Abstract
Loneliness has become a prominent public health issue that causes negative consequences at both individual and social levels. Concurrently, the market is actively responding and gradually forms the loneliness economy, addressing human emotional needs by offering related products and services. However, the largely implemented digital solutions remain problematic. This paper aims at investigating how design research has addressed the loneliness issue and what roles design plays in addressing loneliness. A mixed methodological approach was adopted, combining analysis of keyword co-occurrence and a meta-narrative review. The results identify the threefold design contributions: building and enhancing social connectedness, creating artificial companions and social agents, and developing novel tools and participatory methodologies. The analysis also highlights the dual impacts of tech-based design interventions: design not only as a loneliness mediator but also a producer. In response, the paper proposes the PAT framework to advance effective and ethical methodologies in designing for human emotional well-being.
Keywords
design; loneliness; tech-based intervention; well-being
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2328
Citation
Liu, J., Giambattista, A., and Di Lucchio, L. (2026) Design for well-being: A preliminary investigation on design interventions in the context of loneliness economy, 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.2026.2328
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Design for well-being: A preliminary investigation on design interventions in the context of loneliness economy
Loneliness has become a prominent public health issue that causes negative consequences at both individual and social levels. Concurrently, the market is actively responding and gradually forms the loneliness economy, addressing human emotional needs by offering related products and services. However, the largely implemented digital solutions remain problematic. This paper aims at investigating how design research has addressed the loneliness issue and what roles design plays in addressing loneliness. A mixed methodological approach was adopted, combining analysis of keyword co-occurrence and a meta-narrative review. The results identify the threefold design contributions: building and enhancing social connectedness, creating artificial companions and social agents, and developing novel tools and participatory methodologies. The analysis also highlights the dual impacts of tech-based design interventions: design not only as a loneliness mediator but also a producer. In response, the paper proposes the PAT framework to advance effective and ethical methodologies in designing for human emotional well-being.