We can think of organizations as part of systems or ecologies, but what does it mean to make them fit for humans? Today, we look at the psychology and design of organizations for humans. An organization is much more than a group of people working together; it’s a system. The whole — the organization — …
Humans and their Organizations: A Psychological Design Perspective Read More »
Designing for living systems is an approach to creating things for a world in flux and generating benefit for it. In my last post, I used the term design for living systems to reflect a changing position in my design practice and one that I see reflected in the design challenges I see around me. …
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 »
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 …
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 …
Resilience is about ‘bouncing back’ and getting through challenges, but is it the right model to be considered when “back” isn’t what it was and many challenges are becoming endemic? Resilience has been a prominent term and theory invoked in the discussions of how we collectively respond to social, health, and environmental challenges we are …
Designing for Humans sounds like an obvious statement for designers, but very often we design things for things — systems, technologies, or ideas rather than actual humans and the implications of that are many. In this post I revisit a conversation I had with Scott Millar on the role of design and collaboration and touch …
I recently had a conversation with Scott Millar, host of the Cool Collaborations podcast, about design and collaboration and how they go together. This is an excerpt of that conversation focused on bringing people into the design process. Scott Millar, is a consultant who helps leaders, teams, and organizations navigate beyond their differences to tackle …
A year-end, a new calendar, or a change of seasons bring fresh starts and times of renewal and reflection. It’s also a time for us to frame the usefulness of our past, our present, and future thinking for making positive change. In this post, we look at our relationship with time, planning, and strategy. New …
Time moves at the speed we perceive it and that affects how we design for how we experience it. If you’ve ever lost yourself in a project, wondered where the time went, or found yourself looking over at the clock and asking how it can possibly be only 15 minutes later, you know how time …
