This paper advances participatory urban design by introducing the Spectrum of Non-Human Agency, a framework that systematically incorporates non-human actors into design processes. While participatory approaches have traditionally centered on human actors, increasing ecological pressures demand models that acknowledge the active role of non-human communities. The spectrum adapts and extends stakeholder participation models to account for ecological and multispecies processes, aligning levels of non-human agency with design phases, and translating them into operational conditions. Grounded in a qualitative analysis of 38 nature-inclusive design cases and four in-depth case studies, the framework provides both conceptual and methodological tools for assessing how non-human agency unfolds across design phases. The findings reveal that non-human actors are often engaged during early phases as sources of ecological data, while their influence frequently diminishes during implementation and long-term stewardship. However, selected cases demonstrate how non-human actors can assume co-creative and autonomous roles, challenging anthropocentric design norms. In doing so, the study proposes multispecies placemaking as a pathway for extending participatory urban design, positioning non-human actors as partners in shaping more adaptive, ecologically attuned, and relational urban environments.
Pattern languages emerged in the 1960s as a means to share architectural design knowledge in a way that would empower people to participate in the design of their own environments. Since then, they have been adapted for other disciplines and purposes resulting in a proliferation of patterns and developments to the underlying approach. While there is now a substantial body of pattern-based literature, there are few publications that consider the discourse across multiple disciplines, or which seek to identify key developments within the evolution of the pattern-approach. This paper addresses these gaps through a synthesis of the pattern literature from multiple disciplines and identifies three phases of evolution: 1) invention of the original pattern-approach within architecture, 2) adaptation by software designers resulting in documented methodological advances, and 3) proliferation across many fields leading to an increasing sophistication and diversity of applications. Throughout this evolution, the pattern-format and pattern-writing methods have enabled knowledge-sharing and collaboration, contributing to advances in practice. This paper proposes schematic pattern-graphics as a further innovation that can enhance the existing pattern-approach. By facilitating knowledge co-development and strengthening interdisciplinary communication, the pattern approach now has greater potential to inform ecological design practices and thereby help address biodiversity loss and other environmental challenges. (C) 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Discursive Design positions design as a form of discourse, creating opportunities for reflection and debate, and offering an alternative approach to healthcare interventions. Democratising the development of its artefacts is essential to address challenges identified in current Discursive Design projects such as limited multidimensional problem exploration, inadequate localisation of issues, and the neglect of positive, inspiring discourses. In this study, we adopted cocreation as a democratic methodology to tackle these challenges. Co-creation ensured that voices of all participating stakeholders were actively and meaningfully represented throughout the design process. We co-created digital patient stories for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) care, using discursive materials to encourage deeper exploration and reflection during the process. Throughout the process, we observed how discursive materials were integrated at different stages of co-creation and reflected on their impact in healthcare design process. We also explored the role of ethnographic elements embedded within co-creation practices and how they might enhance the potential of digital patient stories as Discursive Design artefacts, offering more nuanced and empowering ways to address complex healthcare challenges. (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Interdisciplinary design's benefits are well documented, yet its challenges are typically framed as communication or knowledge translation issues between experts during a project. In highly regulated contexts such as medical device design, these extend beyond communication to include fundamentally opposing priorities and ways of working. This paper presents a longitudinal case study on the redesign of a Total Artificial Heart Controller. The collaboration was analysed through three broad dialectical oppositions and 22 sub contradictions synthesised from existing literature. It illustrates how mapping specific contradictions (e.g. profit versus novelty) before the design work begins allows them to be operationalised as creative constraints rather than points of conflict. Whereas traditional approaches treat disciplinary difference reactively, this study demonstrates a methodological approach for anticipatory reconciliation. This approach reduces post-hoc negotiation burdens, streamlines interdisciplinary collaboration, enables design contributions that would otherwise be marginalised in regulatory environments, and provides designers with a structured way to align emotional, experiential and technical aims. Nine transferable design principles are provided that operationalise this approach for other regulated interdisciplinary projects. (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Although research on speculative approaches in food design education is increasing, the practical and theoretical integration of speculative design with a critical understanding of human-food relations remains limited. This study conducted an eight-week speculative food-design workshop with 18 design students in six groups. Working with crisis scenarios linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), students collaboratively developed future-oriented food proposals that address socio-environmental challenges and expose tensions in contemporary food systems. Using reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) of workshop artefacts and speculative debates, we identify two intertwined visions of inquiry: Human-*Food (perception, cognition, identity) and Food-*Human (growth, production & consumption, ecology). These trajectories underpin the Human and Food Symbiosis Cone of Possibilities (HFCP), a descriptive model that extends the cone of possibilities to map how proposals evolve along a spectrum of reconfiguration, from status-quo extension of food systems to more radical reconfiguration of human-food relations. Paired with the speculative Double Diamond in future iterations of teaching, HFCP offers a situated pedagogical framework that foregrounds rigour, reflexivity, and more-than-human responsibility, while providing reusable tools for analysing and teaching speculative food design. (c) 2026 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
