Conference Agenda

This study positions Design as a distributed capability for New Product Development through ecosystems knowledge. While the strategic role of Design in local productive systems is well established, new technology affordances often necessitate the design and implementation of organizational strategies—beyond traditional business strategies—across SMEs from diverse industrial clusters. Consequently, technological evolution calls for a system-level positioning of Design interventions and a clear articulation of Design capabilities within the organizational dimension of an ecosystem, where multiple actors participate in strategic and operational decision-making for New Product Development. By conceptualizing Design as an organizational intelligence, this research highlights its potential to enable firms to integrate heterogeneous and specialized knowledge, thereby enhancing value co-creation and economic growth. The paper proposes a theoretical framework for classifying Design capabilities at the organizational level of New Product Development interventions and examines current opportunities and barriers to embedding Design as a meta-capability within manufacturing SMEs.

Systems are shaped by dominant mindsets that constrain which futures can be imagined or made possible. Supporting system transformation requires shifting temporal boundaries and revealing the hidden system logics. This study explores how design can contribute to understanding and reframing sociotechnical system change from within. In an empirical study conducted within a research consortium investigating the electrification of road freight transport, we, as design researchers, entered the system change as participants. Using a practice-oriented lens, we learned from riding in trucks, conducting contextual observations, and interviewing drivers and transport planners whose everyday work sustains the system. What is often portrayed as a tightly controlled, planned system instead revealed itself as held together by human skills. This study uncovered how systems are maintained by workarounds – established practices and improvised actions that expose hidden tensions and logics. We propose that workarounds can be used as potential leverage points for transformative change.

This paper traces the emergence of territorial design as a distinct discourse and practice that repositions urban-landscape design from site-based form-making toward socio-ecological governance across scales. Drawing on a systematic review of scholarly literature (1960-2025), a practice survey (42 questionnaires with designers working in France), and three comparative case studies - Room for the River, Medellín’s social urbanism, and riverfront renaturation projects in Paris and Lyon - we show how ecological planning, landscape urbanism, and territorialist thought converge into methods that couple territorial diagnosis, morphological and biophysical patterning, and participatory co-design. The analysis foregrounds two fertile frictions: replicability vs. situatedness, and short political cycles vs. long ecological rhythms. We argue that territorial design extends the remit of design toward metabolic flows and governance interfaces, articulate a role typology - mediator, systems integrator, custodia -, and propose a triad of metrics - biodiversity, climate resilience, and habitability - to evaluate territorial transformations.

Service design has evolved from a niche practice focused on improving customer experience into a transdisciplinary discipline driving systemic and societal transformation. Drawing on an online survey of 82 practitioners with formal training (MA Service Design) and a validation panel with eight experts, this study examines the current state of practice, identifying evolving roles, competencies, and emerging trends. Findings show a shift from tools to mindsets, grounded in curiosity, adaptability, and ethical, human-centred values. Practitioners increasingly engage in strategic and organisational transformation, adopting life-centred and planetary perspectives while integrating generative AI into research, ideation, and prototyping. The study also highlights growing hybrid roles across policy, strategy, and digital practice, creating both opportunity and professional ambiguity. As the field matures, education must foster strategic literacy, systems thinking, and ethical awareness, enabling designers to navigate complexity and shape sustainable, technologically responsible futures.

The increasing integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) into design workflows is reshaping how designers make decisions. This study examines the influence of LLMs on design decision-making during the early stages of service design, through a diary study with service design practitioners. By analysing usage logs and conducting post-intervention focus group interviews, we examine collaborative decision-making across three interaction dimensions: designer–designer, designer–LLM, and LLM–LLM. The findings reveal that LLMs reshape the internal decision logic and collaboration mode within service design teams. Across different stages of collaborative decision-making with human, LLMs take on varying roles as apprentice, collaborator, advisor, expert, co-creator, and evaluator. This study contributes to the understanding of AI-assisted design collaboration by mapping the evolving dynamics of decision-making in human–AI co-creation contexts.