We’re all misfit consumers — we need inclusive design
Friday, August 26, 2016
Photo credit: Christina Gapic
“We’re all misfit consumers — we need inclusive design” — In her article, Jutta Treviranus, director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University, discusses a course titled Unlearning And Questioning, part of the two-year master’s study in Inclusive Design, intended to question assumptions, unlearn conformity and remove boundaries to thought. The students from very diverse backgrounds are challenged with unlearning the fear of “drawing outside the lines” — the compunction to label, sort, rank, filter and conform. They relearn the priceless value of mistake-making and failure. The ultimate learning outcome is a “radical form of inclusive design” that is seen as the next generation of design thinking. The inclusive-design students imagine scenarios of successful innovation agendas, stretching into several successive generations. They consider the potential impact on the complex adaptive system that is our global society. The class soon discovers that if we are rethinking innovation, we also need to rethink common assumptions about entangled factors such as markets, customers, employment, design, research and development. Invariably, our inclusive design students propose that the innovation race we should embark upon is not a race against other countries, but a race against escalating economic disparity and environmental deterioration. They conclude that collaboration and inclusion are good economic strategies – and challenges that Canada is uniquely prepared to accept.
“We’re all misfit consumers — we need inclusive design” — In her article, Jutta Treviranus, director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University, discusses a course titled Unlearning And Questioning, part of the two-year master’s study in Inclusive Design, intended to question assumptions, unlearn conformity and remove boundaries to thought. The students from very diverse backgrounds are challenged with unlearning the fear of “drawing outside the lines” — the compunction to label, sort, rank, filter and conform. They relearn the priceless value of mistake-making and failure. The ultimate learning outcome is a “radical form of inclusive design” that is seen as the next generation of design thinking. The inclusive-design students imagine scenarios of successful innovation agendas, stretching into several successive generations. They consider the potential impact on the complex adaptive system that is our global society. The class soon discovers that if we are rethinking innovation, we also need to rethink common assumptions about entangled factors such as markets, customers, employment, design, research and development. Invariably, our inclusive design students propose that the innovation race we should embark upon is not a race against other countries, but a race against escalating economic disparity and environmental deterioration. They conclude that collaboration and inclusion are good economic strategies – and challenges that Canada is uniquely prepared to accept.