Exploring the role of the human being in the industrial design process now that AI is here
This screencap is from a post made in the Core77 Community boards about the emergence of AI-driven CAD outputs. At first glance, it seems as though its the end of the role of the human being in the industrial design process. And, to me, the situation right now in the first half of 2023 feels […]
Spanning Boundaries and Transgressing Disciplines: Insights for Post-Pandemic Innovation
“The Bauhaus School was deliberately designed to foster innovation by crossing boundaries, including boundaries between school and work and disciplinary boundaries. The School faced ongoing criticism because its innovative approaches and activities were seen to be transgressive (Bayer et al., 1938). Yet transgressive practice disrupts established knowledge and can generate new knowledge (Haraway, 2008). Despite […]
Revisiting Design Thinking: Pondering the process and principles
I have not written on design thinking in more than a decade. The era when I’d be cited in Fast Company or Rita Sue Siegel’s handbook on Industrial Design careers is long gone. Which one of these definitions should I use going forward? “Design thinking in business takes this problem solving aspect one step further […]
Book Review: The graphic novel as a format for visual sensemaking and the change poets of ‘Unrig’
My local library – part of the Helsinki City system – had this book on display yesterday among the handful of English language books accessible for browsing within the current constraints of the pandemic. I devoured it in one sitting. As I wrote in a private paid-for social media platform where I’m part of the […]
The power of sensemaking lies in its ability to reframe the challenge and its context
A key characteristic of participatory design is the use of physical artefacts as thinking tools throughout the process. This process is a key characteristic of the various participatory design practices emanating from the Scandinavian research-led tradition (e.g. Greenbaum and Kyng, 1991). As highlighted by Sanders (2006), users in participatory design serve as “expert[s]of their experiences” […]
Half a year, 2020 : The Remote Resilience and Recovery Project
I have umpteen drafts saved, of posts I began writing since the last published one on 29th February this year, and never finished. 2020 has outdone itself in its impact on all of human society, across our entire planet. I have been active on Twitter, where my literature reviews, in service of the pivot I […]
Systemic design thinking and complex adaptive systems
Going back to first principles has been a refreshing exercise. Even as our work has taken us into some wholly new places, there’s comfort in knowing that others have thought deeply about the concepts, though not in our context. I’m a firm believer in not re-inventing the wheel. Consider it a working prototype to be […]
Does the human-centered design industry believe in it’s own process?
Listening to users, and incorporating their feedback is considered the key differentiator for the practice of human-centered design. Yet, one wonders, if the design industry has understood that this philosophy must necessarily include the feedback from their clients as well. That is, while we are all aware of the navel gazing tendencies displayed by design […]
“Unlearn the past to create the future”
The late Michigan University management professor, CK Prahalad, is best known for his last, and most famous publication, The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. But to MBA students, management consultancies, corporate planners, and regular readers of the Harvard Business Review, he is also known for a long and distinguished career in management thought […]
5 examples of the breadth of African led human-centered design and thinking and planning
The other day I was searching for news on design from the African continent and noted on Twitter that it seemed as though only the South Africans were consistently talking about their various creative outputs. Having long been part of the crowd that believed in the indigenous creativity and innovation in the less visible parts […]
