DRS 2024 Keynote Events
Monday, June 24th:
Opening Ceremony
Kick off the conference with opening remarks from the conference organizers and partners.
More details are coming soon.
Design Research Leadership in Business
Jadalia Britto is the Head of Design for North America at Colgate-Palmolive. She also teaches Design Leadership in the Master’s Program at Georgetown University.
Speakers:
Mahsa Ershadi, PhD, is a behavioral researcher who has led 60+ studies and authored 10+ publications. She works as a UX Researcher at Microsoft AI.
Susan Fabry is the VP, Design Research & Experience at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology building capabilities in Innovation Strategy, Systems Thinking, and Design Research.
Lee Moreau is a Professor of the Practice of Art + Design at Northeastern University College of Arts, Media and Design and the Founder and Director of Other Tomorrows.
Design is well positioned as a driving force in many business organizations, large corporations especially, codified in roles like Chief Design Officer or Head of Design. Design is directly involved in, and often leading, the process of shaping the vision and the strategy of a company. Still, design is often intended more as a practice—at different levels, from new product development to design thinking—and less as a systematic, both fundamental and applied, research approach, thus limiting its potential for long term, radical innovation.
What is a working definition, and a potential role, for design research, or research through design, in the business context? How can universities, research centers, companies and other organizations partner to shape meaningful, viable, sustainable, and socially relevant innovation? A panel of experts from companies and academic institutions will discuss those questions with DRS attendees.
Description:
Tuesday, June 25th:
Design Research Leadership in Government
Nayeong An is the Team Leader of the Safety Design Team at the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP).
Speakers:
Sir Geoff Mulgan is Professor at University College London, former CEO of Nesta & director of the UK Government's Strategy Unit, trustee of the Design Council & author of many books.
Shin-pei Tsay is the Director of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM) for the City of Boston.
Paolo Ciuccarelli is the Founding Director of the Center for Design and a Professor of Design at Northeastern University.
During this keynote panel, different leaders will discuss governmental and public support to design research and, in turn, how design research can and should support policymaking. What are the key considerations for governments when allocating (or deciding to allocate) funds to design research initiatives? Can successful design research positively impact government policies and public services? In what ways can governments foster socially relevant innovation through strategic investments in design research?
Description:
Design for Recovery
Giorgia Lupi is an information designer and a Partner at Pentagram advocating for Data Humanism.
Speakers:
Lee Moreau is a Professor of the Practice of Art + Design at Northeastern University College of Arts, Media and Design and the Founder and Director of Other Tomorrows.
In this keynote presentation, information designer and Pentagram partner Giorgia Lupi will share her unique and, at times, deeply personal data visualization work, focusing on her ongoing recovery from Long Covid. Three and a half years and two subsequent infections later, Lupi’s recovery was the catalyst for an influential data visualization project recently published as a Visual OpEd in the New York Times. Following Lupi’s presentation, she will discuss her work in conversation with Lee Moreau, Professor of the Practice of Art + Design at Northeastern University College of Arts, Media and Design.
Description:
Wednesday, June 26th:
REFLECTIONS: Designing with Complexity in Civic Spaces
Rachael Dietkus is a social worker-designer who specializes in trauma-informed research in social work, design, and technology. She advocates for an ethic of care and trauma-responsive practices in global collaborations.
Speakers:
Chelsea Mauldin is a social scientist and designer with a focus on government innovation. She directs the Public Policy Lab, a nonprofit organization that designs better public policy with low-income and marginalized Americans.
Whitney Robinson is a Product Manager at The White House, where her focus is on improving CX for mothers with young children. She is also the mind behind The Renée, a design lab that amplifies the voices of women of color, providing them with a platform to drive solutions for better maternal health at the community and organizational level.
Izzie Zahorian is a Design Lead at the U.S. Digital Service where she partners with agencies across government to improve the accessibility and usability of their services.
The public sphere is the site where designing within complex, multi-stakeholder environments is often most fraught and challenging, yet impactful. In this nuanced keynote, Chelsea Mauldin from the Public Policy Lab, followed by Rachael Dietkus, Whitney Robinson, and Izzie Zahorian from the U.S. Digital Service will share challenges and insights gained from researching and designing with and for civic spaces.
Design shapes our interaction with government services, which are crucial during significant life events. These pivotal moments often hinge on accessible government services, yet many find themselves entangled in a maze of websites, offices, and contact numbers just to utilize essential services. Every touchpoint with the government is a chance to demonstrate how thoughtful design can save time, enhance service quality, and meet the high standards of public expectations.