Large Language Model applications (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, have showcased their remarkable capability in creative tasks with exceptionally human-like responses. To effectively integrate LLMs in creativity-related activities, further research is needed to understand how humans interact with LLMs in creative tasks. In this work, we examined human-LLMs interaction in UX designers' (N = 12) practices of incorporating ChatGPT into their professional design activities in China, from both collaboration and communication perspectives. Through participants' longitudinal usage logs, diary surveys, and interviews, we found that participants employed different working strategies to interact with ChatGPT, revealing various collaboration and communication features. The collaboration features highlight how humans and LLMs coordinate task organization, covering task distribution, task contextualization, task fine-tuning with examples, and task evolution through iterative improvement of prompts. The communication features focus on the nature of intentions exchanged between humans and LLMs, including proactive communicator, content format, semantic continuity of prompts, and the speech acts, which cover the communicative goals, contexts, and tones. We also observed participants adjusting their interaction patterns in response to evolving design task demands, particularly shifting from personification to instrumentalization, from improvisational prompts to normalized prompts, and adapting strategies to avoid fixed responses. Grounded in these empirical findings and existing frameworks, we developed a framework to describe human-LLMs collaboration and further argue that communication could serve as an effective lens to understand human-AI interaction. Ultimately, we share implications for designing more productive and human-centered LLMs for creative tasks. @2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
As the strategic importance of design in firms has increased, design is no longer understood merely as product aesthetics or styling, but as a professional function that influences the entire new product development (NPD) process through the translation of user knowledge, meaning creation, and visualization and prototyping. Prior research has repeatedly emphasized the value of designers' early and sustained involvement in NPD. However, given that NPD unfolds as a staged process under time and cost constraints, it is not self-evident through which outcome pathways designer involvement ultimately translates into business performance. In particular, theoretical frameworks and quantitative evidence remain limited that systematically distinguish between product innovativeness and development efficiency as distinct outcome dimensions and compare the effects of stage-specific designer involvement across them. This study bridges two largely parallel research streams & horbar;designer involvement research and concurrent engineering (CE)& horbar;by reframing designer involvement in NPD as an actor-specific resource allocation problem: at which stage, and to what extent, should professional design resources be deployed. Using project-level data from Japanese manufacturing firms, the study simultaneously measures designers' involvement intensity at three NPD stages & horbar;market research and analysis, idea and concept development, and engineering and prototyping & horbar;and examines how such involvement affects business performance through product innovativeness and development efficiency, employing structural equation modeling. The results show that designer involvement does not operate through a single performance pathway; rather, its value creation differs by stage and by outcome dimension. Moreover, the stage at which designer involvement exerts the greatest leverage shifts depending on market uncertainty. These findings challenge uniform prescriptions that advocate front-loading designer involvement and instead offer a theoretical reconceptualization of design in NPD as a dynamic and context-dependent allocation of professional resources that mediates the tension between innovativeness and efficiency. (c) 2026 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
A common issue when utilising maker technologies relates to the technology used in the prototyping phase. Few studies have explored the factors influencing students' technology selection in interactive prototyping, highlighting the need for further investigation. Our interview-based study involved undergraduate students using technologies to prototype interactivities at a design school. We analysed the students' design works and discussions using the grounded theory framework. Results reveal that the electrical and communication properties of the components, as well as the socio-technical environment in which students learn, are important considerations when selecting components. Our results underscore the need for further research and the development of innovative boards and componentry for educational practitioners. (c) 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
This study introduces a method for cultural product design that maps semantic information between symbols. It helps designers comprehend cultural information in the cultural product design process and improves the accuracy of the transmission of cultural information. The experimental design utilises a semantic information design tool to quantify the encoding process of semantic information mapping between symbols across three cultural layers and five elements. The results show that a certain amount of semantic information mapping between symbols aids designers in generating inspiration and reasoning. Well-adapted semantic information mapping between symbols enables designers to transmit cultural information more efficiently. The method is indicated to be suitably agile for utilisation by novice designers in their design process.
Dialogue about science and technology is a public technology whose design is contested by multiple social actors. Despite the importance of this design contestation in avoiding stagnation, it usually is relegated to the background without sufficient analytical attention. This article employs a critical interpretive review (CIR) to identify how the specialised literature is challenging the dominant designs of public dialogue with technoscience and the design frictions that arise among these ideas. By analysing 95 articles, this study identifies ten design principles grouped into three themes: adaptive design, publics and interaction making, and technoscience making. The analysis reveals significant design frictions both within and between these principles, such as push-and-pull between adapting designs to local contexts or for political embedding and the drive for methodological standardisation. Ultimately, this article proposes a demo-technical analysis approach to interrogate how seemingly neutral technical design decisions materialise specific democratic norms, encouraging more engagement with design frictions as a productive force to counteract stagnation and revitalise democratic practice.
