DRS future

The DRS Annual Report 2020 now is available for download. It includes the Chair’s Report from Peter Lloyd, as well as reports on governance, finance, membership, communications and DRS Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

Following a vote to change our constitution in January of 2020, we held elections in May to vote on a new International Advisory Council (IAC) of 18 members, which is now chaired by Professor Paul Hekkert. At the first meeting of the new IAC, held in July 2020, five members of the IAC were elected to the new Executive Board, and Peter Lloyd was elected to the position of Chair of the Society to lead the DRS over the next two years. We held our biennial conference, DRS2020, which was originally due to take place in Brisbane, Australia, online due to the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic. In December, we launched our Open Access Digital Library, which has publications from virtually all previous DRS conferences and can be used as a resource for the field of design research. 

 The  DRS Festival of Emergence will be a major event this year, alongside promotion for the  DRS 2022 Conference in Bilbao.

For full details, please download the DRS Annual Report 2020 below.

Nominated Candidates for DRS Elections 2020

Voting for DRS Elections 2020 opened this week on Monday. We’re pleased to announce that 41 candidates were nominated to stand for the new DRS International Advisory Council (IAC). Candidates come from 17 countries across 5 continents and range from PhD candidates to internationally recognized design research leaders.

You can download the statements of all candidates, including their vision for the DRS and their research background, along with their nominator's statement here.

DRS Annual Report 2019

The DRS Annual Report 2019 is available for download below. It includes the Chair’s Report from Peter Lloyd, acting chair of the DRS and a report from Honorary Secretary Rebecca Cain. There are also reports on finance, membership, communications, events and DRS Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

2019 was a significant year for DRS leadership with the proposal of a new governance structure in January. Design Studies, the academic journal of the Society, celebrated its 40^th year and announced an increased impact factor, reinforcing its high ranking in the field of design research. Although there was no DRS biennial conference, there were many exciting SIG events. This included PedSIG’s Learn X Design Conference, the EKSIG 2019 Conference and the OPENSIG book launch for Tricky Design: The Ethics of Things.

The DRS enters 2020 in a good financial position and with growing website visitors and social media followers. The DRS Elections and the DRS2020 Conference in Brisbane will be major events this year.

DRS Elections 2020: Call for Nominations

We are pleased to announce that nominations to stand for the first International Advisory Council (IAC) of the DRS are now open. The DRS seeks 18 ambitious design researchers to form the new IAC and contribute to creating a truly international and inclusive Society to progress the field of design research. We encourage DRS Members from all parts of the world to consider standing for election, particularly those with a vision about how design research should develop, and awareness of the Society’s ambitions.

The benefits of serving on the IAC include:

• Influencing the field of Design Research;
• Being part of a network of design research leaders;
• Access to financial support to progress initiatives;
• Entitlement to stand for a role on the Executive Board;
• Career development that enhances your CV.

Nominations must be submitted by 5 pm BST on Thursday 9 April. Further details about the 2020 DRS Elections and the nomination process are available here.

Equal Opportunities

The DRS celebrates and supports diversity for the benefit of our members, our services, and our community. The DRS is proud to promote equal opportunities in all the activities that it organizes and supports.

DRS Votes 'Yes' to New Governance Model

Following a unanimous vote at Tuesday's Special General Meeting, the DRS will undergo structural changes that will make the Society more inclusive, international, and influential. In a first for the Society the General Meeting was held entirely online which allowed members to join from as far away as Australia, Chile, and the US. 

The DRS Council will now become an International Advisory Council (IAC) of 30 members from which 5 members will form an Executive Board. Liaising with the Executive Board, IAC members will form working groups in strategic areas to further the aims of the Society and progress the discipline of design research.

Additional changes include term limits for Executive Board and International Advisory Council positions and an emphasis on virtual meetings. The DRS Administration team will also grow, adding to current Administrator, Online Editor and Publications and Archive Editor roles.

This restructuring follows discussions with members at the Future DRS meeting (DRS2018) and votes at the 2018 AGM. It reflects the future vision of the Society defined by DRS members and the current Interim Advisory Council. The structure of the DRS has changed little since its inauguration in 1966 and we feel it is time to evolve in response to current needs and the changing nature of the design research discipline.

More news will follow about the new roles that will be available, the upcoming elections, and the transition to the new structure.

A Special General Meeting (SGM) of the DRS will be held on Tuesday 21st January 2020 from 11:30-13:30 GMT. 

DRS Members voted in favor of a new governance structure at the AGM in January 2019. This new structure will allow the DRS to become a more effective, inclusive, and international organization. 

The purpose of the upcoming SGM is to vote on the proposed rule changes that will enable the new governance structure to come into force.

For the first time we will be holding a general meeting entirely online to enable remote participation for as many DRS members as possible. The meeting is an important milestone that affects the future of the Society. All members are encouraged to attend and place their vote.

