I got to attend my first TEDxVancouver event and was super impressed by the professionalism and organization that was evident from the moment you entered Kay Meek Centre. Stellar swag, truly tangible interactions and like minded TEDsters made it a day well spent.

These are 5 talks I'd love to revisit:

Josh Fox: Using the banjo to complement a narrative while talking = awesome, skills
Michael Green: Visualizing world housing needs = making information accessible and relevant
FYI: MGB is the firm that made the awesome 5500+ books-changing room space at LYNNsteven
Nardwuar: Crowd surfing to end your talk = using a metaphor to encapsulate your message
Dr. Jack Horner: Science lesson turned into story = reframing education
Rives: Linking history by filtering it through the 4am time slot = brilliant

Bonus track: Mash up by Don Alder and Kyprios

(photo by Kris Krüg)

Imagine inviting some of your city officials to an amazing dinner. The table cloth, instead of being a mere accessory to beautify the event, becomes a place to actively dialogue with those around you. While you eat, you are visualizing the conversations presented to you on the table cloth.

Could this be a new alternative to local democratic exchange? If Obama can have a state dinner, could the local community do the same and address issues over a meal? We may not have a presidential budget but each community will have vendors who would likely benefit from the opportunity to be included in such an undertaking.

Because they chose design, some students had hoped that they could leave the writing bit behind. And it is because of this perception that I spend a portion of my day talking to them about the value of writing. Specifically, how to write critically. And I try to demonstrate how this skill correlates to their make/build practice. I do this by drawing a stool: if one part is missing, the whole thing topples.

Here's how I break it down:

IDEA: You should start with an idea. You may have to research to refine this but once you have a question you are responding to or an idea you're going to develop, you have the ability to stay focused and build a paper that people can understand and engage in. The rest of the paper should support this idea.

RESEARCH: An idea gets supported and developed through research. While you may think your ideas are brilliant, someone else has likely considered it on some level. Using their ideas can help bolster your argument but it should be used as a support rather than the primary focus. Be sure to cite it!

CRITICAL THOUGHT: To avoid regurgitating other people's ideas (and plagiarism), take some time to reflect and consider how you might add your commentary to the subject. What is your posture on the topic? What would you do/say differently? Many designers have built stools but when adding their personal reflection to the content, a new stool gets developed.

STORY: Give us a picture or example that helps us relate to the idea in a tangible way. A metaphor or analogy can help but this is by no means the exclusive way to present a story. In some cases, you can add a sketch or diagram to help support your words. In design, this helps a user imagine how they might use your product. In writing, it helps me understand how I might fit into the topic you're discussing.

On top of all this, proper grammar, spelling and sentence structure will only help your cause. These elements could be compared to the nails or joints that help hold the stool together. If you don't use them, you end with individual parts that don't make sense because they don't join together.

I also remind them that design, like writing, only gets better with various iterations and critiques. Inviting others to look at your work is a good way to improve it.

I'd add writing skills to my ongoing list of designer tools:
1. Camera
2. Self-awareness
3. Drawing skills/tools

Awhile ago, I started a series of posts about what I thought a new designer should consider acquiring and/or developing in their toolkit. Here's the list so far:
1. Camera
2. Self-awareness
Clearly, I've been a bit delayed but the idea of the toolkit hasn't left me so let's continue.

Next on the list? I'd propose this: Learn how to draw.

While this may seem obvious, I am regularly reminded of how many designers or design students actually don't practice this (and some even have a fear of it). My suggestion to overcoming this? Carry some tools with you so that you can pursue it daily. I don't say this as one who has achieved it (the above image is a drawing I did of a Sharpie pen with my less dominant hand in 2005) but rather as one who has learned that in order to visualize information for people I need to be able to show rather than tell them what I am thinking. Ideas and outcomes don't start on the computer so honing this ability to display concepts will only serve to help you with your work. I was reminded of this today when I listened to this excerpt from a Saul Bass documentary.

