11.5 Design for Wellbeing and Happiness

Corresponding Chairs

Leandro Miletto Tonetto & Siyuan Huang

Co-Chairs

Ann Petermans

Rebecca Cain

Abstract

Design for Wellbeing and Happiness is a dynamic and expanding area within design research and practice, responding to growing global demands for human-centered, systemic, and ethically grounded approaches to design. Building on the strong foundation of past DRS tracks in this area, this edition continues to advance the field while placing a particular emphasis on exploring emerging questions and innovative methodologies that push the boundaries of current understanding. This theme track invites contributions that deepen and diversify the field, embracing theoretical and methodological pluralism while critically addressing the complexities of wellbeing in contemporary life. By reimagining everyday experiences and complex systems as sites of human flourishing, this track supports the development of design theory, methods, and frameworks that are ethically grounded, contextually aware, and socially inclusive.

We invite submissions that address:

• Research informed by behavioural science, social and cultural studies, and psychological theory, as well as work applying co-design with diverse communities and inclusive approaches to research and practice.

• Studies exploring subjective and psychological wellbeing, human flourishing, happiness, emotion, and behaviour change — across sectors such as education, mobility, the built environment, and healthcare, focusing, in the case of healthcare, on research that addresses the subjective aspects of human experience, human values, and fundamental needs.

• Contributions that reflect diverse global perspectives, challenge normative assumptions, and promote equity, recognizing that wellbeing is culturally and contextually defined.

• Research integrating emerging technologies while critically considering their ethical, social, environmental, psychological, and cultural implications.

Keywords

Design for Wellbeing, Design for Happiness, Positive Design, Design for Behaviour Change

References

Desmet, P., & Fokkinga, S. (2020). Beyond Maslow’s Pyramid: Introducing a typology of thirteen fundamental needs for human-centered design. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 4(3), 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/mti4030038

Desmet, P. M. A., & Pohlmeyer, A. E. (2013). Positive Design: An introduction to design for subjective well-being. International Journal of Design, 7(3), 5–19.

Huang, S., Desmet, P. M., & Mugge, R. (2025). Introducing the Fundamental User Needs (FUN) Scales: Assessing need satisfaction and frustration in design-mediated interactions. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2025.2450415. 

Petermans, A., & Cain, R. (Eds.). (2020). Design for wellbeing: An applied approach. Routledge.

Smits, M., Ludden, G., Peters, R., Bredie, S. J., Van Goor, H., & Verbeek, P. P. (2022). Values that matter: A new method to design and assess moral mediation of technology. Design issues, 38(1), 39-54. https://doi.org/10.1162/desi_a_00669