Workshops

Chairs:

Kostas Stylidis, Cyriel Diels and Bastian Quattelbaum

Organised by: Data-Informed-Design SIG

Workshop description:

Join us for a comprehensive workshop on “The Data Quality Playbook for Engineering Design”, where participants will explore a wide range of techniques and methodologies for effective data collection across different contexts, including academic research, industrial practice, and field studies. The workshop addresses both digital and analogue data collection methods, equipping participants with practical tools adaptable to their specific research and design needs.

A central focus will be placed on data quality criteria—such as accuracy, reliability, validity, and completeness—to support the creation and use of robust and trustworthy data sets. Through hands-on activities, participants will engage with best practices in data collection using surveys, interviews, observational studies, and digital tools such as mobile applications and cloud-based databases.

The workshop will also facilitate discussion on common challenges and practical solutions for maintaining data quality across different collection contexts. Finally, an outlook will be provided on how high-quality data sets can be connected to and leveraged by AI-based agents and tools in engineering design.

Objectives

• To familiarize participants with a variety of data collection methods suitable for different research and design contexts.
• To develop an understanding of key data quality criteria and how to apply them in practice.
• To promote best practices for ensuring high data quality across both digital and analogue data collection approaches.

Key outcomes

• Participants will engage with a curated toolkit of data collection strategies, which will be collaboratively examined and reflected upon during the workshop.
• Participants will demonstrate increased awareness of the role and importance of data quality criteria in engineering design research and practice.

Brief overview

• Explore diverse data collection methods tailored to different research and design contexts.
• Understand and apply key data quality criteria: accuracy, reliability, validity, and completeness.
• Learn best practices for digital (e.g., surveys, mobile apps) and analogue (e.g., interviews, field notes) data collection.
• Participate in hands-on activities to support learning and practical application.
• Collaborate with peers to exchange experiences, insights, and challenges related to ensuring data quality.

Chairs:

Yvonne Eriksson and Nikola Bursac

Organised by: Human Behaviour in Design (HBiD) SIG and Industry Practice SIG

Workshop description:

This interactive workshop makes the concept of nudging tangible as a practical and effective approach for driving change in design and development contexts. The “Small Nudges, Big Impact” workshop brings together researchers, practitioners, and design enthusiasts to explore how nudging principles can be applied to contemporary challenges in engineering design and product development.

Following a short introductory session with illustrative examples from design research, product development, and behavioural economics, participants will work in thematic breakout groups addressing selected challenges. One focal theme will be bridging research and practice (e.g., “Design Research meets Engineering Practice”, in cooperation with the Industry Practice SIG). Additional themes may include sustainability, user acceptance of new tools and methods, or fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, such as across public-sector contexts.

The aim is to explore how small behavioural interventions (“nudges”) can create new spaces for thinking and action in design processes and organizational settings. Each group will develop concrete, context-specific nudge concepts, identifying the underlying behavioural mechanisms and potential pathways for implementation. The results will be presented and jointly reflected upon in a plenary session.

Through shared experience, discussion, and creative co-creation, the workshop deepens participants’ understanding of nudging and supports its practical application as a catalyst for change in design practice.

Key outcomes

• A concise collection of nudge-based interventions addressing key design and development challenges (e.g., Design Research meets Engineering Practice).
• Documentation of the proposed interventions and their underlying behavioural mechanisms.
• Impetus for continued collaboration across SIGs.
• Input and inspiration for integrating nudging approaches into the organization and activities of ICED 2027 or the DESIGN Conference.

Chairs:

Ian Whitfield and Kieran Gunn

Organised by: Collaborative Design SIG

Workshop description:

This workshop invites delegates to explore how conversation shapes design practice and how these same conversational principles can inform the design of AI systems for collaborative design. The workshop examines how conversational structures, interaction patterns, and dialogic insights can be translated into the design of AI systems that effectively support human–AI collaboration in design contexts.

The workshop consists of three structured, hands-on activities:

Activity 1: Deconstructing dialogue through conversational analysis
Delegates will analyse a set of iterative prompts–response sequences derived from human–human and human–AI interactions. Through conversational analysis, participants will explore how the structure and dynamics of dialogue influence sense-making, problem framing, and design decision-making.

Activity 2: Translating conversational insights into actionable criteria
Building on insights from Activity 1, delegates will translate observed conversational patterns into explicit and actionable design criteria for AI systems. This activity demonstrates how conversational principles can guide the development of AI systems that support collaborative design processes.

