F. Del Caro Secomandi
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Editorial
Design philosophy: Amplifying the unheard
At a time of intersecting planetary, social, and epistemic crises, design philosophy must confront a central question: whose investigative ideas and knowledge count? This theme track, Amplifying the unheard, challenges the consolidation of design philosophy into predominantly North Atlantic and Anglophone frameworks. Rather than stabilising the field, it seeks to reconfigure it as a plural, contested, and situated space shaped by diverse cosmologies, practices, and epistemologies. The contributions gathered here move beyond inclusion toward transformation, foregrounding Indigenous, decolonial, posthuman, and practice-based approaches that reconfigure design’s conceptual and ethical conditions. Together, they demonstrate that amplifying unheard voices is not merely additive, but constitutive of new ways of thinking, teaching, and practising design philosophy.
Coerced Recognition through the Service Interface
A Design Ethics Framework for Revealing User Oppression
Equipping Designers for Democracy
Mock Trials in Design Education
Democracy is a formidable concept with numerous intersections in design and, specifically, design education. This reflection explores a pedagogical experiment using the mock trial method and its potential to cultivate basic democratic principles in design students. Mock trials can enhance students’ ability to engage in public debates, articulate their opinions on societal issues, substantiate their viewpoints while respectfully challenging others, and uphold equality in discourse. This innovative approach transforms the traditional design studio into a “courtroom,” where students simulate legal proceedings on real-world controversies, navigating conflicting perspectives while honing their professional expertise. ...
Democracy is a formidable concept with numerous intersections in design and, specifically, design education. This reflection explores a pedagogical experiment using the mock trial method and its potential to cultivate basic democratic principles in design students. Mock trials can enhance students’ ability to engage in public debates, articulate their opinions on societal issues, substantiate their viewpoints while respectfully challenging others, and uphold equality in discourse. This innovative approach transforms the traditional design studio into a “courtroom,” where students simulate legal proceedings on real-world controversies, navigating conflicting perspectives while honing their professional expertise.
Improving shared decision-making about cancer treatment through design-based data-driven decision-support tools and redesigning care paths
An overview of the 4D PICTURE project
Patients with cancer often have to make complex decisions about treatment, with the options varying in risk profiles and effects on survival and quality of life. Moreover, inefficient care paths make it hard for patients to participate in shared decision-making. Data-driven decision-support tools have the potential to empower patients, support personalized care, improve health outcomes and promote health equity. However, decision-support tools currently seldom consider quality of life or individual preferences, and their use in clinical practice remains limited, partly because they are not well integrated in patients’ care paths.
Aim and objectives:
The central aim of the 4D PICTURE project is to redesign patients’ care paths and develop and integrate evidence-based decision-support tools to improve decision-making processes in cancer care delivery. This article presents an overview of this international, interdisciplinary project.
Design, methods and analysis:
In co-creation with patients and other stakeholders, we will develop data-driven decision-support tools for patients with breast cancer, prostate cancer and melanoma. We will support treatment decisions by using large, high-quality datasets with state-of-the-art prognostic algorithms. We will further develop a conversation tool, the Metaphor Menu, using text mining combined with citizen science techniques and linguistics, incorporating large datasets of patient experiences, values and preferences. We will further develop a promising methodology, MetroMapping, to redesign care paths. We will evaluate MetroMapping and these integrated decision-support tools, and ensure their sustainability using the Nonadoption, Abandonment, Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability (NASSS) framework. We will explore the generalizability of MetroMapping and the decision-support tools for other types of cancer and across other EU member states.
Ethics:
Through an embedded ethics approach, we will address social and ethical issues.
Discussion:
Improved care paths integrating comprehensive decision-support tools have the potential to empower patients, their significant others and healthcare providers in decision-making and improve outcomes. This project will strengthen health care at the system level by improving its resilience and efficiency. ...
Patients with cancer often have to make complex decisions about treatment, with the options varying in risk profiles and effects on survival and quality of life. Moreover, inefficient care paths make it hard for patients to participate in shared decision-making. Data-driven decision-support tools have the potential to empower patients, support personalized care, improve health outcomes and promote health equity. However, decision-support tools currently seldom consider quality of life or individual preferences, and their use in clinical practice remains limited, partly because they are not well integrated in patients’ care paths.
Aim and objectives:
The central aim of the 4D PICTURE project is to redesign patients’ care paths and develop and integrate evidence-based decision-support tools to improve decision-making processes in cancer care delivery. This article presents an overview of this international, interdisciplinary project.
Design, methods and analysis:
In co-creation with patients and other stakeholders, we will develop data-driven decision-support tools for patients with breast cancer, prostate cancer and melanoma. We will support treatment decisions by using large, high-quality datasets with state-of-the-art prognostic algorithms. We will further develop a conversation tool, the Metaphor Menu, using text mining combined with citizen science techniques and linguistics, incorporating large datasets of patient experiences, values and preferences. We will further develop a promising methodology, MetroMapping, to redesign care paths. We will evaluate MetroMapping and these integrated decision-support tools, and ensure their sustainability using the Nonadoption, Abandonment, Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability (NASSS) framework. We will explore the generalizability of MetroMapping and the decision-support tools for other types of cancer and across other EU member states.
Ethics:
Through an embedded ethics approach, we will address social and ethical issues.
Discussion:
Improved care paths integrating comprehensive decision-support tools have the potential to empower patients, their significant others and healthcare providers in decision-making and improve outcomes. This project will strengthen health care at the system level by improving its resilience and efficiency.
Service Blueprinting for Better Collaboration in Human-Centric AI
The Design of a Digital Scribe for Orthopedic Consultations
This case study explored the application of the service blueprinting method during the conceptual design of an AI-enabled digital scribe— an intelligent documentation support system—tailored for orthopedic consultations. In this paper, we discuss how this method can be used to enhance collaboration between user experience designers and machine learning engineers. Specifically, we show how service blueprinting can help innovation teams create a common foundation for understanding design challenges, enrich data with user-related insights, and highlight the value of AI capabilities as an organizational resource. Building on recent academic research in the field of human-computer interaction, our findings provide additional insights for addressing the design challenges associated with developing human-centric AI and incorporating service design approaches.
Book Review of Things we could design:
For more than human-centered worlds by Ron Wakkary, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (2021) (2021), 312 p. ISBN 978-0-26-254299-9
A systems design approach to sustainable development
Embracing the Complexity of Energy Challenges in Low-income Markets
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Towards systems-oriented energy solutions
A multilevel analysis of a low-income energy efficiency program in Brazil
There is a consensus among scholars and practitioners that energy solutions, such as electricity services and related products and systems, are paramount to the ability of nations to overcome environmental and social issues. As a result, policymakers and problem solvers in emerging economies have shown a keen interest in the transition to sustainable energy systems. Nevertheless, the design of sustainable energy solutions in low-income markets presents many challenges, such as those related to limited financial resources and poor infrastructure. In lowincome markets, the adoption of a systems-oriented approach to product-service combinations may represent a promising alternative to traditional design approaches and result in a more socially and environmentally sound path to economic development. Building on design theory grounded in systems theory, this paper analyzes multiple aggregation levels of the sociotechnical system of a low-income energy efficiency program in Brazil. In this study, the authors examined findings from the literature, carried out field observations, and had discussions with practitioners and experts. The study identifies constraints that hinder energy solutions that could achieve higher levels of socioeconomic and environmental benefits in low-income energy markets. Based on the findings, the paper provides insights into sustainable energy transitions and concludes that low-income energy efficiency programs can be improved through design-led policy and stakeholder collaboration.