Towards Dharmic HCI: Designing for Dignity Beyond Western Assumptions
Exploring how Dharmic ways of understanding people, wellbeing, and community might contribute to technology design
Call for participants: Join our 2-hour workshop at India HCI 2026. Places are limited to 12 to 15 people.
We are inviting dharmic scholars, HCI designers, and HCI researchers to take part in a workshop on 29 October 2026 at IIT Hyderabad. It asks how technology would change if it were designed from dharmic worldviews instead of Western ones.
Why this workshop?
Technology is never designed without assumptions. Every app, wearable device, or digital service carries ideas about who a person is, what wellbeing means, how people make choices, and how they relate to others. Many widely used technologies are shaped by theories developed in Western academic and design settings. These theories can be valuable, but they may not fully reflect the ways people and wellbeing are understood across different cultures and knowledge traditions.
Dharmic traditions offer rich and varied perspectives on the self, suffering, wellbeing, relationships, knowledge, and community. What might technology design learn from these perspectives?
This workshop creates a conversation between Dharmic knowledge traditions and Human-Computer Interaction. It asks where common design assumptions remain useful, where they create tension, and how other ways of thinking might enrich technology design.
Who we are looking for
Dharmic scholars: You are an academic, teacher, or scholar-practitioner trained in any of the Indian Knowledge Systems or dharmic philosophy texts. Examples include Vedānta, Yoga, Buddhist, Jain, or Sikh philosophies. You bring your tradition's understanding of the person and wellbeing. You take part as an equal contributor, and you need no HCI background.
HCI designers: You are a UX, product, or interaction designer. You may work on apps, wearables, or health and wellbeing products. You bring your knowledge of how products get built and why design choices are made.
HCI researchers: You are an academic or PhD researcher in HCI. You may work on research in digital mental health technology, decolonial, Indigenous, cross-cultural or any related fields.
What will participation involve?
Before the workshop, participants will be invited to attend a short online webinar. The webinar will introduce the workshop and provide the background needed to participate.
During the workshop, participants will work in small, interdisciplinary groups. Each group will bring together different forms of knowledge and experience.
After the workshop, participants will be invited to complete a short reflection survey. Some participants may also be invited to take part in a follow-up interview.
What will you contribute?
You will contribute your knowledge, questions, experiences, and perspective. Different interpretations are welcome. Respectful disagreement is also welcome.
What might you gain?
By taking part, you will be able to share your knowledge with people from different fields and learn from Dharmic scholars, designers, and HCI researchers. You will explore how cultural and philosophical assumptions shape technology and contribute to an emerging area of research. The workshop may also help you build connections for future conversations and collaborations, while helping to shape important questions for future work on Dharmic HCI.
Key details
- Date: 29 October 2026
- Place: IIT Hyderabad, as part of India HCI 2026 conference
- Length: 2 hours
- Organisers: Preetham Madapura Nagaraj and Professor Catherine Holloway (University College London), and Karthik M S (Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham)
Express your interest
The workshop has 12–15 places. If we receive more expressions of interest than available places, we will select participants based on the relevance of their interests and experience, the contribution they hope to make, and our aim to create balanced groups bringing together Dharmic scholars, technology designers, HCI researchers, and related perspectives.
Please complete the short expression-of-interest form by 16th October 2026.
Submitting the form expresses your interest but does not guarantee a place. Selected participants will be contacted after the submission deadline.
Participation may also require registration for India HCI 2026. Please check the India HCI 2026 registration information for the latest details.
Questions?
Contact: Preetham Nagaraj (preetham.nagaraj.22@ucl.ac.uk)
