Nina Diana Oliveira da Costa

Researcher, integrated member at the Research Institute for Design, Media and Culture (ID+) and CEEC grant Holder (3rd edition, 2021-27). Nina Costa has undertaken her initial training in the area of Product Design and Technologies at Aveiro University (ESAN) and her master in Industrial Design at the Faculty of Engineering University of Porto (FEUP). Her PhD, developed within the MIT-Portugal program, in collaboration with MIT and INESC TEC, focused on integrating Product-Service system (PSS) Design and Service Design approaches. Throughout her career, Nina has worked with multiple companies, in particular, in the energy sector during her post-doc (EDP commercial) and with manufacturing company (Laborial). She publishes her work in Design and Service conferences, being the first author of 22 publications; including international peer-reviewed international journals. She has been invited to present her work at FEUP, on multiple occasions, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during her exchange period (2016), being an active reviewer in different journals and conferences.

She participated in management activities of the Service Design for Innovation Network (SDIN), a Marie-Curie research program funded by H2020 (ref. PEO288-projeto de investigação-SDIN-642116); and is currently working on the DesignOBS.pt project (2019-2022) "For a Design Observatory in Portugal: Models, Instruments, Representation and Strategies", (ref. POCI-01-0145-FEDER-032445), as the main assistant researcher, having created new databases about the Portuguese Design Ecosystem that count, to this day, +1.000 downloads; co-organised multiple events and produced design artifacts at the intersection of product design and Augmented Reality. Additionally, her interest in the topic of Circular Economy led her to pursue and secure funding (2021-27) for a project that investigates the connections between Design and Circular Economy, with a particular focus on promoting sustainability and innovation within the Portuguese industrial sector (Design4CE in PT). Costa actively participates in the development of project proposals for competitive funding, having led the application of +6 proposals in the last years.

 

