Summary
Amahra Spence will speak on the themes of the conference, reflect back key insights that emerged over the course of the three days, and leave us with critical questions we can carry forward as a community, and individuals after the conference is over.
Key Insights
-
•
Civic design must move towards liberation rather than just equity or equality.
-
•
Personal histories and communal experiences shape the foundation of effective design practices.
-
•
Radical imagination is essential to envisioning and creating new systems.
-
•
Mutual aid should be a foundational practice in community organizing and design.
-
•
Emergent strategies can help adapt to the evolving needs of communities.
-
•
Artists can serve as critical mobilizers and innovators within the civic design space.
-
•
The built environment influences cultural expressions like music and art, driving social change.
-
•
Engaging young people and marginalized voices enriches the design process.
-
•
Designing for better endpoints is crucial in creating sustainable systems.
-
•
Organizations should prioritize fluid, interconnected structures over rigid hierarchies.
Notable Quotes
"I come to this work as the daughter of displaced people."
"Liberation is the only thing that not only repairs for past injustice."
"If all organizing is science fiction, then whose imaginations are we currently designing from?"
"We need to radically reimagine the precedence from what we design and from how we design."
"If we're not prepared to get radical in our practice, we can only ever have surface layer intentions."
"How do we design to grow capacity for other possibilities?"
"The spirit of generosity has to be much more than one interaction, it's a collective movement."
"We build what we believe."
"Our future is made up of today's decisions, today's relationships, and today's commitments."
"How do we design for generative endings instead of constantly hoarding power?"
More Videos
"Money is not an evil thing."
John MaedaMaking Sense of Enterprise UX
June 9, 2016
"We’re looking at them by their interior cognition, their inner thinking, their emotional reactions."
Indi YoungThinking styles: Mend hidden cracks in your market
January 8, 2025
"It doesn't matter what the insight is if no one does anything with it."
Chris ChapoData Science and Design: A Tale of Two Tribes
May 13, 2015
"This unusual tool started to raise the use of productivity-oriented tools."
Elizabeth ChurchillExploring Cadence: You, Your Team, and Your Enterprise
June 8, 2017
"We really encourage wherever you are because those are great connecting points."
Rusha SopariwalaRemote, Together: Craft and Collaboration Across Disciplines, Borders, Time Zones, and a Design Org of 170+
June 9, 2022
"The design industry is primed for a movement towards ethical practices and accountability."
George AyeThat Quiet Little Voice: When Design and Ethics Collide
November 16, 2022
"It's our capacity to be robust under conditions of enormous stress and change that will keep us resilient."
Ariba JahanTeam Resiliency Through a Pandemic
January 8, 2024
"We have more demand for design work than capacity right now, which is a good problem to have."
Julie Gitlin Esther RaiceDesign as an Agent of Digital Transformation at JPMC
June 9, 2021
"It’s important to be transparent so everyone knows what they can see about what they did."
Matteo GrattonCan Data and Ethics Live Together?
October 1, 2021
