115th CAA Annual Conference, New York, NY.
In Person Format.
Submission Deadline: August 31, 2026.
We invite abstract submissions on presentation topics relevant to Communication Design research. Submissions should fall into one or more of the following areas: scholarly research, case studies, creative practice, or design pedagogy. We welcome proposals on a variety of topics across the field of communication design.
Submissions are double-blind peer-reviewed. Reviewers’ feedback will be returned. Accepted presentation abstracts will be published on the Design Incubation website.
Accepted researchers will be required to produce a 6-minute videotaped presentation that will be published on the Design Incubation channel. The CAA conference session will consist of 6-minute presentations and a moderated discussion.
The session will involve a 6-minute presentation from each accepted submission researcher, followed by a moderated group discussion.
115th CAA Annual Conference: In Person New York Hilton 1335 6th Ave New York, NY 10019 February 3–6, 2027
Presentations and Moderated Discussion.
Presenters will follow the basic membership and fee requirements of CAA.
We are accepting abstracts for presentations now until August 31, 2026.
Borami Kang Graduate student MFA Candidate in Design Research and Development The Department of Design The Ohio State University
Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly Large Language Models, is increasingly embedded as incremental features within familiar design research platforms such as Google, Miro, Notion, O’Reilly Media, and Zoom, rather than options. While promised as productivity enhancements, their effects on researcher attention, agency, and sense-making remain unexamined. Drawing on theories of behavioral nudging (Thaler &Sunstein), persuasive technology (Fogg), and human-centered AI (Shneiderman), this study examines these effects through the concept of AI nudges — interface-level cues and automated behaviors that subtly steer user decisions in purposeful ways. As AI becomes part of the background infrastructure of design research, understanding these micro-dynamics in different research activities is essential for both researchers managing their own practice and platform designers committed to responsible AI.
To study the micro-dynamics, the researcher conducted structured self-observation across five widely used platforms, performing core research tasks including literature search, synthesis, writing, reference review, and meeting documentation. Ten-minute sessions were recorded using screen capture, audio, and think-aloud protocols. Data were analyzed using Think-Feel-Say-Do (TFSD) empathy mapping at five time points per session and compared across platforms.
Across sessions, a consistent trajectory emerged: initial curiosity rapidly shifted to confusion, disorientation, and diminished control. Four themes were identified: (1) AI features appear as visual defaults rather than user-invoked options; (2) emotional states shift from engagement to fatigue as interventions accumulate; (3) automatic activation limits opportunities to pause or reverse actions; and (4) AI suggestions redirect inquiry away from original research intentions.
These findings suggest that current AI implementations reshape and frequently erode researcher agency not through explicit control, but through continuous, designed redirection. This paper contributes an analytical framework for examining AI-mediated research environments and proposes alignment between perceived and actual agency as a measurable criterion for responsible human-centered AI design.
Systems thinking, ethical responsibility, and resource stewardship.
Cindy Raspiller Lecturer San Jose State University
Climate resilience is rarely taught in visual communication design curricula, despite the growing recognition of design’s role in addressing environmental challenges. This research investigates why this gap persists and how climate resilience can be meaningfully integrated into design education. The Shift Deck is a pedagogical tool based on this research that empowers educators to introduce shifts toward climate resilient design into their teaching.
Analysis of the mixed-methods research approach–including literature reviews, curriculum analysis, survey data, and 24 semi-structured interviews–indicated that climate resilient design methodology is rarely taught in visual communication curricula because it is not physically substantial in nature, is considered academically separate from design, and professors feel unprepared to teach it.
These findings were synthesized into three interconnected frameworks that bridge theory, curriculum structure, and practical implementation. The 7 Mindsets of Climate Resilient Designers are student-facing learning objectives that define knowledge and practices necessary to build climate resilience, such as systems thinking, ethical responsibility, and resource stewardship. The 5 Levels of Sustainability Pedagogy in Design Education reflect degrees of student engagement with sustainable concepts and practices within the context of curriculum; from sustainability as passive content to sustainability as critical inquiry. Finally, the project’s design guidelines support instructors in practical application of the Shifts.