Activity 3: Designing an AI system for collaborative problem solving
Delegates will apply the criteria developed in Activity 2 to conceptually design and configure an AI system addressing a systemic design problem. Through this hands-on activity, participants will gain practical insight into how AI systems are structured and how conversational design choices affect system behaviour and collaboration outcomes. Through collaborative analysis, reflection, and co-creation, the workshop deepens participants’ understanding of how conversation shapes design processes and outcomes, while providing practical experience with real-world AI system design.

The workshop aligns closely with the Collaborative Design SIG by addressing human–AI collaboration in systemic problem contexts and by examining how successful collaborative design can be enabled through a principled understanding of conversational structures in AI systems.

Key outcomes

• A shared set of design principles and criteria for conversational AI systems supporting collaborative design.
• Documentation of insights generated during the workshop.
• Contribution to a written report and the basis for a journal paper.

Chairs:

Claudia Eckert, Kilian Gericke, Sabine Muschik, Ola Isaksson and Filippo Chiarello

Organised by: Design Process SIG, Design Practice SIG and AI in Design SIG

Workshop description:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being adopted across a wide range of design activities, from generative ideation to simulation and validation. At the same time, its integration is reshaping roles, skills, responsibilities, and values within design practice. This interactive workshop invites researchers, practitioners, and educators to critically explore how AI is transforming design processes—what it enables, what it challenges, and how it alters the nature, sequencing, and interdependencies of design tasks.

Through short reports from industrial practice and collaborative mapping of AI approaches currently in use, participants will examine both the benefits and potential risks associated with AI-supported design processes. Attention will be given to the interaction of multiple AI applications within a single design process, and to questioning whether existing design process paradigms remain fit for purpose in current industrial contexts and in the decades ahead.

The workshop aims to bridge research and practice by exploring how design processes can evolve while retaining human-centred creativity, judgment, and the ability to assess emerging design states. Ultimately, the session seeks to build a critical mass of researchers and practitioners interested in jointly exploring the future of design processes in industry, both theoretically and in practice.

Key outcomes

• Identify how AI is currently impacting industrial and engineering design processes.
• Strengthen the SIG community of researchers and practitioners interested in design practice and design processes.
• Identify next steps for collaboration and future research and exploration.

Format / methods / techniques

• Welcome and introduction (20 min): Overview of the Design Process and Design Practice SIG, workshop objectives, and key research questions.
• Mapping current practice (30 min): Small-group activity identifying where and how AI influences workflows, roles, and values, based on concrete examples from practice.
• Report from practice (30 min): Presentation by Sabine Muschik on the use of AI at a German tool builder.
• Benefits and threats of AI in design processes (40 min): Group discussion on desired and undesired implications that design process owners and developers must address.
• Assessing the fitness for purpose of design process paradigms (20 min): Synthesis and development of shared principles for responsible and effective AI integration.
• Wrap-up (20 min): Reflections, key takeaways, and opportunities for continued collaboration.

Chairs:

Elies Dekoninck, Gordon Krauss and Yakhoub Ndiaye

Organised by: Design Education SIG

Workshop description:

Assessment in project-based design education remains a persistent challenge due to diverse institutional contexts, learning objectives, accreditation requirements, and disciplinary traditions. The Design Learning Assessment Dimensions (D-LAD) Framework offers a structured approach for analysing, reflecting on, and redesigning assessment practices across five key dimensions: Output vs. Process; Summative vs. Formative; Teacher-led vs. Student-led; Assessment of Learning vs. Assessment for/as Learning; and Individual vs. Team Assessment.

This interactive workshop introduces participants to the D-LAD framework through hands-on, reflective activities in which they apply the framework to their own courses or modules. Through small-group discussions, guided mapping exercises, and collective reflection, participants will examine how their current assessment strategies align with intended learning outcomes, accreditation standards, and industry expectations. Case examples and shared educator experiences will illustrate how D-LAD can support balanced, transparent, and developmental assessment design in project-based learning contexts.

Each participant will develop a personalised D-LAD assessment map based on a real teaching case. This tangible outcome enables educators to critically analyse and visualise the distribution and balance of assessment practices across the five dimensions, providing a concrete foundation for redesigning assessment strategies, improving feedback and fairness, and strengthening alignment between learning outcomes and professional competencies.

Beyond individual reflection, the workshop creates space for cross-institutional exchange and benchmarking of assessment practices, fostering a shared understanding and a growing community around design education assessment.

