Co-designing for Society (journal paper)

This year the Australasian Medical Journal (AMJ) ran another special Design + Health edition to explore ideas in designing for health. Deborah Szebeko, founder of social design agency thinkpublic and I followed up our previous year's Co-designing for Dementia: The Alzheimer100 Project (2009) paper with this new one called, Co-designing for Society (2010).


In this paper, we elaborate more on co-design, its approach, tools, processes and practices using several of thinkpublic's projects. At the end of the paper we also touch on what next for co-design, especially in line with the political climate here in the UK where the Coalition advocates Building Big Society which sees “a society where the leading force for progress is social responsibility, not state control.”

The Design Council have also been actively exploring co-design and organising discussions among the design community to understand the practice better. Check out their published summary here.

The Obama Administration and Design

Yes, it has been a bit Obama-rama lately around here and all over the web, but following up on the previous post regarding the design policy initiative for the US Government, I just visited The White House website and blog and I am really impressed.

Screen grab from The Whitehouse website

Great aesthetics (really impressive and I have to say beats Number 10.gov.uk handsdown), great usability and of course great content, including some nice visuals from within The Whitehouse.

When I visited the website I thought it demonstrated a great appreciation for good design, and when I explored further to The Whitehouse blog, I can see that many principles held by Obama's Administration align with that of design in Dott 07.

One of the very first postings on The Whitehouse blog states its intent to centre around three priorities:

• Communication: for timely information;
  
  
• Transparency: for openess and to provide a "window for all Americans into the business of the government" and;
  
  
• Participation: (and I have to quote what the blog says about this. See below)
  

President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.

I can't go into detail here, but from my research into Dott 07, all the projects held these three priorities in very high regard with Designers acting upon them.

I am now really curious to know how the US Design Policy Initiative shall be received. I wish them the best of luck.

Manifest Hope:DC

Thought we might celebrate Inauguration Day right here with a link to a very interesting art exhibition called ManifestHope:DC. It exhibits the work of "artists who use their voices to amplify and motivate the grassroots movement that carried President-Elect Barack Obama to victory" and does so around 3 key issues: Healthcare Reform, Workers Rights and the Green Economy. Anyone can submit their art (online) and 15 pieces (5 from each category) are selected to be put on display. Here is a link to the winners.

Image from ManifestHope DC website