“For all the talk about being human-centered, one very human factor often gets overlooked — a basic understanding of how power operates in relationships between people.”
— George Aye, “Design Education’s Big Gap: Understanding the Role of Power”
How am I contributing to the world—good or bad—as a designer? Who am I? Where do I draw my power? George Aye, co-founder of the Greater Good Studio, posed these questions and many others.
The Service Design Network New York Chapter hosted George for a (virtual) Meetup on “Understanding Power and Privilege.” …
Lessons and Reflections on Writing Daily during a Pandemic
On February 7, I purchased the domain writemarch.com (not yet in service). When I decided to launch a personal challenge to write every day in March, I had no idea we’d find ourselves in an “unprecedented” global pandemic. If I had known, I wouldn’t have pursued the project.
Today is the final day of March. It’s fitting to reflect on where I started and what I learned. I began the challenge to help me get out of my head. I wanted to overcome a fear reflex that sometimes prevents me from putting words to paper or pixels.
A week in, I wrote about my reflections up until that point. In that post, I focused a lot on what could have made the writing project more perfect: launching the website first, following an optimal writing ritual, creating visuals instead of mostly using stock art, etc. I was compassionate to myself and celebrated showing up to write on the days where my energy or emotions weren’t up for the task. In the end, it was more important that I honored my commitment than anything else. …
A Variation on a Core Design Sprint Tool
Crazy Eights, or Crazy 8’s, is an ideation activity made popular by the Google Ventures Design Sprint. It’s simple, fun, and based on the premise that if you can push to about 8 ideas, you’ll generate more innovative ones.
I’ve used the original activity countless times. Recently, I’ve begun to experiment with, and recommend to colleagues, a variation with constraints.
The difference between the variation and the original is that instead of generating ideas openly within each of the 8 rectangles over 5 or 8 minutes, participants sketch one idea that matches the category assigned to the rectangle. …
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