Designed for design educators, programme leaders, and researchers seeking to enhance the coherence and transparency of assessment in project-based design education, the workshop also serves as a dissemination and evaluation activity for the D-LAD framework. Participant feedback and workshop outputs will directly inform the framework’s ongoing refinement and wider adoption.

Key outcomes

• Participant-generated D-LAD assessment maps based on real teaching cases, directly applicable to participants’ own educational practice.
• A synthesis report capturing key insights on the practical use of the D-LAD framework and outcomes of the workshop.
• A journal publication addressing contemporary challenges in design assessment and demonstrating how the D-LAD framework can support improved assessment practices through case-based examples.

Chairs:

Sophie I. Hallstedt, Els du Bois, Giliam Dokter, Alessio Franconi and Nazli Terzioglu

Organised by: Sustainable Design SIG

Workshop description:

The objective of this workshop is to examine how current research efforts are addressing contemporary challenges in advancing Design for Sustainability (DfS) in industry and society. The workshop takes as its point of departure the DfS evolutionary framework proposed by Ceschin et al. (2016), marking its ten-year anniversary and using it as a lens to reflect on how the DfS landscape has evolved, how sustainability challenges are currently being addressed, and how future research directions might unfold over the next decade.

The workshop brings together scholars working in the field of DfS, as well as participants with a broader interest in design and sustainability. Through a sequence of reflective and collaborative activities, participants will critically position their own research trajectories within the DfS evolutionary framework, examine how recent research contributions respond to sustainability challenges across different levels, and collaboratively construct future-oriented narratives and actions.

The workshop consists of the following activities:

1. Reflecting on research trajectories: Participants will individually reflect on and discuss in small groups how their own research relates to sustainability and how their focus has evolved over time, using the DfS evolutionary framework to structure the discussion.
2. Mapping current research contributions: Groups will analyse selected DfS-related abstracts submitted to DESIGN 2026, examining how these contributions are positioned within the DfS evolutionary framework and how they address sustainability challenges across different system levels.
3. Building future narratives: Each group will select a key DfS challenge and develop a future narrative outlining how research could contribute to overcoming this challenge between now and 2036.
4. Commitment to action: Participants will identify and write down one or two concrete near-term actions that they commit to pursuing in the six months following the conference. These commitments will be followed up by the conference chairs.

By combining reflection on past developments, critical analysis of current research, and the co-creation of future-oriented narratives and actions, the workshop aims to strengthen the connection between DfS research and societal impact.

Key outcomes

• A deepened understanding of how participant’s research relates to the evolving DfS landscape, along with actionable ideas for how their work can contribute to addressing current sustainability challenges.
• A research roadmap for Design for Sustainability SIG and a summary report documenting workshop outcomes, including insights gained from the follow-up with participants six months after the conference.

Chairs:

John Clarkson, Anja Maier. Maaike Kleinsmann and Valeria Pannunzio

Organised by: Cognitive Design Science SIG

Workshop description:

Are designers truly objective when they design, or are their judgments systematically skewed? How do cognitive biases influence design processes and outcomes? Can some biases enhance creative problem-solving, while others undermine it? As AI and other forms of technological support become increasingly embedded in design practice, do they amplify existing human biases, introduce new and less visible ones, or offer opportunities to detect and mitigate bias more effectively? And how should we—as design practitioners, researchers, and educators—respond?

These questions lie at the heart of the “Mind the Bias” workshop series organised by the Cognitive Design Science SIG. The workshop explores the role of cognitive bias in design thinking, decision-making, and collaboration, with a particular focus on the evolving interaction between human designers and AI-based tools.

This second edition of the workshop welcomes both new participants and returning attendees from the inaugural event held at ICED 2025. Building on insights emerging from the Dallas workshop—where more than 40 participants contributed—the discussion will focus on how designers interact with emerging AI tools used in design practice, research, and education.

The workshop examines a dual phenomenon:

• the emergence of new biases introduced or reinforced by AI tools, and
• the potential of AI to act as a debiasing mechanism, supporting designers in recognising and counteracting systematic errors in judgment and decision-making.

The workshop invites diverse perspectives, including:

• Designers and practitioners, confronting biases in everyday collaboration and interaction with design tools.
• Educators, reflecting on their own biases in teaching design and recognising biases in students’ decision-making.
• Researchers and PhD students, encountering bias when framing research questions, designing experiments, or interpreting data and results.
• Participants seeking reflection, who are uncertain about the extent to which cognitive biases influence their own thinking and decisions.

