Contributions

NORDES 2025 welcomes a variety of contributions and offers a range of types of submissions. Please note that conference follows a full delivery format with well formed and professionally edited texts. To build quality in design research, we encourage colleagues to have had their contribution read and reviewed by one of their peers or a supervisor. Templates for each type of contribution are given in the link below.

Each contribution type will be co-chaired by a select team from the Programme Committee that will arrange reviews. Each anonymous submission will be anonymously reviewed by two peers. Extensions will be given only in exceptional circumstances.

Template for all contributions:

Full papers

Co-chairs: Alma Culén, Einar Sneve Martinussen, Nevad Pavel, Minna Pikkarainen, Heather Wiltse

Details
This submission category invites original and mature research and results positioned in relation to existing research literature. Full papers represent the current frontier of knowledge in the design field. Full papers may take the shape of a range of formats and thetorical styles depending on the nature and character of material presented. In this type of contribution to NORDES, we ask that authors pay especially close attention to the conference theme and to ways design inquiry may address and develop it – academically, pragmatically and professionally – through creative and critical engagement.

Full Papers are limited to maximum of 10 pages (excluding abstract and references). Please limit the file size to 5 MB or less, use the relevant NORDES template and follow its guidelines for preparing your submission.

Submit papers at the latest 14 February 2025.

For further inquiries on this submission category please contact the Co-chairs.

When accepted for review each submission will receive a minimum of two peer-reviews addressing strengths, weaknesses, originality, and significance of the submission. If the submission is accepted for publication, authors are expected to adopt suggested improvements as noted by reviewers and the conference programme committee. A final submission must be fully language edited.

Evaluation
Full papers will be reviewed based on:

Curiosity and expansion: The conference aims to invite curiosity and expansiveness in interpreting its theme. Authors should explain their interpretation of the theme clearly to enable reviewers to make sense of the contribution for the design research community.

Originality and articulation: Originality refers to ways the output introduces a new way of thinking about a subject, is distinctive or transformative compared with previous work in the design field. Articluation concerns ways the purpose of the work is clearly connveyed as design research. It includes how the inquiry is positioned theoretically, and how appropriate methodologies, methods and techniques have been selected, applied and re-considered. Important too is reflection on how processes and documentation are presented to show that the purpose has been achieved.

Clarity and communication: A paper needs to be clear in its focus, argumentation and supporting research and situated practices. Communication is understood as the ability to convey the focus in choice of research probelamtics and questions, selections of format and genre, and uses of relevant text, visuals and other means. A paper needs to be readable and fully language edited.

Exploratory papers

Co-chairs: Joanna Boehnert, Enrique Encinas, Astrid Marie Heimer, Henry Mainsah, Laura Popplow, Nicolas Torretta

Details
The exploratory papers category functions as a channel through which emergent research topics and approaches may be investigated before becoming acknowledged or established in the broader design research community.

Here we invite submissions in forms such as, but not limited to, design cases, design fictions, design critiques, pictorials, annotated portfolios, as well as more traditional short papers. Whether text-driven or visual, submissions will differ in format because each seeks the most effective way of presenting an intended contribution to the theme and research community. A submission needs to connect its purpose, argument, claims and design work, together with the mode of inquiry selected.

While exploratory, this is still a research paper category. Submissions must refer closely to the conference theme and include a clearly communicated topic, questions and supporting design-based research linked to clear methods, hopefully, with strong foundation in empirical data. We encourage authors to investigate existing and novel concepts in the search for new theoretical openings, possibly drawing new linkages between nearby disciplines.

We ask authors to use the NORDES template as a basis, and we strongly recommend exploratory papers to be no longer than 3000 words (excluding abstract and references) with a maximum file size of 5 MB.

Submit papers at the latest 14 February 2025.

For specific inquiries on this submission category please contact the Co-chairs.

Evaluation
Submissions will be reviewed with respect to novelty and quality of the research contribution, the consistency, clarity and effectiveness of the presentation, and the contribution paper’s relevance for the conference theme.

Accepted papers will be published in the digital archive. As part of building the NORDES research community and the formats of exploratory papers, we may ask scholars who submit papers to also review others’ work.

Workshops

Co-chairs: Angeliki Dimaki-Adolfsen, Onkar Kular, Vibeke Sjøvoll, Mari Suoheimo, Danielle Wilde, Signe Louise Yndigegn, Christina Zetterlund

Details
Workshops will run for a maximum of 3 hours. Workshop proposals need 2 components: a Workshop Description and a Practical Overview. The Workshop Description frames the direction of the exploration, its significance and relevance, as well as the research basis for the workshop. The Workshop Description will be included in the Nordes 2025 Proceedings as a peer-reviewed publication. Following the related NORDES paper template, a Workshop Written Description must be a maximum of 3 pages (excluding abstract and references) and not exceed 5 MB.

