Abstract
COVID-19 has left enduring emotional distress for many citizens even as public attention to the crisis has faded. In this context, participatory design (PD) is increasingly recognised as a dialogic and restorative practice that enables collective reflection and emotional recovery through shared meaning-making. This study examines how participatory design supports citizens in reflecting on pandemic-related psychological distress, with particular attention to war metaphors widely used in governmental and media communications during COVID-19. While these metaphors mobilised collective action, they also intensified perceptions of risk and vulnerability. The research is based on a year-long participatory design project, W&M, involving nine participants, including the author, who experience mysophobia. Through visual ethnography, reflective dialogue, and collaborative workshops, participants explored how personal anxieties intersected with crisis narratives. The study proposes a four-stage framework—understanding, intervention, transformation, and impact—demonstrating participatory design’s potential to foster post-crisis reflection and collective emotional resilience.
Keywords
participatory design, war metaphor, Mysophobia, emotional resilience
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.945
Citation
Zhang, X. (2026) Participatory design as emotional infrastructure: Supporting collective reflection and resilience after the pandemic, 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.2026.945
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Participatory design as emotional infrastructure: Supporting collective reflection and resilience after the pandemic
COVID-19 has left enduring emotional distress for many citizens even as public attention to the crisis has faded. In this context, participatory design (PD) is increasingly recognised as a dialogic and restorative practice that enables collective reflection and emotional recovery through shared meaning-making. This study examines how participatory design supports citizens in reflecting on pandemic-related psychological distress, with particular attention to war metaphors widely used in governmental and media communications during COVID-19. While these metaphors mobilised collective action, they also intensified perceptions of risk and vulnerability. The research is based on a year-long participatory design project, W&M, involving nine participants, including the author, who experience mysophobia. Through visual ethnography, reflective dialogue, and collaborative workshops, participants explored how personal anxieties intersected with crisis narratives. The study proposes a four-stage framework—understanding, intervention, transformation, and impact—demonstrating participatory design’s potential to foster post-crisis reflection and collective emotional resilience.