Diana Simpson-Hernandez

🌱 How can we use design education to up-skill designers for a sustainable future? Following my reflections on the Design Council's Design for Planet festival, I wanted to delve deeper into the role education plays in empowering designers to drive change. Leaders like Michele Gregson FRSA and Sandra Booth FRSA are championing design’s place in our educational systems, from Early Years to Higher Education- here are some of their insights: 🔹 Starting Early: What if design education began at the very start of schooling? Introducing design-thinking skills in early education could nurture problem-solving behaviors, creativity, and resilience from a young age. 🔹 Current State: Design learning exists in spaces like Design Technology workshops and art rooms, where A-level Art & Design remains popular. Yet, DT is under threat, and within Art & Design departments, design often takes a backseat to fine art, which dominates the curriculum. 🔹 Potential for Change: By reimagining our curriculum, we could build a ‘positopia’ for schools where design thrives as a core subject that empowers students to apply their own agency to solve real-world problems. Design students entering higher education are already equipped with strong ethical, social, and environmental awareness. They: - Choose universities based on green credentials. - Recognize and challenge greenwashing. - Bring with them the perspective of conscientious consumers who see broken systems in governance, healthcare, and more—and want to make a difference. In the UK alone, there are 180,000 design and art students, not counting those in engineering and related fields. Additionally, there are significant opportunities for Continuing Professional Development for existing designers, ensuring that lifelong learning in sustainable design is accessible. Let’s advocate for education that prepares designers as both creatives AND as changemakers. It's clear that we can embed these skills from the ground up 🌿

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Really enjoyed this podcast episode about the state of design leadership and craft, and what might need to be done. https://buff.ly/3Wfm51r

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What do Paul Scholes and Service Designers have in common? 🥁🥁 ….they are playmakers The best midfielders / Service Designers are those that: > spot the gaps and opportunities > predict how situations will play out > keep a wide view of the action > link up play, connecting the team from back to front > create moments of magic Though often both often unseen, they can be the game-changers in setting others / the org up for success What would you add to the above? P.S #GGMU 👹🔴🏆 #Design #ServiceDesign

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🙌 The Design forecast report is finally here👇🏾 From the start of this year the discussion and debates on the impact of AI have become louder and with 1 in every 3 business investing in AI technology, we know 3 things for a fact: 👉🏾 Our workflows need to evolve not just from a tooling perspective, but how we solve problems. 🦄The Design leaders need to step up and educate themselves by gaining relevant skills and knowledge, to enable them to restructure teams, disciplines, tools and methods 💸 🌎We also need redefine our value within organisations and take this opportunity to identify the most relevant problems to solve for people and the planet. 🤔 But how does one do that? 🛠️ The report aims to be as practical and actionable as possible, and in doing so, potentially helpful to you in your current context and role. Above all, we hope it brings the design community together to collectively a new way forward. 👇🏾Download for free👇🏾 https://lnkd.in/eWfCVgAT

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AI FUTURES: Shaping the Future - The Impact of AI on the Design industry We stand on the edge of a technological revolution, the role of AI in reshaping the design industry cannot be overstated. From transforming job roles and operational strategies to redefining the competitive landscape, AI is poised to revolutionise how we create, collaborate, and compete. The following hypothetical scenario is of a timeline that projects the future impacts of AI on design professionals, agencies, brands, and in-house teams. As always I’d love to hear your thoughts. Follow me for more updates as I continue to explore innovative ways to use AI in workshop scenarios for brands and packaging & look into the potential of ai led futures. Stay tuned for more creative explorations in the near future!

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#DesignTea7 - Design Leadership edition Might have had a few tea spillages here :) What Martin and I covered: - failure around stretching a vision too far - Design as part of the C-Suite - understanding the means of production - needs around Design leadership - questions Design execs should be asking now when interviewing If you disagree with anything, let us know! If you have feedback or ideas, let me know also! Always just looking at how I can add value with these episodes ———— If you are interested in seeing some of the parts of the conversation that I had to cut out, let me know. Personally think there were lots of interesting tidbits from Martin in this one! #Design #DesignTea #DesignLeadership

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Worth revisiting this article on the lessons of building products for mixed realities. https://lnkd.in/eaneMUK7 #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