Wayfinding refers to the concept of decisively travelling from a starting point to an endpoint, supported by a wayfinding system. Existing wayfinding systems designs often follow Lynch's five elements (paths, edges, districts, landmarks and nodes) and his theoretical framework. Theoretical discussions on wayfinding systems design remain limited; most of the focus is placed on technical details and design principles, while comprehensive, systematic design frameworks with dynamic perspectives that assist in the mobility of wayfinding remain understudied. To address this gap, this study was conducted in Manchester, UK, using walking interviews and workshops as research methods. Its findings suggest that four key elements constitute urban identity from a wayfinding perspective: points, lines, planes and timing. These elements create a dynamic framework that supports wayfinding systems design. To translate this framework into a visual language and develop a design solution, a set of cards - the Wayfinding Design Support Cards (WDSCs) - was designed, which provide specific methods and clear guidelines to support the formation of a design solution. This set of cards is primarily designed for participatory design context. Moreover, the cards were tested, and the results demonstrated their viability as a design support tool. Overall, the WDSCs effectively help users extract and organise information from the urban environment to develop a comprehensive wayfinding systems design solution. (c) 2026 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
This study examines how abstract shapes and product forms affect aesthetic, emotional, and usability evaluations, with particular attention to gender differences. In an online survey (n = 91), participants rated four shapes and three product types using semantic differentials and the meCUE 2.0. Curved shapes were perceived as more aesthetically pleasing and emotionally appealing, whereas angular shapes were perceived as more functional. Women showed stronger differentiation across most semantic items, particularly on emotional-symbolic judgments, while these distinctions diminished in applied product evaluations. Younger users preferred unconventional designs, older ones favored familiar forms. The findings identify a boundary condition: shape-meaning links observed with abstract forms attenuate or shift once forms are embedded in concrete product roles. Thus, abstract-shape findings act as context-sensitive priors rather than general laws. (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This paper examines the role of design as a catalyst in experiential food education through the Curorto project, a therapeutic garden established within that integrates experiential learning, participatory pedagogy, and sustainability, the study reinterprets food as a vital medium for reconnecting individuals with their environment and local heritage. Employing a participatory action research methodology, the project involved hospitalised children, healthcare professionals, educators, and local community actors in a collaborative design process aimed at transforming the conventional hospital setting into a dynamic educational ecosystem. The intervention, inspired by local traditions and historical practices of urban agriculture, utilised recovered materials and handson cultivation activities to foster agroecological awareness and enhance cognitive, emotional, and social well-being. Detailed observation, field diaries, and qualitative interviews provided evidence of significant improvements in children's understanding of seasonal food cycles, resource management, and circular economy principles, accompanied by reduced stress levels and increased operational autonomy. The project further demonstrated the potential of design to mediate complex interactions between food, nature, and social innovation, thereby fostering collective responsibility and community resilience. As a contribution to the literature, the research proposes a comprehensive, multidimensional conceptual model that articulates how design can reconfigure care environments and promote sustainable food practices. This model encapsulates the transformative processes observed within the Curorto project and offers valuable theoretical insights for future applications in contexts characterised by vulnerability and the need for social innovation. (c) 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Design processes increasingly embrace participatory methods, yet systematic frameworks for analyzing diverse co-design outputs remain underdeveloped, especially those from children. This study introduces the Priority Experiences of Participants (PrEP) framework, a five-stage analytical approach for synthesizing multimodal co-design contributions into actionable design guidance. The framework employs the lens of affordances to identify “umbrella experiences,” high-level experiential priorities. Through mixed-methods triangulation, including content analysis, Q-Sort rankings, and qualitative analysis, the framework systematically synthesizes participant contributions into design guidance. The framework is illustrated through a schoolyard co-design case study with 9- to 10-year-olds. The PrEP framework provides a structured approach and accessible tools to support the effective inclusion of children in decision-making and the authentic translation of their priorities into design solutions.
