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Anti-Black Racism in Pittsburgh
Get PDFGigamapping is used in systems thinking to visually represent complex and wicked problems. Our team applied the gigamapping method to better understand and create a system of interventions for anti-Black racism in Pittsburgh. Racism directly impacts and impedes the lives of every Black Pittsburgher, and it’s our job as humans and designers to combat this, to make the world a more welcoming place for our Black neighbours. Upheld by nearly every system in our country, anti-Black racism is one of the most wicked problems there is, and requires many complex interventions from various angles to mitigate the problem.
Our team used mess mapping, the three horizons timeline, STEEP (Social, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political), and leverage points in our approach to developing our gigamap. After going through these methods, we concluded that in addition to the traditional social, environmental, economic, and political lenses, anti-black racism requires to be viewed from a historical lens as well. We found that the historical lens augmented our understanding of current issues and potential interventions.
We found six interventions for this wicked problem: affinity space creation, white supremacy education, colour-aware work programs, addressing redlining, a reparations system, and universal basic income.
Reading anti-Black racism
Our gigamap is contained within the large circle on the right-hand side of the poster. This circle is divided into five STEEP lenses and six scalar circles, and also contains feedback loops, system shareholders, intervention points, and connections. These are further clarified by the key, located on the leftmost column in the middle box. For a more in depth explanation of the intervention points, there are six boxes that discuss the problem being addressed, the intervention, and potential negative externalities, labeled with the intervention symbol. The six intervention points are also placed along an implementation timeline in the bottom left
Designing for Ambivalence: Co-creating a resilient floating neighbourhood in rural Philippines
Get PDFIn the Philippines, the majority of the settlements are located alongside the coast. Rapid urbanization generated by economic development affects the housing situation in the country. In addition, climate change has increased the prevalence of natural disasters. In the city of Hagonoy, the situation has led to a residential crisis, where citizens struggle with floods created by heavy rainfall, rising sea levels and tidal movements. Typically, locals initiate ad-hoc solutions such as raising the dwelling once every few years, which is a costly and inefficient solution in the long term. A systemic approach that corresponds to the living conditions in a holistic manner is necessary.
Residential areas are complex organisms, as they deal with stakeholders with contrasting interests and various uncertainties emerging from socio-cultural dynamics. When combined with the urgency created by the floods, an expansion that corresponds to the growth of the population becomes an even more complex problem. This study presents an exploration of these dynamics on three interdependent levels. Firstly, value chains are mapped from the perspective of locals to analyze and expand the solution space. Secondly, departing from the local lifestyles, an egocentric map of quotidian needs is created that informs the design of a potential expansion. And finally, these insights are brought together to co-design a floating neighbourhood based on an existing technical prototype of a single floating house. These three levels together form the first ideas for a floating expansion for the city of Hagonoy to embrace the ever-growing tension between nature and humans.
Reading floating neighbourhood in rural PI
- Waterfalls illustrate the influence between the elements
- Fishing rods point out the connections and relationships
- Bridges indicate the transition towards potential future solutions
- Clouds represent the intangible elements within the syste
Plastic Wave – Plastic pollution is a result of who we are
Get PDFThe plastic wave has started forming an unavoidable loop from the depths of our oceans, island beaches to fishes ingesting it and landing into our plates in forms we can’t see. The problem of plastic pollution and managing waste, its impact on marine life and the ecosystem is one of the alarming issues of our times. Resolving it also requires the conjunction of different efforts to face this adversity. Overexploitation of non-renewable energy, losing hundreds of species to plastic debris, and looking ahead for more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050 are major challenges we face right now. With the pace of events that we create to disturb the natural ecosystems, our footprint might be the last of all. The enormity of plastic pollution is not only a threat to the wildlife and the environment, but it is a fight between social construct and giant economies. Linearity of mind and models have profoundly influenced our behaviour, habits, and relationship with the planet. To tackle the problem of plastic pollution, the whole system must work parallelly in conjunction. Leverage points are critical in establishing the interventions that will also act as plugins. Our research and methodologies have helped build interconnections between multiple layers to reveal deeper insights towards framing the problem correctly and working towards a massive change for shifting our patterns towards a circular lifestyle. Consciousness and reflection, either from a choice perspective or a responsible managerial point, are what withholds closing the tap of the hazardous plastic flow down the river. Still, it’s our values that feed the loop. We believe that the solution lies in restoring our relationship with the planet, changing consumption patterns, feeling accountable for our actions, and finding congruence between our needs and desires. A wave has begun to conquer the plastic mountain, but will our efforts be enough?
