Seventeenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

This interdisciplinary project aims to foster dialogue on designing new ways of living, interacting and communicating in urban spaces, focusing on social inclusion, sustainability, and aesthetics. The project challenges younger generations to (re)interpret the cities where they live and contribute to building more liveable spaces. Our initiative, based in Lisbon, aims to co-create a more sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful reality for the community. Drawing on the intersections between design, culture, social inclusion, science and technology, our project invites participants to engage in creative and collaborative efforts to reimagine and rebuild urban spaces. Our paper showcases some of this project's key insights, methods, and outcomes, and explore its relevance for other cities and communities.

Re-thinking Through Materials

Tanvi Jain, Shatarupa Thakurta Roy
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Since the twentieth century, artists around the world have experimented with myriad materials and techniques. However, the dominant mind/matter dichotomy in antique philosophy has degenerated the role of material as passive matter, and this intrinsically hierarchical model has been echoed since the Aristotelian era. The scholars failed to challenge art history’s disciplinary boundaries due to the lack of correspondence with artists’ creative process. The study investigates the artistic process, taking into account the effect of physical properties and social connotations of materials in order to fully grasp the meaning of an artwork. The essay critically analyses material sensibility in the practice of twentieth-century Indian artists Ramkinkar Baij and Mrinalini Mukherjee. The study proposes that, firstly, rather than analyzing the finished artworks, an understanding of the process and experience of the artists contribute to “material literacy” and in turn a nuanced understanding of the artwork; secondly, materials and the process of making influence the artwork and the artistic style; and thirdly, contextually grounded reading of the artist’s material and process gives a holistic understanding of the artworks. The study adopts the methodology of narrative analysis to understand the embodied experience and the creative process of the artists. The article purposely chooses the two exponents of Indian art whose works have been discussed in great lengths; however, the marginalized discussion of materials overlooked an essential narrative. Furthermore, the choice of deceased artists as case studies lays radical potential of archival data and raises new methodological opportunities for investigating the phenomenological experiences.

A Service Design Approach to Improve the Accessibility of War Refugees to Psychosocial Therapeutic Interventions

Davide Antonio Gambera
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

In this era of social unrest and refugee crisis caused by wars, such as the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, there’s a growing awareness where it concerns the mental health of the populations affected by these traumatic events. Still, the measures being taken aren’t enough to prevent a later and severer onset of mental health illnesses such as PTSD. This paper presents a literature review to identify gaps within the mental health services provided to war refugees in terms of accessibility and efficacy. While trying to evaluate what are the most prevalent mental health problems faced by these communities (like PTSD, depression, and anxiety) and how the host countries are trying to mitigate the growth in severity and the number of cases of these diseases. This study besides a two-phased literary review, presents two semi-structured interviews with two clinicians of different health areas and also a questionnaire to better understand the state of the art of this subject in Portugal, our chosen area of focus, and pinpoint what are its major gaps. The findings suggest that through further development of the project and using interdisciplinary methods from Service Design, Social Sciences, and Psychology, it is possible to co-create with all the stakeholders a solution that helps diminish the challenges to the accessibility of mental health diagnosis and treatment faced by war refugees and forcibly displaced people.

Craftsdesign for Social Change

Dalia Sendra Rodriguez, Ana Margarida Ferreira
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

This paper presents the primary results of a research exercise deconstructing transdisciplinary models of intervention bringing social change, dynamization and positive impact into rural areas through crafts and design collaborations. The experiences analysed brought together designers, craftspeople, and local communities in a process of dialogue, collaboration and co-creation connections based on design methods, crafts heritage, land resources, and local knowledge. The tools used include a primary literature review and multiple case study design practice mapping and analysis. The qualitative research methods used allow us to study the connections between personal, social, organizational, cultural, and environmental factors. The case study methodology has been used to extract complexities and particularities. Data collected has been structured in the form of a comparative table of key elements to consider when designing innovative solutions such as collaborative methods, organizational models, creative processes, role played by crafts and design, and impact. The objective of this research exercise is to identify a framework that systematises those relevant elements and suggests potential trans-disciplinary approaches to follow to foster sustainable social innovation initiatives in rural areas through craftsdesign collaborations. The CraftsDesign Framework is expected to evolve into a collaborative toolkit to be tested, evaluated, and re-designed in simulated and real contexts through workshops. The findings resulting from the experience will inform the PhD research project conducted by the researcher entitled “Craftsdesign for entrepreneurship, social innovation, and sustainability” and aim to identify sustainable social innovation solutions based on the experience of design practice.

