Designers Can Lead Social Change
Refugees are drowning at sea at the doorsteps of Europe; Muslims in UK are increasingly discriminated in public spaces, and anti-immigrant sentiments are on the rise in UK. However as a designer in London, you might find these strange — why are people behaving like that?
According to the British Social Attitudes survey by National Centre for Social Research (2014), 47% of voters in UK viewed immigrants as having a negative economic impact on the economy; 45% said there was a negative cultural impact. Among those surveyed, nearly one in two expressed these negative opinions. But the survey also found that, in London, only about one in five held similar negative views.
So how does this matter to the design world?
In practical terms, the rising anti-immigrant sentiments had translated into policy; work visas were getting harder to secure, even for skilled workers. This meant that it would be harder for budding non-EU designers to work in UK. Likewise, design firms in UK would have a more difficult time recruiting from overseas.
Designers could play an important role in improving social integration in UK. As practitioners of the human-centered design approach, we are skilled in working in multidisciplinary teams and engaging users of diverse backgrounds. To co-design, we bring together stakeholders to uncover insights and create delightful experiences.
A blog post by Danny of Huddle Creative shared about his experience running Creative Burst, an innovation workshop harnessing the power of experts through collaboration. He realised that to truly collaborate, it required more than just bringing diverse people together into the same room. The problems that Danny encountered made me realised that what designers were learning from facilitating collaborations were similar to those faced by people trying to tackle social integration problems as well.
PROBLEM #1: THE SAME RISK ADVERSE ATTITUDE
Not in my backyard, guys.
A city council afraid of offering council homes to refugee families in fear of local backlash; European countries hesitant to accept refugees, and erecting fences to keep them out. The same attitude was observed of people who chose to play it safe when placed among a group of semi-strangers, instead of sticking their necks out.
PROBLEM #2: THE SAME FORCING OF VIEWS ONTO OTHERS
Everyone felt they were right.
Some might say, “immigrants are stealing our jobs, that is not fair”; these might be those who were having difficulty finding jobs, and experiencing hardship getting by day-by-day. Others might say, “Refugees welcome! Stand up against racism!” But this implied those who did not welcome refugees were racists, which might not be the case. How might we encourage open minds and reconcile these opposing views?
ARE YOU A BELIEVER IN COLLABORATION?
As designers, we have our minds centered on uncovering user needs and the tools to create impactful solutions.
What design principles do you find useful in creating a safe space for respectful community dialogues? How might we have respectful dialogues in order to build trust between immigrants and locals?
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Stand for something other than yourself — and be polite.
Be grateful to those who spend their energy with you, even when your views collide.
For a beautiful universe was probably made when a Big Bang set the world alight.
This is how the path to doing great work looks like.