Because I needed to be challenged in this area, I took up the Sketchbook Project as a means to remind myself that like learning a new language or any other creative skill, you typically don't just wake up with it. You have to nurture and develop it in order to look back and see some measure of breakthrough. Have you ever heard of Morning Pages? They are a great example of how regular process can help break through some of the clutter. I'd propose the same concept for designers and suggest that the pages are about visuals over text.

And sometimes, it comes down to making sure you are prepared at any given moment. Here are some items that I don't leave home without:

Pens:
Sharpie
Muji (thank you Michael Surtees)
Pilot

Notebooks:
Moleskine
Field Notes
Spaces For Ideas

And if you need more evidence, watch to this great video where Milton Glaser talks about the importance of drawing.

I recall my first read of How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul. I was still in design school and on the hunt for justifiable reasons as to why I'd decided to incur more debt in order to shift my career toward graphic design. I recall at the time that I found much solace in the content.

Five years on, Adrian Shaughnessy presents a second edition that has kept its first edition forward by Stefan Sagmeister, which could still hold true today: Graphic design is becoming a wider discipline and is therefore more difficult.

As one who has pursued some of these "wider aspects" since the first edition, I was appreciative of his inquiry into what graphic design is today. Topics in this section include: the changing definition of design, social design, design thinking and ethics (to name a few). While Shaughnessy does not neglect the fundamental questions asked in the first book, he provides a fair assessment of the current state of affairs that is in keeping with the inquiry that many designers are also asking, regardless of discipline. In fact, one wonders if the word "graphic" needed to be included at all.

Shaughnessy acknowledges his fixation with "the look of things" and seemingly laments that our current focus on matters of social consequence may be lacking a certain visual sensibility. I think he makes a fair case about its value but would argue that today many are interacting with a diverse global community that may translate such sensibilities in different ways. Especially when the issues of design aren't about the look of things but rather the survival of things.

Consider a country in crisis: Haiti. Post-earthquake, the look of things becomes seemingly less important because the transmission of accurate information is paramount. A great case study to illustrate this concept:

Three Emily Carr University students were asked by the Red Cross to develop graphical instructions on how to use tablets to purify water. Because these tablets look like pills, the students had to consider how they would ensure that they were used properly (i.e. not ingested). With a critical time line and important message to communicate, I don't think these students were thinking about whether the design was going to be dull or not. Because in this case (and many others), the message actually does matter. And I believe this type of scenario has the potential to become more prevalent in the design community as we consider climate and environmental issues, financial and political markets and our global connectedness to both.

Regardless, one can hope that the future will allow room for a blend of both substance and style and that this becomes a reasonable standard for all designers. In the meantime, maybe being a graphic designer today means that we might be given the chance to save a soul (or two) beyond our own.

BOOK INFO
Title: How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, New Edition
Author: Adrian Shaughnessy
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

Thanks to Michael Surtees for sharing this review copy with me!

If you haven't already, check out OpenIDEO:

To become a place where good ideas gain momentum, OpenIDEO depends on participation — your inspirations, his comments, her concepts, our design process. It's these efforts, these big and small moments of sharing and collaboration, that make this platform a dynamic resource for tackling significant global challenges.

The challenge I participated in is now complete and ten final ideas were selected that the partners will seek to implement.

You can download the challenge catalogue to see the 40 shortlisted ideas that emerged during the Affordable Learning Tools and Services Challenge. You also get bonus worksheets that can help you apply a similar process to your own work.

I'm experimenting with the idea of an "adaptive syllabus" this year.

Fear not. I haven't removed the basic required course outline, but I've warned my students that things may shift and that they should be prepared to be adaptable. This isn't an experiment with their education but rather an investigation of how learning can be adapted when we embrace the unexpected (which always happens in classes but is rarely documented or monitored, from my experience).

Imagine a wall in a classroom where a student could make comments using a colored marker or post-it. Imagine weekly assignments getting shifted as needed. Imagine new ideas emerging because of real time experiences that a student or a teacher are curious to explore. If industry operates this way, shouldn't design education address it in some manner? If the design of things, ideas, products and software are meant to be agile, then shouldn't a design education promote the same model? Once you enter the daily reality of work, you find yourself getting interrupted for meetings, conference calls and site visits, which suggests another level of agility. The reality is, you have to shift. So I suppose I'm asking, "What if a course syllabus operated in the same manner?"

