Design, creativity, and design thinking
The focus on human qualities in understanding design can come at the cost of disconnecting people from the world they inhabit. Don Norman, one of the most widely known designers, recently attracted a flurry of attention with his call for something called Humanity-Centred Design. The idea is central to his latest book. The argument that …
Humanity-Centred Design or Designing for Living Systems? Read More »
Data-driven strategy and decision-making are only as good as the processes we have to gather, synthesize and use to inform action. I am a strong advocate for using data to inform decisions. Good quality data, appropriately gathered and focused, can reveal patterns that save time, money, and even lives. But data is also another method …
This week, the world is noticing what happens when we ignore climate change. The alarms are (literally) ringing, and designers must answer the call. I am not arrogant enough to presume I know what to do to solve our issues of the day. But I know enough to suggest hundreds of things that can make …
Canada was recently taught a valuable lesson about networks and systems fundamentals when it lost nearly 1/3 of its telecom capacity in a single day. What this outage teaches us about networks and systems is worth paying attention to. What would happen if you couldn’t access your phone? What if you couldn’t withdraw money from …
Strategic Foresight can do more than help us to see what might come, it can help us to live better lives today. Using the example of well-being we look at how design with foresight can help us create a better present while shaping our preferred future. What if we could live in the future today? …
In this final series on designing for well-being, we look at the application of a design framework to achieving the core aspects of health and care for people. We’ve outlined the role of well-being in supporting a healthy organization and the core aspects of well-being itself in the workplace. Now, we turn to asking: what …
Design frameworks allow us to frame issues like well-being and focus our efforts in the directions to help create spaces to foster it.
Promote and nurture well-being at work with five factors built into the design of your operations and your organizational culture.
A new documentary profiles the life and perspective of Bruce Mau, a designer who had contributed more to my passion for the field than any other. Bruce Mau is an enigma. He is a designer in the fullest sense of that term and has demonstrated the power of design thinking (in it’s fullest sense of …
Foresight can be an enormously powerful vehicle for shaping strategy and nurturing innovative thinking if used properly. The problem is that it is rarely ever used. Strategic foresight combines trend research and design together to help envision possible futures and help guide our strategy in the process. It’s an attractive proposition. Here’s what it looks …
