Sometimes, it’s helpful to step back and take a broader view of our industry. Learnings from adjacent fields like physical product design, art, and architecture can help spark creativity and teach new ways of approaching tough problems.
With that in mind, we’re excited to bring you a new DesignBetter.Co resource called Conversations. These are short talks that give you an exclusive, intimate look into the work of some of the sharpest minds in design, technology, and other creative fields.
This new section of DesignBetter.Co features discussions on salient topics. By exploring emerging and niche issues, Conversations brings you deep inside everything from designing magical IoT experiences to leadership and algorithmic bias.
Throughout each Conversation, you’ll also find additional resources, audio and video clips from experts, reading recommendations, and exclusive images, to enhance the story and introduce you to new materials that can give you a fresh perspective on design.
Today, three Conversations are ready for you to explore, with many more to come.
Bill Burnett Executive Director, Design Program, Stanford
Bill has years of experience helping students become leaders and take charge of their careers. We chat about leadership (and introverted leaders), bringing people into the design process, and share resources about design thinking. Here’s one of our favorite quotes from the chat:
“You have to be the storyteller, you gotta be the influencer, and you gotta be the leader if you want to change our organization…”
Timnit Gebru Postdoctoral Researcher, Microsoft
Timnit works in the Fairness Accountability Transparency and Ethics (FATE) group at Microsoft’s New York Lab. We chat about opportunities for designers in AI, algorithmic bias, and some of her recent research using computer vision and machine learning to make demographic estimates. We especially love this quote from Timnit:
“I’m most excited about the potential things that you can do with AI to reach people who don’t have resources…drones being able to take supplies to remote areas…a phone app that can diagnose diabetes from looking at your retina.”
Joanna Peña-Bickley Head of Design, Internet of Things, Amazon
Before joining Amazon, Joanna was the Chief Creative Officer for IBM iX. We chatted about how to design more magical IoT experiences, get more young women into design and technology, and how to “speak design” in the language of business. Here’s one gem of leadership advice from Joanna:
“Never stop learning. That’s so important. One of the things that has been an incredible help to me is that I have an insatiable curiosity.”
There are more Conversations in the works! We’ll be rolling out a new one every other week. Know an exceptional creative or technology pro we should feature in an upcoming Conversation? Reach out on Twitter to let us know.
by Eli Woolery
Eli is the Director of Design Education at InVision. His design career spans both physical and digital products, and he is a lecturer in the Product Design program at Stanford University. You can find Eli on Medium or on Twitter.
