A help sheet for Bruce Mau’s inspiring design book “MC24: 24 Principles for Massive Change” — At this time of rising awareness and great world challenges, there are many voices rising from the design world calling for the expansion of human-centred design to include the environment, entire product lifecycle (from material extraction to product discard and breakdown), and the people impacted by that lifecycle.

How tools for exploring future scenarios can be used in today’s design projects — No need to wait for the future In a recent futuring workshop, I guided Product Owners, UX Designers, Visual Designers, and senior management through futurising user personas to then innovate products to address their potential future needs. Afterwards, we discussed how they might use these tools in their jobs today.

A good checklist, with a plan, should make itself obsolete. — I recently met with someone who is blind to learn how they experience digital experiences. At times it was excruciating to watch. Their screen reader ranted confusing, incomplete information, and the user couldn’t know everything that was on the page or how to navigate it properly. An essential task, like…

And how to start experimenting. — We designed this ‘now’ we are in, this volatile moment hinging on how well we handle the pandemic and climate change. We just didn’t design it fully conscious. But something is going on in the collective designer mind as this ‘now’ wavers in its direction between alternate futures. There’s a…

Keep design decisions centred on values, challenging biases and assumptions, and future-minded — To manage complex projects, designers have to employ a type of Minority Report mental mode — holding multiple streams of input from users and stakeholders high in their consciousness to ensure they’re all considered fairly and as required. But how do we stay centred around an awareness of our own…

Design thinking that challenges perceptions, broadens inclusion, and fosters co-creation — By now, no one needs to quote facts or expert verbatim to argue that great changes are happening to both human and earth systems. …

Experimental tools to align speculative and futures design with core values and life-centred thinking. — Values-driven futures Speculative design took form in the early 1990s as designers questioned their role in consumerism’s impact on the planet. They began to consider how to align design with core values. With interest in designing for the future on the increase, this is an exciting time for designers. But with the…

Gamifying an introduction to speculative and values-driven design — After months of trawling the web for speculative design tools and methods during the early pandemic lockdown of 2020, I struggled to find a simplified, detailed, end-to-end speculative design method that was as succinct as the double-diamond framework for innovation. There were complete methods, for sure, (and more coming through…

Microsoft’s new mixed-reality promise—an immersive, holographic-like experience for conference calls and 3D model collaboration — Imagine you’re standing in your living room alone and you put on your Hololens. You raise your hand, and an AR menu hovers above it — you interact with the menu with just a finger and start a meeting. A virtual table stand appears in front of you, and avatars…