Accidental Vagrant

This is a good introduction to the shared space  that professions can occupy in the domain of design . Highly recommend the book that came out of this  conference authored by Richard Boland and  Fred Collopy (Stanford Business Books). Managing as Designing Managing as Designing vimeo.com

Articles such as–" what will work look like in 2030? "—are constantly being posed in public: e.g. "What will education look like in...?", what will this organization look like...?", "what will healthcare look like...?", "what will conflict look like in...?" etc. etc. If it were possible to answer such questions by predicting or making trend assessments and projections there would be no alternative to do anything but try to get very good at adaption and survival ( antifragile ,  resilient , etc). Certainly some things cannot be modified or changed in the environment–such as the effects of natural laws–but the questions that ought to be posed for contexts and particulars that can be changed should focus on "what would be desirable in...?", "what ought to become a reality in...?", "what needs to become a reality in...?" etc. In other words, we should be asking design questions that are actionable rather than m...

I am presently reading LeonardoDa Vinci written by Walter Isaacson which has reminded me once again of the long history of ‘human focused’— i.e. humanistic—inquiry reaching back to the ancient Greeks and beyond. The Renaissance period bracketing Leonardo’s lifetime was a time when humanism was rediscovered as a focus for human agency and inquiry after a long period of neglect. The most recent interest in ‘user centered’, ‘customer centered’, and ‘human centered design’ (IDEO et. al.) is just a faint echo of those earlier periods of human centered literature, art, and engineering etc. The recent emergence of interests in ‘(something) centered design’ is an opportune time to look more closely at what the intentions of such centering of design activities are. Additionally, it is a good time to think about what may be desirable additions to such centering strategies in the future. There are several frames of reference for depicting design centering activities nowadays that are of...

A chapter I have authored,  The Promise of Systemic Design , will soon be available in a major on-line reference work: AECT-Springer Online Major Reference Work (MRW)  http://refworks.springer.com/mrw/index.php?id=7054 An online Major Reference Work (MRW) co-sponsored by AECT and Springer entitled  Learning, Design, and Technology: An International Compendium of Theory, Research, Practice and Policy  has been launched covering topics concerning research and practice related to the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of learning environments, instructional systems, and performance technologies. This is an ongoing effort with an evolving collection of contributions that have been peer reviewed.  

Many articles on Steve Job’s tenure at Apple have focused on the mystery of Job’s approach to his work. The articles are representative of the ongoing desire to uncover the recipe or secret sauce that made Apple’s products so dominant in the market place. The focus on design is often mentioned as Apple’s essential core competence during the Job era. Job’s character is often critiqued, but mostly the center of attention is on trying to discern his—i.e. Apple’s—design approach, processes and methods during his time at the helm. As a popularized guess, ‘design thinking’ has become the normative category to use when referring to these or anyone’s methods or approaches to successful designing. That was not Job’s approach but ‘design thinking’ has taken on a life of its own. ‘Design thinking’ in fact has become a highly touted approach for businesses and governments to take whether focused on products or services. ‘Design thinking’ is being pushed in text and video as the strate...