Design Research and Practice in Organizations: A Summary and Outlook
Richard Buchanan, PhD, Professor in Design & Innovation at Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, is well known for extending the application of design into new areas of theory and practice, writing, and teaching as well as practicing the concepts and methods of interaction design. He argues that interaction design does not stop at the flatland of the computer screen but extends into the personal and social life of human beings and into the emerging area of service design, as well as into organizational and management design.
How Design Research Changes
Chinese Design Education and Practice
Xianghyang Xin, PhD, Professor, School of Design, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China. Xin holds a PhD in Design from Carnegie Mellon University with research interests in interaction design, service design, and strategies for innovation. He looks at how design, both professionally and philosophically, contributes to transformations of lifestyles, businesses and societies.
Xin has spoken internationally and conducted workshops on interaction design and cultural innovation, and served as a jury member on design competitions including GMarkt, IXDA and RedStar. His contributions has been recognized and awarded as the Future Voice of Interaction Design 2015 by the IXDA, 2014 “Silver Metal of Contribution to Design” by Dragon Design Foundation, and 2013 “10 Best Industrial Design Educator of China” from Chinese Industrial Design Association, etc.
What is the role of design in public policy-making?
Enrique Martinez: Enrique is a designer and public sector innovation leader. As Director of Design Education with The Lab at the Office of Personnel Management, he brings an up-to-date strategic design perspective and years of human-centered design and creative process experience to the U.S. Federal Government. At The Lab, he has participated in projects and initiatives in partnership with a number of federal and state agencies, including the General Services Administration, the National Nuclear Security Administration, NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Land Management, or the California Department of Health and Human Services.
Design Theory, Experience Design and Design Strategy for Organizations
Kaja Tooming Buchanan, PhD is Professor of Design Theory, Practice and Strategy in the College of Design & Innovation at Tongji University, Shanghai, China. She is also Director of the Experience Design Lab at the College of Design & Innovation. She works in complex organizational environments with special focus on user research, design theory and strategy. Her interest lies in creative projects that impact organizations and society at large, especially the experience of people in social interaction 
in complex social and cultural environments. She investigates the positive social influence of design through perception, the construction of meaning, and the forms of experience in human interaction and services. She received her Ph.D. in Design from the Faculty of Fine, Applied, and Performance Arts at Göteborg University, Sweden in 2007. Her doctoral work was practice-‐based design research, guided by the strategy of Productive Science and Poetics. As a practicing artist and designer, she has had more than ten solo exhibitions, participated in a dozen international group exhibitions, and she has received more than twenty cultural and research grants and fellowships. Kaja Tooming Buchanan lives and works in the United States.
“By Maria” – An Example of Design Entrepreneurship, Business Model Development and Design Leadership
Catalina Jossen Cardozo graduated with a Master of Arts in Design from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Design and Arts in 2016. For her thesis project in Service Design she developed a new business model for the shoe manufacturing industry, By Maria, based on social sustainability. Her work was awarded with the Excellence Award by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts 2016. In 2017, she received the prestigious BRIDGE funding from the Swiss National Fund and the Kommission für Innovation und Technologie to develop her project further and to set up the business. She is also supported by Social Entrepreneurship Impact & Finance (seif) and by members of women in leadership.