I don't profess to have a full grasp on this idea but I like the concept that a course outline has the potential for some interactivity and can mimic the realities of industry. I think it could be developed into a digital tool that would enable a student to interact with it before/during/after class (since I don't have a fixed space at ECU to allow for an analog interpretation, I'm hosting a one-sided test here). The image above simply highlights a framework but hardly represents the full experience of interactivity. Any interaction designers want to help me test the idea? #wink

I'm sure some instructors wouldn't enjoy this format so I'm hardly declaring it as the new way to develop a syllabus. But from watching the folks at the d.School and Hyper Island, I can see that there is definitely room for alternative methods of course development - and some that pursue interactivity at the same pace as industry.

Since this is a new concept for me, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this topic (whether you're a student, an instructor or an industry professional).

I've been crafting a list of tools as I consider how I might support individuals who are new to design. Since I'm teaching undergraduates this fall, this inquiry has become even more relevant. Many students are worried that they aren't taking the right path and fear that they might make a mistake in their education/career choices. Haven't we all? In my estimation, some of this stems from the temptation to compare oneself to another and assume that in order to be a good designer, I need to be like ______________.

In light of this, I reflected back on my own journey and asked myself how I got to the place I am today. Looking back, I can't underestimate the value of knowing the often overlooked skills that don't fit into a typical "list of tools." The reason? They are unique to each individual! While I am a proponent of developing and nurturing one's craft, there is also great value in actually knowing and identifying your strengths.

In the words of Socrates: Know thyself.

Some might classify these as "soft skills" but I would suggest they are fundamental to developing your toolkit. And since design operates as a collaborative discipline, understanding strengths can help build strong and effective teams.

I went back to some notes and readings from my own search and came across a few tools that have helped me frame these "soft skills" for myself and others. They may be obvious options but in re-reading them, I was encouraged by the direction my work/life/career has taken.

1. StrengthsFinder
StrengthsFinder proposes that we should reduce the amount of time we spend worrying about what we aren't good at and instead nurture what already comes naturally. Here are my top 5 strengths discovered in this process:

a) Ideation
People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

b) Connectedness
People who are especially talented in the Connectedness theme have faith in the links between all things. They believe there are few coincidences and that almost every event has a reason.

c) Strategic
People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

d) Input
People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

e) Intellection
People who are especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

2. Myers-Briggs
We've likely all taken this test! Here's a brief breakdown of my INTJ-ness:

With Introverted Intuition dominating their personality, INTJs focus their energy on observing the world, and generating ideas and possibilities. Their mind constantly gathers information and makes associations about it. They are tremendously insightful and usually are very quick to understand new ideas. However, their primary interest is not understanding a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way.

In education they are most often found at the college and university level. In the professions, they may be a lawyer, a business analyst, or strategic planner. Some have a strong artistic/creative bent and may become an artist, inventor, or designer. Whatever they do, they do it with intensity.

Final Note: There are many other tools one could draw upon! These are but two that have offered me some language to articulate skills that might be missed in talking about a "toolkit" (and were actually assessed more than 10 years ago). I believe that this type inquiry serves to help a designer acquire the most important tool in these times: a unique voice that will speak to the complexities of our world through the discipline of design.

Photo credit: Martin Whitmore

As I continue to prepare for my teaching roles this fall, I'm drawn back to my own experiences of learning design. I recall focusing one investigation on the Bauhaus as I was drawn to its obvious articulation of curriculum and pedagogy (the diagram above provides a visualized overview of this).

When you consider all that you've learned, what do you think young designers should know in order to be equipped for these times? If we look at the model of the Bauhaus, what should a one year "basic course" entail in 2010? If you could go back to school this fall, what would you focus on or improve?

Update: I just finished reviewing Johannes Itten's book and came across this detail that is worth mentioning if we are to consider what could be adapted for a basic course in this day and age. Since he was tasked with setting up the Basic Course, his three aims are valuable insights into this dialogue:

1. To free the creative powers and thereby the art talents of the students. Their own experiences and perceptions were to lead to genuine work. The students were to free themselves gradually from dead conventions and to take courage for work of their own.

