June 16, 2026
What if, before seeking solutions, we learned to frame problems more effectively? Sébastien Proulx, ÉTS Professor in the Department of Design, focuses a significant portion of his research on the stage preceding intervention. At the crossroads of social sciences and design sciences, he is examining how design can help reveal blind spots in complex contexts, such as public policy and services, notably in healthcare.
In this field, research still largely focuses on the “cure”: treating, correcting, or making things “work”. Sébastien Proulx is instead interested in care: supporting, preventing, and accompanying. How do we live with cancer? How can we support people in their daily lives, beyond medical protocols? How can we prevent and account for technical, social, cultural, and even aesthetic issues? To address such questions, we must be able to coordinate these dimensions and their hinge values.
Solving a problem begins with its formulation
One observation emerges from Professor Proulx’s work: the way a problem is defined determines the scope of potential solutions. In public health, this is a highly complex task. Certain aspects (social, emotional, cultural) can be underestimated, and become blind spots in the design of services and prevention strategies.
The risk is very real: developing practices or policies that are technically effective but socially unacceptable, or even counterproductive. Sébastien Proulx's goal is to support professionals with conceptual tools to better frame problems so they can act more effectively.
Discursive design to uncover discomfort
Among his methods, Professor Proulx uses discursive design as a pivotal role. This approach involves creating deliberately subversive objects—sometimes pushing the boundaries of social acceptability—not for implementation, but to trigger discussion.
These objects allow us to question practices that are taken for granted, often defined in highly technical terms by experts far removed from people’s realities. Despite its potential, however, discursive design is methodologically unstructured and rarely integrated into public health decision-making processes.
This is why, in his research, Sébastien Proulx seeks to answer a key question: can discursive design be developed into a genuine approach to foster a tool for problematization, one that public decision-makers can use, with clear criteria and realistic implementation?
When data alone is not enough
Scientific data is essential, but it does not tell the whole story. It cannot capture all sides of a complex issue, especially when that issue involves identity, social norms, or cultural contexts.
This is the case, for example, with the high prevalence of smoking in LGBTQ+ communities. Current quitting strategies have shown their limitations, especially because they do not reflect specific sociocultural realities of these communities. Using discursive design and co-design, Sébastien Proulx wants to highlight these overlooked dimensions to explore alternative sensitive strategies—and thus more likely to foster behavioural change.
Another case study focuses on sex education for youth from immigrant backgrounds, where standardized approaches sometimes clash with multiple cultural references. Here again, the goal is not to replace evidence-based approaches, but to interpret them with greater nuance.
Structuring intuition to design differently
With this in mind, Sébastien Proulx draws inspiration from methods used in other disciplines. He has explored the differential diagnosis method, used in clinical medicine to frame the thought process and avoid hasty assumptions. His goal is to apply this logic to design to structure intuitions, reduce arbitrary tendencies, and make design processes more rigorous. Building on promising results, he is now working to formalize this approach, namely by developing tools to support designers.
In collaboration with a colleague from the University of Montreal, he has also developed a board game for innovators. Inspired by the work of French sociologists, the game is based on six core values that guide our behaviour. As part of a co-design process, participants take turns adopting each of these perspectives, like changing glasses. This exercise in shifting perspectives allows the creation of distinct scenarios, which can then be debated to explore realistic and pragmatic compromises.
Small problems, big impact
An upcoming project accurately illustrates this practical approach. In long-term care facilities, attention often focuses on what are considered major problems, leaving aside a multitude of minor daily annoyances. Yet for the people who live or work there, these details have a direct impact on the quality of life.
The idea is to create a mobile “Tell Us Your Problems” station, to develop prototype solutions with limited resources, and to demonstrate that even small changes can have a significant impact—provided we are attentive and creative. The hypothesis is based on the idea that integrating a design unit into a long-term care facility could improve many aspects of daily life that are often neglected due to insufficient budget or lack of design expertise.
Better understanding for better transformation
Sébastien Proulx’s research stems from a fundamental conviction: design does not merely solve problems; it helps formulate them. This is why his approach places the very act of problematization at the heart of design practice. It is a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of design, where we decide what matters, to whom, and according to what values. By developing methodological approaches that are both rigorous and sensitive to the complexity of social situations, he is designing a tool for understanding the world as much as transforming it—a transformation judged not only on its technical effectiveness but also on its ability to engage those concerned and produce lasting, desirable changes.
