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Why is Networking Important? In the realm of Creativity, Innovation & Design (CID), talent alone often falls short of guaranteeing success. Networking plays a pivotal role in shaping careers, opening doors, and providing opportunities that might otherwise remain inaccessible. Here are some reasons why creatives need to network: Exposure to New Opportunities: Networking introduces you to potential collaborations, freelance gigs, or even full-time positions that you might not encounter through traditional channels. By connecting with decision-makers and influencers, you increase the likelihood of being recommended or thought of when such opportunities arise. Skill Enhancement: Networking isn’t just about exchanging business cards; it’s also an avenue for professional development. Interacting with people from diverse backgrounds and skill sets provides insights and knowledge that you wouldn’t gain otherwise. Building Your Personal Brand: Networking allows you to showcase your work, share your creative vision, and establish a memorable presence. A strong personal brand can attract opportunities and set you apart in a competitive field. Emotional and Creative Support: A robust network serves as a support system, providing emotional encouragement and constructive criticism. Fellow creatives can offer diverse perspectives, helping you refine your projects. Access to Resources: Networking connects you to resources such as workshops, mentorship programs, and industry events. These resources enhance your skills and keep you informed about industry trends. Collaboration and Partnership: Creative collaboration can lead to results that are impossible to achieve solo. Networking helps you find potential collaborators and partners who complement your skills. Mentorship and Guidance: Experienced professionals in your network can offer valuable advice, guidance, and mentorship. Learning from their experiences can accelerate your growth. Financial Benefits: Networking can lead to paid opportunities, commissions, and clients. Building relationships with potential clients or patrons can directly impact your income. How to start building your Network. Starting your networking journey as a CID professional can be both exciting and rewarding. Here are some practical steps to help you get started: Define Your Goals: Clarify your career objectives. What do you want to achieve through networking? Whether it’s finding job opportunities, collaborating on projects, or simply expanding your creative circle, having clear goals will guide your efforts. Leverage Social Media: Create a professional online presence. Use platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter to showcase your work, connect with other creatives, and engage in relevant conversations. Follow industry leaders and participate in discussions related to your field. Attend Industry Events: Look for local events, workshops, and conferences related to your creative discipline. These gatherings provide excellent networking opportunities. Be open to meeting new people. Strike up conversations, exchange contact details, and follow up afterward. Start Small: Chat with fellow creatives at co-working spaces, studios, or online communities. Share your experiences and learn from theirs. Join after-work sports teams or hobby groups. Networking doesn’t always have to be formal; it can happen while doing something you enjoy. Be Authentic: Be genuine and approachable. People appreciate authenticity. Ask questions about others’ work and interests. Active listening helps build meaningful connections. Business Cards (Digital or Physical): Carry business cards with your contact information. These come in handy during in-person events. If you prefer digital networking, ensure your online profiles are up-to-date and easily accessible. Follow Up: After meeting someone, send a brief follow-up email or message. Express gratitude for the conversation and express interest in staying connected. Remember to nurture relationships over time. Seek and Offer Support: Networking isn’t just about taking; it’s also about giving. Offer help, share resources, and support fellow creatives. Be part of a community that uplifts and encourages one another. Measure Your Efforts: Track your networking activities. Are you attending events? Connecting online? Collaborating? Assess what works best for you. Evaluate the impact of your networking efforts on your career growth. One step closer with Design in Focus. Networks & Community Area Design in Focus is a multimedia channel and professional platform serving CID professionals. On this platform we are listing Creative, Innovation and Design networks and Communities. Visit the Networks & Community list to discover Networks and Communities that are relevant for you. Many of these are external networks and communities. Some are websites and apps, while others take form on social media. Take Charge - Groups One great way to get started is to build your own Network. You can start for free using social media such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Another great way to start for free is by joining this platform and starting your own group from here. We have a few pre existing groups that you can join too, or post about your new group to ask members to join. Join this short Training to get started. The groups feature of this platform gives you a Discussion board where you can start or join conversations or share just about any kind of digital content, a Media tab for sharing content, a Members tab where you can see all members of the group and start discussions with them, as well as the option to publish events. The Design in Focus social media channels also become available to you. You can share your events on our LinkedIn pages as well as our Meetup page. This will ensure that you have an audience for your events. The first few months will be quiet, but with some effort you could create a network of 10 000 or more in one year. Design in Focus Content Creator Success story: In May 2022 Candice Storm started building Design in Focus. At the time she had 89 connections. In October 2022 