On November 14th, the local Interaction Design Association (IxDA) chapter in Columbus, Ohio invited our founder Morgan Landis to lead a roundtable discussion on Designing for Social Change.
Designing for social change are often what non-profits, and even social entrepreneurs, do to when they are designing solutions for their community’s ‘wicked problems.’
To set a foundation for the discussion, we shared a few resources about designing for social change. Below you can see how human-centered design needs to be inclusionary when designing for social change (the meat of it is between 28:02-44:12).
Antionette Carroll – Design Leadership for Civic Change from MidwestUX on Vimeo.
Participants could also read 3 Principles To Guide Designing For Social Change.
During the discussion the groups did an activity on types of privilege (race, gender, and socioeconomic class), as these often can create biases on what and who you think needs to be involved in creating the biggest impact for your community. You can view a version of the diversity walk below to understand how different privileges apply to different people and how they can effect you on a daily basis.
We love having these kinds of discussions and are constantly curating a list of resources to learn and share more about designing for social change. Here are a few more sources for you to help you understand how you can help your community when designing solutions.
Books
Classes
| Systems Practice: An Approach to Move from Impossible to Impact A specific methodology and a more general approach to grappling with adaptive problems in complex environments with the aim of making enduring social change at scale. |
| Designing for Environmental Sustainability and Social Impact Discover the dynamics that contribute to complex environmental and social challenges using systems thinking. Explore how behavior change principles can encourage people to act in ways that benefit the planet. |
| Design Thinking: Ideou Learn IDEO’s approach to designthinking and creative leadership through IDEO U—an online school that equips individuals with the tools and mindsets necessary to ignite creative confidence and tackle complex challenges. |
| Social Norms, Social Change Diagnose social norms and distinguish them from customs or conventions. These distinctions are crucial for effective policy interventions aimed to create new, beneficial norms or eliminate harmful ones. |