Adam Zeiner

So, what then is human centered design if it's failing most of the humans surrounding it? We were trying to broaden the aperture and bring the lens further back to look more coherently at everything that goes on when inserting a product, service, or built environment. What happens when you create something and put it into a human system?

In building my own boundary objects and enabling others to do the same, I have become increasingly infatuated with Etienne Wenger’s work on communities of practice and the characteristics that enable particular artefacts to act as boundary objects

The impact of these influences remains today. It shows up in the language of business, for example – think of all the business jargon that clearly has military roots. [...] Even my own business school was organized into cohorts—a structure modeled after the Roman legions.

I like the concepts “strategy” and “tactics” to capture what these two sides of design are about. As far as I can tell this appears to be the choice of words that professional designers and design leaders use.

The Systemic Design Framework is an evolution of Design Council’s design frameworks, starting with the globally renowned Double Diamond, and more recently the Framework for Innovation. It is our way of synthesising how we see people on our own programmes, and through research with other designers using design to address complex challenges. These... See more

This matters because services designed and optimised for the current system can have the effect of further entrenching it — by introducing additional forces and interests to ‘keep things the way that they are’. This isn’t to dismiss their value — systems change is slow and uncertain, and in the meantime it’s essential we deliver the most effective... See more