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The IDC 2025 heuristics trail

Leaving a trail of design heuristics for GenAI learning platforms across Iceland, on lampposts, noticeboards and postcard racks.

Violet Owen 15 Aug 2025

Alongside presenting our Work in Progress paper on design heuristics for GenAI education platforms at IDC 2025 in Reykjavík, I decided to take our research on a little adventure. I left a trail of the heuristics scattered across Iceland, turning the country into a quirky, interactive map of ideas.

Some heuristics found homes as stickers on lampposts, signs and other bits of street furniture. Others were tucked into tourist postcard racks or pinned to community noticeboards. Each one was a playful invitation for curious passersby to stumble on a little spark of research in the middle of their travels.

It was such a fun way to blend research, play and exploration. I loved imagining people finding these tiny nuggets of knowledge in unexpected places, a heuristic on a lamppost or a postcard in a café, and maybe pausing to think, smile, or even pass the idea on. Research doesn’t have to live only on paper. Sometimes it can go on a mini adventure of its own.

The trail didn’t stop in Iceland either. Heuristics have since turned up on walls and doors in Malta and on a very well-stickered bench in Amsterdam.

Iceland

Heuristics postcards pinned to a cork noticeboard alongside local maps and leaflets

A small heuristic sticker left inside an open hotel safe

Close up of a heuristic sticker on the grey felt floor of the safe

A rotating rack of tourist postcards in a café

A heuristics card tucked in among Icelandic landscape postcards

A heuristic sticker on a wooden shelf bracket in a hotel room

A sticker-covered metal slab leaning against rocks in a gravel landscape

A Keep It Simple heuristic sticker among peeling stickers on red metal

Heuristic stickers mixed in with others on a weathered red surface

A kitchen counter with a heuristics postcard propped near a pink toaster

A Keep It Simple sticker above a row of wall sockets

A sticker-covered pole against a weathered wooden building

A heuristic sticker on a lamppost among other street stickers

Someone holding a tablet case decorated with heuristic and other stickers

Spots along the heuristics trail around Iceland.

Malta

A Keep It Simple sticker on a green wall covered in posters and stickers

A green door in an old limestone wall, covered in stickers and graffiti

The trail continues in Malta.

Amsterdam

A sticker-covered bench outside a shop window on a brick street

The seat and backrest of the bench, packed with stickers

Close up of stickers on the bench backrest

A narrow doorway with walls and door covered floor to ceiling in stickers

And on to Amsterdam.

Written by

Violet Owen

Violet is a Senior Research Associate with Design Resaerch Works, researching constructionist approaches to GenAI education in primary schools. She is a Design Researcher with a background in Education, and her doctoral research focuses on Creative Evaluation. She is interested in experimenting with playful and joyful approaches to learning, and developing holistic approaches to curriculum design. You can find her on LinkedIn over here.