User engagement is a dynamic social process influenced by who is involved and how. Here we argue that designers must account for the structural conditions of users’ lives, as they may have safety, accountability, and political implications. We review current scholarship in the area of user configuration and engagement from a ‘structural’ viewpoint of gender-based violence (GBV), to better understand such considerations. We propose three dimensions that might support designers in deepening their engagement in this area, namely: construction of the user, engagement within the context, and the designers’ position. We combine these dimensions as a framework to review and compare examples of designed outcomes for GBV prevention. This article suggests thoughts and questions to be considered by designers for thinking more structurally about GBV design, and for other contexts involving people experiencing vulnerability.

A case example is presented of an innovative teaching and learning experience, devised somewhat emergently for a mixed class of 30 undergraduate design students in Beijing, China. It shares the benefits of a mash-up approach drewing on fundamentals of design practice translated into an intensive five-day observation-to-animation exercise, with unexpected learning value to students of three different design-related disciplines.This paper outlines the instructions given, the process followed, the resulting designed outcomes, and student feedback gathered some three and a half years later. These testimonies evidence the lasting impact of this activity on the students despite its short duration, and specifically the value of observation, creative experiment, facilitating peer relationships, collaboration, and peer learning across the three disciplines. All of these elements were explicitly absent from other learning modules in their curriculum. The scenario provides a framework to inspire and guide similar collaborative activities across design disciplines.