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/