Jan 19, 2018
Weekly Links — Improving Refugee Integration through a Data-Driven Algorithm, 10 New Principles of Good Design + More
A roundup of what we’re reading, watching, and listening to this week.
+Improving refugee integration through data-driven algorithmic assignment. An exciting new study from the Stanford documents the beneficial impact of using matching algorithms to geographically place resettled refugees. “Our approach led to gains of roughly 40 to 70%, on average, in refugees’ employment outcomes relative to current assignment practices.”
+Opinion: Can women’s economic empowerment drive gender-based violence? A recent study from the International Center for Research on Women looks into the effects of women’s economic empowerment. They conclude: “Preventive approaches that target and work at changing gender norms in tandem with empowerment approaches are more likely to succeed” and “More investment is needed in innovative programs that do critical work around men and masculinities, or work with couples to foster healthy and equal relationships, support intra-household problem solving, and develop communications skills.” We couldn’t agree more.
+Designing Friction For A Better User Experience. When we think of design, we think of seamlessness and intuition. But there are cases to be made to create friction and improve experience. We see a lot of principles of behavioral science in this too.
+10 New Principles Of Good Design. An update to Dieter Rams’ 10 principles for good design. A few of our favorites: Good design is honest, good design is mindful of systems, good design takes risks, and good design is for people — and for machines.
+Why there’s no innovation without experimentation. Terms like innovation and experimentation are loaded, and mean something different to everyone. A recent blog post from UNHCR Innovation tries to demystify the jargon and explains why experimentation is crucial. “Understanding innovation as ‘the best idea’ is a myth and it’s not only a too narrow and simplistic understanding, but it’s also harmful.”
We throw around think pieces, podcasts, research, and news in our Slack channels, and we wanted to open up the conversation to our readers as well. Please note that anything we post here is not an endorsement, we just hope these weekly digests will give you something to chew on over the weekend.
We’d love to hear from you! Feel free to start a discussion below, or reach out to us on Twitter or email us at airbel@rescue.org.
