Three signals to the future 002
This is a new effort to offload articles that I find on the interwebs and they are connected in one way or another with holistic design.
In a predicted fashion, it took me some time to create a second edition to this newsletter series. Regardless, slow is often good, and I embrace it for now. Let’s get to it, shall we?
On vulnerable research
Research is all about learning and putting the individual you are researching to the highest of focus. Ethnographers have to be well aware of the power dynamics that exist when they come into a community to do their research. How do they make sure that their approach is trauma and justice informed? The following paper by Taylor Paige Winfield outlines six competencies for ethnographers to be trained in and assessed on to ensure their research is trauma and justice-informed.
The competencies include the following: (a) self-awareness; (b) participant-centered approach; (c) recognition of social location; (d) attention to trauma; (e) knowledge of professional limits; and (f) effective boundaries and self-care.
▶︎ Vulnerable Research: Competencies for Trauma and Justice-Informed Ethnography — Taylor Paige Winfield
On the emerging shapes of design orgs
Design organizations and their structure is a hot topic in many circles and it has bothered my mind quite a lot (on a monthly basis). How do you set up your design teams for success? Luckily people like Peter Merholz also think about these topics and often write about it.
This post is meant to be a foundational building block for further thinking on emerging standards in the shape of design organizations.
▶︎ The Emerging Shape of Design Orgs — Peter Merholz
On decolonizing design
Design has become an important field in technology and as designers, we carry responsibilities for the products and services we create. We also carry the weight of the decisions we take - and how we take them - and most importantly we carry the weight of the consequences of the people we affect with our work. How do we move forward in the post-colonial world? This outline for a talk by Ahmed Ansari is a great read.
In the design academy, it is heartening to see that what were previously the largely marginalized concerns of a small community of largely postcolonial scholars and collectives based in Anglo-European nation-states are now mainstream concerns, with a critical mass sufficient to give the established status quo pause and for institutions to rethink their political commitments.