Join the U.S. Digital Service design and product leads as they discuss the work being done across the White House Executive Order on Transforming Customer Experience to Rebuild Trust in Government. They will share their work across three Life Experience projects, Having a Child, Facing a Financial Shock, and Recovering from a Disaster, and will provide insight into the challenges of balancing complex policies and stakeholders with improving the public’s experience with government, as well as what an applied design research practice looks like at the highest levels of federal government.
Description:
Situated Research: Designing The Practice-based PhD
Speakers:
Jeffrey CF Ho, Associate Professor, Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design
Michael Arnold Mages, Assistant Professor and Core Faculty, Center for Design, Northeastern University
Ramia Mazé, Professor of Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability, London College of Communications, University of the Arts London, UK
Sarah Teasley, Professor of Design, Associate Dean Research & Innovation (Design), RMIT University
Martin Tironi, Director of the School of Design, Associate Professor of Design, Catholic University of Chile
This panel will explore the future of doctoral research in design, focusing on the integration of practice and theory. Panelists will discuss the nature of practice research and practice-based PhDs in Design, reflecting on their experiences as candidates, supervisors, and researchers in a range of geographies and contexts. The conversation will explore how designerly approaches create knowledge, the impact of reflective practice, the interplay between research methods and design practice, and the nature of collaborations between Design practice research and other disciplinary approaches to knowledge generation. The panel will highlight the diversity of methodologies and critically explore the contributions to knowledge that can emerge from practice-led inquiries as an indicator of a rich and fertile ground for knowledge production in Design. This conversation aims to foster sharing and discussion and contribute to current and future developments in doctoral studies in design, fostering innovative ways to merge practice with scholarly research.
Description:
Thursday, June 27th:
REsistance: Alternative reimaginings of AI
Dr. Beth Coleman is Associate Professor of Data & Cities at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and Faculty of Information, University of Toronto. Beth’s research focuses on artificial intelligence & smart technology, urban data and civic engagement, and transmedia arts.
Speakers:
Laura Forlano, a Fulbright award-winning and National Science Foundation funded scholar, is a disabled writer, social scientist and design researcher. She is Professor in the departments of Art + Design and Communication Studies in the College of Arts, Media, and Design at Northeastern University.
Eryk Salvaggio is a researcher and new media artist interested in the social and cultural impacts of artificial intelligence. His work, which is centered in creative misuse and the right to refuse, critiques the mythologies and ideologies of tech design that ignore the gaps between datasets and the world they claim to represent.
This conversation brings together two perspectives on artificial intelligence (AI) in order to understand current discussions about technology and humanity. What are the mythologies, promises and perils of AI in the current moment? How might these technologies be used by designers and how might they impact the field of design? Who is included and who is excluded in these definitions? How might we re-imagine these technologies—ethically, expansively and artistically—around particular communities and notions of difference? In what ways might these technologies support human and non-human flourishing? What are the most exciting examples of AI being used today? Why should we embrace these technologies and, on the other hand, should we resist them?
Description:
Friday, June 28th:
REIMAGINATION: Design, Performance,
and Improvisation
David Brown is Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He works on The Available City, the potential of Chicago’s city-owned vacant lots as a community-driven collective space system, urban design, a future we can have today.
Speakers:
Kristian Kloeckl is a designer and Associate Professor at Northeastern University’s Department of Art + Design and the School of Architecture, and director of the Experience Design Lab.
Dr. Ilya Vidrin is Assistant Professor of Creative Practice Research and faculty at the Institute for Experiential Robotics at Northeastern University. Ilya’s work engages with and investigates ethics of physical interaction, including the embodiment of care, trust, cultural competence, and social responsibility.
Design has a legacy focus on solving problems, reducing effort and discomfort to improve user-friendliness and convenience. This perspective, based on an imperative of planning and control, has encountered limits in a world characterized by uncertainty and radical change. This panel shifts the focus away from design as a solutions-centered practice, opening up a conversation that brings in performative approaches to design based on improvisation. The conversation will also touch on how to productively engage with risk, play, diversity, and openness in the ways we practice and think of design. The panel will include a short fragment of “Proxies,” a performance incorporating music, dance, wearable technology and data visualization.
Description:
closing ceremony
Wrap up the conference with closing remarks from the conference organizers and partners.
More details are coming soon.
