanic, towards a pluriversal archipelago 1: Cornell University, USA; 2: Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia; 3: Malmö University,Sweden; 4: co-being design, Canada |
EXPLORATION: Making Kin in a Plastic Terrapolis: Worlding With Multispecies Companions Location: 50 George Square, G.02 (Room E4) Zoom Link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 The contemporary condition of our planet is indelibly marked by the residues of the Anthropocene, or as Donna Haraway (2016) suggests, the Chthulucene. At the heart of this epoch lies the paradox of plastic—a material born from intense Extraction, shaped by mass Production, and destined for a problematic Disposal. Yet, plastic is not merely a "waste" product; it has become a pervasive, "active material agent" (Liboiron, 2016) that has woven itself into the very fabric of our ecosystems. As it breaks down into micro-fragments or persists as monstrous monoliths, it does not simply disappear but enters into new, often unexpected, Entanglements with non-human life. This explorative workshop proposal, titled "Making Kin in a Plastic Terrapolis: Worlding with Multispecies Companions," invites participants to rethink our relationship with these synthetic remnants. We move away from the traditional perspective that views plastic as a problem to be "solved" through technical efficiency. Instead, we embrace the concept of Terrapolis—a speculative, multispecies "worlding" where humans are not the sole protagonists, but one of many companions (human and non-human, organic and inorganic) struggling to coexist on a damaged planet. In a Plastic Terrapolis, plastic actively participates in shaping bodies, ecosystems, and social systems. Making kin here is not about harmony, but about staying with complexity and responsibility amid plastic’s long-lasting and uneven effects. The workshop draws on multispecies ethnography (Kirksey & Helmreich, 2010) and cospeculative design (Lohmann, 2018) practices grounded in sympoiesis (Haraway, 2016)—practices of “making-with.” Through embodied, hands-on activities and futures-making strategies, participants explore alternative ways of knowing and practicing kin-making, collaboratively imagine multispecies futures, and develop shared, transformative actions. These practices will extend to citizen scientists and local communities, fostering participatory observation, raising awareness of multispecies entanglements, and cultivating collective responsibility. Making Kin in a Plastic Terrapolis: Worlding with Multispecies Companions 1: Simon Fraser University, Canada; 2: Simon Fraser University, Canada; 3: Simon Fraser University, Canada |
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| EXPLORATION: Sketching Futures Through Tension Location: 50 George Square, G.01 (Room E5) Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Designers, researchers, and innovators are increasingly asked to engage with complex, uncertain futures. While futures studies offer powerful analytical tools, and design provides rich visual and narrative methods, these practices are often separated: futures research can remain abstract, while design speculation risks becoming anecdotal or stylistic. This workshop proposes a structured yet highly visual approach to “sketching futures”, where participants systematically generate supporting and contradicting future scenarios through drawing, categorization, and narrative compression. The workshop builds on the premise that futures become legible not through singular visions, but through tensions between desirable and undesirable, dominant and marginal, accelerating and resisting trajectories. By sketching these tensions explicitly, participants learn to use drawing not only as representation, but as a thinking device for futures inquiry. Using a step-by-step process reflected in the accompanying diagram, participants will move from early signals and metaphors to structured future segments, and finally to single-image narratives and counter, sketches that articulate both positive and harmful futures, and the conditions that produce them. Sketching Futures Through Tension 1: Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, The; 2: Western Sidney University, Australia; 3: Brigham Young University, U.S.A.; 4: Rochester Institute of Technology, U.S.A. |
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| 4:00pm - 5:30pm |
PAPERS: Design as Care: Values and Accountability in Practice Location: Appleton Tower, LT1 Zoom Link Chair: Deger Ozkaramanli, Delft University of Technology Chair: Fatima-Zahra Abou Eddahab-Burke, Delft University of Technology Darker Affordances: Designing with Values as Vulnerabilities in an Age of Disinformation University of the Arts London, United Kingdom Designing with care: proposing an ethical canvas for co-design with marginalised groups 1: Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland; 2: University of Lapland, Finland; 3: University of Helsinki, Finland What Can't Be Confessed: The Structural Absence of Value Accountability in Design Culture RMIT University, Australia The Who Cares? Approach: Materializing Values in Community-Based Participatory Research 1: The Health Design Lab at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Canada; 2: Department of Therapeutic Recreation, Douglas College, Canada Design Activism Pedagogy: Learning and Negotiating Values in Practice Federal University of Paraná, Brazil Speculative Woolgathering: Using design approaches to explore values in the UK wool supply chain to enable digital good 1: Lancaster Univiersity, United Kingdom; 2: University of Nottingham, United Kingdom; 3: Royal Agricultural University, United Kingdom; 4: Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom; 5: LJM Associates Ltd, United Kingdom |
