Report on the 3rd International Workshop on Designing Software (Designing 2026)

Software design is a set of activities and decisions involved in constructing a software system, ranging from high-level architecture and conceptual design to code design. Decisions made during the design process have a long-lasting impact on various qualities of a system, such as modularity, maintainability, scalability, robustness, security, usability, and performance. Despite its important role in software development, design is still considered something of an art—particularly in terms of design as an activity rather than design as a product or outcome. With the growing societal impact of software and the rapid adoption of AI-assisted development, design has taken on a new and larger role in the engineering of modern software systems. The third edition of the Designing workshop brought together researchers, practitioners, and educators interested in any aspect of software design to discuss novel approaches to design, and to identify open challenges and future directions for the field, with a particular emphasis this year on the impact of AI on the practice and the teaching of software design.