Workshop 2
Workshop 2
Designing with Situated AI: Exploring and Operationalizing Context Dimensions
Designing with Situated AI: Exploring and Operationalizing Context Dimensions
Monday 6 July 2026, 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Prof. Christopher McComb, Carnegie Mellon University
Dr. Christopher McTeague, Technical University of Munich
Prof. Guillaume Gronier, Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology
Prof. Samia Ben Rajeb, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Design stands at a pivotal moment preceding a major transformation of its practices. The rapid rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) positions the design field at a crossroads, characterized by both enthusiasm for new creative opportunities and critical reflection on its implications for professional practice, expertise, and knowledge. In GenAI systems’ current form, both empirical studies and designers’ experiences converge on a central limitation: a lack of situatedness. GenAI systems often operate without sufficient awareness of the specific context in which design unfolds, including material constraints, organizational dynamics, stakeholder perspectives, embodied practices, and tacit knowledge. While situatedness has long been recognized as fundamental in design theory and practice, it remains unclear how such situated dimensions can be meaningfully captured, represented, and communicated to AI agents in Human-GenAI co-design settings.
This workshop addresses this emerging challenge by combining experiential learning and methodological development discussions. The goals of the workshop are to:
Enable participants to experience both situated and non-situated AI interactions through a structured role-play serious game;
Identify and refine operationalizable dimensions of situatedness in Human-GenAI co-design.
Rather than treating situatedness as an abstract concept, the workshop seeks to translate it into concrete, researchable and actionable dimensions that can inform both empirical studies and the development of future AI-supported design systems. Participants will move from abstract discussions of situatedness to clearly defined and operationalizable dimensions. These may include contextual embeddedness (integration of project-specific constraints), social situatedness (awareness of stakeholder perspectives), temporal situatedness (adaptation to design phases), and epistemic situatedness (support for tacit knowledge and expertise). Each identified dimension will be translated into observable indicators, measurable research variables, and concrete design requirements for future Human-GenAI systems.
Participants will gain:
A deeper understanding of situatedness in contemporary design contexts;
First-hand experience of how differing levels of contextual integration affect Human-GenAI collaboration.
Workshop Format
The workshop is highly interactive and structured around discussion, experiential role-play, and collaborative synthesis.
Introduction and ice-breaker – 15 minutes
Presentation of the workshop objectives, structure, and key concepts from GenAI and from our review synthesis on situatedness. A short ice-breaker activity will help participants initiate interactions.
Plenary discussion: unpacking situatedness – 20 minutes
Participants collectively articulate preliminary (“working”) dimensions of situatedness based on a provided review synthesis of situatedness and on their theoretical and/or practical knowledge. These initial dimensions will serve as a baseline for the next steps.
Serious game: experiencing situated vs. non-situated AI – 65 minutes
Participants engage in a structured role-play in pairs of two (the workshop chair will join a group in case of an odd number of participants).
Introduction to the scenario and roles
Round 1: Non-situated AI interaction
Round 2: Situated AI interaction
Collective debrief
The debrief will focus on identifying differences experienced across the two rounds and surfacing additional dimensions of situatedness that emerged through this hands-on experience.
Subgroup work: operationalizing situatedness – 25 minutes
Participants will form subgroups, each focusing on one or two identified dimensions of situatedness. The task is to transform conceptual dimensions into operationalizable elements, such as:
Observable indicators
Design principles
Interaction requirements
Research variables or methodological tools
Collective synthesis and presentations – 80 minutes
Each subgroup presents its outcomes to the full workshop. A shared physical synthesis (e.g., post-its, clustering, and mind mapping) will be developed in real time to consolidate a first structured framework of situatedness dimensions.
Closing – 5 minutes
Summary of key insights gained through this workshop. All dimensions, operational definitions, and synthesis materials will be documented. With participants’ agreement, the results will form the basis of a working paper on situatedness dimensions in Human-GenAI co-design.
The workshop is open to all DCC participants. Prior knowledge of fundamental design theories and/or personal experience with design practice is beneficial but not required. The workshop is designed to foster dialogue between researchers interested in design theory, AI-supported design, Human-AI collaboration, design cognition and emerging methodological questions in design research.
All attendees at the workshop need to register either as an addition to the DCC'26 conference registration at a cost of €27.50 (€25 + VAT), or if not registered for the conference at a cost of €55 (€50 + VAT). Please go the DCC'26 Registration page to add this workshop to your registration.