Abstract
This paper emerges from a reflection on what counts as success in design. We examine how the relational qualities of care can guide design practice, approaching design as a continuous and socially embedded practice of responsiveness. Drawing on two projects in China, an age-friendly digital service initiative and a community governance intervention, we analyse how design unfolded through incremental adjustments, shared responsibilities, and situated betterments. Across both contexts, value developed through chains of responsiveness involving institutional uptake, resident participation, and evolving collaborations that extended the influence of the work beyond the designers’ immediate involvement. By bringing design into dialogue with Mol’s logic of care, the paper approaches design practice as a form of relational maintenance, through which designers help sustain the networks that allow concerns to surface, be recognised, and be carried forward. From this perspective, design contributes to making things better by supporting ongoing and collective processes of responsiveness.
Keywords
Social Design; Care Ethics; Logic of Care
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2933
Citation
Yao, R., Lin, Z., and Wu, Y. (2026) Reframing design success: Care as a chain of responses, 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.2026.2933
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Reframing design success: Care as a chain of responses
This paper emerges from a reflection on what counts as success in design. We examine how the relational qualities of care can guide design practice, approaching design as a continuous and socially embedded practice of responsiveness. Drawing on two projects in China, an age-friendly digital service initiative and a community governance intervention, we analyse how design unfolded through incremental adjustments, shared responsibilities, and situated betterments. Across both contexts, value developed through chains of responsiveness involving institutional uptake, resident participation, and evolving collaborations that extended the influence of the work beyond the designers’ immediate involvement. By bringing design into dialogue with Mol’s logic of care, the paper approaches design practice as a form of relational maintenance, through which designers help sustain the networks that allow concerns to surface, be recognised, and be carried forward. From this perspective, design contributes to making things better by supporting ongoing and collective processes of responsiveness.