My Hope for Design

In trying to find a common thread to the things that I do, I constantly meet with the unsettling discomfort of wanting to put something out there fast to learn, while being keenly respectful and aware of the wider system and the systemic, structural problems that have taken years to build.

It’s a feeling of helplessness and smallness, having little confidence that what is being done would even have any effect. More importantly, the knowledge that change happens from collaboration and cultural factors, rather than a technological solution that promises to do it all.

My hope is to build the competencies that allow us to find those strategic leverage points, and to build cultures of creative collaboration and experimentation that knowingly contribute to a broader vision.

To develop care towards our system, with a heightened awareness towards power, privilege and equity.

To know the distinctions between conversations of actions and conversations of intentions.

To treat our role as designers with humility. To hold space for the messy and complicated.

To acknowledge the complex systems and the humanity behind them in the pursuit of tech-led solutions. To be intentional and responsible for the influence that technology has in shaping our social norms and practices.

To hold space for care in the research and design process, as an embodied practice on what makes us human.

Still continually on the journey of discovering abundance over scarcity. How can the things we design reflect the values we want to see in the world?

Related posts:

Turn your photo into a real postcard. “ A few years ago, we were living a bit far, and my grandparents felt lonely. This is why I had the idea to mail a printed photo once a week. This photo remind…

My initial responses have not been as forward thinking as I would have imagined them to be. They have not exactly responded to the prompts, but they have been my own interpretation. It is in these…

Conscientiousness implies the desire to do a task well and to take obligations to others seriously. It is a personality trait of being careful or diligent. Organization Get organized and plan your…