The frameworks informed the development of The Shift Deck: 27 small steps–or Shifts–educators can take to include climate resilient strategies in their assignments. Refined through interactive prototyping and student-centered co-design workshops, this bottom-up approach allows educators to advocate for climate resilient design practices without completely overhauling their pedagogy.
Built on prior work in sustainable design and pedagogy, including McDonough and Braungart’s Cradle to Cradle and David W. Orr’s Ecological Literacy, The Shift Deck offers conceptual frameworks and practical tools to position climate resilience as an accessible and actionable dimension of contemporary visual communication design education.
Better health outcomes for women by increasing health education
Holly Strickland Assistant Professor Middle Tennessee State University
As women’s reproductive health continues to be a source of mystification and misinformation, there are limited opportunities for women to exchange their health stories in a manner that promotes reflection and dispels misinformation. This study investigates how these stories could be disseminated through a digital product, Care-Stories, to improve women’s health outcomes and education. Following a Consciousness-Raising focus group, I designed Care-Stories to replicate the productive story exchange and relatability present in the CRG. To populate the Care-Stories site with stories, I am continuing to collect women’s reproductive health stories using a survey to learn more about the day-to-day impact of health events. The women’s ability to seek out stories to gain insight and awareness, along with the researcher’s ability to analyze submissions to learn more about women’s health experiences, shows that Care-Stories can serve not only as an intervention but also as a research method. This presentation will examine the research conducted to create Care-Stories, as well as ongoing research to understand how the duality of Care-Stories can lead to better health outcomes for women by increasing health education, normalizing reproductive health topics, and fostering a sense of relatability among women.
Event date: Friday, June 26, 2026
Time: 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST
Format: Virtual/Online
Colloquium Attendee Registration
Please register here to attend the upcoming DI colloquium.
Event date: Friday, June 26, 2026 Time: 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST Format: Virtual/Online
Moderators
Cat Normoyle Director of Peer Reviews, Design Incubation Associate Professor East Carolina University
Dina Benbrahim Associate Professor of Graphic Design University of Connecticut
Presentations
Design, Identity, and Social Contexts
This session brings together projects that explore how design engages with identity, lived experience, and social context. The work examines how design can support care, representation, and belonging, while addressing complex cultural, political, and community-based issues.
Hanna Ji Graduate student Master of Design Program University of Arkansas
Moderated Discussion
Design Pedagogy, Process, and Systems
This session focuses on how design is taught, structured, and practiced across different contexts. The presentations explore pedagogical approaches, process-driven methods, and emerging tools, highlighting how designers build frameworks that shape learning, research, and professional practice.
The online Academic Abstract Writing Program2026 at Design Incubation offers a series of activities that will help design researchers craft a written synopsis of their research. The outcome(s) goals include a concisely written document, typically expected of academic publication venues. This includes conferences, journals, grant applications, publishers, and academic organizations.
The program is designed along two tracks:
The first track is for design faculty who are new to academia and want a program that will help them navigate the academic publication venues.
The second track is aimed at design faculty who have established their research agenda and activities and would like to explore ways to broaden their scope of publication opportunities.
Event date: Friday, June 26, 2026 Format: Virtual/Online Location: ZOOM
We invite current and recent communication design graduate students to submit abstracts of their design research, creative investigations, and productions. The work can cover a broad range of topics, including but not limited to graphic design, typography, branding, illustration, photography, videos, motion graphics, advertising campaigns, websites, UX/UI designs, animations, and other visually communicated design products and solutions. The work should have been completed within the past 3 years. This is a virtual online event format. Abstracts can be submitted online now for peer review.
There is a $10 conference fee required per research abstract submission for non-members. Please submit only one abstract per colloquia. The conference fee is waived for active annual members. Find out more about our annual memberships.
Researchers will videotape their 6-minute presentations which will published online in advance of the colloquium. The video recording is due by Friday, May 22, 2026. We encourage all attendees to watch the videos in advance of the moderated discussion.
Event date: Friday, June 26, 2026 Format: Virtual/Online Location: ZOOM
We invite designers—practitioners, creators, and educators—to submit abstracts of design research, creative investigations, and productions. This is a virtual online event format. Abstracts can be submitted online now for peer review.
