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Visual Diary 14 - Design Leadership Project Highlights

Post #2

One of the most impactful experiences in this process has been receiving feedback from my classmates, and sharing feedback with them. The image is a screenshot from my Georgetown email inbox - any time I saw a notification that there had been an update on Canvas, I was excited to see what feedback might have been shared. By allowing others to speak into your work, the work is always richer for it - even when the feedback is tough or misplaced. The process of creating collaboratively allows us - allows me - to grow and to gain insights I could not have arrived at alone.

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Visual Diary 14 - Design Leadership Project Highlights

Post #1

In our Wicked Problem research, I really enjoyed my direct observation research. I chose to read through dozens of online reviews for cord management solutions, looking for common threads of experience and being able to make inferences based on that information. By comparing the images reviewers posted to what they wrote, you can gain insights into their needs, aspirations, and pain points. Understanding how people live their lives authentically through behavior and choice, can give amazing insights and is at the core of design thinking.

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Visual Diary 13 - Open Topic

Post #2

I've shared in other courses about this product - Bite. Their initial product are toothpaste-as-tablets but they now have other self care offerings like deodorant. There's a love to love here, but I want to focus on their packaging - specifically that their sachets that hold the bits are compostable. This design choice to use compostable materials rather than traditional (single use plastic) is costly to the company - but it allows them to say within their stated mission, to be sustainable and transparent (they are a carbon neutral company). I love this type of design leadership and hope more companies will follow suit.

Image source: https://bitetoothpastebits.com/blogs/blog/carbon-neutral-shipping

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Visual Diary 13 - Open Topic

Post #1

You know when you get goosebumps from a commercial? This got me. Molson, the Canadian beer-maker, has launched a genius self-effacing marketing campaign that centers women in sports. Traditional hockey jerseys have players' last names at the top and sponsors at the bottom - great for brand association and organic marketing during a hockey game. But for the Professional Women's Hockey League - recently launched - players with long hair have had their names blocked by braids and pony tails. Molson flipped the script by flipping placement putting players' names at the bottom of jerseys and their brand name at the top. The tagline is fabulous, "The proud hidden sponsors of the PWHL"

Read more and find the video link here: https://www.molsoncoorsblog.com/molson-see-my-name-pwhl

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Visual Diary 12 - Responsibility as Priority in Design

Post #2

Patagonia has made many strides with infusing responsibility into their design - from using materials that are more sustainable, that put less microplastics into the environment, to creating marketplaces to buy/sell used Patagonia products. Another feature of their responsibility is a suite of videos and guides designed to educate customers on how to repair Patagonia products. By empowering customers to reduce the number of purchases, Patagonia is helping customers reduce their consumption - which keeps products from going into landfills, and reduces the amount of raw materials needed to create new products.

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Visual Diary 12 - Responsibility as Priority in Design

Post #1

Last week I posted about how Drunk Elephant had put a negative stake in the ground, stating that it's fine for kids to use their kid safe face products. I was delighted this weekend to see this ad campaign by another skin and hair care product company, Kiehl's. By juxtaposing adult skin care concepts in the text, and photographic imagery of what a balanced childhood involves ("exfoliation" is a kid playing in the sand), Kiehl's is taking their responsibility to market only to their target audience (adults), seriously.

Image Source: https://france.publicisgroupe.com/how-kiehls-wants-to-remind-what-should-be-the-only-true-skin-care-routine-for-kids/

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Visual Diary 11 - Problematic Stake in the Ground

Post #2

Self-storage units in America are ubiquitous and numerous. The statistics are staggering: 1 unit for every 14 people, over % of Americans have a storage unit, and that there are more storage units than Starbucks, McDonald's, Dunkin' Donuts, Pizza Huts, and Wendy's combined (Neighbor Source).

All these storage units represent a consumer culture which can have negative consequences on personal financial health and the environment. The problematic stake in the ground (of the many with this issues) I'm focusing on is the normalization and encouragement by companies through advertising that buying more things and owning more things than your housing circumstance can hold is okay.

Source: https://www.neighbor.com/storage-blog/self-storage-industry-statistics/

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Visual Diary 11 - Problematic Stake in the Ground

Post #1

You may have seen mentions of "Sephora Kids" on social media or news pieces. Sephora, a brick and mortar and online cosmetics store, has seen a sharp uptick in patrons as 8 - 12 years old and younger. The science is clear that skin care products with retinol, acids, and other anti-aging ingredients are harmful for young skin. This image is post from Drunk Elephant, a skin care line that's particularly popular with Gen Alpha, putting a stake in the ground that their products are okay to use. This is highly problematic as not all their products are, let alone the issue of targeting children for a beauty regime.

Image source: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0mwaHGPiAO/?hl=en

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Visual Diary 10 - Instances of Putting a Stake in the Ground

Post #2

One of my favorite things is when people find alternate uses for things. Depending on the degree of impact, these design choices demonstrate a stake in the ground. One large example of this is The High Line in New York City. This park used to be an elevated train track that went out of use in the 1980s. Many consider elevated train tracks to be a visual blight in urban landscapes, removing access to sunlight and creating noise pollution. The design choice, and stake in the ground, to repurpose and reclaim this space towards nature and inspiration (many spaces along The High Line are used for art installations), we see an expanded view of what it means to live in a big city.

