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NADR25: Utopian or Dystopian Digital Futures
Websitehttps://nadr.nl/yeartheme/utopian-or-dystopian-digital-futures/
Submission linkhttps://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=nadr25
Abstract registration deadlineAugust 25, 2025
Submission deadlineAugust 25, 2025

NADR is the Dutch National platform for Applied Design Research. NADR annualy performs a "knowledge cycle" of which the results are recorded in joint publications. For earlier publications see the NADR website at https://nadr.nl/publicaties/ 

NADR25 is the 2025 knowledge cycle on the topic of Applied Design Research and Artificial Intelligence:

Utopian or Dystopian Digital Futures

Authors are invited to submit a text with a length of approximately 3000 words by 25 August 2025 through the easychair system. Please add your text as a pdf. At least one author per contribution will be required to participate in the collective NADR Event of 20 October 2025, afternoon, in Eindhoven, for the presentation and public discussion of all contributions. 

Submission Guidelines

All papers must be original and not simultaneously submitted to another journal or conference. 

All submissions are preferable co-written between design researchers and design practitioners (or, in case of one author, show evidence of both design research and design practice/design research applied in practice).

As a general guidance, please take into account that for any prospective publication (particularly if it is going to be the next volume in the NADR book series) your contribution will have to remain relevant at the time of publication, which could be in late 2026 (a preliminary release in the form of preceedings is planned for fall 2025).

Please note: The sections on subject and tone and treatment have been adapted following the collective editorial session of 2 April 2025:

Subject

  • Essentials in the evolving relation between Applied Design Research and Artificial Intelligence – approaches, practices, tools
  • Artificial Intelligence, on one hand, offers countless possibilities for design, from pattern discovery over automation of tasks and generation of creative content to hyper-personalization and autonomous agency of inanimate objects. On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence requires to be designed and critically used by both design practitioners and researchers  – human-centrically, ethically, ecologically, iteratively and systemically.
  • What are at this point in time the essential questions emerging from the interaction of design and AI? Can AI be human-centred? Can AI be meaningful in co-design and what are trade-offs?
  • What are the potential negative societal and cultural implications of the interaction of design and AI, and how could they be prevented? Which reframing and experiments may help with that?

Tone and treatment

  • The contribution should be informative and represent an in depth theoretical or empirical engagement with the subject. The information should be well supported by facts and elaborated in figures as appropriate.
  • We would prefer you to use simple business-like UK English, with short sentences.
  • Please avoid any overt marketing of your brand or organization. If at all, these should be mentioned as examples of a point you are making, e.g. illustrating it in the form of case studies.
  • Please add a paragraph detailing the contributions by design researchers (mandatory), design practitioners (mandatory), and AI-tools (if used) at the end of your contribution

List of Topics

Instead of a List of Topics, the first working session on Wednesday 2 April 2025 in Utrecht developed the following routes as suggestions for approaching your contribution:

  • Exploration (e.g. what is creativity anyway?) — Abduction (what could AI be?) — Niche AI (how to move beyond mediocracy/sameness?) — Trade-offs (how to keep identity? how to apply AI in a sustainable, meaningful and ethical way?)
  • What can design/designers see, want, need, fear, hope in/from/of AI?
  • Role of AI (skills extension, quality control, efficiency, assistance, partner, analyst, decision maker, helper with complexity) vs. role of the designer (executing control, meriting trust, adding value(s), holding pride, authenticity).
  • Or: Take an autoethnographic stance: using systematic self-reflection on personal experiences to understand and describe the evolving relation between Applied Design Research and Artificial Intelligence

 

Timeline

  • Submission of inspirational memo's (max. 300 words): 1 March 2025 (COMPLETED)
  • Working session and collective interpretation of the theme: 2 April 2025 (COMPLETED) 
  • Submission of full contributions (approx. 3000 words): 25 August 2025
  • Presentation and collective feedback at NADR Conference: 20 October 2025 (participation of min. 1 author per contribution required)
  • Publication of preecedings at the work conference on 20 October 2025
  • Pending funding and negotiations, a NADR 2025 book publication is envisaged for 2026.

Note that it is possible for new full contributions to be submitted for the 25 August deadline. 

Program Committee

  • Peter Troxler, Hogeschool Rotterdam
  • Anja Overdiek, De Haagse Hogeschool
  • Catelijne van Middelkoop, University of the Arts The Hague, TU Delft, University of Groningen
  • Peter Joore, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences 

Contact

Questions about the process can be emailed to mail@nadr.nl 

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