Which Kind of Chineseness Is Sold Where?

Dan Mu
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

In the long history of globalisation, China has faced a growing detachment and contradiction between its capitalist identity and its cultural identity. And industrial design, as a field inextricably linked to the industrialisation process and inextricably linked to its cultural and aesthetic context, prominently embodies this contradiction. However, in China, designer identity research in industrial design is still in its early stages. Nonetheless, China's rising economic and cultural status necessitates a precise theoretical and empirical definition of this group. China's industrial design research is now more focused on practical innovation, and no systematic and comprehensive study of industrial identity exists. This research is based on ethnography, combining case studies, interviews, and observation to explore the situation of independent Chinese industrial designers and designers working in big companies' design departments. Overall, the goal of this study is to investigate the reality of the situational evolution of identity in the context of globalisation by looking at the history and current state of Chinese industrial design from the perspectives of design, manufacturing, and business. It also conducts multidisciplinary integration research on Chinese designers' national identities in the context of nationalism, such as design history, group identity, and business.

Curiosity, Everywhere

Cassini Nazir, Eric Farrar
Workshop Presentation

Before our products or services can inform, entertain, satisfy or delight, they must first engage. Curiosity is a powerful way to engage customers and create memorable experiences. This workshop will help you harness the power that curiosity brings to experiences and create significant and more memorable experiences. This workshop will tackle three topics. (1) Defining curiosity: What is curiosity, and how does it manifest? We will learn the five faces of curiosity and—more importantly—what kind of curious you are. (2) Producing curiosity: Humans can naturally produce curiosity—the question is, how? We discover the emotions that yield the by-product of curiosity and learn the ways in which curiosity may germinate. (3) Inviting curiosity: How might we design ways to invite curiosity? We explore a framework for inviting curiosity in your next design effort.

Beyond Vision

Lidya Chrisfens
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

This paper explores the experimentation in the embodied mind experience within atmospheric space and senses between one's felt body, mind, and space within a dress through the novel approach in fashion technique pedagogy- blind-draping. The investigation opens up a line of inquiry exploring embodied action and cognition through memories and emotion as intangible conceptual understanding, translating the mind's phenomenological occurrence to one's bodily experience. The experimentation covers the process that led to the theoretical findings of self-consciousness: pre-reflective self-consciousness and bodily self-awareness through the preception of embodied action. The embodied activity has led to the physical body substantiating cognition, which plays a significant causal or physical role beyond the brain in cognitive processing. Without sight, the awareness is informed by the tactility and proprioception of the body (hands) movement, reflecting the experience. The phenomenal state of experience in this occurrence is the notion of anti-physicalism: it was not related to anything physical-functional. Through the artistic expression in blind-draping, the activity also opens up the creative explorations in conceptual space and the philosophical understanding of the externalisation of the internalised emotions during the process. The process of interiorisation, attempting to locate where emotions take places: from the phenomenological notion of the mind as the original space of feelings to the phenomena of the mind. The theoretical processes informed the importance of the embodied mind, which is substantial to the design output as the creative process. The methodology allows designers to explore creative expression through the other senses beyond the vision.

