designris

Designris is a term used in design discourse to describe a risk-informed approach to design practice and theory. It encompasses methods and attitudes that integrate risk identification, assessment, and mitigation into the design process from early ideation to final delivery.

Although not standardized, the term appears in academic articles, industry reports, and practitioner discussions since the 2010s. It is commonly applied across product design, software development, architecture, and service design, and tends to emphasize interdepartmental collaboration and iterative work cycles.

Principles of designris include explicit consideration of user safety, accessibility, privacy, environmental impact, and business risk; with an emphasis on transparency, accountability, and traceability of design decisions. The approach often advocates documenting key decisions and their risk justifications to support future reviews and audits.

Common tools associated with designris include risk registers, decision logs, scenario planning, hazard analysis, and usability testing conducted with risk-based metrics. Implementations typically involve mapping design decisions to risk categories, developing mitigation plans, conducting iterative testing, and reviewing risks at major milestones.

Relation to other concepts: designris overlaps with design thinking, human-centered design, and general risk management, but differs by treating risk management as a recurrent activity embedded throughout the design process rather than a separate phase.

Criticism of designris notes potential vagueness in definitions, risks of slowing progress, and a tendency to overemphasize quantitative measures at the expense of qualitative values. See also design thinking, risk management, human-centered design.