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1. Design Philosophies
1. Design Philosophies
This theme focuses on the past, present and possible futures of design’s theoretical articulations. It addresses the ways in which discourses, paradigms, as well as philosophical perspectives established themselves in connection to design conceptualisations, processes, practices, and materialisations. Design ontologies, design epistemologies and design axiologies are going to be discussed from the perspective of their modes of existing.
2. Design, Politics and Social Aspects
2. Design, Politics and Social Aspects
Design engages the existing political and social structures in many possible ways. Designing might exhibit a conscious or unconscious, deliberate or non-deliberate approach to and impact on the existing political and social structures. This theme aims to address design’s possible forms of political and social engagement and their impact.
3. Design, Management, Economy and Beyond
3. Design, Management, Economy and Beyond
This theme explores how design drives and shapes economic and organizational transformations. It examines the role and impact of design in creating value, fostering innovation, and guiding strategic change across industries and markets. At the same time, it acknowledges that design and its impact extend beyond markets and management: it is inestricably embedded in social, cultural, political and environmental contexts. The focus is on inclusive and diverse understandings of what it means for design to have impact as a managerial and cultural force for businesses and organizations, and as a catalyst for plural, systemic, and globally relevant transformations.
4. Design and Systems
4. Design and Systems
This theme explores how design increasingly engages with complex, interconnected challenges, understanding the world as a network of relationships and structures that make the act of designing inherently systemic. It recognises the consolidation of systemic design (the intersection of systems thinking and design) while seeking to expand beyond it, embracing plural ways of engaging with this intersection. Scholars whose work reflects this paradigmatic shift — across diverse design outcomes (e.g., products, services, communication, organisations, and policy) — will find in this theme a space to share, debate, and develop their contributions.
5. Design and More-than-Human
5. Design and More-than-Human
After a momentum in which centered-human-design was one of the core topics of the design research field, the “more-than-human” perspectives started to articulate more clearly in the recent years. This theme engages the ways in which designing processes beyond human reach are perceived and integrated in human existence, as well as the way in which human design impacts the world we are living in.
6. Design Mediations
6. Design Mediations
Design research is a field that analyzes the paths taken by the constructivist and generative approaches. The articulation of the acquired knowledge, its transmission and mediation is not neutral and requires in itself a careful investigation. This theme looks into the issues raised by design research mediation, its modalities, purposes and tools.
7. Design Technologies
7. Design Technologies
Technical innovation has always been central to design research, serving as a bridge between fundamental inquiry and applied practice. This track engages with both emerging and established technologies, examining their technical requirements and limitations, societal relevance, successes, and shortcomings. It invites contributions that interrogate the processes through which desired and implemented changes unfold, and explores how technology-driven interventions, their scaling up processes can be enhanced through rigorous testing, critical investigation and user feedback.
8. Design Education
8. Design Education
Design education has been a foundational concern of the field since its inception. Questions around what should be learned, what can be taught, and how design education should be structured have followed diverse trajectories. These discourses have evolved in response to shifting socio-technical contexts and emerging pedagogical paradigms. This theme addresses the current challenges facing design education, inviting reflection on its future directions and design education’s formative potential.
9. Design Materials
9. Design Materials
Design practices cannot be detached from materials and practices used to address human needs and build our environment. This theme addresses aspects related to design materials and looks into the changing nature of the concept of materials over the past 50 years, as well as materials’ actualisations, highlighting diverse forms of material expressions and emerging material ecologies.
10. Design and Sustainability
10. Design and Sustainability
This theme addresses the evolving relationship between design and sustainability, recognizing design as both a driver of change and a field shaped by ecological, social, and economic challenges. It explores how design practices can foster systemic transitions, support regenerative models, and enable more equitable futures.
11. Design Principles
11. Design Principles
This theme explores how design engages with and responds to aspects of wellbeing, inclusion, and care across diverse contexts. It examines how design shapes experiences that support human dignity, equity, and quality of life, while addressing the needs of diverse bodies, abilities, and cultures. The theme also encourages critical reflection on the ethical and social responsibilities of design and how we need to engage in inter/transdiciplinary practices to tackle some of these challenges.
12. Design Aesthetics
12. Design Aesthetics
As a discipline that forms, gives shape and engages human constructive contingencies, design engages not only with materials, tools and methods that enable transformation, but also with the modalities, perceptions and sensitivities engaged by the resulting objects, experiences, services and design expressions. This theme explores the nuanced and multimodal forms of design interventions, their reception, and the critical reflections they provoke.
13. Situated Track
13. Situated Track
This theme track proposal is new to DRS2026 and situates design research in the local environment, providing cases and examples of design research being undertaken that are locally situated and relational to place. This theme track provides an opportunity for researchers contributing new insights to our research community based on the unique opportunities presented by the local context, whether that is related to climate, culture, geography, economics, or institutional. The emphasis on this theme is to learn from locally situated cases of design research through projects undertaken “in situ” that demonstrate a sensitivity and understanding of the local context in which they are taking place, raising both awareness of specific local design requirements in lieu of general principles and frameworks, while also highlighting the diversity and plurality of the communities (and their respective local knowledge) in which we operate, and how that impacts design research. For DRS2026, our situated design cases will be drawn from the proximity of Edinburgh and, more generally, Scotland.
14. Open Track
14. Open Track
This track welcomes contributions that do not fit neatly into the defined macrothemes but enrich the field of design research. It provides space for emerging topics, experimental approaches, and boundary-crossing inquiries that challenge established perspectives and open new directions for the community.
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