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!

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

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!

You know how NBC has those little vignettes that bring attention to critical social issues? I'm a firm believer that design can assist in addressing some of these issues so consider this post to be my own version of "the more you know."

"Design education is not keeping pace with the growing demand for new design professionals able to operate in a range of service-based environments.

Our paper, Social Animals: tomorrow’s designers in today's world by Sophia Parker, argues that design education is still largely hinged on industrial principles. Students need to be equipped with a broader range of research and communication skills, alongside their more traditional design skills, and encouraged to think more laterally about the sites and spaces where these could be used. The report outlines six challenges for design educators."

These challenges are titled:
1. Developing actionable insights
2. Doing co-design ethically
3. Making things real
4. Seeing the bigger picture
5. Selling the idea
6. Finding problems as well as solutions

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The RSA encourages public discourse and critical debate by providing platforms for leading experts to share new ideas on contemporary issues. Their projects generate new models for tackling the social challenges of today and their work is supported by a 27,000 strong Fellowship - achievers and influencers from every field with a real commitment to progressive social change.

I went to a conference on global health at UBC today. The last talk by Dr. Shafik Dharamsi had to do with ethics and responsibility. The conversations were relevant and when he showed this documentary film, They Come In The Name Of Helping, I felt like I was watching a video version of my thesis. The dialogue that occurs reflects the concepts I have looked at with the women in Rwanda. It takes a bit to load but is well worth watching.

Design, The Future and the Human Spirit

...designers have to seek autonomy and use it, if possible, for socially and environmentally productive ends. They must confront a world that is becoming increasingly polarized: wealth versus poverty; fundamentalist religion versus secular humanism; environmental sustainability versus ecological destruction; and technological utopianism versus technological resistance. To position one's self among these and other oppositional forces requires an intensive reflection on one's own values, goals and social concerns. It also calls for an operational strategy to align one's self with other social actors and institutions, whose concerns are compatible with one's own.

by Victor Margolin
Design Issues: Volume 23, Number 3, Summer 2007