Current positions

  • Junior Researcher, CEEC grant holder ID+ UA

Research Groups

Publications

Books
  • Borges, A., Silva, A. C., Modesto, A., Ricci, D., Providência, F., Ribeiro, M., Costa, N., Cunca, R., Costa, R., & Branco, V. (Eds.). (2022). DesignObs. Towards a Design Observatory in Por- tugal: Models, Instruments, Representation and Strategies / Para um Observatório de Design em Portugal: Modelos, Instrumentos, Representação e Estratégia. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Belas Artes. ISBN: 978-989-98284-6-9
Book chapters
  • Marques, A.B., Branco, V., Costa, R., Costa, N. (2023). Data Representation with No-Code Augmented Reality Authoring Tools. In: Martins, N., Brandão, D., Fernandes-Marcos, A. (eds) Perspectives on Design and Digital Communication IV. Springer Series in Design and Innovation , vol 33. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41770-2_19 Link
  • Costa, N.; Branco, V.; Costa, R.; Borges, A.; Modesto, A.; Cunca, R.; Silva, A. (2023), Mapping Ecosystems Through Design—Reflections of the DesignOBS Project. In: Martins, N., Brandão, D., Paiva, F. (eds) Perspectives on Design and Digital Communication III. Springer Series in Design and Innovation , vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06809-6_22 Link
  • Morelli, N., Costa, N., Simeone, L. (2024). Mapping Circular Economy and the Role of Design in Portugal. In: Melles, G.B., Wölfel, C. (eds) Design for a Sustainable Circular Economy . Design Science and Innovation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7532-7_4 Link
  • Costa, N.; Branco, V.; Costa, R.; Borges, A.; Modesto, A.; Cunca, R.; Silva, A., (2021) Infusing data literacy in design education: maturing a distributed design observation approach in Portugal, In: Martins N., Brandão D. (eds) Advances in Design and Digital Communication. Digicom 2021. Springer Series in Design and Innovation, ISBN: 978-3-030-89734-5, http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33145
  • Marques A.B, Branco V., Costa R., Costa N. (2022) Data visualization in hybrid space – constraints and opportunities for design, In: Advances in Design and Digital Communication III, Springer Nature Switzerland, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20364-0_1 Link
  • Costa, N.; Branco, V.; Costa, R.; Borges, A.; Modesto, A.; Cunca, R.; Silva, A. (2021), Design Infrastructures: proposing alternative strategies for countries with a lower maturation of design culture in Advances in Human Dynamics for the Development of Contemporary Societies, Proceedings of the AHFE 2021 Virtual Conference on Human Dynamics for the Development of Contemporary Societies, July 25-29, 2021, USA, New York, July 25-29, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80415-2 Link
  • Costa, N., Costa, R., Borges, A., Branco, V., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A. C. (2021). Mapping the research thread of design PhDs: a PhD citation analysis of the Portuguese Doctorates. In R. J. Howlett & L. C. Jain (Eds.), Design for Tomorrow (Vol. 2, pp. 203–216). http://hdl.handle.net/10773/30627 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Modesto, A., Silva, C., & Cunca, R. (2020). TOWARDS A DESIGN OBSERVATORY: THE CASE OF SCHOLARLY DESIGN RESEARCH IN PORTUGAL. In Proceedings of the Design Society: DESIGN Conference (Vol. 1, pp. 827-836). Cambridge University Press. Link
International journals
  • Marques, A. B., Branco, V., Costa, R., & Costa, N. (2023). Immersive Unit Visualization with Augmented Reality. Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, 7(10), 98. https://doi.org/10.3390/mti7100098 Link
  • Marques, A.B.; Branco, V.; Costa, R.; Costa, N. Immersive Unit Visualization with Augmented Reality (2023), Multimodal Technology Interaction, 7 (10):98. https://doi.org/10.3390/mti7100098 Link
  • Costa, N., Patrício, L., Morelli, N., & Magee, C. L. (2018). Bringing Service Design to manufacturing companies: integrating Service Design and PSS design approaches. Design Studies, 55, 112–145. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2017.09.002 Link
International conferences
  • Costa, N.; Pinho, A.; Providência, F. (2024) “Aesthetics and meaning within the circular design discourse: an analysis based on design projects”. Design Commit24, 2024, Braga, Portugal (accepted)
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A.,and Ribeiro, M.(2023) Towards a Design Observatory in Portugal – results, reflections and future steps, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.314 Link
  • Costa, N., Marques, A.B., Costa, R., Branco, V. (2023). Challenges and opportunities in combining physicalization with augmented reality – an exploratory case. 15th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Blucher Design Proceedings, Volume 11, 2023, pp. 951-963, ISSN 2318-6968. Link
  • Costa N., Costa R., Branco V., Borges A., Silva A. C., Modesto A., Cunca R., (2021), Representação e literacia dos dados: o caso das empresas de design em Portugal, 10th Information Design International Conference (CIDI), 18-22 October, Curitiba, Brasil, pp.1108-1107, https://www.proceedings.blucher.com.br/article-list/cidicongic2021-357/list#articles Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Ana Catarina, S., & Modesto, A. (2020). Towards a Design Observatory: crafting a distributed approach. Cumulus, 8-11 June, pp. 3121–3136, Italy, http://hdl.handle.net/10773/30629 Link
  • Costa, Nina; Patrício, L.; Morelli, N., (2016) “Revisiting PSS and Service design approaches in the light of the SD Logic”, SERVDES 2016, May 24-226, Copenhagen, Denmark, https://ep.liu.se/ecp/125/010/ecp16125010.pdf Link
  • Costa, Nina; Patrício, L.; Morelli, N., (2015) “Designing integrated product-service system solutions in manufacturing industries”, QUIS14, June 18-21, Xangai, China, pp 785-794, https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/designing-integrated-product-service-system-solutions-in-manufact
  • Costa, Nina; Patrício, L.; Morelli, N., (2015) “Integrating Product-Service System design with Service Design & Service Logic: the case of laboratory manufacturing industry”, IPDMC, June 14-16, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Costa, Nina; Coimbra, O., and Ferreira, J. P., (2013) “Computer Platforms to Support Collaborative Design and Development”, IDEMI 2013, September 4-6, Oporto, Portugal, pp. 645 – 654.
  • Costa, Pedro J., Rodrigues, M., Costa, N., Rodrigues, R., Alaniz, T. (2012) “Industrial design workshop: Auto-sustainable guest-house for via students”, 15th International Conference on Experimental Mechanics (ICEM15) pp. 1-13
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Modesto, A., Silva, C., & Cunca, R. (2020). TOWARDS A DESIGN OBSERVATORY: THE CASE OF SCHOLARLY DESIGN RESEARCH IN PORTUGAL. Proceedings of the Design Society: DESIGN Conference, 1, 827-836. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/dsd.2020.327 Link
  • Costa, Nina; Patrício, L.; Morelli, N., (2018) “A Designerly-way of Conducting Qualitative Research in Design Studies”, SERVDES 2018 Proof of Concept, June 10-13, Milan, Italy
  • Costa, Nina; Duborjal Cabral A., Duborjal Cabral A., Duarte A., Gonçalves C., Ascenção D., Vasconcelos I., Frias Riobom D. (2019), “Ecoteracy: designing an info-inclusive sustainability language”, 3-4 April, Designing Sustainability for All, LeNS conference Link
See all 13 international conferences
National conferences
  • Costa, Nina; Patrício, L.; Morelli, N., (2015) “Towards an integrated approach to design for value co-creation”, UD15: Periphery and Promise, October 19-20, Porto, Portugal
Other publications
  • Whicher, A., Borges, A., Silva, A. C., Modesto, A., Ribeiro, M., Costa, N., Cunca, R., Costa, R., Branco, V. (Eds.). (2022). Exploring the Portuguese design ecosystem: workshop report. Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto, ISBN: 978-989-98284-5-2
  • Borges, A., Silva, A. C., Modesto, A., Fernandes, M., Ribeiro, M., Costa, N., Cunca, R., Costa, R., Branco, V. (2022). Observatório de Design em Portugal – Representações (A. Borges, A. C. Silva, A. Modesto, M. Ribeiro, N. Costa, R. Cunca, R. Costa, V. Branco, eds.). Porto. ISBN 978- 989-8944-64-1
  • Borges A., Silva A. C., Modesto, A., Ribeiro, M., Costa R., Costa N., Cunca R., Branco V., (2022) REDE#03: reunião de escolas de design, Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, Dezembro 2021, ISBN: ISBN 978-989-8944-65-8. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/34347 Link
  • Silva, Ana Catarina (org.); Whicher, Anna (org.); Borges, Afonso (org.); Modesto, António (org.); Costa, Nina (org.); Cunca, Raul (org.); Costa, Rui Carlos (org.); Branco, Vasco (org.); Ribeiro, Marlene (org.). 2022. Exploring the portuguese design ecosystem: workshop report.
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C. (2021). Diplomados em Design em Portugal (2002-2020) (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5728036 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco,V., Costa,R., Borges,A., Cunca, R., Modesto,A. & Silva, A.C.(2020). Design doctorates undertaken in Portugal (Version 2) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4559415 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C.(2021). Bibliografia dos doutoramentos em design (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5727951 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C. (2021). Empresas e diplomados em Portugal – visão diacrónica 2010-2019 por NUT II (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5728054 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., & Silva, A.C. (2021). Empresas de Design em Portugal (visão detalhada, 2018, SABI) (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5728078 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Modesto, A., Silva, C., & Cunca, R. (2020). Towards a Design Observatory: crafting a distributed approach, in Research@UA, pp.58, https://www.ua.pt/file/61865
  • Costa, Nina; Patrício, L.; Morelli, N., (2017) “Integrating PSS and Service Design approaches for service innovation”, QUIS15, June 18-21, Porto, Portugal
  • Costa, Nina; Patrício, L.; Morelli, N., (2016) “Towards an integrated approach to design for value co-creation”, IEMS16 symposium, January 5th, Porto, Portugal
  • Costa, Nina; Patrício, L.; Morelli, N., (2015) “Designing product-service systems in the light of the service-logic”, engineering roundtables, Sept 22, Guimarães, Porto
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Modesto, A., Silva., A. (2020). Design doctorates undertaken in Portugal (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3701614 Link
  • Costa, N., Branco, V., Costa, R., Borges, A., Cunca, R., Silva, A.C., & Modesto, A. (2020). Towards a Design Observatory: crafting a distributed approach. In Research@UA (Vol. 10, p. 56). Link
  • Silva, A. C., Branco V., Costa R., Costa N., Borges A., Cunca R., Modesto A., Silva A.C., (2020) REDE#02 – Reunião de Escolas de Design, Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, Barcelos, October 2019 Link
  • Borges, Afonso; Silva, Ana Catarina; Modesto, António; Costa, Nina; Cunca, Raul; Costa, Rui; Branco, Vasco. 2019. REDE#02: Reunião de Escolas de Design. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33236.
See all 17 other publications