Place attachment alludes to human attachment to places. However, studies in the field have historically focused only on the 'human' component, disregarding the potential of the p'lace' component to offer valuable clues as to how design and/or policy interventions can allow people to become attached to place. Not surprisingly, discourses consistently stop short at identifying whether or not people feel attached to places without venturing to explore how people could potentially get attached to places and what strategies could be employed to improve place attachment. This exploratory study contends that the solution lies in asking 'whether and to what degree a place allows one to form attachment bonds with it' rather than the generally asked 'whether and to what degree one is/feels attached to a place'. To do so, it brings affordance into the dialogue between place theory and attachment theory, and establishes the rich possibilities offered by affordance studies to better understand specific attributes of place that encourage/discourage attachment. Further, place attachment affordance is conceptualized as a potentially measurable entity that can facilitate the formulation of deployable design/policy strategies to ensure that places allow people to get attached to them, thus improving place satisfaction and hence quality of life of users. This is done by clarifying why and how people form attachment bonds with places as well as the physical, notional and sociospatial properties of a place that allow people to form attachment bonds with it. (c) 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
This study presents an integrated digital workflow for reconstructing the chronological architectural development of the Great Mill in Gdansk, a key example of late medieval industrial heritage. The research employs digital technologies not as an end in themselves but as instruments supporting evidence-based historical interpretation. The methodological framework combines archival documentation, terrestrial laser scanning, digital photogrammetry. manual measurement, and advanced 3D modeling to establish a precise timeline of the bkilding's transformations from the mid-14th century to the present. Special attention is given to the structured integration of heterogeneous data sources. Point cloud analysis provided a geometric baseline, complemented by archival plans, iconography, and manual surveying to address data voids and occlusioks. Sequential modeling stages reflect distinct construction phases, enabling the verification and reinterpretation of uncertain architectural features. The resulting 3D reconstructions form a coherent visual and analytical record of the monument's evolution. Beyond their documentary function, they support historical interpretation, conservation strategies, and museum dissemination, including exhibitions and educational media. This workflow demonstrates the effectiveness of combining metric precision with historical analysis and offers a transferable methodological model for the reconstruction of other partially preservell or lost heritage structures. 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are re reserved, including those for text and data mining. Al training, and similar technologies.
This paper addresses the challenge novice designers face in the complex, multidisciplinary process of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) digitisation. We present Heritage Spark, a card-based toolkit designed to scaffold this process, and we discuss findings from our empirical evaluation through a 16-week design course involving 64 novice designers. The evaluation results indicate that the toolkit effectively supports novices by functioning as a cognitive scaffold, a collaborative medium, and a process guide helping to enhance empathy, expand knowledge, stimulate multi-dimensional inspiration, and foster synergistic effects. We argue that the Heritage Spark approach provides a generalisable method for developing scaffolding tools for other complex domains. Furthermore, we contribute to design theory by extending the taxonomy of card-based tools and advancing the discourse on design thinking by demonstrating how its simplified frameworks can be enriched with expert design methodologies. (c) 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
Medical devices hold significant potential to influence patients' emotional experiences, thereby enhancing treatment compliance and healthcare efficacy. However, the impact of medical device design on patient emotions is largely underexplored. Drawing upon the Double Diamond Model and Gross's Emotion Regulation Theory, this systematic review categorises the interdisciplinary innovation process of emotional design in medical devices into three stages: exploration, elaboration, and evaluation. This 3E framework serves as the key analytical tool for this study, providing a systematic interpretation of existing research across three dimensions: emotions and emotional needs, design strategies, and evaluation methods. This pre-registered systematic review follows PRISMA 2020 guidelines, analysing 71 studies (initial sample size = 11 461) published between 1986 and February 2024. The review identifies 25 positive and 31 negative emotions experienced by patients and underscores the importance of further exploring the design space for positive emotions. The review also incorporates Emotion Regulation Theory to provide deeper insights into emotional design strategies, categorising these strategies into five major types and identifying future interdisciplinary development trends. Current evaluation methods predominantly rely on interviews and questionnaires. There are insufficient robust quantitative tools that can capture nuanced product-related emotions. To improve patient well-being and enhance societal quality of life, further research into the emotional design of medical devices is urgently needed, necessitating a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach. (c) 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
This study examines how design practices shape the participatory roles of visually impaired persons (VIPs) in recycling systems. By integrating affordance theory with case studies (n = 26), we investigate intervention mechanisms that shape VIPs' agency in food-mediated recycling (FMR), asking how food and related processes serve as catalytic mediators that indirectly facilitate VIPs' recycling behaviours. We identify three key affordance dimensions, with subcategories: sensory affordances (mono-/multi-/ trans-sensory), recycling affordances (enabling/constraining/emergent), and VIPs' participatory roles (compensatory/co-creation agents/empowerment actors). The distribution of and relationships between multi-dimensional affordances are visualised using an alluvial diagram, yielding the following findings. 1) Current design interventions predominantly configure affordance pathways with multi-sensory affordances, constraint-type recycling affordances, and co-creation agent roles. 2) Modulated sensory/recycling affordances dynamically influence VIPs' participatory roles, which reciprocally activate their recycling behaviours. A multi-dimensional affordances design model for enhancing VIPs' agency in FMR is developed, integrating static components with dynamic design intervention pathways. This model provides an actionable framework that emphasises the mutually reinforcing effect of VIPs' role transition and participation in recycling behaviours through affordance regulation, challenging ableist assumptions in sustainability discourse. (c) 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.
