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Workshop Information

Background

Semantic Stopsigns and Practical Barriers

GenAI introduces real, pressing challenges around sustainability, skill development, intellectual property, labor displacement, and so forth. However, these can easily become oversimplified into what we refer to as "semantic stopsigns": catchy, reductive statements that halt deeper engagement by framing the topic in absolute terms.

Examples include blanket statements like "AI will make students lose essential thinking skills" (which may lead educators to ban GenAI outright) or "AI is unsustainable" (which ignores possibilities for reduced resource footprints). While these concerns contain partial truths, they often function as barriers that prevent deeper inquiry and thoughtful integration.

Beyond conceptual barriers, design researchers also encounter practical stopsigns that stall progress in real-world contexts. These include implementation challenges, workflow disruptions, and organizational barriers that persist despite technological advancements.

Critical Optimism Approach

We embrace critical optimism, originally developed by Anna Byskov, as our guiding perspective. Applied to GenAI, this mindset holds that meaningful understanding emerges through hands-on engagement—experimenting, playing, prototyping, and embedding these technologies into design practice. Rather than adopting uncritical acceptance or wholesale rejection, critical optimism encourages designers to probe new technologies directly while remaining alert to their effects, limitations, and broader social contexts.

Building on Previous Workshops

This is the third installment in our GenAI workshop series at DIS. In our 2023 workshop, we explored key themes in GenAI design research, particularly around authorship, agency, transparency, and human-AI collaboration. Our 2024 workshop examined whether design research was 'dead' in the age of GenAI, with researchers sharing experiences of using AI as a reflective design partner and critical thinking catalyst.

Now, echoing DIS 2025's focus on sustainable oceans, we dive deeper to establish a more sustainable relationship between design research and GenAI, one that can thrive beneath surface-level tensions.

Participation Information

Who Should Attend

This workshop is aimed at researchers, practitioners, and educators who have encountered barriers—both semantic stopsigns and practical challenges—in their work with GenAI. We welcome participants from:

  • Design research and practice
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer science
  • Social sciences
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Policy

Participants should be prepared to critically examine their own experiences with semantic stopsigns and engage in collaborative analysis to develop strategies for moving past them.

Expected Background

It is expected that participants have a basic understanding of the capabilities of GenAI and its applications. However, we welcome diverse perspectives and levels of technical expertise.

Hybrid Format

To ensure inclusivity and global engagement, our workshop adopts a hybrid format:

  • Presentations will alternate between in-person and online participants
  • Online presentations will be live-streamed
  • In-person presentations will be shared through our virtual meeting platform
  • Dedicated online facilitator team for remote participants
  • Collaborative sessions will run in parallel for both in-person and online groups

Accessibility

We are committed to making this workshop accessible to all participants:

  • All accepted participants will receive a form to specify any accessibility needs
  • Online presentations will feature automatic captioning
  • Materials will be provided in accessible formats
  • The physical venue will accommodate diverse needs

Anticipated Outcomes

Participants will gain:

  • Practical strategies and conceptual frameworks for navigating semantic stopsigns
  • Access to our active Slack channel that has already sparked several joint publications and research projects
  • Opportunity to contribute to our upcoming paper on semantic stopsigns in design research
  • Connection to an international community of researchers working on thoughtful GenAI integration

The workshop will produce:

  • A collective analysis of semantic stopsigns and practical barriers documented through our why/how/what framework
  • An online resource capturing both the types of stopsigns encountered and strategies for moving past them
  • A research agenda identifying key challenges and opportunities for deeper investigation
  • Materials that will be shared through the workshop website and developed into a collaborative publication

Contact Information

For any questions about the workshop, please contact:
Willem van der Maden
wiva@itu.dk
IT University of Copenhagen

Related Resources

  • Previous workshop (2024): "Death of the Design Researcher? Creating Knowledge Resources for Designers Using Generative AI" - Workshop Website
  • Previous workshop (2023): "Towards a Design (Research) Framework with Generative AI" - ACM Digital Library
  • Design Research Works
  • Preprint of upcoming paper on semantic stopsigns: [INSERT LINK when available]