Abstract
With the emergence of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, wearable design is gathering renewed interest. Although design has an obvious role to play in developing wearables for user acceptance, the understanding of the role of design in wearables is fragmented and poorly understood. Through a scoping review, we highlight the fragmentation of the wearable research field and the lack of design-led approaches to developing wearable devices. To augment this lack of design literature, we analyze six design cases. The result reveals a key tension: wearable practice is rapidly expanding into interdisciplinary, speculative domains, blurring evaluative boundaries. To bridge this gap, we propose a descriptive radar mapping model. This model functions as a shared map to address the field's fragmented cognition. By providing a framework to navigate diverse approaches, it enables unbiased critique from researchers and more comprehensive thinking from designers, thus better articulating design's significant role in the future of wearables.
Keywords
Wearable Design; Interdisciplinary Design; Design Framework; Design Futures
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.904
Citation
Hou, J., Page, R., and Khoo, C. (2026) Positioning wearable design: Research-practice gaps and a practice-informed model, 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.2026.904
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Positioning wearable design: Research-practice gaps and a practice-informed model
With the emergence of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, wearable design is gathering renewed interest. Although design has an obvious role to play in developing wearables for user acceptance, the understanding of the role of design in wearables is fragmented and poorly understood. Through a scoping review, we highlight the fragmentation of the wearable research field and the lack of design-led approaches to developing wearable devices. To augment this lack of design literature, we analyze six design cases. The result reveals a key tension: wearable practice is rapidly expanding into interdisciplinary, speculative domains, blurring evaluative boundaries. To bridge this gap, we propose a descriptive radar mapping model. This model functions as a shared map to address the field's fragmented cognition. By providing a framework to navigate diverse approaches, it enables unbiased critique from researchers and more comprehensive thinking from designers, thus better articulating design's significant role in the future of wearables.