Design Research for Change Symposium
\nDesign Museum, London
\nWednesday 11 and Thursday 12 December 2019<\/p>\n
A quick search of the word \u201cdesign\u201d reveals hundreds of different definitions. Likewise, there are many different designers \u2013 different disciplines, different attitudes, different goals, different agendas, different ways of working, different ways of doing research, different outputs, and different values. Perhaps, however, the connection between all of these diverse activities is the iterative development of products, services, systems, experiences, spaces, and other stuff in order to improve the human experience. In other words, using the power of human creativity to improve humanity.<\/p>\n
Today, with its application across a wide range of different disciplines and fields, the design is being used to help address significant, complex, and global issues ranging from antimicrobial resistance to mobility, from healthy ageing to migration. And with its inherent agility and applicability, design helps shape the technological advances which are transforming the world around us.<\/p>\n
In recent years, design research has witnessed a \u201csocial turn\u201d where researchers have looked to make a change in social contexts as opposed to wholly commercial ends. This \u201csocial turn\u201d has encompassed a range of activities and interventions that constitute a more \u201csocially-driven\u201d form of design, which suggests that researchers and practitioners from non-design disciplines are central to realising the change in social situations.<\/p>\n
The Design Research for Change (DR4C) symposium will examine this \u201csocial turn\u201d in design in detail and explore how design is increasingly involved in social, cultural, economic, environmental and political change. The DR4C Symposium will highlight the significant roles that design researchers play in some of the most challenging issues we face, both in the UK and globally, such as creating new products with reduced environmental impact, design research that enhances policy-making through greater citizen involvement, gaming interventions that prioritise the rights of girls and women to live a life free from violence, and design research that helps address recidivism by reframing prison industries as holistic \u201ccreative hubs\u201d.<\/p>\n