Download - Notes from AIGA's "Citizen! Designer! Now!"
THINGS I LEARNED AT AIGA’S CITIZEN!
DESIGNER! NOW!
Adam Meisel @adamsdayoff
Quick note from the note taker• These were my personal notes during the event, not necessarily
an attempt to be comprehensive
• I’m sure I missed plenty, and I acknowledge my biases (both conscious and unconscious) influenced what I found interesting and what I captured
• All that said, I tried to organize these notes into the categories I saw, and I hope it’s helpful for those of you who’d like to become more involved and take action.
• Cheers!
Panel
• Cliff Kuang AIGA NY Board
• Jake Barton Principal and Founder, Local Projects
• Christine Gaspar Executive Director, CUP: Center for Urban Pedagogy
• Laura Kunkel Creative Director, Blue State Digital
Lots of themes to summarize.
• Despite everyone “being on the same side”, most opinions were contentious to some degree
• One of the biggest themes was Activism vs. Empathy (and is empathy a form of activism?)
STARTING VS. JOINING A MOVEMENT
Starting vs. Joining
• Designers need to think as writers
• What is the name of the movement we all get behind?
• What movement do you join? How do we help?
• CUP? Non profits.
EXTREMISM / GALVANIZING
Extremism / Galvanizing
• Galvanizing partially is what got us into this mess.
• Activist movement to bridge gap / in conflict with activist movement to draw attention to extreme pov (from Enslavement to Incarceration)
• Building Belief
Extremism / Galvanizing
• Trump: Clearly not the truth but people believed in him (like Bernie)
• It's an aspiration. It's a goal (vision zero) it's not supposed to be realistic.
• Build that Progressive Dream
Extremism / Galvanizing
• Anger is an easier message to sell than anything else (right now?)
• “We're not gonna have another Eisenhower.” It's only popular extremists here on out.
• As designers, we made this landscape that made the election. Crusader spirit: American came into south america and caused a lot of damage.
LISTENING & EMPATHY VS.
COMPROMISING
Listening & Empathy
• Need for shared experience - the incomprehensibility of one side to the other
• Design critique as training to have difficult conversation
• “suffering from anorexia” -> “suffering from racism” rather than “racist”
• - separate what you're critiquing from the person • - put on wall / establish goal"
Listening & Empathy
• Separate what you're critiquing from the person • Put on wall / establish goal
• Social science around people who are racist but don't identify as (and thusly dig their heels) http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/11/15/13595508/racism-trump-research-study
• Tell me more about what you're feeling. Listen. Safe space for them to share their opinion - even if doesn't mesh with own
LOCAL VS. BIG PICTURE
Local vs. Big Picture
• Do you know who your community board is?
• Activism by partnering with communities
• “Dems don't pay attention to elections other than president.”
• Nothing is stopping a designer from running for office.
COMFORT
Comfort
• Having power might mean giving up comfort to help those without power. (At job)
• “If you're feeling comfortable than you're not doing enough”
BARRIERS TO ENTRY
Barriers
• Lack of involvement bc of huge barrier to entry • Designers rethinking how the government works • Purposeful obfuscation • Can designers work within administration to
effect change
• How do we rethink the government outside the government. Use as a specific thing to push on.
Barriers
• “That’s called Community Organizing”
• “I had no idea how to know about that.” (A specific local political event)
• “You need to care about local government”
• How to get word to non-twitter / fb users?
Barriers• Hard for non profits to participate in the design
process. Hard to get buy in on client side. Takes additional effort. Not a normal client relationship.
• Everyone is understaffed, overworked, and urgent.
• Civic design sector needs people. Gov software is crap bc funding. Most designers not willing to give up their salaries. If even do have a designer they're not A+
TEACHING
Teaching
• Teach human centered research to public policy makers.
• Teach design thinking to policy making students
• We're systems thinkers - law is a system. It can't just be lawyers making policy we need cognitive diversity
Teaching
• Teach media literacy. Is there a way to teach that to people who don't want to be taught that?
ACTIONABLE
Actionable• Civic Hall Labs http://www.civichalllabs.org/
• CampaignCon - weren't many designers there.
• https://www.catchafire.org/
• EmpathyJam
• Company Guilds
Actionable
• Hillary Clinton phone bank UX was incredibly easy. Why doesn't exist for local politicians?
• People have to recreate system every time.
• Standing rock - don't go. Send money.
• http://welcometocup.org/
• http://designersavailable.com/
Actionable
• http://www.showingupforracialjustice.org
• http://www.designishistory.com/1960/first-things-first/
• https://localprojects.net/
• https://www.bluestatedigital.com/