#20 | Chris Jackson | Driving strategic foresight and shape futures
“Future studies as a practice is about the plurality of the future - that there isn’t one future. (…) There is a plurality of choices we can make. (…) And the decisions we make in the present lead us to that future. (...) Let’s think about the future more broadly.”
Chris Jackson on driving impact by looking at the long term consequences of design decisions.
In this episode, I talk Chris Jackson, Founder & Director of We Create Future in New Zealand on
the journey from being a furniture designer in the UK into becoming a future thinker and service designer in New Zealand
why future thinking is important and why there is not the “one future” but rather a plurality of futures
why and how we as designers should consider the long term consequences in of our design decisions in times of design sprints and increasingly fast design circles
how to shape public services and the “citizen experience” through service design and strategic foresight
the design industry in New Zealand and the what are emerging design topics in the country
the importance of empathy when designing future digital services: “your future might be awful to someone else” (why we should understand the user and understand that people prefer sometimes different futures and have different preferences that not align with the designer's point of view)
Again, this is a collaboration of IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America) and Designdrives. All episodes of this series were recorded at the 2019 International Design Conference (IDC) in Chicago.
Want to learn more about “We create Futures”? Head here: https://www.wecreatefutures.com
About IDSA:
“For over fifty years, IDSA has worked to advance the practice of industrial design through education, information, community and advocacy. Our roots stretch to the beginning of the profession and our members are, and have been, some the most celebrated industrial designers of all time. However, being a part of this community means you are joining something bigger than any one individual. Your participation helps strengthen the industrial design profession as a whole and contributes to the boundless impact of design within business, culture and society.”
Learn more at https://www.idsa.org