2. To make the students' choice of career easier. Here the exercises with materials and textures proved a valuable aid. In a short time each student found out which materials appealed most to him; whether wood, metal, glass stone, clay or yarn best stimulated him to creative activity. Unfortunately, at that time we lacked a workshop for the Basic Course in which all fundamental skills, such as planing, filing, sawing, bending, glueing, and soldering, could be practiced.

3. To convey to the students the fundamental principles of design for their future careers. The laws of form and color opened the objective world to the students. In the course of the work the objective and subjective problems of form and color were integrated in so many ways.

Notably, he also started each class by including exercises to prepare the students physically and mentally (relaxing, breathing and concentrating): "The training of the body as an instrument of the mind is of the greatest importance for the creative man."

In the spirit of working through a list of questions before we design, I thought this inquiry might also prove beneficial. If we want to design for people outside of our context and culture, should we be asking these types of questions? What would a design outcome look like if we investigated even one of these differences in our design process?

66 Ways We Differ:
1. How we define "proper" behavior
2. How and when we greet each other
3. What's considered common courtesy
4. What's polite or impolite
5. How closely we stand to each other
6. The holidays we celebrate and how we celebrate them
7. How we show respect and disrespect
8. How and why we use money, credit and bartering
9. The range in which we negotiate
10. What is modest or risqué
11. What is embarrassing or shameful
12. What makes us feel good, and what depresses us
13. What makes us proud and what shames us
14. What, when and how we eat and drink
15. What we wear, and when and where we wear it
16. How we see and behave toward sickness and health
17. How and when we seek and use health services
18. What we find funny or sad
19. How and when we use means of transportation
20. What we buy and sell, and when, how and with whom we do it
21. When, where and how we sit and stand
22. If, how and when we touch each other
23. What we believe
24. What we value
25. What makes "common sense"
26. What are worthwhile goals in life
27. What is beautiful or ugly
28. The nature of God and other religious beliefs
29. What we believe we need and don't need
30. Whether privacy is desirable or undesirable
31. Who makes decisions and in what circumstances
32. Whether a person is in control of his or her own life and whether fate determines it
33. What should be communicated directly or indirectly
34. What or who is clean or dirty
35. What language, dialect and tone of voice we use
36. To whom we speak and to whom we do not speak
37. The role of the individual
38. The roles of men and women and how they should each behave
39. The roles of parents and children and how they should each behave
40. The importance of harmony in a group
41. The importance of competition between individuals
42. Social class
43. Educational levels
44. Hierarchy in business relationships
45. How time is understood
46. Whether schedules are important or unimportant
47. The importance of tradition and rituals
48. How often we smile, who we smile at and what it means when we smile
49. How strangers interact
50. How we interact with a person in authority
51. How we interact with a person serving (e.g. in a restaurant)
52. Relationships and obligations between friends
53. Relationships and obligations toward extended family and relatives
54. Facial expressions and other nonverbal behavior and gestures and when they are used
55. Crowd or audience behaviors
56. The importance of preparing for the future
57. How we see old age and how we value elders
58. Whether conversation should be formal or informal
59. What should be said and what should be left unsaid
60. Whether, when, how and with whom we make "small talk"
61. How we perceive what is friendly or unfriendly
62. How open or guarded we are with information
63. What behavior is ethical and what behavior is not ethical
64. How, whom and how much we entertain
65. How or whether we take turns, stand in line, etc.
66. How often we change jobs or move house and where and why

Source: Global Competence: 50 Training Activities for Succeeding in International Business, Jonamay Lambert, Selma Myers and George Simons, Editors, Amherst, Mass: HRD Press, 2000.

We all get asked about what we do. Sometimes we get asked how we arrived at the place where we really knew what we wanted to do (a common inquiry from my students). This less than ideal image represents a moment when I began to get a feel for how I might answer this question.

Please note: I wasn't fresh out of high school and I hadn't just received my undergraduate degree. If I'm totally honest, I was feeling pretty discouraged and wanted to find a way to see the world differently. The camera forced me to do this by virtue of putting the world into a frame.

