Research through Design
Research through Design (RtD) employs the methods and processes of design practice to explore possible futures. It operationalizes design thinking and problem reframing to create new knowledge. Instead of reacting to sudden, technical advances, RtD explores possible futures to more effectively inform where we want emerging technology to take society.
This research approach complements science, engineering, and the humanities by asking research questions about what could and should be. Research projects both critique current technology trajectories and produce visions of preferred futures. RtD centers speculation and the construction of possible futures to gain insights and a felt understanding of the future. This research approach is especially useful for working on wicked social problems and for problematic situations where we know we do not know what would be good.
Students who want to learn more about design in HCI might be interested in the following course:
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Don’t Let FOMO Be Your Organization’s AI Strategy
NEWSDriven by the fear of falling behind their competitors, organizations are rushing to throw AI at their problems. But it's not solving ever...
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Design Tweaks That Keep Students Learning
NEWSGetting a question wrong might be the best thing that can happen to a student, if they try again. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon Universit...
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When an AI Bot Becomes Your Boss
NEWSArtificial intelligence isn't likely to replace managers in the workplace, but it can help with routine tasks, a study by researchers in C...
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CMU at CHI 2026
NEWSThis year, authors from CMU contributed to 76 papers accepted to CHI, including 12 award-winning papers. “The interdisciplinary CHI confer...
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CMU at CSCW 2025
NEWSCarnegie Mellon University authors contributed to 27 papers accepted to the 2025 ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and...
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NSF Funds Development of Robots for Public Spaces
NEWSA Carnegie Mellon University research team recently received a $1.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Smart and Connec...
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![image for the "[does] Compute" podcast, presented by the CMU School of Computer Science and Geekwire](/sites/default/files/styles/400px_wide/public/2025-09/does-compute-season-2.jpg?itok=RsFRrPi3)
Season Two of 'Does Compute' Now Available
NEWSFrom Oscar-winning work in computer graphics to solving problems inside the human genome, Carnegie Mellon University's top-ranked School o...
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Fox Earns NSF CAREER Award for Worker-Centered AI Design
NEWSSarah Fox, an assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon University's Human-Computer Interaction Institute, has received a Faculty Early Caree...
Inkspire
PROJECTWith recent advancements in the capabilities of Text-to-Image (T2I) AI models, product designers have begun exp...
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Yildirim Selected as AI Rising Star
NEWSHCI Institute doctoral candidate Nur Yildirim was invited to present a lightning talk at the 2023 AI Symposium at the University of Michig...
Studying and designing for human-AI collaborative work in real-world contexts
PROJECTAcross a range of real-world contexts, we are studying how AI is currently being designed and used to augment or transform worker practices. Moving beyond...
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CMU Launches Responsible AI Initiative To Direct Technology Toward Social Responsibility
NEWSArtificial intelligence has the potential to improve our daily lives, whether it's by helping doctors better diagnose and treat disease, r...