PAPERS: Futuring Infrastructures: From Objects to Relational Systems Location: Appleton Tower, LT2 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-2-edinburgh Chair: Marco Mason, Northumbria University Chair: Raffaella Trocchianesi, Politecnico di MIlano Designing Digital Ghosts: Creative access to web archives University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom Exploring Everyday Heritage Futures: Co-creating Urban Narratives through Cultural Probes Loughborough University, United Kingdom Beyond the Gallery: Neurodivergent Digital Access in Australian Museums 1: RMIT University; 2: National Museum of Australia Cultureaction! An Interaction and Experience Design Project to Explore San Marino’s Historic Center as a Living Archive. Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Italy Co-Designing Academic Archives: Design-Led Frameworks for Post-Digital Cultural Heritage 1: UNIDCOM/IADE, Unidade de Investigação em Design e Comunicação, Jardim António Augusto Simenta Mordido, 2 - 1885 Moscavide, Portugal; 2: UNIDCOM/IADE, Unidade de Investigação em Design e Comunicação, Jardim António Augusto Simenta Mordido, 2 - 1885 Moscavide, Portugal; Centro de Investigação e de Estudos em Belas-Artes (CIEBA); 3: UNIDCOM/IADE, Unidade de Investigação em Design e Comunicação, Jardim António Augusto Simenta Mordido, 2 - 1885 Moscavide, Portugal; Centro de Estudos de Teatro (CET-FLUL) Entangled archives: Uncovering new connections in digital interfaces 1: Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism and Design of the University of São Paulo FAUUSP, Brazil; 2: Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism and Design of the University of São Paulo FAUUSP, Brazil |
PAPERS: Designing Preventive Health Technologies and Practices Location: Appleton Tower, LT4 Zoom link accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-4-edinburgh Chair: Ayşe Özge Ağça, Universidade de Lisboa, ITI/LARSyS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal Chair: Teresa Almeida, Universidade de Lisboa, ITI/LARSyS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal Asymmetric VR Design to Support Connected Care for Older Adults with AMD 1: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA; 2: Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Atlanta, GA, USA Designing for Self-Tailoring in Adolescent Health Behavior Change Human-Centered Design, Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands Tangible conversations for uncertain futures: A design-led approach with families affected by Multiple Sclerosis Queen Mary, University of London, United Kingdom Bio-inspired Design for Preventive Healthcare: Translating Living Systems into Design Knowledge Department of Engineering, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON, United Kingdom Questioning one’s body: overtrusting in body-sensing technology 1: IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark; 2: University of Bologna, Italy; 3: University of Nottingham, United Kingdom |
PAPERS: Design and Systems. Transforming Systems from Within: Capability, Friction, and Service Design Location: Appleton Tower, LT5 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-lecture-theatre-5-edinburgh Chair: Cecilia Landa-Avila, Loughborough University Chair: Peter Hayward Jones, Tec de Monterrey Design as a Distributed Capability for Organizational Strategies of New Product Development University of Pisa, DESTEC Department, Pisa, Italy Changing systems from within: Workarounds in sociotechnical system transformation KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden Territorial design as frictional landscapes: reframing urban-landscape discourse and practice into multi-scalar governance L'École de design Nantes Atlantique, France Service design in practice Royal College of Art, United Kingdom Exploring How LLMs Shape Collaborative Decision-Making in Service Design The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Hong Kong S.A.R. (China) |
PAPERS: Design in the Wild: Entrepreneurship, Markets and Cultural Value Location: 50 George Square, G.03 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Chair: Gianluca Carella, Politecnico di Milano Analysis of design start-up companies’ challenges and enablers in Saudi Arabian ecosystem 1: University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom; 2: Jazan University, Saudi Arabia Strategic positioning in design agencies: Achieving optimal distinctiveness through portfolios Institute for Creative Futures, Loughborough University London, United Kingdom Beyond situated ethics: Towards a practice-based understanding of how designers do ethics The Open University, United Kingdom A Slow Ethos in a Fast World: Persistence and Compromise in Craft Commercialization Graduate School of Creative Industry Design, National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan Exploring design thinking in entrepreneurship education: A pre-accelerator programme for the creative industries 1: University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom; 2: CodeBase The culture communications model: Visual sensemaking and the everyday in design practice Design, Luleå Tekniska Universitet, Sweden |
PAPERS: Assessing Accessibility and Inclusion Location: 50 George Square, G.04 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-50 Chair: Abdusselam Cifter, Brunel University of London Chair: Weining Ning, Brunel University of London A Study on the Transfer Signage System in the Seoul Subway Network: Focusing on Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM) 1: Hongik University, Korea, Republic of (South Korea); 2: Chungbuk University, Korea, Republic of (South Korea) The fuzzy edges of studio: Towards inclusive online education 1: The Open University, United Kingdom; 2: Incom GmbH Evaluating visual accessibility of AI-generated interfaces University of Sydney, Australia, Australia Older Adults as a Critical Group in the Design of a Mobile Application for Hearing Screening and Monitoring 1: Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Odontologia de Bauru – FOB/USP, Brazil; 2: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Brazil; 3: Loughborough University, School of Design and Creative Arts, United Kingdom; 4: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil Bodystorming through Disruption: AI-assisted Design Improvisation Pedagogy 1: Tsinghua University, China, People's Republic of; 2: Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology; 3: Communication University of China |