This moment helped me to identify one thing I really like to do:

Observe.

I now call myself a design researcher* (for the sake of identification) but if I distill this notion down, it comes back to being someone who observes and investigates. These observations can take various forms: people, places, systems or experiences. I use these observations to help me design things more effectively and/or appropriately.

It is one thing to talk about what you do. But in my own career journey, I've also been interested to know how someone actually does what they do. In light of my pursuit of this path, I have been developing a "toolkit" that I can draw from in order to do this observing well. So I figured it might be valuable to document the tools/resources that I use when I do what I do. I'll write more in the coming weeks about items or ideas I have found useful.

#1. CAMERA
Since I opened this post talking about cameras, it seems an obvious tool with which to start. I currently use a DSLR and an iPhone (but as you can see from the above image, have also used a point and shoot). A higher quality video option is next on my list of acquisitions so if you have any recommendations, let me know. Flickr is one place where I can store/share these observations (but I give the disclaimer that if you are working on observing for a client, you'll want to ensure you've considered things like informed consent when it comes to showing your imagery).

I've also considered how I can allow others to be the observers of their own experiences. In this case, I've used a single use film or point and shoot digital camera to enable others to participate in the research. I've done this so I can actually get out of the way (because being an observer doesn't always equate to being invisible and sometimes, this can actually be a distraction).

Which kind of camera should you acquire? From my experience, this will depend on the context you find yourself in. If you're a travelling researcher, you may need to factor in easy of use and weight considerations. If you're researching on a topic that requires something more elaborate, you may find yourself with a more significant set of gear.

More to come.

---

*IDEO provides a definition of how they interpret this role which resonates with me:

"Design Researchers lead teams through inspiration-gathering and people-understanding experiences to uncover stories and insights that help guide design and innovation. In addition to being empathetic, creative, and strategic, here are some of the qualities we’re searching for:
Passionately curious – People who are excited to be in the field and as inquisitive about other people and their stories as they are empathetic.
Captivatingly articulate – Compelling storytellers who can get people out of their seats and bring tears to their eyes.
Provocatively thoughtful – People who can challenge conventions and inspire teams and clients to translate keen observations into compelling ideas.
Sensorially inspired – People who are inspired by emotions and engaged in all of the senses."

The UBC students I worked with this summer finished off their project by recalling the ideas we considered at the start of our time in Rwanda. The top image is the word they would use to describe their feelings at the end and the bottom image shows what they felt when they first arrived. Love this!

(Top photos courtesy of the students and bottom photos were taken by me)

I'm thrilled to see (and participate in) the launch of openIDEO as it reinforces the concepts covered in the Design For Social Change course and pursues similar ideas that were developed when creating Dinner With A Side of Design. From inspiration to evaluation, diverse groups can collaborate together on tough challenges with the aim of actually participating in the process of solving the posed problems. I am keen to see how it will develop and grow over time and am encouraged to see a platform that doesn't just talk about the big issues facing us but also provides the means to tangibly respond with our collective insights.

Six weeks ago, a group of diverse students gathered for the inaugural course of Design For Social Change at Emily Carr University.

In this short amount of time, they covered themes ranging from human-centered design principles to viable economic concepts that help actual change to be realized. The course was intensive but they worked very hard to produce interesting concepts that could be further developed for actual implementation. One group has already begun working with two organizations in Rwanda to enable their concept to be developed and tested there. Another group is going to push their idea by allowing a few families to test their "new vision of hosting in smaller spaces" table (see above image).

Some of the aims of this course are to teach:
Research skills
Collaboration skills
Creative/design process
How to engage creativity in complexity
Critical thinking
Understanding who you are designing for
How to develop real deliverables for your users
Visualization and articulation of ideas

The intensive nature can be challenging but I think I can say that all students (while still mulling over all they've had to ingest) will tell you that the opportunity to apply theory made a difference to their learning experience.

It was an absolute delight to both learn from and teach this crew and as per usual, I am challenged to continue considering what role design can play in influencing the type of change that is worth adopting.

