Evolving Digital Design

The digital design profession has undergone tumultuous change over the last decades, lessons from which inform the future of AI-driven computational design. Daniel Harvey, Head of Product Design & Brand at The Dots Global, is our guest.

Design has evolved since the rise of the Internet and mobile computing, resulting in unintended negative consequences in our world such as the appropriation of social media technologies by evil actors, and the pernicious influences of bias and other invisible forces. In extreme cases our tools even contribute to the culmination of the most horrific of outcomes, such as the genocide in Rohingya. We explore how these complicated dynamics provide a glimpse into the future of design and technology.

 

Memorable Quotes

“When we're ripping off the same Silicon Valley apps, or the same sort of business models we end up inheriting, intentionally or not, all their weird, fucked up, white tech world biases too.”

“There is this fantastic service that you can take the content of a job description, put it into that, and it will  remove the gender bias from it.”

“As design does evolve, and as tools evolve, and as patterns evolve, I think we could get to a point where design is less about sort of pixel level craft, it's about more higher level value.”

“One of the things that I'm most excited about is  the reemergence of niche networks.”

“Facebook was used as a platform to promote  hate in Myanmar which led to an unconscionable number of real deaths, a massive refugee crisis.”

“You can have the most diverse and inclusive team in the world, but if you're looking at the same three or four big tech companies as examples to swear by, you're never going to really see the benefits of that diversity.”

“What's still not happening is you don't have one sort of common tool that's pointing to the same common assets and  common design libraries or pattern libraries.”

“Because of this proliferation of advertising as the default business model, we're just accustomed to it now, and we're willing to accept it when it does creep back in.”

“When you have voracious growth of a community, of an audience, and then you start to put advertising on top of that, the inevitable metric becomes daily active users. And the inevitable experience of using the product is, we'll cram advertising more and more into every part of the experience.”

“If you start to grow your skill sets in other areas, it's just an extra superpower.”

“There's a real problem with so much sameness in design today.”

“The scale of these platforms is what invariably leads to their potential for damage.”

 

Who You'll Hear

Dirk Knemeyer, Social Futurist and Producer of Creative Next (@dknemeyer)

Jonathan Follett, Writer, Electronic Musician, Emerging Tech Researcher and Producer of Creative Next (@jonfollett)

 Daniel Harvey, Head of Product Design & Brand at The Dots Global (@dancharvey)

 

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Sponsors

GoInvo, A design practice dedicated to innovation in healthcare whose clients are as varied as AstraZeneca, 3M Health Information Services, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. www.goinvo.com 

 

Design Museum Foundation, A new kind of museum, they believe design can change the world. They’re online, nomadic, and focused on making design accessible to everyone. Their mission: bring the transformative power of design everywhere. You can learn about their exhibitions, events, magazine, and more. www.designmuseumfoundation.org

BIF, As a purpose-driven firm, BIF is committed to bringing design strategy where it is needed most - health care, education, and public service to create value for our most vulnerable populations. www.bif.is