There is a $10 conference fee required per research abstract submission for non-members. Please submit only one abstract per colloquia. The conference fee is waived for active annual members. Find out more about our annual memberships.
Researchers will videotape their 6-minute presentations which will published online in advance of the colloquium. The video recording is due by Friday, May 22, 2026. We encourage all attendees to watch the videos in advance of the moderated discussion.
A panel discussion by design scholars about their research journeys.
Designing Your Research Agenda (DYRA) 5.1 Friday, April 17, 2026 1:00PM EST Virtual Event
Designing Your Research Agenda (DYRA) is a panel discussion and open forum for design scholars and researchers to discuss aspects of their research agendas. We aim to open a dialogue regarding the challenges of discovering one’s design research inquiry. DYRA is a design research webinar series.
Presentations plus an open Q+A and informal discussion.
Some of the questions we are asking our panelists include:
How did you determine your research agenda (high level timeline of your career/trajectory)
How do you define research and why do you think it matters/for society, the field, yourself?
How do your department and institution define and support the work you do?
How would you describe/categorize your department and institution?
If you were going to position your work within a category, would you say your research addresses: design theory, design history, design practice, design research (traditional graphic design, speculative design, UXUI, typography, AR, VR, creative computing, design solutions, etc.), design pedagogy, or something else?
What barriers (if any) exist at your institution or in the field for creating and disseminating your research?
This event brings together academics from various stages in their careers and from different types of institutions. We hope that by sharing experiences, we can support others on their journeys.
Lesley-Ann Noel Dean of the Faculty of Design OCAD University
Lesley‑Ann Noel, PhD, is a design researcher, educator, and Dean of the Faculty of Design at OCAD University. Her research centers on equity-focused, community-led design, drawing from critical race theory, decolonial practices, and participatory methodologies. She investigates how positionality, lived experience, and local knowledge shape design inquiry—and how design researchers can cultivate agendas that are responsible, relational, and grounded in context. Her work includes developing reflective tools such as The Designer’s Critical Alphabet and the Positionality Wheel, which support designers in articulating values, motivations, and epistemological commitments within their research programs. Across her global practice in the Caribbean, Brazil, the U.S., and Canada, she champions pluriversality, social change, and the expansion of who gets to produce design knowledge. She is the author of Design Social Change and co-editor of The Black Experience in Design.
Robert Harland Reader in Urban Graphic Heritage Loughborough University
Rob holds a PhD in Architecture (Social Sciences) from the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham (2011) and an undergraduate degree in Information Graphics from Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham (1986). His transdisciplinary research explores urban heritage through the lens of graphic design, under the guise of urban graphic heritage.
He co-leads a team who launched the TOWN Observatory in 2025 and was subsequently invited to join the UN-Habitat Global Urban Observatory steering committee. In the same year he became deputy lead for Loughborough University’s UNESCO Chair in Storytelling Education for Sustainability, having joined the university’s renowned Storytelling Academy.
Known also for his interest in graphic design studies, he has led several funded projects with NGOs in Australia, Brazil, China, South Africa and United Kingdom. Recent collaborators include United Kingdom National Commission for UNESCO, Nelson Mandela Foundation, David Roche Gallery, and Loughborough Library Local Studies Volunteer Group.
Kelly Salchow MacArthur Professor Michigan State University
Kelly Salchow MacArthur is a Professor of Graphic Design at Michigan State University, and currently an Honorary Visiting Researcher at University College Cork (Ireland). She received her MFA in Graphic Design with Honors from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and BS in Graphic Design Magna Cum Laude from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. Before joining the faculty at MSU, she taught at Kansas City Art Institute, RISD and The College of New Jersey.
Kelly’s design practice and creative research focus on environmental awareness, advocacy and action. Her work has been disseminated internationally through exhibition, design award, conference, and publication, and is included in several permanent collections. She is President Emerita of the international design organization, United Designs Alliance and AIGA Detroit. She is a 2-time Olympic rower, a 2-time Olympian Artist, and a Member of the IOC’s Culture and Olympic Heritage Commission.
