Shuichiro Ogawa
日本語

Notes · updated 2026-08-09

Recent Academic Topics in Design Research (2024–2026): A Literature Map and This Wiki’s Position

An integrative summary of 39 peer-reviewed publications (2024–2026) from the principal journals and conferences of design research / design studies, collected through a lightweight scoping review and mapped into eight clusters. The purpose is to clarify this wiki maintainer’s position: identifying where the wiki’s holdings overlap with the field’s current distribution of topics and where they leave gaps. Full bibliographic details appear in the “References” section below (with DOIs/URLs). The internal ledger with provenance tracking is at source/review/design-research-2024-2026/papers.md (repository-internal, not published). Prior notes: ai-in-design-literature for AI and design in depth, design-research-methods-validity and design-epistemology-methodology-foundations for methodology, design-professions-expertise for the profession, design-education-ai-adaptation for education. Collection pipeline: source-researcher (profile: scholarly) followed by paper-screening-agent. Protocol: .claude/rules/collection-protocol.md (zero fabrication, provenance tracking).

Survey Metadata

  • Collection date: 2026-08-09 / Count: 39 (0 excluded; lightweight scoping prioritizes minimizing omissions)
  • Venue distribution: Design Studies (11), Design Issues (7), She Ji (5), CoDesign (8), Design and Culture (4), Design Science (3), DRS2024 proceedings (2), NordiCHI 2024 (1), other education venues (2)
  • Confidence notes: Zero predatory journals or retracted papers. Two items (DR24, DR25) still lack independent bibliographic re-verification and carry [requires primary verification] (their existence is confirmed via OpenAlex structured responses). DR24, DR36, and DR37 are a special-issue editorial, introduction, and conclusion (editorial pieces), which fall outside regular peer review even in refereed journals. The International Journal of Design and individual IASDR 2025 papers were not collected (see the gaps section below).

TL;DR

The topic distribution of design research in 2024–2026 can be read through three poles. First, AI and design has become mainstream enough to be the subject of systematic reviews in Design Studies itself, where a positioning debate (“is AI a co-creator or a design material?”) runs in parallel with a pessimistic labor critique of AI’s erosion of design as knowledge work. Second, a normative turn (sustainability / decoloniality / pluriversality / more-than-human) has accumulated a substantial body of work centered on CoDesign and Design and Culture, and has begun to intersect with the AI agenda. Third, the field’s self-diagnosis has crystallized in the Design Issues special issue “Design Studies Beyond Design,” which thematizes the disciplinary discomfort of the concept of design expanding beyond the design professions. In the methodology cluster, no paper contesting the status of Research through Design head-on was found within this collection window; instead, adjacent concepts such as design practice research are being consolidated.

Key Findings by Cluster

A. AI and Design Research (10 papers)

  • Systematic reviews now appear in Design Studies itself: DR01 maps 20 years of AI-focused design research and its tensions where AI runs against design; DR03 reviews human-generative-AI collaboration in conceptual design; DR08 (Design Science) examines stage-by-stage AI support from problem definition to evaluation.
  • The central positioning debate is whether AI is a co-creator or a design material (DR02), the same framing this wiki’s earlier survey identified (ai-in-design-literature, P31).
  • At the opposite pole, a critical essay argues that managerialism and generative AI erode design as knowledge work and reasserts the relevance of craft (DR05, She Ji). Optimistic collaboration accounts and pessimistic labor accounts coexist in venues of equal standing.
  • At the periphery, AI concerns spill into other clusters’ normative agendas: contestability of public AI (DR06), responsible LLM use (DR07), decolonial AI practices (DR09), and more-than-human design and AI (DR10).

B. RtD, Methodology, and Epistemology (6 papers)

  • No 2024–2026 paper contesting the status of Research through Design itself was found in this collection (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence; see the scope caveats below).
  • Instead, adjacent concepts are being consolidated: DR12 (Kaszynska & Kimbell) organizes design practice research into two types (situated understanding and networked knowledge production), and DR13 proposes “Research through Co-design” as a research mode of its own.
  • Reinterpretations of wicked problems appear consecutively in She Ji (DR15 Crilly’s flexible characterizations; DR16 Sweeting’s cybernetic reinterpretation), showing that revisiting classic concepts remains a live topic.
  • Also here: rethinking design research ethics through sensory and bodily practices (DR11), and “data thickening” as a new concept in design cognition (DR14).

C. Sustainability / Transition Design (3 papers)

  • Theoretical development in major journals is thin compared with other clusters. The DRS2024 multi-author panel (DR19, including Lockton, Gaziulusoy, and Tonkinwise) is the central document for transition design’s current state, centered on imagination, climate futures, and everyday lives.
  • On the journal side, the work remains topic-specific: a systematic review of sustainability cues (DR17) and a conceptual disentangling of collaborative design for sustainability (DR18).

D. Justice / Decoloniality / Pluriversal Design (6 papers)

  • Concentrated in CoDesign and Design and Culture: decolonising minority language technology (DR20), participatory design of pluriversal futures in Namibia (DR21), a worldbuilding approach to pluriversality (DR22), and reorienting design toward a decolonial ethos (DR23).
  • The distinguishing feature is intersection with other clusters: a hauntological approach to decolonial AI practices (DR09) and an internal critique of more-than-human design as colonial performance (DR25) push this cluster from a standalone topic toward a cross-cutting critical lens.
  • The editorial of Design and Culture’s 2026 special issue (DR24, “Here We Do Not Offer Universal Solutions”) thematizes reflexive and relational practices as a way of doing design research.

