Designing better futures for everyone / Lesley Ann Noel / Episode #162

Service Design Show

I'm sure you've heard this before... "You can't design for everyone." That's a fundamental principle in a good design process.

In the end, design is all about making choices. And one of these choices is defining who you are designing for.

But here's an interesting question: Can you design with a specific user in mind without excluding others?

This sounds a lot like a paradox, right? So why bother trying to solve it? Because if we don't, we are creating inequality and harm.

This isn't exclusive to but especially relevant when working with public services. You can't just always design for the "average" user or the one with the most money. So what can you do?

Well, Lesley Ann Noel has made it her mission to help us design better futures for everyone. She has done many experiments in her role as a university professor to overcome this seeming paradox.

And her findings are... pretty surprising, to say the least. She shares her story in this week's episode.

After this conversation, it really resonated with me that it's okay and even beneficial to bring your whole self into the design process. Yes, including all of your biases!

--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---

00:00 Welcome to episode 162
03:15 Who is Lesley
04:45 Lightning round
08:00 Designing better futures
09:45 Who are we designing for
12:15 What does better look like
16:45 Background story
22:45 The unknown unknown
27:30 Impact on the craft
30:45 Who is open to this
34:00 Most common question
37:15 Bring your identity
41:00 The mindful designer
45:00 What makes you happy
48:30 Lesson learned

49:45 Closing thoughts

--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---

* https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleyannnoel/

* The Activist Academic (book) - https://amzn.to/3tfjUep

--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---

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