Response times have long been used to reveal the actions products naturally evoke. In a research method, stimulus-response compatibility (or SRC) method, users physically respond to various combinations of products and stimuli. Faster reaction times in some combinations, compared to others, provide quantitatively-backed evidence about users’ natural tendencies and preferences when they see a product. Despite its potential, the SRC method has been used within design research in only a very limited context such as studying affordances of objects that can be gripped. Our aim in this study is to push through these limits and discover other contexts and use-case scenarios SRC might be useful in. Through three different experiments involving 24 participants, we assess the validity of using response times to investigate perceived affordances and product-related associations.

In multilingual and cross-cultural information design, standard grid systems are primarily developed for Western scripts, which can create challenges when applied to Chinese characters. The square-shaped structure of Chinese characters and differences in reading rhythms create gaps in theoretical understanding and practical application of grid systems. In the first stage of this study, cultural grid elements were identified from the Chinese calligraphic Jiege, followed by visual feature coding and parameter configuration. The second phase implements Jiege constructs into parameterised layout rules through parameterisation, modular construction, and the proposed Chinese grid system. The third phase, design validation, applies the Chinese grid system to the UI layout. The fourth phase confirms the usability evaluation of the Chinese grid applied to UI layout through a focus group. The results indicate that culturally responsive Jiege grid parameterization improves hierarchical information recognition, thereby enhancing Chinese user experience and trust during specific tasks.

Design typologies strongly influence engineering outcomes by determining the range of feasible solutions long before detailed design begins. However, contemporary generative design methods primarily optimise parameters within predetermined concepts, providing limited support for exploring fundamentally different behavioural principles and structural organisations. This paper proposes Typology Optimisation (TypO) as a formalisation of a conceptual search-and-selection problem for representing, exploring, and evaluating typological design alternatives prior to prototyping or detailed embodiment. Grounded in the Function-Behaviour-Structure (FBS) ontology, TypO formulates conceptual design in engineering as a heuristic-guided multi-objective combinatorial optimisation (MOCO) problem operating over discrete behaviour-structure configurations satisfying a given functional context. Candidate concepts are represented as many-to-many mappings between function (F), behaviour (B), and structure (S). Constraint satisfaction, morphological reasoning, admissibility predicates and compatibility evaluation are employed to enumerate, traverse, and evaluate the resulting combinatorial search space. The methodology supports systematic comparison and selection of alternative typologies capable of satisfying shared functional requirements through distinct behavioural and structural organisations. By supporting computational completeness and iterative assistance during early-stages of design processes, where decisions exert greatest influence on utility, feasibility, performance, manufacturability and system identity. TypO establishes a methodological foundation for concept-level exploration in generative design workflows.

Extended reality (XR) offers highly immersive experiences. At the same time, users are still embedded in everyday life. Designers need to consider the context of immersive experiences, e.g. being situated within shared physical and social environments. In this paper, we propose the concept of the digital periphery—the hybrid space where immersive XR activity intersects with its physical surroundings. Further, we introduce a scenario-based, embodied co-design method as part of a workshop frame. The method allows for an ethical exploration of this space at an early, pre-solution stage of the design process to surface latent frictions, asymmetries, and ethical tensions between immersed users and those around them. As an output, it generates transferable design knowledge by making dynamics observable, discussable, and negotiable among designers and stakeholders.