Reading the plastics pollution systems map
We start by establishing key facts and figures (left) to engage and inform the enormity of plastic pollution. There is also an important mention of microplastic and how it is our invisible enemy. It assimilates to an understanding of the wicked problem. We see the problem from eight lenses (centre) and draw interconnections between relevant case studies, conversations, and visits. We arrive towards synthesis, forming under five heads focusing on the problem resulting from who we are. An understanding of desires vs empathy is also drawn above it. A reverse loop from the mapping takes you back to the facts to contrast to how our choices have led us where we are. There is constant storytelling (bottom) of plastic from its invention, benefits, and effects on our lifestyle. The linear flow is bent towards the end, forming a cyclic loop depicting the need to switch to circularity. This wave is also used as a metaphor. Inside the wave is the intervention space with a common goal of rethinking our relationship with the planet. Microplastic as a visual element is used at multiple places on the map to remind us of the problem
Designing for equity, accessibility, diversity and inclusion in an undergrad Industrial Design course
No full textCentered on a Universal Design for Learning approach, a third-year undergraduate course at OCAD University, Design for Health, has approached the pandemic as a problem-based learning opportunity. The course aims to decolonize the undergraduate curriculum by acknowledging one’s own position, challenging biases in health care, and examining the technical layers that surround products, services and systems. Combining ethnographic and observational methods to guide the work, students are encouraged to engage in diverse design applications that drive innovation, decrease systemic barriers and increase access to health and wellness for all. Through various opportunities for engagement, multiple means of presenting the course material, and authentic assessment, students learn to effectively navigate the design process as they collaborate with their peers and reflect on their own experience
Neurodiversity, Dungeons, and Dragons: A guide to transforming and enriching TTRPGs for Neurodivergent Adults OR The Neurodivergent Player’s Handbook
Get PDFTraditional hierarchical research methodologies and resources are exclusive because family and external stakeholders are prioritized over neurodivergent people. Unfortunately, the continued lack of inclusive design principles result in a lack of understanding of both neurodivergent culture, and the needs of the neurodivergent community. This study actively includes neurodivergent people by using participatory research methodology, and inclusive design principles and pedagogy explored in Critical Disability Studies and Critical Autism Studies.
The continued pathologizing of neurodiverse conditions influences how medical systems treat neurodivergent people; Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is the standard therapeutic treatment for autistic people. The focus of ABA and comparable treatments is to condition neurodivergent people to appear neurotypical, putting the onus on the neurodivergent community to change their behaviours instead of emphasizing acceptance and tolerance of neurodivergent people and behaviours. The statements and lived experiences of neurodivergent people who have experienced ABA showcases that it is not neurodivergent people that benefit from ABA and similar therapies, but neurotypical society that benefits from conditioning and changing the behaviours of neurodivergent folks (even if it may be at the expense of mental health and well-being).
Neurodivergent self-advocacy groups, and Critical Autism scholars have expressed the need for therapies which build and encourage self-advocacy. Neurodiversity research focuses on conformity, so the unique abilities and culture of neurodivergent people is under researched. Role-play is an effective learning tool often used in therapy to help people practice skills in a low-risk environment. Role-play also is a core activity in Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRGPs) like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) which allow players to explore and practice different identities and behaviours in a structured environment with more explicit rules than every day social interactions. D&D replicates the social constructs of the real world, but does not have neurodivergence or disability as an explicit social construct in its lore.
