Design Ignites Change Idea Award
We recently got word that our team of designers working in The Public Practice Studio, just won the grand prize award from Design Ignites Change Idea competition! Our team includes second-year grads, Josh Nelson (ID), Kari Gaynor (IxD), Melanie Wang (VCD), Adriel Rollins (ID), and Mike Fretto (VCD). The award was won for the work we have been doing on Pivot, a ...
Teaching designers to code
As the discipline of design becomes more entangled with interactive media, serious questions arise regarding how and what to teach design students in order to successfully navigate the increasing complexity of making. In his article “Programming as Design: The Role of Programming in Interactive Media Curriculum in Art and Design,” Faramarz Amiri argues that design ...
Do we need more PhD programs in design?
Does the growing emphasis on research in design highlight the need for more PhD programs? In our graduate seminar on design education this quarter we explored that question in relation to two articles written by design professors Meredith Davis and Victor Margolin. Both authors argue for more PhDs in design and provide critical guidance on ...
Creativity and Flow: A Summary of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s thoughts on finding productive design ‘zen’
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention documents the findings of the five-year research project, lead by the author, at the University of Chicago from 1990-1995. Psychology professor Csikszentmihalyi and his team interviewed a cross section of notable successful creative people, aged at least sixty years, and from a broad ...
With My Feet on The Ground
My initial interest and approaches to design research regarding chemotherapy were both close to my heart: my dad’s experience with colon cancer and my mom’s experience with my dad’s treatment. In interviews with my mom I quickly realized that with chemotherapy there is a lot of complex stuff going on. “it gets better, or it ...
Not Yo’ Papa’s Kilt!
I visited the Utilikilts guys a few days ago out of curiosity and per the founder Steven Villegas’ vision, I was immediately offered a beer out of a well stocked fridge. I knew then that I was in for an interesting time full of hairy legs and fun. The name says it all: The item ...
Stories Are Beautiful
Ever since I was a child, I’ve enjoyed meeting new people and hearing their unique tales — adventures or observations earned by wearing a particular lens they alone own or specific to a place and time personal to them. Even if a person has told their story a million times before, the account is still ...
Plans to Improve the Environment in Pioneer Square
My thesis, tentatively called “Dispelling Myths and Changing Perceptions of Pioneer Square” is about urban spaces, specifically as a response to urban flux and many of the empty storefronts in Pioneer Square. By interviewing and recording different storefront managers and owners and working with different organizations in Pioneer Square, I am hoping to show a ...
$45 Million to Help Doctors Care?
Just read this article from the NY Times about a new academic program geared towards improving doctor-patient relationships. The article reports that, ”nearly all medical schools teach the importance of listening to patients and showing empathy. But the Bucksbaum Institute is an ambitious effort to put compassion and empathy, as Dr. Siegler puts it, “on the same pedestal ...
Call me ‘Trim Tab’
This quote “hit me hard” this morning: ”Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just ...