E. More-than-Human / Posthumanist Design (2 papers + 2 cross-listed)

  • A standalone paper in Design Studies (DR26, non-human agency in multispecies placemaking), a scoping review from the HCI side (DR27, NordiCHI), and a DRS position paper (DR10) appear simultaneously from multiple communities, indicating the theme is settling in as a cross-community trend.
  • An internal critique from cluster D (DR25) has already emerged, suggesting the topic has entered a maturing phase.

F. Design Education (5 papers)

  • Empirical work on introducing generative AI into curricula dominates: DR28 reports from a survey of 74 design students that generative AI is used “ad hoc”; DR31 tests effects on creativity in early design with 40 students; DR04 examines human-AI co-creativity in design thinking education.
  • Independently of AI, papers arguing for normative pedagogical shifts coexist: mutual aid as a response to competitive design education (DR30) and biodesign as a pathway to sustainable methodologies (DR29).
  • This wiki’s prior notes: design-education-ai-adaptation for curriculum reform and design-education-issues-beyond-craft for educational issues beyond craft.

G. Design Profession and Expertise (4 papers)

  • Critical papers questioning established practice tools and evaluation methods stand out: DR32 (Kolko, “Novelty ≠ Creativity”) critiques psychological measurement of creativity; DR33 interrogates personas and their problems of representation.
  • On the empirical side: reconciling disciplinary contradictions in interdisciplinary projects (DR34) and how design professionals learn in collaborative research projects (DR35).
  • AI is barely mentioned in this cluster. Papers addressing AI’s impact on the profession head-on were not found in this collection; the discussion is dispersed into the education cluster (F) and the AI cluster (DR05 in A).

H. The Field’s Self-Diagnosis (4 papers + 4 cross-listed)

  • The clearest grouping is the 2026 Design Issues special issue “Design Studies Beyond Design” (DR36–DR39, edited by Gruendel & Mareis): defending the disciplinary discomfort of design’s expanding extension beyond the design professions (DR36) and contextualizing the “design turn” as intellectual history (DR38, DR39).
  • The diagnosis that the “design” studied by design research is no longer confined to professional design shows that the field’s own boundary-drawing is a live topic as of 2026.
  • As stocktaking-style self-diagnoses, the 20-year systematic review of AI research (DR01) and the more-than-human scoping review (DR27) serve the same function.

Gaps (Unaddressed Points)

  • Venue bias: The International Journal of Design (Taiwan), the Journal of Design Research (Inderscience), and individual IASDR 2025 papers (523 accepted) were not collected. This map skews toward Western journals (Elsevier / Taylor & Francis / MIT Press / Cambridge); adding Asian venues could change the distribution.
  • Absence of an RtD status debate: No 2024–2026 paper contesting RtD itself was found. Whether the debate has subsided or been displaced into other concepts (such as design practice research) cannot be determined from this collection alone.
  • Theoretical stagnation of transition design: Beyond the DRS panel, few major journal papers claim theoretical advances.
  • The missing AI-and-profession intersection: The profession cluster (G) contains no paper addressing AI’s impact head-on. AI-driven occupational change is a gap in core design research journals, and the discussion may have flowed out to HCI venues (CHI/DIS) and industry discourse.
  • Early stage of the AI-and-normative-turn intersection: The crossings of decoloniality and more-than-human design with AI (DR09, DR10) have only just begun, with little empirical work.

This Wiki’s Position

Overlaying this wiki’s holdings on the field’s eight clusters separates overlaps from gaps clearly.

  • Overlapping areas (4 clusters): A, AI and design (ai-in-design-literature with 37 papers and the monthly watch ai-design-scholar-watch-2026-08); B, methodology (design-research-methods-validity, design-epistemology-methodology-foundations, design-research-methodology-mainstream, qualitative-quantitative-design-research); F, education (design-education-ai-adaptation, design-education-issues-beyond-craft); and G, the profession (design-professions-expertise, designer-career-value-literature). This wiki stands in the quadrant of “methodology, profession, and education, with AI throughout.”
  • Gap areas (3 clusters): C sustainability / transition, D decoloniality / pluriversality, and E more-than-human hold almost no coverage in this wiki. Since this normative turn occupies a large share of the field centered on CoDesign and Design and Culture, this wiki’s map cannot represent the field as a whole. Any text speaking about design research in general must either explicitly restrict its scope to “AI, methodology, profession, and education” or cite at least the representative works of C/D/E (DR19, DR23, DR26).
  • A possible lead (one, qualified): While the field’s profession cluster (G) is thin on AI, this wiki has accumulated AI-and-profession material (careers, salaries, role change) as a primary theme. It may be ahead of core design research journals here, but this judgment cannot be confirmed until the venues this collection missed (HCI and Asian venues) are checked.
  • Connection opportunity: The boundary-drawing discussion thematized by the “Design Studies Beyond Design” special issue is directly usable for positioning the review paper (review-paper-writing-material): acknowledging design’s expanding extension while examining the transformation of professional design aligns with the field’s current discourse.

Unverified Items

  • DR24, DR25 (2 items): individual re-verification against doi.org / Crossref not yet completed (existence and bibliographic consistency confirmed via OpenAlex structured responses) [requires primary verification]
  • DR05, DR07: the peer-review policy for She Ji’s article categories (research article vs. critical essay) could not be confirmed because the publisher pages were unreachable [requires primary verification]
  • International Journal of Design (Taiwan): zero hits in the OpenAlex index for 2024 onward; direct site check not performed [requires primary verification]
  • Journal of Design Research (Inderscience): source could not be identified; not collected [requires primary verification]
  • Individual IASDR 2025 papers: the conference and its 523 accepted papers are confirmed, but individual papers are not yet DOI-indexed and were not collected [requires primary verification]

References

Bibliography follows the collection ledger (accessed 2026-08-09; all DOIs resolve via https://doi.org/). [requires primary verification] marks DR24 and DR25 above.

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