Promotion lecture - Bijan Aryana, Design & Human Factors IMS

Bijan Aryana’s main research interest lies in rethinking design processes, methods, and tools in response to emerging technological and social trends. Within this field, he has been focusing on design for mental wellbeing and the ways in which diverse digital technologies can support it. He also investigates how participation can be redefined when agentive technologies are involved, not only as the outcome of the design process, but also as active contributors to it. Alongside this core area, he has explored themes such as design for crisis, intercultural design, and collective design across a range of research projects.

Title of the lecture: "Design for Wellbeing: Rethinking Participation"

Abstract:
Digital technologies are increasingly promoted as tools to support mental wellbeing. However, their effectiveness and ethical integration depend not only on how they are designed but also on how people engage in shaping them. Informed participation is a participatory design approach in which users and stakeholders are not merely invited to contribute; they are also equipped with the knowledge, tools, and agency to reframe problems and take ownership of solutions.

Designing for wellbeing today requires more than just co-creating systems. It also demands a critical examination of the types of participation that are possible, desirable, and genuinely impactful. Drawing on research into mobile mental health apps and AI companions for workplace wellbeing, this lecture explores how informed participation goes beyond usability to raise deeper questions about ownership, trust, and meaningful engagement.

Finally, it highlights the unique challenges of applying participatory design to AI systems for wellbeing. As AI technologies are agentive, they do not simply support participation, they can fundamentally reshape its meaning and nature.