Non-material Sustainability Design

Jiahao Chen
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Generally, when people talk about sustainability, they are referring to using sustainable materials, reducing the impact of the material on the environment, investing more money in recycling materials, and so forth. However, that is not always the case. This is in contrast to industries such as interaction design and graphic design, where there appears to be little work to be done around materials. By contrast, COVID has made it easier for online meeting platforms to be accepted. Research indicates that this shift in the hobby from in-person to online meetings has led to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, many managers reported that the pandemic made them realize that most of their tasks and goals could be accomplished without having to meet in person. In other words, if we are able to accomplish our goals in a simpler and more efficient manner, we can leave a positive impact on the environment. The purpose of this paper is to suggest, using the term created by Daniel Kahneman, that designers must reduce the speed at which they think and act in the era of Post-COVID. The role of designers includes both innovation and influencing audiences as part of their responsibilities. Designers who strive for sustainability should improve the effectiveness of information dissemination not only for users and audiences but also in the design process. As a result of reducing and optimizing low-meaning actions, and improving the effectiveness of information dissemination, a more sustainable future can be achieved.

Putting into Practice Evolving Design Thinking Methods at Technology Firms that Prioritize User Experience

Teresa Cain
Innovation Showcase

Many organizations have based their own design thinking process from Stanford's Design Thinking Method or using Google and Jake Knapp’s five day process from the book “Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days”. However, five day design sprints have had its challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic including the ability to conduct a remote design sprint using the same process effectively, loss of productive time and the ability to collaborate with multiple stakeholders in one room. The adaptation of technology firms to two-hour design sprints teach organizations, product managers, researchers and designers how to adapt to a two-hour process derived from design thinking and design sprint methods to increase the frequency and speed of solving problems whether virtual or in-person. This study looks at the success of the adoption and practice of two-hour design sprints at technology organizations that frequently release software updates and features to their customers.

Blueprints of Justice

Nóra Al Haider
Innovation Showcase

This study chronicles the project 'Blueprints of Justice'. This project examines the interaction between law, design, and architecture and was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic created a moment of accelerated change in the change-averse legal system. In a rare occurrence, legal practitioners opened up the doors to their discipline and invited non-experts for collaboration. The essence of this collaboration boils down to the following question: knowing different disciplines each play a role in the access to justice problem, can an interdisciplinary approach lead to better outcomes, and furthermore, point towards desired futures? Change at such a fundamental level never happens in isolation. Architecture, legal experts, and students worked together to examine the direct relationship between law and space to tackle pressing real time scenarios put forward by experts. We delve into the case studies, methods, and results produced over a two year period. This work, directed by Oana Stanescu at MIT and Nóra Al Haider of the Stanford Legal Design lab, spans between 2020-2023 and looks at this intersection in the themes of social justice, human rights, and environmental justice.

Policy Design

Andrea Petz, Breidenich Christof
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Studies show that citizens’ dissatisfaction with current policymaking is growing. This is partly due to the steady focus on problem-solving, which moves politics further away from citizens’ needs. Therefore, traditional methods can no longer address the increasing complexity of political-societal problems. To counteract this growing issue, Policy Design is introduced to enable policymakers to better deal with complex challenges, seeking to achieve more effective and human-centred policy outcomes. Policy Design refers to a creative way of addressing wicked problems by integrating designerly approaches and mindsets into policymaking. This implies an open-ended and iterative process, which focuses on human needs and adapting to continuously changing conditions. This paper critically questions the traditional Policy Cycle and its impact on policy outcomes. As a research method and in addition to scientific research, qualitative interviews with eleven international experts from diverse domains were conducted, reaching from the political to the design field. The research findings reveal three points of criticism: The first demonstrates policymaking as an isolated, linear, and top-down approach. The second identifies a critical gap between policy formulation and policy implementation and the third criticises the lack of active participation in the policymaking process. To respond to those criticism, a redesign of the traditional Policy Cycle is proposed, which combines a human-centred approach and the Double Diamond Design Process. More specifically, a participatory, cross-functional, and agile policymaking process is introduced, in order to develop policies based on people’s needs. In all, the paper clarifies the potential that design can unleash in policymaking.

