Doing Research with People, Not on People

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axis (PDF)

Axis Volume 88: Feature: Design Research, November/December 2000

Axis is Japan’s leading design title. Ever since AXIS was launched in 1981, it has interpreted design to be not merely form and color but also an element that widely affects our lives, cultures, communication, and even businesses. Society is facing a variety of problems as it grows more diverse and complex in the 21st century, requiring a kind of design that transcends the framework of such fields as products, architecture, graphics, fashion, multimedia and information design.

Collective Creativity through Making, Hacking and Enacting

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Collective Creativity through Making, Hacking and Enacting
December 14, 2013

Liz was one of the keynote speakers at the Design Fusion conference that took place at C-Mine Genk in Belgium. The conference was part of the 7th Design Triennial in Flanders that serves as an investigation into the social relevance of design and the responsibility taken by designers in our society. Slides from Liz’s presentation are available.

Collective Innovation

Liz Sanders at DRC 2013 from IIT Institute of Design on Vimeo.

October 8-9, 2013
This is an invited presentation for the 2013 Design Research Conference, Exploring Creative Balance in Design, which took place at the Field Museum in Chicago. It was the 12th annual Design Research Conference hosted by IIT Institute of Design where practicing designers, artists, scientists, engineers, educators, and entrepreneurs presented a variety of perspectives on balancing multiple creative forces amidst complex systems and issues.

Exploring Co-creation on a Large Scale: Designing for New Healthcare Environments and Experiences

article-Delft
Symposium: Designing for, with and from User Experiences
Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology
Delft, The Netherlands 2009

Abstract: A participatory mindset is beginning to change how new healthcare facilities are being planned and designed today. The activity is changing from a focus on the design of buildings to encompass collaboration with all the relevant stakeholders (patients, visitors, doctors, nurses, cleaning staff, etc.) in designing for future healthcare experiences. I will show and describe some of the new tools and methods for design and research that are being explored to inform and inspire co-creation on a large scale.

Co-creation and the New Landscapes of Design.

Liz Sanders at IIT Design Research Conference 2008 from IIT Institute of Design on Vimeo.

IIT Design Research Conference 2008
IIT Institute of Design
Chicago, IL

Abstract: There has been significant interest lately from the business community in the value of design research and design thinking. This is particularly true in the early front end of the design process. Liz will present a map of the design research landscape as it has emerged over the last 20 years and then focus on the newest developments on the map with an emphasis on design-led approaches to design research. She will describe a generative design language that can be used to facilitate collective thinking, making and telling between designers and non-designers. Liz will show how generative tools can be used to fill the fuzzy front end with the ideas, dreams and insights of the people we serve through design.

Co-creation at the front end of the design process is an alternative way of seeing and being in the world. Existing and thriving in the emerging co-creative landscapes of design will require companies to have new attitudes and mindsets about the people formerly known as “customers” as well as broader perspectives on the meaning of “value”. It will also demand that the new tools and methods for connecting, innovating, making, telling and sharing be used within organizational cultures that support new world views.