I interviewed 5 self-identifying neurodivergent adults about their lived experience, held a co-design session, and observed 15 hours of their gameplay with custom designed neurodivergent mechanics with both strengths and weaknesses. We examined the gaps in structure and consent in the core D&D rules; the official rulebooks lack guidelines about boundary setting, consent, and facilitation for Dungeon Masters and players.
Characters’ neurodivergent mechanics allowed players to more explicitly model their experience in the groups’ co-created D&D world. This was possible because we used different TTRPG safety tools to establish boundaries which establish psychological safety that is not typically available to neurodivergent folks in everyday life. The experiences of players and their characters bled into one another. This caused players to experience positive shifts in self-esteem, and practice transferable self-autonomy skills for potential out-of-game, real life self-advocacy and liberation
Inclusive Communication Platform for Immigrant Pregnant Women
Get PDFCanada is a country with a significant multicultural population, and with social issues of significance arising from this diversity. Linguistic and cultural barriers in healthcare are one of the social problems that immigrant people in Canada, especially people with Low English Proficiency (LEP), struggle with. Among them, immigrant pregnant women are a group that has been little studied. This research study focuses on Korean immigrant women and their experience of maternity care in the Toronto area.
The study used an online survey and co-design process to discover if and how women’s maternity care was impacted by LEP and to examine whether the web-based information design could improve from a user experience perspective. The findings suggest that potential solutions for improved user experience can be designed, by integrating user co-design strategies with existing web-based technologies currently in use in healthcare fields
Business Design. A new way forward. A powerful tool for unlocking social value.
Get PDFWicked problems are features of modern life, which is complex, volatile, and unruly. The speed of change is unprecedented, requiring new models for problem solving that create space for flexibility, agility, and fluidity. Design Thinking, a human-centred approach to problem-solving, has led to the emergence of Business Design. This paper explores the current understanding and application of business design as a discipline. The paper makes the argument that business design is a dynamic problem solving approach that can be applied to problems beyond business and organizations. As the discipline matures, five attributes - (1) Analogical Thinking, (2) Curiosity Driven Inquiry, (3) Systems Thinking, (4) Data Translator, and (5) Incrementalism and Foresight - will define the next generation of business design
Humanizing Data: A framework for Open Government Data decision making
Get PDFThe objectives of Open Government Data (OGD) are to promote transparency, accountability, and collaboration with the public. Structural issues within Subnational OGD and limited governance of urban data collection technologies have led to public concerns about ethical data collection, privacy, and digital human rights. However, OGD research is often purpose-driven evaluating specific parts of the system from a technical perspective and forgoes what data means to us as humans living in cities. The purpose of this study is to examine OGD use in Canada’s cities from a values-based perspective. Using design thinking, strategic foresight, and systems thinking methodology, this research first investigates the current state of the system and uncovers that the metaphor, knowledge is power, is contributing to its insufficiencies. Alternative system metaphors are unpacked using future scenarios that demonstrate areas of critical uncertainty to which we are unprepared. Using the scenarios as the guide, this research submits decision making principles that OGD decision makers and open data advocates can use to humanize data
MOTHERGINGER, THE STORE: A CONTAINMENT SYSTEM OF ONTOLOGICAL IN/DETERMINACY
Get PDFThis thesis seeks to articulate a Sculpture as a phenomenon that can be experienced from inside and outside simultaneously in response to a non-linear conception of time. Through my practice-based research, I situate distraction as a productive form of knowing and utilize an onto-epistemological framework to explore performance as the labour of intra-action that materializes the art object (or phenomenon). I position containment as a technology to understand the entangled nature of humans, environment, and economy, and I explore Motherhood as a condition that requires an individual to be both subject and object. I draw on the work of many theorists, but central to this paper are the discussions of gender, material and ethics that I encountered in the work of Silvia Federici, Karen Barad and Zoë Sofia. Through my methodology of simile making, I situate the historical costume of Mother Ginger as an ongoing iterative artwork that invites viewers into it to reflect on relationships to the material and consumer world around us