A recap of our weekly engagements:
Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Week Six (we even had a design dinner to start the class!)

This course will be offered again in Fall 2010.

PS. If these kids can do it, so can we!

The results are in! I just got word that of the 413 households surveyed, this was by far the most popular concept (of the options presented) for packaging a micronutrient. This isn't going to be the actual packaging but was a way of doing formative research to find out what the preferences of a rural woman might be when it came to visualizing the idea of adopting the behaviour of adding a micronutrient to a child's food. The reasons for its popularity seem to relate to:
a) Color (these are the colors of the Rwandan flag)
b) Image (the action of feeding the child makes it clear as to what to do with the contents)

There is more work to be done and we're awaiting the opportunity to see it be pilot tested and developed further. But this was exciting news for sure!

It may be in America but this just makes me proud to be a designer. And also makes me long for the day when we could have such an event to celebrate and honour the way design shapes and impacts Canadians.

I am so proud of the crew of students I've gotten to work with in this class! We have one week left, which means the process and thinking they've engaged in this short amount of time is impressive.

Tonight we discussed their prototypes and gave feedback for further development. We also covered what it means to deliver your final outcome. Here are some good questions to ask (sourced from the HCD Toolkit) in the process:

Where, when, how and why might the customer experience our solution?
What channels can assist with distributing our solution?
What are the range of ways it could be delivered?
What human, financial, manufacturing or technological elements are needed?
Who could we partner with to show the value and impact of the solution?
How will we test our idea?
How will we implement the idea?
What will be our measure of success?
How will we generate feedback?

Links:
The Ripple Effect
Dining Room Made of Pop Bottles
Karaoke and Literacy
Better World By Design Challenge
$100 Ventilator

For our last class, we're going to eat together before presenting the final projects. I'm excited to see their final outcomes! And in case you're wondering, here's what's on the menu:

Design For Social Change: Class Four

After sharing the outcomes from preliminary research, we got onto the topic of social change and its relationship to economics. Each group has been encouraged to assess their concept by asking if it can be sustained over time. The Human Centered Design Toolkit has a great handout that articulates ways to assess whether you have a sustainable revenue model so I shared this as an accessible tool for evaluation. It suggests that we have a value proposition, an identified revenue source and stakeholder incentives.

Afterward, each group was asked to ideate possible solutions for their social change project. There was definitely laughter, which suggests that some wild ideas are emerging!

Next week: Prototypes.

Random recommended links and/or topics discussed:
Echoing Green
Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (and follow up)
Genius of Design
Blue Vinyl
Unicef Kits

I've been contacted by a grad student who has asked me (and other designers) to talk about our design process as part of her thesis research. More to the point, she wants to know how our processes differ when working cross-culturally. Because of her inquiry (and all the dialogue going on around humanitarian design these days), I've been hammering out some visualizations for her.

As I began to draw my process, I was reminded of a diagram I created during my own research. It arose while reading an article where Gui Bonsipe was interviewed. He points out a dichotomy that can impact design: there is a difference between the centre and the periphery. The simple sketch (above) was a way to visualize how my design process required that I understand the political structure in which it resides. In the case of my recent project in Rwanda, I spent a fair amount of time meeting with stakeholders within the Ministry of Health. All this before putting a pen to paper! Take a look at the layers that the MOH are collaborating with on various projects. We didn't meet with all of them but had discussions with at least 50%:

So as I continue to create a diagram for this student, I am forced to assess how this complexity fits into the design process. The centre (often representing governments and authorities) may not be aware of the periphery (non-profits, field workers, communities) at any given time. To only target periphery projects may miss important aspects as they relate to systems and infrastructure, which will be necessary to understand if one wants to make a lasting impact. In my case, the design solution could affect over one million people, which requires an adjustment in my thinking and research when it came to engaging my overall process. In order to see this project be implemented, I will need to work with both the centre and the periphery and find ways to address both similarities and differences. I think I take this part of the process for granted in my own context but then again, I've not had the chance to work on something for one million Canadians. Yet.

It's amazing to me. I'm a designer and yet I find myself in a sketching rut these days. My graduate research even focused on the ideas of visualization as a communication tool. So when I saw this project, I figured I'd found a creative way to face it head on. If you're groove-challenged of late, consider joining me!