Scientific, artistic and cultural production

Prototypes
  • Marques, A. B., Branco, V., Costa, R. & Costa, N. (2021). Protótipo de aplicação de realidade aumentada para dispositivos móveis – Floating Companies (FLOC) – [empresas de design em Portugal (2019)]. Exposição Observatório de Design em Portugal – Situação (3-10 Dezembro 2021, Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa / 30 Maio- 3 Junho 2022, Faculdade de Bela Artes da Universidade do Porto).
  • Marques, A. B., Branco, V., Costa, N. & Costa, R. (2021). Protótipo de ‘data object’ e aplicação de realidade aumentada para dispositivos móveis – Graduates and Companies (GRAC) – ensino superior [e empresas] de design em Portugal (2015 – 2019). Exposição Observatório de Design em Portugal – Situação (3-10 Dezembro 2021, Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade de Lisboa / 30 Maio- 3 Junho 2022, Faculdade de Bela Artes da Universidade do Porto).
Technical work
  • Branco, V., Costa, N. & et al. (2019) Relatório de Progresso sobre o projecto DesignObs – Para um Observatório de Design em Portugal: Modelos, Instrumentos, Representação e Estratégias [PTDC/ART-DAQ/32445/2017]
Scientific events organization
  • Co-organization Mapping the Portuguese Design Ecosystem Workshop oriented by Anna Whicher, PDR – Cardiff Metropolitan University, with António Modesto and Nina Costa | Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto | May 27, 2022
  • Branco V., Costa R., Costa N., Borges A., Cunca R., Modesto A., Silva A.C., (2021) Member of organizing committee of REDE#03 – Reunião de Escolas de Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, December 2021.
  • Branco V., Costa R., Costa N., Borges A., Cunca R., Modesto A., Silva A.C., (2019) Member of organizing committee of REDE#02 – Reunião de Escolas de Design, Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave, Barcelos, October 2019.
Other relevant cultural production
  • Branco V., Costa R., Costa N., Borges A., Cunca R., Modesto A., Silva A.C., (2021) Organizer of exposition “Observatory of Design in Portugal – Situation”, Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon University, Lisbon, December 2021.