Conference Agenda

The advancement of production systems' technology necessitates redefined assessment methods across production stages, addressing sustainability needs. This requires vast, updated data on material and process impacts. European directives, like the Circular Economy Action Plan, promote waste minimization and resource optimization. Research aims to link Italian economic activity classification (ATECO) with the European Waste Catalogue (EWC), facilitating designers with circular alternatives. Design's role is pivotal in aligning stakeholder perspectives and addressing data accessibility challenges. Through a qualitative analysis of the varied data gathered and examined via multiple SWOT analyses, the Research underscores the importance of Design in advocating for a mutual comprehension among different stakeholders. This shed the light on the challenges in accessing and interpreting relevant data, alongside the possible divergent priorities. These initial insights could ultimately encourage new Industrial Symbiosis and innovative supply chains, in which waste can be reused in previously unthought-of applications but which require a design effort to identify the right peculiarities for their valorisation. This Research serves as the first step in this process, creating a common understanding among stakeholders involved in the continuous assessing of products life cycle.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the world’s population over 60 years old will approximately double from 12% to 22% between 2015 to 2050. And yet, the 60+ population has already outnumbered the population below 5 years old (WHO, 2022). In tandem, both lifespan and healthspan have significantly increased due to the advancement of the medical systems, assistive technologies, policies, education platforms, and social infrastructures (Etkin, 2021). The future of well-being needs to consider not just cognitive and physiological health, but financial health as well. In the era of longevity economics (Scott, 2024), the well-being of an aging society depends not just on tailor-made products, but also on meaningful and respectful service design (Schwab, 2016). This paper focuses on the design of longevity planning services to build longevity literacy among recipients of all life stages, starting in their 20s and 30s. Longevity literacy introduces a holistic approach to financial planning for clients prior to retirement to ensure they plan for medical needs, as well as staying socially and intellectually engaged (Barone, 2021).

The purpose of this research is to identify design attributes of a longevity coaching service that are impacted by the form of the service encounter: tech-based and touch-based (Dolata et al., 2019; Giebelhausen et al., 2014; Buchenau & Suri, 2000). Conducted among 12 participants in Boston and Cambridge spanning various life stages (ages 24–70), the research utilized semi-structured interviews. Transcripts from the interviews were processed using ATLAS.ti, a computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), in conjunction with Open AI for coding, analysis, and data visualization. Based on the resulting Sankey diagrams, surveys, and interview analysis, the authors identified ten main keywords in the coding and translated those into six key design attributes to consider in future experiment design: efficiency (ability to adapt to complexity or recover from error), trustworthiness (perceived accuracy), satisfaction (participant perceived service quality), learnability (ease of first-time use), intimacy (feeling safe and comfortable to be vulnerable), and confidence (ability to extend/explore).

This paper explores how design can be used as a process of enquiry in climate research in collaboration with climate scientists. The research discusses the value of design in navigating the complexities of transdisciplinary climate research by engaging with the mess and researching everyday climate actions in urban settings.

The ordinary can be described as the realm of social life where the repetition of daily cycles that we learn is eventually taken for granted. Climate actions that are situated in this ordinary are vital to delivering larger-scale transformations and achieving carbon reductions. However, climate scientists across disciplines often overlook the importance of engaging with the messiness of such climate initiatives – such as understanding how ordinary climate initiatives emerge, impact a place, and move across urban contexts. As a result, academics and policymakers tend to focus on global and high-tech responses to climate issues. However, by shifting our focus on the mundane, we can research and present situated perspectives of climate actions that are crucial to achieving carbon emission reductions and improving resilience to the impact of climate change at different scales.

This paper presents theoretical grounding for design to be used as an integral part of “ordinary” climate research.