For The Love Of Labels

Bruce Nussbaum wrote an article (which I would recommend you read before you finish reading this) that begs the question: "Is humanitarian design the new imperialism?" With a provocative title like that, it begs discussion, yes? And I think it is a good one to have.

Advance apologies: This is longer than expected. I hold the complexity of the content directly responsible.

As someone who has been offered the privilege of working alongside individuals in another culture during my graduate work and beyond, I can appreciate the complexity that this question raises. During grad school, I was called a "design interloper" for choosing to focus my attention on a country other than my own. This label presumes many things, one of which is the notion that I might create something that lacked care or thought. I realize there is a history of such outcomes (which is not exclusive to the profession of design) but I struggle to classify every approach listed in the article as imperialistic. To suggest that designers might be "the new anthropologists or missionaries, come to poke into village life, "understand" it and make it better" seems to oversimplify this discussion and adds to a slew of words that keep us from understanding the layers that are involved in a very complex topic.

During my experiences in Rwanda (which for the record is not representative of the entire continent of Africa), I found myself faced with design questions on a daily basis. Since I am always evaluating how design as a problem-solving discipline can provide a solution, this can become heightened when witnessing significant issues that affect 90% of the world's population. After spending 3 months with a group of women who were unable to get ahead financially because of issues that actually could be addressed, I had a dilemma on my hands:

Do I give them money? This could be a merciful act.

Do I nod apologetically but walk away for fear of imposing my ideas? This might reduce the label issue but poses other problems.

Or does design have a role to play? Would it be a just act to actually improve the situation? If we worked together, could we collectively address this?

Don't get me wrong. There is no formula. But somehow the last option, when handled with care and attention, offers me something beyond a label. And is therefore more costly and complicated.

By definition, design is a discipline that inserts itself into our world where it may or may not be welcomed. Development as a field of work also has a history of inserting itself where it may not be needed. Put these things together and you have increased complexity. And the potential for increased labels. But this is not a new thing in design. Gui Bonsiepe has worked in other countries for many years and writes about the role that design can play in a given culture. This is a long quote but one I believe summarizes the sentiment well:

Design humanism is the exercise of design activities in order to interpret the needs of social groups, and to develop viable emancipative proposals in the form of material and semiotic artifacts. Why emancipative? Because humanism implies the reduction of domination. In the field of design, it also means to focus on the excluded, the discriminated, and economically less favored groups (as they are called in economist jargon), which amounts to the majority of the population of this planet. I want to make it clear that I don’t propagate a universalistic attitude according to the pattern of design for the world. Also, I don’t believe that this claim should be interpreted as the expression of a naive idealism, supposedly out of touch with reality. On the contrary, each profession should face this uncomfortable question, not only the profession of designers. It would be an error to take this claim as the expression of a normative request of how a designer —exposed to the pressure of the market and the antinomies between reality and what could be reality— should act today. The intention is more modest, that is to foster a critical consciousness when facing the enormous imbalance between the centers of power and the people submitted to these powers, because the imbalance is deeply undemocratic insofar as it negates participation. It treats human beings as mere instances in the process of objectivization (Verdinglichung) and commodification.

In light of the many directions I could go (and this post is already way too long), I'll focus on three things I've been thinking about lately as they relate to this discussion:

Labels can lessen impact and cause more confusion: The label of "humanitarian design" doesn't cover the range of work being done in other parts of the world. And you would never show up in a country and announce, "I am a humanitarian designer" when describing the work you are about to do. I would go so far as to suggest that ProjectH, Acumen, Idiom and IDEO are not all doing humanitarian design even though they have been seemingly classified as such in this article (as per the noun/adjective distinction). This isn't to say they aren't all exercising compassion in their approach but I would imagine would make distinctions about their focus. Suffice it to say, I'm slowly learning to tread carefully when assigning titles. They make for a great 30-second story but can be misleading and limiting (see David Sherwin's post on Bingo For Social Innovation).

