Design Reader 2017
Table of Contents
Introduction to the Design Reader
From Doreen Lorenzo
Welcome to the first edition of the Design Reader, presented by the School of Design and Creative Technologies at The University of Texas at Austin.
Designers are Educators. Educators are Designers. What Happens When the Best of Both Worlds Collide?
By Katie Krummeck
From radically redesigning the syllabus, to reimagining the role of facilitators inside and outside of class, to considering student-directed learning as a human-centered design challenge, designers are leading the way in transforming the collegiate classroom.
Easy is Hard: Building the Student Loan Picture
By Carly Franca
When Fidelity Labs, the innovation arm of Fidelity Investments, decided to help borrowers gain a greater sense of control over their student loans, it became apparent that it was extremely hard for borrowers to obtain a clear picture of their total debt. The Fidelity Labs team used human-centered design techniques to distill the complexity of student loans and give borrowers the agency to take control of their financial futures.
Building a Design Culture Inside Government
By Ariel Kennan
The New York Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity used design thinking, empathy, and journey mapping to understand the experience of a homeless person engaging in the complicated process of obtaining housing. These insights helped the city use existing resources to their full potential and provide a better experience for all of its citizens.
Human-Centered Opportunity: How the Expert Practice of Design Strategy Can Lead to Business Growth
By Gigi Kalaher
Fidelity Labs has had a growing Design Thinking team since 2005, helping people in all parts of the company adopt a design-forward approach to their work. More recently, the practice has evolved to focus on design strategy in the firm’s incubators, or small startups run by Fidelity tasked with exploring adjacent spaces to its core business. Fidelity’s design strategists apply a human-centered lens to uncover unmet needs and hidden opportunities.
How Design Can Improve Outcomes in Higher Ed
By Dr. Luke Jones
Institutions of higher education are looking for new approaches to retain students, ensure timely progression and graduation, and maximize learning. University culture, structure, and incentives can often paralyze institutions, making it challenging to focus the work of faculty and administrators in a meaningful and timely way. Research conducted at Boise State University shows that design thinking has the potential to increase the creative capacity of university staff at all levels to rapidly improve the student experience.
Product Design and UXD: Setting Up a Successful Collaboration
By Dusan Koljensic with Mike Musser
Fidelity Labs has created a process called ADEPT to create and evaluate the future of new product offerings. In this process, user experience (UX) designers are brought in at the pilot phase of a project, bringing their expertise to the table at a key juncture to ensure its success.
Design Thinking in Health Care: How a Virtual Nurse Helps Keep People Out of the Hospital
By Cathy Pearl
Sensely’s app uses an avatar-based nurse to have a daily check-in “conversation” with patients to help them manage their health as they deal with chronic congestive heart failure. Human-centered design is key to building a smart artificial intelligence platform that improves health outcomes for patients on a daily basis.
Behold and Beware, Design Toolkits
By Jon Freach
The tools of design thinking are intellectual and conceptual, and while design thinking toolkits can be incredibly useful, they don’t guarantee “mastery” of design or design thinking. It’s a nuanced process that takes time and instruction to build design cognition, a sharp eye, and skilled hands.
Meet the Team
Editor-in-Chief: Doreen Lorenzo
Managing Editor: Alicia Dietrich
Article Editors: James Cortese, Nada Dorman
Designer and Illustrator: Misa Yamamoto