The Practical Overview is submitted in addition to the Workshop Description. This provides a summary of the practicalities for running the workshop. Please include in the overview the workshop title; motivation; length of the workshop (we suggest a half day or a full day); a tentative programme; a minimum and maximum number of participants; anything participants need to bring; preferred set-up (including space, equipment, supplies, etc.); support needed (technology, materials or other assistance). Please note how you will deal with any related ethical issues, consent and data privacy. The submission will also be evaluated as to whether it can be achieved practically, so this element of the submission needs to be carefully prepared.

Submit papers at the latest 14 February 2025.

Evaluation
Workshop proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Experimental nature: Exploration of a novel and compelling aspect of design research and/or practice that challenges the current boundaries of the field and reveal ways of knowing and becoming that emerge or are otherwise overlooked.

Clear planning: The goals, structure and plan for the workshop are clearly presented with explicitly stated expectations regarding resourcing and realistic support needs.

Research basis: Evidence of scholarly positioning in a relevant area of design research; connections drawn between practical explorations in the workshop and theoretical concepts and implications.

Exhibition

Co-chairs: Arild Berg, Synne Skjulstad, Nicholas Stevens, Einar Stoltenberg, Joshi Suhas

Details
We welcome the submission of artifacts of various types (physical, digital, prosessual, performances, posters etc) that must be accompanied by an explanatory and notational and analytical research framed text (maximum 3000 words excluding abstract and references). All contributions to this category of Design Research Exhibitions must be fully formed, whether conceptual or completed. All costs for shipping and main materials are to be covered by contributors. Curating will be selective and devised by a dynamic on-site team.

Evaluation
This contribution type will be included in the Proceedings and must provide a research context, related literatures and works, clear link to the conference theme, and an analyis and reflection on what ‘exhibition’ does and means in conducting and communicating design inquiry.

Submit papers at the latest 28 February 2025.

Doctoral Consortium

Co-chairs: Martina Čaić, Sisse Finken, Maria Göransdotter, Julia Jacoby, Satu Miettinen, Josina Vink

Details
Doctoral researchers are encouraged to submit work for consideration in any of the main conference types, including this one. Submissions in categories other than the Doctoral Consortium need to be fully prepared with supervisors and co-authors for anonymous submission to anonymous research review at an international level. 

In contrast, the NORDES Doctoral Consortium (DC) offers PhD students a full-day, on-site and dedicated space for sharing and discussing design research work-in-progress and for learning and engaging fellow students and established researchers. The event follows the main conference so that doctoral candidates may draw on experiences, insights and dialogues from the wider NORDES community.

The DC is a venue that works with specific doctoral research projects and positions them in the wider regional and international contexts of design research. The DC supports the generative character of doctoral research and contributes to shaping topics, themes, perspectives, content and methods, along with building networks between students and with larger research projects and institution. The DC also functions as an arena for rehearsal and preparation of material for research publication. Supervisors are welcome to attend.

Submission
To participate, you are invited to submit a short position paper relating your PhD research. The position paper should be no more than 500 words, ceinclude design work , be mo more than 5MB in size, and contain the following elements:

– A summary of your PhD project
– A discussion of how it relates to, or how you would like it to relate to, the NORDES design research community
– A description of short-term and long-term plans for the continuation of your PhD project.

Here are some tips for writing your position paper:
– Refer to the general Call for Contributions
– Think of the initial submission as the start of a conversation with peers from the design research community
– Engage your supervisor/s in thinking about what you want to get out of the Doctoral Consortium and how you could shape your initial submission
– Be sure to fully edit your submission
– Follow up the revision of your paper with your peers and supervisor/s.

Submit papers at the latest 28 February 2025.

Evaluation
Position papers will be reviewed by the co-chairs of the Doctoral Consortium.
We will review your submission for suitability to the NORDES design research community and the conference theme.
Following  presentations, feedback and reviews will be given by fellow students, attending supervisors and senior design researchers. Revised papers are to be submitted to the co-chairs one month after the event (by Monday 15 September 2025).
Preparing, presenting and revising your contribution qualifies for 3 ECTS credits. Final revised position papers will be compiled in a NORDES Doctoral Consortium 2025 booklet (but will not be included in the Conference Proceedings) to be circulated in autumn 2025.