Time is a valuable commodity that can often lack funding: Designing from a distance using online research is futile. Spending two weeks in a country will often lead to premature assumptions that will affect design outcomes. This means you need to spend significant time where you design. The more you observe and participate in a culture, the better you can assess whether the design outcome will be beneficial and sustainable. Becoming informed about all these layers (economic, environmental, political, social, cultural...) will help reduce the potential for inappropriate or misguided design. Ideally, we'd be doing this in our respective cultures. Naussbaum rightly points out that we can learn from others in this globalized reality we find ourselves in. When we understand how design impacts other cultures and communities, we can ensure we do right by our designs. To do this, exchanges of ideas and information could help us design in our context. Unfortunately, many design projects that fall into this camp tend to rely on grants or donations in order to be implemented. And this can affect the amount of time required to do research and design testing. And so the cycle continues...

Design education could offer people the skills needed to allow for localized solutions: My recent visit to Rwanda to work on a project revealed that many university students would love the chance to study design (which is not currently offered in any of the schools there). I hope to participate in some way to offer courses that could allow this aspiration to be realized in the future (and had some good discussions as to where this might fit during my last trip). Because there are limited budgets for such an endeavor, design projects continue to include designers from other parts of the world. I would love to find a company that could help fund the development of an education program for a local university that may want design but not yet have the resources to make it happen. I have a lot of respect for the work of Professor Ranjan at NID in India. I envision the same for my Rwandan friends who want to make an impact in their villages through design.

(Image sourced from Design For India Blog)

Addendum: Emily Pilloton's great rebuttal!

We're on week three of the Design for Social Change course and we started the class with a brief discussion about "sustainability" as it relates to our design considerations. As you can see from the images above, the interpretations are varied (a visual reminder of how broad and complex this can be!).

Links that were presented in class (but in no way exhaust the topic):
Cradle to Cradle
Biomimicry
Ask Nature
Okala Guide
Designer's Atlas of Sustainability
Objectified Film
78 Questions
Worldchanging

Bonus material (or stuff we didn't have time to cover):
Story of Stuff
The Living Principles
The Natural Step
The Power of Time Off

We're at the halfway point of this intensive course and I am looking forward to seeing the concepts that will emerge from the research process!

As promised, I post an overview of our weekly class so that students can have a list of links and information about topics covered. Last night, we discussed the role of human-centered research as it relates to social impact projects. I think that all the students will confess that the hardest part of this process is finding out what are the right questions to ask in order to map out your research plan.

Because of this, I invited a graduate of Emily Carr to present her research as a case study of how the process can unfold in order to develop a deliverable. It is one example of how a designer can approach the research process. There are obviously many more!

We also touched (very briefly) on the importance of ethics in the process of research. This is a large topic but we discussed how we can ensure that our participants are made aware of what their involvement entails.

Three groups have formed and are focusing their projects on a topic of their choosing. They have opted for Living/Dwelling, Education and Aging. Each group has been working to refine the problem they want to tackle in each given area so as to develop a research plan. These are some links we looked at in order to frame the next phase of their projects:

Human-Centered Design Toolkit
Ethnography Primer
Raneen Nosh, Designer
IDEO Method Cards
Design Council RED
Participle
Sam & Dave Save The World
Sample of Informed Consent Document

And this is a great link that considers the brainstorming process (in business or social change projects!): Better Ideas Faster

If other educators or designers have links to share, I'm sure the students would be grateful.

Design For Social Change started tonight and I'm delighted to report that I get to work with a great crop of students! We agreed that I could post outcomes and links that resulted during each week so as to chronicle this inaugural course.

The images above represent the start of their "actionable problem statements" that were developed after everyone expressed areas they would like to see design contribute to when approached as a conduit for "social change." Main objective? Focus on change as opposed to awareness. Here are some of the links/case studies we explored or discussed during this class:

Tim Brown's TED Talk
Curitiba's Transportation System
Target ClearRx
Zipcar
Deep Dive
Kiva
Index: Award
Design Revolution
Do Good Design
Designer's Atlas of Sustainability

A highlight for me? Many see this as a portfolio building opportunity because of the type of approach and research it requires. Yay!