Stanford d.school

A powerful guide to why even the most well-intentioned innovations go haywire, and the surprising ways we can change course to create a more positive future, by two celebrated experts working at the intersection of design, technology, and learning at Stanford University's acclaimed d.school. "This brilliant book offers a new approach to all creative work that will expand your understanding of what it means to make and open up possibilities you didn't know existed--it did for me."--Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Orphan Master's Son In Assembling Tomorrow, authors Scott Doorley and Carissa Carter explore the intangible forces that prevent us from anticipating just how fantastically technology can get out of control, and what might be in store for us if we don't start using new tools and tactics. Despite our best intentions, our most transformative innovations tend to have consequences we can't always predict. From the effects of social media to the uncertainty of AI and the consequences of climate change, the outcomes of our creations ripple across our lives. Time and again, our seemingly ceaseless capacity to create rubs up against our limited capacity to understand our impact. Assembling Tomorrow explores how to use readily accessible tools to both mend the mistakes of our past and shape our future for the better. We live in an era of "runaway design," where innovations tangle with our lives in unpredictable ways. This book explores the off-­­kilter feelings of today and follows up with actionables to alter your perspective and help you find opportunities in these turbulent times. Mixed throughout are histories of the future, short pieces of speculative fiction that imagine the future as if it has already happened and consider the past with a critical yet hopeful eye so that all of us--as designers of our own futures--can create a better world for generations to come.

Discover design strategies for using your own unique social identities and experiences as inspiration to challenge the status quo and create the kind of lasting change that leads to greater equity and social justice, from Stanford University's d.school. Who are you? What motivates you as a changemaker? What forces are preventing you (and others) from thriving? These questions are essential to the work of creating social change, and they are exactly what Design Social Change asks you to explore. Designer and design educator Lesley-Ann Noel shares the essential design strategies for making a lasting impact. This work starts with knowing yourself and builds outward into making change in your community and the larger world. Design Social Change gives you tools to tailor your approach to design, taking into account your history, personality, ethics, and goals for a better future. The strategies for change are based on equity and fairness, understanding your own role in these systems of both justice and inequity. These strategies demonstrate how to use anger, joy, and empathy as inspiration for understanding what people need to thrive. Using the tools of design, these new approaches will help you craft projects that are relevant to you and create more just, equitable futures. The time is always right to work toward a fair and just society.

Scheme the impossible Turn your vision into reality Transform what if into what's next Discover how to make your ideas work for you with this transformative guide from Stanford University's d.school. Possibility is the ability to see something in your imagination and materialize it in real life. You already possess (almost) everything you need to make things happen--Make Possibilities Happen helps you find your way. Discover tools and strategies for overcoming the hang-ups that prevent you from getting things done or even starting. Learn exercises for building the creative capacity of your brain. Explore ways to build on the momentum of your work so that you can keep going. Award-winning author Grace Hawthorne shares insights, ideas, and activities from the Stanford University d.school courses she teaches, as well as scientific research and entrepreneurial escapades to get you thinking productively toward making possibilities a reality. It's hard to begin, uncomfortable to not know, natural to question yourself, easy to be impatient, and challenging to swallow setbacks. This book addresses all of these hurdles and walks you through four main stages of turning your idea into reality: SEE (imagine what's to come), START (just begin, this is everything), DO (show up and work), and FINISH (follow through). You can positively alter your life--and other people's lives--by making the inklings of your imagination real. All you need to do is pick up this book and START.

Notice what matters, sharpen your intuition, and grow personally and professionally by honing your skills of reflection in this illustrated guide from Stanford University's d.school. While we often think of reflection as a way to consider what is or was, it can also be a powerful tool for imagining and shaping what could be. Through activities based on the science, art, and practice of reflection, this book guides you through simple experiments that teach you how to make meaning from your experiences and, as a result, support your goals and values. Stanford professor Leticia Britos Cavagnaro sets up each experiment with a stated hypothesis, a simple method, and direction for gauging your results. With each experiment, you'll build concrete skills and learn how to shift your mindsets as you strengthen your ability to reflect with purpose. With thought-provoking collage-style illustrations from artist Gabriela S nchez, Experiments in Reflection helps you tune into your environment, train your intuition, and shape the future you want.

A practical guide to prototyping as a way to revolutionize your work and creative life, from Stanford University's world-renowned Hasso Plattner Institute of Design, aka the d.school. Prototyping is a way to test an idea to see if it can be successful before investing too much time and too many resources. But it's not only designers who prototype as they work. A skateboarder tries a new trick; that's a prototype experience. A chef experiments with a new dish and new ingredients; that's a prototype experience, too. Once a prototype is made, the creator gains knowledge about what worked and what didn't, what should be used again and what should be trimmed from the experience. This is a book about becoming better at prototyping by building things and experiences that will help you learn from your attempts, no matter what you're aiming to achieve. Readers will learn how to not only create prototypes but also how to reflect on the success and failure of those attempts. Scott Witthoft, who teaches courses in design and prototyping to students around the world, introduces a comprehensive number of tools and materials for prototyping, including digital platforms and physical objects. And he breaks down real-life examples of prototype experiments with accompanying photographs for the reader to observe large- and small-scale prototyping in action. With Witthoft as your guide, you'll put the principles of design into practice and bring your vision to life--one prototype at a time.

A highly visual exploration of diagrams and data that helps you understand how maps are part of everyday thinking, how they tell stories, and how they can reframe your point of view, from Stanford University's world-renowned d.school. In The Secret Language of Maps, Carissa Carter provides a simple framework to deconstruct all types of existing maps, and then teaches you to create your own. In this book, maps aren't just geographic, they are also infographic and include all types of diagrams. Any figure that sorts data visually and presents it spatially is a map. Maps are ways of organizing information and figuring out what's important. Even stories can be mapped An embedded mystery story about a woman who investigates the disappearance of an old high school friend illustrates how to use different maps to make sense of all types of information. Colorful illustrations bring the story to life and demonstrate how the fictional character's collection of data, properly organized and mapped, leads her to solve the mystery of her friend's disappearance. You'll learn how to gather data, organize it, and present it to an audience. You'll also learn how to view the many maps that swirl around our daily lives with a critical eye, aware of the forces that are in play for every creator.

A practical, illustrated guide to using the tools of design to create feelings of inclusion, collaboration, and respect in groups of any type or size--a classroom, a work team, an international organization--from Stanford University's d.school. Belonging brings out the best in everyone. Whether you're a parent, teacher, community organizer, or leader of any sort, your group is unlikely to thrive if the individuals don't feel welcome, included, and valued for who they are. The good news is that you can use design to create feelings of inclusivity in your organization: rituals that bring us together, spaces that keep us calm, roles that create a sense of responsibility, systems that make us feel respected, and more. You can't force feelings, but in Design for Belonging, author and educator Susie Wise explains how to use simple levers of design to set the stage for belonging to emerge. For example, add moveable furniture to a meeting space to customize for your group size; switch up the role of group leader regularly to increase visibility for everyone; or create a special ritual for people joining or leaving your organization to welcome fresh perspectives and honor work well done. Inspiration and stories from leaders and scholars are paired with frameworks, tools, tips, and concrete offerings, providing an opportunity to try on different approaches. By the end of the book, you'll be able to spot where greater belonging is needed and actively shape your world to cultivate it--whether it's a party, a high-stakes meeting, or a new national organization.