Visit the SGM event page to register, view the agenda, and download meeting documents.

Chair’s Update, August 2019

Summer is conference season and I had the pleasure of attending the Learn X Design conference in Ankara this July. This is the biennial conference for our Pedagogy Research SIG (PedSIG). What a fantastic experience it was, both in the research that was presented, the people that came from all over the world, and the outstanding social events. Talking about design education research in a Turkish Hammam was a particular highlight. So a big thanks to Naz Börekçi, Fatma Korkut, and Dalsu Özgen Koçyıldırım and all at METU for their excellent organisation and hosting. You can read more about the conference here.

Above: Photo at the closing of Learn X Design 2019

In September I look forward to meeting some of you at the IASDR conference in Manchester. IASDR connects different societies of design research across the world and is a great opportunity to forge new collaborations and partnerships. In other news, the improved governance model for the Society is reaching the final stages of approval by Council and will make us a more international and inclusive Society. Further information about this will be available in the coming months. We hope also to officially launch the DRS2020 conference in Brisbane in the coming weeks.

Above: DRS2020 logo

I’m also pleased to announce that the journal of the DRS, Design Studies, has increased its impact factor in the past year, rising to 2.78 and keeping us right at the top of design research journals. Finally, I would like to encourage members who have made significant contributions to the design research field to apply for Fellowship of the Society, this recognises important contributions of individuals and can enhance your external profile.

Author

Peter Lloyd, Acting Chair of the DRS Interim Advisory Council

As announced in the May DRS Member's Newsletter, a DRS Special Session will be held at the 2018 DRS Conference in Limerick. This will take place on the last day of conference - Thursday 28 June, 12:45 - 14:00 in room KBG12. All DRS Members are invited to attend this session, where Council will report to members and begin discussion on the future of the DRS.

To be an international and representative community committed to promoting and developing design research, DRS Council believes the Society needs to engage in a more interactive and participatory way in setting future directions. However, the challenges in achieving this in contemporary contexts need to be recognised. As a starting point we propose to focus on four themes and conversations that will begin at the Special General Meeting.

So please come to this Special Meeting and help influence the future direction of the Society! If you're not coming to Conference (and even if you are), we encourage you to give us feedback directly using the online form.

Future DRS Feedback Form

You can also comment on the Future of DRS discussion Forum or email us directly: admin@designresearchsociety.org

Look out for further opportunities to engage during conference by following us on Twitter.

2019 begun with fundamental changes for the DRS. At the Annual General Meeting in Manchester in January those present voted in a new governance structure that will mean we can properly represent our international membership and allow us to work on a wider range of issues and challenges for design research. 

At the Council meeting following the AGM the previous Chair, Tracy Bhamra, signalled her intention to step down and, after a vote, I was happy to be elected as Acting Chair of an Interim Advisory Council while we work towards formalising the new structure. When this is complete, later this year, we will put out a call for members to stand for election. I would like to thank Tracy for her excellent leadership of the DRS over the past couple of years and she remains as part of the Advisory Council.

Following the AGM a number of other people have stepped down from Council and I would like to thank them all for their dedicated service: Kristina Niederrer, Arno Verhoeven, Nithikul Nimkulrat, and Keelin Leahy.

In their place I would like to welcome two new members to Council: Ming Cheung, Professor of Experience Design at Griffiths University, Brisbane, who is the conference chair for DRS2020 (details to be announced soon) and Emmanuel Tsekleves from Lancaster University, convener for the new Global Health Special Interest Group. Welcome both!

We are currently looking at bringing PhD Researcher representation to council by co-opting two student members. This will mean we will begin to cater for what is becoming an increasingly large part of the DRS, the student membership body.

Above: Photo from the AGM, January 2019

In March the DRS contributed to a second meeting of the Montreal Design Declaration, a worldwide consortium of design organisations focussed on working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Alongside other design research organisations, such as IASDR and the Design Society, we put the case for design research to be an integral part of meeting these challenges. Partnership working will be key to the success of the DRS over the coming years and it is our intention to be present at more events like this in promoting the value of design research.

 Above: Photo from the second Design Declaration Summit, April 2019 

The DRS SIGs continue to be a healthy area of development for the society. In the past month we have approved two new SIGs: Global Health and Pluriversal Design and now offer an annual fund for SIG development activity. Three well established SIGs have been involved with significant events. SIGWELL recently held a well-attended event at TU Delft, OpenSIG is launching Tricky Design, a book conceived at our DRS2016 conference, at the Design Museum in London, and we look forward to Learn X Design, the biennial conference for PEDSIG at METU Ankara, Turkey in July.

Above: Photo from the SIGWELL Conference, April 2019 

So I’m happy to report that the DRS is currently in good health and focussing on an extended range of aims and objectives. I will be at Learn X in Ankara and hope to meet any other members that are attending.

Author

Peter Lloyd, Acting Chair