Transforming Design Matters

摘要

The topic “Transforming Design Matters” emerged in 2016 from initial conversations among scholarly researchers and practitioners in the United States andCanada who share an interest in design as a force for intentional change. The grouphas a common interest in transforming and improving artifcial systems by investigating material and symbolic interventions that shape future livelihoods. Unlikenatural systems, artifcial systems—including health care, urban mobility, food security, tourism, social media, automation, energy, sustainable development, socialjustice, and education—are human made, and are primarily responsible for shapingcontemporary society. Design has been fundamental to shaping artifacts—such asproducts, services, and communication tools—and environments in all these systems. The new frontier in design is to explore artifcial systems and multi-systemsintegration, with the goal of envisioning alternative futures and the infrastructuresyet to be designed to support those futures. This theme issue aims to present original work that can help delineate the theoretical and practical boundaries of whatmight become design research and practice of artifcial systems.