Playful Public Space

Anna Merry
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Can design implemented within public space influence human interaction and experience? This investigation questions if playful and participatory design which unexpectedly intervenes with the everyday setting allows involvement on various levels. Over the past decade playful interactions in the urban realm are occurring more frequently, examples such as the Piano Stairs as part of the Volkswagen Fun Theory, Kurt Perschkes Red Ball Project, Candy Changs Before I Die and Thomas Heatherwicks Spun Installations have infused our public spaces with temporary rich and diverse opportunities for fun and interaction. The study begins with an explanation of the ‘playful interactive experience’ a design methodology for the construction of playful events. Ideally a ‘playful experience’ is a seemingly humorous design unexpectedly intervening with everyday transitional spaces, allowing active participation. Defined as an event ‘where one can be spontaneously involved in a temporary narrative of play permission which is non-habitual in order to increase an experience of place’ it in turn increases social and spatial interactions. Through displayed case studies, the investigation presents a framework for user interaction. The framework demonstrates interactions which occur individually and collaboratively as well as promoting methods of dialogue and visual communication which arise as a consequence. Furthermore, the framework explores potential connections between the user and designer, sociability of strangers and the exploration of the wider spatial setting. Conclusions indicate that humorous outcomes can be enjoyed by all as economic, fun and non-traditional solutions to ‘placemaking,’ thus facilitating needs and desires of users within public space.

Sustainable Architecture and Dry Construction Systems

Chiara Scanagatta
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Today designing in architecture, understood in the broadest sense of the term, cannot ignore the end-of-life aspects of an object, material, or building: it is necessary to consider how to reuse or recycle what is used during construction in order to reduce the consumption of raw materials and make the construction chain more sustainable. In this context, several companies are starting to work on obtaining environmental declarations for their products and are beginning to develop products that can be assembled with dry construction systems, for an easier reuse, or that can be easily disassembled by type of material, to guarantee an easier recycling. This contribution wants to start from this desire for sustainable design to study how, in the field of metal cladding, these needs are linked to the market trends that can be seen in the projects realised today and which are presented in architectural magazines. These façade solutions, in fact, are well suited both for a subsequent reuse of the material at the end of their life and for their recycling. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how these coatings can be used, to encourage their application even in areas of use where they are not currently present.

Cultural Studies of Cowrie Accessory Design Traditions

Nitin Hadap
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Cowrie shell, has been very popular in Indian culture, from the times of the Indus valley civilization to the current fashion trends. In different regions and eras, Indians have used the cowrie shells for various purposes, like- as a currency, as a ritual object, as playing toys, and as an element to ornament the surfaces. This paper primarily deals with the lifestyle products embellished with cowrie shells. This research also covers the varied cultural aspects of the cowrie shell, the metaphors behind the object, and religious practices belonging to this natural element. The paper considers the cultural evolution of cowrie shells in different eras and regions in India. For data collection for this paper, the historical records and sources, research papers, visual references, and genuine accessories from different museums have been collected. There is scope to review the artisans' practices and application of cowrie in lifestyle products and accessories. After covering the historical perspective and facts, cover how contemporary accessories, brands and designers use this natural object in their LPA designs in different products. This paper also looks at cowrie shell traditional products from design point of view.

Connect - Connectivity Through Community Asset Mapping

Samira Shiridevich
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Community asset mapping is a strength-based approach to community development. The goal of community asset-mapping is to work closely with communities to describe, find, and document assets within the community and use them to solve a particular social problem. Through a co-design process working with people in their context, designers may find ways to identify an immense amount of knowledge in communities. This paper documents the process of codesigning CONNECT, a project that I (an Iranian graphic designer) created in collaboration with Project YouthBuild (PYB) students and staff. PYB supports vulnerable low-income youth between 16–24 years of age to shape their futures with a measure of autonomy. It is a high school degree completion and jobs training program for students who have been forced out of high school. Many are either BIPOC, young parents, or experiencing the impact of multigenerational poverty. The goal of the partnership was to use the horizontal, iterative, co-design process to find the potentially valuable hidden knowledge in the community neighboring Gainesville’s PYB headquarters and find out how we can work together to use these assets to facilitate social change.

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