Stories

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.

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.

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.

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.

In May, Julie Schell joined the College of Fine Arts as the new Executive Director of Executive and Extended Education in the School of Design and Creative Technologies, where she has served as a Clinical Assistant Professor since 2017. In her new role, Schell will use her expertise with designing and scaling successful start-ups in universities to launch extended education programs minted at the College of Fine Arts and the School of Design and Creative Technologies. 

Clay Damron is a Senior Arts and Entertainment Technologies Major in the School of Design and Creative Technologies at the University of Texas at Austin. 

A team from FÖDA Studio that includes a Department of Design lecturer and an alumnus was recently named as a finalist for two James Beard Awards for restaurant design.

A team of students in the 2D capstone class of the Game and Mobile Media Applications (GAMMA) Program reached the finals last week at the Intel University Games Showcase at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California.

Wicked problems are everywhere. The number of prepared and available solvers to work on these kinds of problems, however, is sparse. Scaling design thinking outside of the design studio offers a way to relieve this tension. Humans can use design thinking to change the world, but only if the current "rapid teach" models of design thinking pedagogy are reimagined.

Katrina Gwen Dalmacio, who goes by Gwen, is a senior in Arts and Entertainment Technologies in the School of Design and Creative Technologies. Read more Q&As with AET seniors.