Image Source: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/parks/highline

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Visual Diary 10 - Instances of Putting a Stake in the Ground

Post #1

I recently saw an IG reel posted by Anthony Ferraro about his experience visiting the Louvre as a person with visual impairment. They have a tactile room where each piece has braille and audio guides and allows visitors to feel the art pieces. This is a design stake in the ground that art should be enjoyed by all, regardless of any limitations. Some may say that art shouldn't be touched and that the visual arts (paintings, sculpture) should only be experienced by sighted people. This design choice to create an expansive art moment is bold and incredibly inspiring.

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Visual Diary 7: Open Topic: Post 2

I've been thinking about much of design leadership, and really leadership in general, tends to be homogenous. I spent some time looking for indigenous-led graphic design and came across IDIA. Based in New Zealand, they work within and for the Maori community. I was particularly excited to see their work with AI ensuring that their chatbot is built for the end user in mind - in this particular case for a smoking cessation effort. It's encouraging to see another narrative for AI, that instead of the bias being discovered by users, that inclusion is built in from the beginning.

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Visual Diary 7: Open Topic: Post 1

I've been hoping to post about a designer I admire, George Aye, and his company Greater Good Studio. George is an IDEO alum, and in 2021 he published a Medium piece entitled "Surviving IDEO" that caused massive waves in the design and design thinking world. I've had the gift of speaking with him a couple of times about his approach to work, and was is abundantly clear is that he's a life long learner with a healthy curiosity about how to make things better starting with listening. His studio focuses on social issues - using the tools first applied for consumer goods for consumer good. Here's how they put it:

"Human centered design was first codified to address private sector business challenges, but we have spent over 10 years applying, adapting, and refining it for the social sector. Our approach blends the structure of human-centered design with the relational nature of community engagement."

Source: Greater Good Studio, (n.d.). Our Approach. Greater Good Studio. https://greatergoodstudio.com/what-we-do/

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Visual Diary 6 - Post 2

Tools In Action

In my view, innovation often comes as disparate ideas are gathered together and seen through new lenses. Keeping a journal of ideas, a collection of learning from others and oneself, can be a great resource of these disparate ideas. This is why I've included the version of the notebooks I've been using during this Masters program. I intend to reference these tools through the remainder of my career journey - and I intend to keep adding to my little library of inspiration.

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Visual Diary 6 - Post 1

Tools in Action:

I spent a couple years on a learning journey asking all kinds of people about their work, their journey, and always their inspiration. One of my favorite nuggets of advice from this experience was being introduced to Spotify Design. Beyond music, this embedded team takes time to share their practice, approaches, and research (the good and the hard). And they publish a lot of opensource design tools. From Figma templates, to worksheets, they share how they make design leadership decisions and also post tools to be customized. This section is just one of several fabulous resources (including a newsletter), that Spotify Design has, visit here to explore!

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Visual Diary 5: Ethnography - Post 2

As a reminder, my Ethnographic project is to surface needs to address the wicked problem of device cord management.

This is an image from my Ethnographic interviews - my aim is to listen to my interviewees to understand their needs, their frustrations, their pain points. By asking open ended questions and digging deeper into their answers through follow up questions, I'm hoping to identify their underlying needs. One key aspect of this approach is to take time at the beginning of the interview to ascertain who this person is - their full context of life circumstance - to use that as a lens to understand their answers to specific questions around the issue of cord management and storage. In short, to develop empathy and understanding to inform better suited solutions.

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Visual Diary 5: Ethnography - Post 1

My idea is "what if we could store device cords at a reasonable cost in a way that's manageable, easily accessible, and has no tangles." I've decided to use direct observation as well as interviews. For direct observation, I am scrolling through user generated content in review sections from Amazon under cord management products. This will give me insight into their unfiltered feedback as well as see images of their home and offices spaces (self posted), all at scale because of the sheer volume. I'm taking record of themes around pain points and potential alternative approaches to solve this tangled issue that causes immense frustration on a daily basis.

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Visual Diary 4 - Serving vs. Helping Designs

I was struck by the nuance of this assignment to think about a design example of help that actually provides a service. I really had to think about it, and remembered seeing images like this after natural disasters (like hurricane damage by flooding in Texas). Disaster response is by definition helping, but Tide has designed a rapid response network that provides specific and needful service to people in immediate need - getting clean clothes. Started after Hurricane Katrina, Tide is now expanding these efforts by providing these services to unhoused communities, and partnering with Whirlpool to provide the washing and drying machines. Truly an act of helping that is actually providing a service.

#Desideratum #designstrategy

Sources:

Cause Marketing, (n.d.). Tide ‘Loads of Hope’ Case Study. Cause Marketing. https://causemarketing.com/case-study/tide-loads-hope/ 

Tide, (n.d.). Loads of Hope.Tide.  https://tide.com/en-us/our-commitment/loads-of-hope