| PAPERS: Situated Methods, Metrics, and Meanings Location: 40 George Square, LG.09 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-40-lecture-theatres Chair: Bianca Kóczán, HBK Braunschweig Chair: Herlo Bianca, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts The ‘Cuteness Matrix’: Mapping cuteness as an affective strategy for purpose-led communication design 1: Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London; 2: Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Singapore Information hierarchies for better health communication: Mapping expert-user differences for drug instruction design Hunan University, China, People's Republic of Accessibility Analysis of Hospital Lobbies in Korean Tertiary Hospitals Based on Space Syntax to Inform Design Strategies Department of Interior Architecture and Built Environment, Yonsei University, Korea Revisiting Kansei Engineering through Japanese scholarship: Toward Field Kansei Engineering 1: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; 2: School of Information Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu, China The language of reflexivity: Investigating limitations and opportunities for reflexivity in prevailing design process models North Carolina State University, United States of America From values to metrics: A methodological framework for early-stage design of rural cultural project School of Engineering and Architecture, University of Zaragoza, Spain |
PHD HUB: Exercise in Style: Exploring Expression in Design Research Writing Location: 40 George Square, LG.11 Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/george-square-40-lecture-theatres Dan Mu (Edinburgh); Lemon Xueli Tang (GSA) This workshop is shaped by the idea that writing in design research is not simply a matter of following rules, but also a question of expression, framing, interpretation, and authorship. Within doctoral culture, writing and publication are often associated with pressure, confusion, legitimacy, and performance. This can make writing feel inaccessible or overly formal, especially for researchers working across practice, theory, and interdisciplinary contexts. The session takes inspiration from exercise-based literary structures, especially the idea of generating variation, reframing expression, and experimenting with form. This allows participants to encounter writing not only as a finished academic product, but as something that can be reworked, played with, translated, and reimagined. The final activity particularly emphasises design research’s interdisciplinary nature, encouraging participants to look beyond conventional academic outputs and consider how visual, poetic, fragmentary, or zine-like forms may also help articulate research thinking. |
PAPERS: Longevity and Technology Location: McEwan Hall Auditorium Zoom Link Chair: Sofie Hodara, Northeastern University Chair: Miso Kim, Northeastern University The Role of Packaging in Smart Home Design 1: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massacusetts Institute of Technology; 2: AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Proximity, Technology, and Care: Towards Longevity-Friendly Urban Ecosystems 1: Department of Humanities, IULM, Italy; 2: Complexity and Collaboration Consultant, BIP Italia Telling Stories, Making Hanzi: AI-Assisted Co-Creation with Elderly Migrants in Urban China 1: Hunan University, China, People's Republic of; 2: Royal College of Art, UK; 3: University of the Arts London, UK Design for dignified longevity: Olfactory-enhanced VR meditation for sustained mindfulness practice Tongji University Neurodesign in urban environments: fMRI insights for designing cognitively supportive cities The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China) Critical assembly: Exploring the role of critical making in complex technology relationships Monash University, Australia |
CONVERSATION: Mapping Regeneration Throughout Design Location: Appleton Tower, 2.14 (Room C3) Zoom Link Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/the-university-of-edinburgh/central-area/access-guides/appleton-tower At a very basic level, regeneration is often understood as an enhanced version of sustainability, as it advocates for positive impact rather than solely minimizing the negative impacts of human activity. However, when we look more closely at the diversity of knowledge being built around the topic, we can see that regeneration extends beyond this framing. It carries principles of inclusion of more-than-human realms into the design processes; it questions dominant narratives, paradigms, and epistemologies by exposing mechanisms of subjugation and erasure that remain in place today; it places connection and re-connection at its core as a way of imagining alternatives to prevailing mindsets, among other dimensions. As designers, we are presented with an opportunity to contribute to the creation of a shared understanding that can bring forth the potential of this concept while guiding practices toward a more solid and coherent body of knowledge. For this to happen, we first need to recognise ourselves: to reflect on the terminologies and principles under which we have been working, and to identify what we hold in common. This conversation will draw on the convenors’ complementary backgrounds in regenerative design practice, material-based research, and experimental pedagogies to spark dialogue among all of us in the room, creating a space for collective sense-making. Through an interactive format, we aim to collaboratively develop an initial, living map of what we, together, understand as “regenerative design.” Our idea is to invite all those in the room to contribute bringing key-points for the co-creation of the proposed map, using interactive tools to ensure a plural yet productive session. Mapping regeneration throughout design 1: Linneaus University, Sweden; 2: Malmö University; 3: Pontifícia Universidade Católica PUC-Rio; 4: Universidad Autónoma de México |
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