Abstract
The DRS2026 track titled “Design for business in the wild” examines how design operates within business contexts shaped by uncertainty, resource constraints, organizational complexity, and technological change. Building on long-standing discussions of design’s contribution to innovation, differentiation, user experience, and strategic advantage, the track reflects a shift from demonstrating design’s business relevance to examining the conditions through which design value becomes actionable in practice. The following contributions are organized around three themes: Entrepreneurial Ecologies, Organizational Frictions, and Data, AI & Foresight. Drawing on 12 accepted papers, the track highlights how design for business is increasingly examined through its situated relations with markets, organizations, technologies, and cultures. Together, the contributions suggest a field moving beyond advocacy for design’s business value toward closer study of how that value is created, constrained, legitimized, and sustained in real-world settings.
Keywords
Design for Business, Design Management, Design Entrepreneurship, Design Practice
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.281
Citation
Cheng, P., Carella, G., Liu, S.X., and de Bont, C. (2026) Design and the Public Sector: Contemporary Methods and Practices, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.281
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Design and the Public Sector: Contemporary Methods and Practices
The DRS2026 track titled “Design for business in the wild” examines how design operates within business contexts shaped by uncertainty, resource constraints, organizational complexity, and technological change. Building on long-standing discussions of design’s contribution to innovation, differentiation, user experience, and strategic advantage, the track reflects a shift from demonstrating design’s business relevance to examining the conditions through which design value becomes actionable in practice. The following contributions are organized around three themes: Entrepreneurial Ecologies, Organizational Frictions, and Data, AI & Foresight. Drawing on 12 accepted papers, the track highlights how design for business is increasingly examined through its situated relations with markets, organizations, technologies, and cultures. Together, the contributions suggest a field moving beyond advocacy for design’s business value toward closer study of how that value is created, constrained, legitimized, and sustained in real-world settings.