Evolving Engagement
Evolving Design Practices - Integrating Human-Centred Methodologies in Perth's Small-Scale Graphic Design Projects: Adapting to Systemic Approaches for More Effective Client Engagement and Sustainable Solutions View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Eko Pam,
Erica Mason
Graphic design, as a discipline, has continually evolved to meet the shifting needs of clients and industries. While its application in large-scale projects is well-documented, there is limited literature on smaller-scale graphic design projects, particularly in geographically isolated regions such as Perth, Western Australia. In Perth, graphic designers are often hired to produce artefact-driven outputs like websites, business cards, or brochures. The broader strategic value of graphic design skills tends to go underappreciated. Additionally, holistic, human-centred design methodologies, such as service design, are perceived as more valuable yet are frequently seen as complex and lacking clear frameworks for application. This research investigates how holistic, human-centred design processes can be applied to small-scale graphic design projects typical of Perth. It also explores the potential for graphic designers to move beyond artefact creation to embrace more integrated, systemic approaches. The findings indicate that increasing complexity in project problems requires contemporary methodologies such as design thinking and service design, which engage human-centred approaches. However, Perth-based designers face challenges in adopting these methods because they are often poorly defined and difficult to explain to non-designers. Tools such as the double diamond framework, while useful, can also be problematic if followed too rigidly. This study argues that designers struggle to communicate the value of holistic methodologies to clients, underscoring the need for clearer, more adaptable design processes in Perth’s small-scale project landscape.
Digital Twins in Public Services and Stakeholder Engagement for Systemic Innovation View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Mariia Ershova,
Lorenzo Imbesi,
Viktor Malakuczi
Public sector organizations face the dual challenges of constrained budgets and increasing citizen demand for accessible, high-quality public services. The Digital Twin (DT) approach offers significant potential for optimizing processes and enhancing decision-making. However, current implementations predominantly focus on technical aspects, often neglecting the human dimension. The contribution investigates how Service Design (SD) can address these challenges by incorporating Human-Centered Design and Systemic Thinking into DT development for the Public Sector. The focus is on optimizing DT implementations through stakeholder engagement, ensuring these systems are efficient and collaboratively designed to meet diverse user and organizational needs. While SD has been introduced in DT projects, its application has often been limited to economic frameworks, such as value creation through service-dominant logic. Additionally, Interaction Design—a discipline within SD— primarily focuses on interface development in DT projects rather than broader systemic applications. These gaps highlight the need for a conceptual model emphasizing SD’s capacity to align DT implementations with user and stakeholder priorities. Through a literature review, this study develops a conceptual model for integrating SD into DT projects for the Public Sector, emphasizing stakeholder engagement. The model was applied in a case study of a Public Building with DTs for resource optimization, where SD methods were employed to engage key stakeholders, focusing on their interactions with the DT system. Findings show how SD-driven stakeholder engagement aligns DT projects with organizational goals, enhances workflows, and addresses human-centered priorities, while research challenges remain in variability across public sector contexts.
Life-centred Design: Compassion in Action View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Vatsal Agrawal,
Melanie Flory
Compassion is fundamental to human and planetary survival, continuity and flourishing. Advances in psychology and neuroscience have significantly increased our understanding of compassion as a core human trait with substrates of cooperation, caregiving, altruism, morality and inclusion. Neuroimaging studies investigating physiological characteristics and chemical activity of the brain reveal that neural-correlates of compassion-based thinking and behaviours are specific. traceable and distinct from lab-controlled cruelty trait expression. In simple terms, the brain is wired for compassion and cruelty. This evidence coupled with the growing global worldview of compassion as a core value, attitude and motive in designing for change, inclusion, security, accessibility and dignity, directly calls designers to incorporate compassionate thinking and behaviours in their design endeavours. This in turn, inherently necessitates designers to reach beyond a human-centered approach to a life-centered design approach whereby consideration of the needs, wellbeing, pain-points and systemic place and belonging of all life forms and the planet’s welfare and sustainability are all core considerations of the design process. In this exploratory paper, we treat compassion as the foundation for life-centred design in which diverse perspectives, futures imagination and anticipatory betterment are central to the inclusive design paradigm. We draw on evidence-based neuroscience and psychology underpinning emotive, cognitive and behavioural correlates of compassion, and the human capacity for development and deliberate activation of compassion-based traits in the professional practice of designers. We conclude with a discussion on what this approach could mean and entail for designers, design thinking and design research.
