Experience as knowledge contributions
Authors: Nithikul Nimkulrat, Camilla Groth, Spyros Bofylatos, Haian Xue
peer-reviewed conference paper, 2026
“Experience” is at the forefront of the design and making process of artefacts in different ways. In this year’s conference session, we are interested in exploring all the various ways in which experience is informing design and craft practice and processes. Themes presented in the papers closely align with the call, and many refer to either the authors’ own experiences or those of participants or users in the research process for new designs. We could also detect three concurrent orientations and have consequently divided the presentations into these themes. The first orientation concerns sensory experiences and how they lead to experiential knowledge in a theoretical sense. The second orientation is linked to the physical acts of making and prototyping that lead to further embodied understandings of the design space and the material properties that move the design forward. Thirdly, we have authors who reflect on the aspect of co-creating and making with others, or on material dialogues.
Suggested Citation: Nithikul Nimkulrat, N., Groth, C., Bofylatos, S., & Xue, S. (2026). Editorial: Experience as Knowledge Contributions. In L. Simeone, C. M. Gray, A. Verhoeven, A. de Götzen, Y. Bakırlıoğlu, H. Zohar, M. Stead, & P. Buwert, (eds.), Proceedings of 2026 Design Research Society Conference (DRS 2026). 8–12 June, Edinburgh, UK. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.156.
