As you can see from the two examples mentioned above, our students will not graduate as architects or urban designers. Urban outcomes are now as much defined by digital coordination of physical resources as it is by the design of places themselves. Architects and planners focus on the latter, our program in urban technology will… Continue reading What does it mean to design urban technology?

Having the ability to shift your perspective allows us to realign our thinking. In my case, I was having a difficult time seeing the forest for the trees. New design technologies and specialties were obscuring my judgment and confidence. By stepping back and allowing myself to see the big picture, I realized that all these… Continue reading How aging designers can stay relevant

Kristin Zibell 5 days ago·9 min read These offers come several times a year. It’s another offer to work for free. For a for-profit company. This means that a company that has a goal to make money would like to take my time, expertise, and labor, sell it, and give me nothing in return. In… Continue reading I’m grateful for the opportunity, now pay me

The key idea here is that: For introverts, to be alone is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. —Jonathan Rauch, Caring for Your Introvert We as a society need to eradicate the idea that being an introvert means you don’t have social skills (or research or design skills). It just means that introverts… Continue reading Why introverts make exceptional designers & how leaders can support them

Vision and Mission statements have been around for a long time for brands and organizations. While many world’s leading organizations have clearly articulated–and even made memorable–Vision and Mission statements, working with clients, I’m surprised how often I come across organizations that don’t have them articulated that well. None would admit to not having a Vision… Continue reading Contextualizing purpose

Organising “the design people” (designers) and the “design work” can be seen both in a formal AND informal way: Tight relationship: People involved in specific activities (e.g. projects, products, etc.); Loose relationship: People that gravitate around those activities (e.g. researchers, ops, facilitators, etc.). But beyond “people” and “roles” we should even more so think of… Continue reading Organisation-wide design as systems practice

Improving legacy systems is often like restoring an old farmhouse Kai Wong 3 hours ago·6 min read Photo by Pexels “Sorry, some of the screens look like they’re straight from the 90s.” The client said she showed me the project I’d be designing for. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that, and it probably… Continue reading To improve legacy systems, sometimes you need to take a restoration mindset