Victor Udoewa
Service Design Lead, CDC
Having started his career in the design and development of computational tools for scientific applications, Victor shifted his focus to the social impact space and Information and Communications Technologies for Development, both community and international development. He is a practitioner and advocate of participatory design, a meta-methodology he’s used in service and system design for governments, multilateral institutions, nonprofits, for-profits, and communities, to facilitate skill-building and improved employment opportunities for community members. Bitten by the “civic-innovation bug” he is now focused on creating or improving government products and services for citizens, immigrants, and refugees.
Victor has a particular love for design, learning, and design education. He advocates bringing practices such as positive deviance, pluriversal methods, and systems practice into civic design. He helps leads an equity-centered meetup group and Justice by Design as part of his work to decolonize design. Outside of work you can find Victor teaching salsa, singing with his a cappella group, volunteering as a health trauma and crisis counselor, or (mostly) hanging out with his family.
Rosenverse talks by Victor:

"Colonial ways of being will never produce emancipatory ways of doing."
Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
March 26, 2024

"You have to give stakeholders a sense of ownership for your research to land successfully."
Panel: Excellence in Impact
March 25, 2024

"The interplay of culture and technology shapes user experiences and expectations."
What emerging methods are advancing UX research [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 28, 2023

"Mainstream institutional knowledge is just a study of aesthetic, energetic, and embodied experiences."
Research in the Pluriverse
March 29, 2023

"Whenever we converse, there’s an opportunity for conversion."
Theme One Intro
March 27, 2023

"We want the topics to reflect the community's needs and experiences as we highlight diverse perspectives."
Everything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations
May 17, 2022

"When the community is a lead, we're pulling on their cultural and lived experiential knowledge instead of just our research knowledge."
Radical Participatory Research: Decolonizing Participatory Processes
March 9, 2022

"Trust is often embedded in long-term community relationships, making inclusive recruitment easier."
Radical Participatory Design: Decolonizing Participatory Design Processes
December 10, 2021