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So many large consulting owned design agencies today are design in name only. Recognise these traits? - Less than 5% of a large programme budget assigned to design by sales folk - Primarily tech led sales conversations - Bodyshopping individual designers without any regard - Spend for R&D and collaboration cut whilst internal targets increased - Inconsistent rewarding and recognition between design and consulting skill sets - Reliance on historic project case studies and overhyped subpar current work - A revolving door of senior execs and design leaders who aren’t empowered to make impact It’s not conducive to great work for clients, or a great culture for designers. What did I miss? #design #designforimpact #agencies

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I went to my first UX Architect team meeting at BBC UX&D for a few years last week and it inspired me to revisit some information architecture ideas... mainly the idea of 'concurrent information architecture'. I'm still not convinced it's a real thing... maybe it depends on where you draw the boundary of an architecture... but I do think considering the points of overlap, interaction and integration between systems, at the information architecture level, is one way to build better products and services. #informationarchitecture

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👀✨ Unveiling AI's Influence on Typography: Insights from Industry Experts As AI continues to leave its mark across the creative industry, its implementation in typography is taking a more gradual path. This article gathers insights from industry experts who highlight that AI is primarily making waves during the ideation phase, helping us swiftly explore a vast array of stylistic directions. Yet, when it comes to actual type design, AI's capabilities are still limited. The deep connections between typography, language, and visual semantics mean that human creativity and nuanced understanding are irreplaceable. So far, AI's impact on typography is more about evolution than revolution, enabling us to push boundaries while our artistic intuition continues to lead the way. More in the article by Tom May Insights by industry experts Jessica Walsh Teemu Suviala Zeynep A. 👋🏼 Simon Manchipp Yorgo Tloupas 👀✨ #Typography #AI #DesignInnovation #CreativeTech #Branding

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To someone who has never heard of Flexible Visual Systems, it is unclear what they are or do. Why should one question old design methods and processes and approach design systemically? I summed up the key benefits of FVS in this short article: https://lnkd.in/evBsPJYj

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Our Senior Product Designer Rosie Dent-Spargo held a superb session in February with the Product Design team to create values and principles. Using guidance from Dan Makoski's book Uplifting Design, the session was dynamic and layered. The focus wasn't solely on creation, but also how we might embed principles and values into daily work. This write up is the Rolls-Royce of "How to"s, and is a very valuable read for those looking to create and instil values and principles within any team. https://lnkd.in/e7DXm_Ca #productdesign #principles #values

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Very interesting and pertinent reflection on the screen age and what's coming next. https://lnkd.in/evuxQgKm #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

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“Free-range” design work where practitioners can use their perceived authority to propose futures and ignore unintended consequences is no longer possible when designers engage in complex situations. A new breed of designers is needed to take responsibility for longer-term future making.

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Help needed! So many design leaders are struggling out there in their job search I can see from conversations that many aren’t really talking about it / sharing their challenges and worries They internalise, feel alone and often in a hole. I’d love to try and help (hence this post) But need your help also 👉 If you are (or know of someone that is) looking for a Head of Design, Design Director, VP etc please send me a message. I’ve got a bunch of amazing leaders I’d love to connect you with! 👉 Please like // comment // tag // share this post and get the message out 👉 I’m starting to look at creating spaces / conversations for leaders currently out of work to come together. If you are interested in being a part of it, please let me know There is power (hopefully!) in community 💪🙌 ———— P.s I am aware it is not just design leaders struggling, this is just written off the back of them being the primary group I engage with week to week EDIT: Form link now in the comments if you are a Design Leader looking to be involved :) #Design #Leadership #DesignLeadership

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Another majorly underrated key skill for designers 👇 👉 Synthesis Being able to break down complex information, digest it and then put it back together in an understandable and more effective / impactful way. We often think of synthesis from a research perspective And while that is vital, there are so many areas that designers need to be able to effectively synthesise: - Analytics data - Ideation outputs - Workshop outputs - Thought processes - Critical feedback - Office politics More than a process, good synthesis is a super power Without it, other important skills like good storytelling will be 10x harder! #Design

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As our relationship with technology continues to deepen, the evolution of User Experience (UX) design is becoming increasingly crucial. This panel will bring together leading experts to discuss the future of UX, with a focus on the rise of emotional AI, next-generation interfaces, and the implications for human-computer interaction. Our discussion will delve into the principles guiding the design of future interfaces and experiences, the transformative potential of emotional AI, and how these advancements will shape our interactions with technology. Vote here: https://lnkd.in/dC-6TA4X Speakers Timmy Ghiurau Harry Yeff, Founder, @Reeps100 Carlos Calva, CEO, MidBrain

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