Through interactive breakout sessions, participants will exchange personal experiences and examples of bias in design contexts. These exchanges will be followed by collective reflection and synthesis, aiming to build shared understanding, identify recurring patterns, and outline opportunities for future research and practice.

By foregrounding lived experience, open dialogue, and interdisciplinary perspectives, the workshop fosters a reflective and inclusive space in which every viewpoint contributes to a richer understanding of cognitive bias in design.

Key outcomes

• A summary report of the workshop, capturing key insights, discussions, and emerging themes.
• A proposal for a joint publication, grounded in a shared research agenda on cognitive biases in design, with particular attention to their interaction with AI-based tools.

Chairs:

Ada Hurst, Christoper McTeague and Niccolò Becattini

Organised by: Health Systems Design SIG

Workshop description:

Health and care systems are increasingly challenged by disruptive events—from pandemics and workforce shortages to climate-related crises. Such disruptions expose vulnerabilities in care pathways and highlight the urgent need for resilience-oriented design approaches. Organised by the Health Systems Design Special Interest Group, this workshop explores how design research and practice can strengthen the resilience of care pathways through collaborative, systems-based approaches.

The workshop is structured around four guiding questions:

• What types of disruptive events most critically affect care pathways?
• What kinds of impacts—clinical, organisational, social, and technological—emerge because of these disruptions?
• Who can and should contribute to building care pathway resilience across academic disciplines and stakeholder groups (e.g. clinicians, patients, policymakers, designers, engineers, and others)?
• What unique perspectives, methods, and tools can design—and members of the Design Society—offer to this challenge?

The session will combine short, invited talks and case examples from health systems design research and practice with interactive breakout discussions. Participants will then engage in mapping exercises to identify key relationships between disruptions and their impacts, as well as opportunities to improve care pathway resilience. A panel discussion will synthesise the insights generated during the workshop and identify directions for future initiatives and joint research projects.

The workshop is open to all conference participants, including those without prior experience in health systems design. It adopts a broad perspective on health systems, encompassing wellbeing and medical technologies, drug development, medical devices, healthcare delivery organisation, and the design of healthcare environments. The session is expected to be particularly relevant for design researchers and practitioners interested in systemic resilience, collaborative innovation, and the design of complex socio-technical systems.

Key outcomes

• Input and foundational material for a future conference paper on care pathway resilience.

Chairs:

Björn R. Kokoschko, Maria Uhari-Pakkalin and Akane Matsumae

Organised by: Desgn Creativity SIG

Workshop description:

This workshop explores the intersection of creativity, awareness, and professional environments, examining how meditative and reflective practices an enhance divergent thinking and creative problem-solving. The session focuses on practical applications within office and professional contexts, investigating how mindfulness-based interventions can be meaningfully integrated into design and creative processes.

Drawing on prior research, the workshop examines both the potential and the limitations of awareness-based interventions. Participants will explore how such practices can support cognitive flexibility, challenge habitual thinking patterns, and foster idea generation at both individual and group levels. Attention is given to the transferability of these methods into everyday professional design settings.

The workshop aims to (1) introduce awareness interventions as tools to amplify divergent thinking, (2) examine their effectiveness through comparative testing and participant feedback, and (3) develop an actionable guide for applying these methods in professional contexts for individuals and teams. In doing so, the workshop also seeks to test, refine, and critically assess prior research propositions, strengthening their empirical and practical validity.

Planned activities

In this structured, hands-on workshop, participants are first introduced to the theoretical background of awareness-based creativity interventions and then guided in applying these methods in practice. The emphasis is on learning concrete tools and understanding how and when to use them to support creative work.

The methodology serves a dual purpose:

• Individually, the interventions stimulate divergent thinking by providing cognitive frameworks that disrupt entrenched thought patterns.
• Collectively, they support group creativity by facilitating real-time idea synthesis and reducing common collaboration barriers such as production blocking.

The session balances practical exercises, guided reflection, and collaborative dialogue. The workshop concludes with reflection sessions in which participants complete short self-assessments and share insights in group discussions, contributing to a collective understanding of mindfulness-based approaches to creativity.

Key outcomes

• Empirical insights into the effects of awareness-based interventions on divergent thinking capacity.
• Replication and critical examination of propositions from prior research, supporting confirmation or refutation.
• Practical knowledge and tools that participants can apply to enhance creativity in individual and group settings.
• Documentation of workshop findings through analysis of group discussions and evaluations.
• A consolidated body of knowledge to support the development of a white paper disseminating the tested interventions and an actionable guide for professional creative practice.