the Networks & Community portal was launched with the flagship network Randstad UX. From the first event in October 22 to August 2023, Candice's network grew by over 10 000, and she published content and created an event lead by Don Norman, known as the father of UX which was attended by several hundred designers around the globe. Another great way to get started is to join this platform as a content creator. This entails unpaid community work, but together with your imagination can ensure that you expand your network. We publish content in 5 media formats, on 4 pillars, and in 3 topics. The 3 topics are Creativity, Innovation & Design. These three topics can be entered into broadly or you may choose to focus on a specific subject relating to the topics. For example. Creative -> Idea Generation, Innovation -> Creative Problem Solving, Design -> Interior Design. It could be interesting to think about creating content based in your local area or perhaps you would might consider focussing on a movement. For example exploring The Best Innovation in your city or dive into Design Trends. The 4 Pillars contribute four different perspectives to create content from. Industry Talks content is highly professional and industry focussed and requires content in formal tone of voice. The Human Experience is deeply human focused and the content requires empathy and a warm tone of voice. The Dream Team Roundtable is solidarity outcomes focused, and requires the presence of team spirit and collaboration. The Dark Side of the Force is austerely fact based and requires objective and provoking content. You may consider creating content for one of the pillars such as Industry Talks focussing on for example DesignOps, or you could consider exploring a topic like DesignOps from all four perspectives. The best way to build your network is to publish content frequently. This takes commitment but will pay off. On the platform we are also building Collectives. The difference between building Networks and Communities and building Collectives is that networks and communities are tightly linked, while as collectives are linked through a specific initiative, but members are individual personalities that are independently focussed on a topic collectively. #ImpactCollective is a good example. Content published in this area tends to focus on the impact of creativity, innovation and or design. You could consider building a listing page like this where you can find members and publish content with them. Currently we are searching for collaborations and building the following collectives, Creative, Innovation, Design or collective CID; #MammasAndPappasCorner, a portal for professionals who are also parents and create kid friendly events and conferences. #EmpowerHour, a portal listing influential speakers and professionals talking about and enabling creatives, innovators and designers. #TheFlashyAndTheFabulous, a portal dedicated to the pop culture of the now and wow of the industry. #NewToTheCrew, a portal dedicated to emerging professionals where they can find resources and tools to up their professional game. These are just a few examples, but you might ideate and propose a collective of your own. We require at least three productions to publish a collective. Now that you have a topic and a lens, you can decide on what kind of content to create. You may consider creating Audio and Video content such as podcasts or webshows, in which case you may think about weather you want to host or present. For example, if you start your own Audio/Video Podcast, do you want to invite guests to speak with you, or would you perhaps take on more of a reporting role and discuss your topic and lens from? Maybe writing is your way to go, you could consider publishing articles with your perspective, or you could journal about meeting or talking with professionals or industry developments. If visuals is your thing, you could create infographics and memes. Another great way to network is by publishing events. Aside from the events in the groups section, you could also organise and publish events on the main portal. Great networking events include webinars, talk events, and networking events. All events are listed in the events portal under the Professional tab in the menu. The difference between posting events to groups and on the platform is that you do not need to create a group to publish events and in the groups you do not need to create events. Checkout some predefined events here. All events marked with TBD are still being organised. Do you see one or more that you think you could lead? Then Join the event and find the link on the event page to contact us. All these events have one thing in common: The Value & Impact of Creativity, Innovation, and Design in Business and Society. That is also the Mission and Vision of this platform. Using this mission and vision, you can ideate on your own events (as well as any other form of content). You may want to organise talk events exploring the Value of Urban Design in Society, or webinars on The Impact of Industrial Innovation in Business for example. The key is to consider or focus on 1.Value and or 2.Impact, Of an industry topic relative to your field in A. Creativity, B. Innovation and or C. Design, By exploring its effects on either I. Business or II. Society. Why is this THE formula? Considering 1.Value allows you to demonstrate factually why your topic is important, while as if you explore the 2. Impact, you can share success stories. A. Creative, B. Innovation, C. Design can encompass a wide array of topics, but all are unified under one umbrella that is for those who make things and is relative in all industries where something becomes. By exploring the effect in either I. business or II. society, you can make it I. Objective or II. Subjective. Formula Short Form 1 or 2 or 1+2 A, B, or C, or any combination of A. B. C, I or II or I+&II. Now let's look at the idea shared above again : You may want to organise talk events exploring the 1. Value of C. Urban Design in II Society, or webinars on The 2. Impact of B. Industrial Innovation in I Business for example. Aside from formulating types of events and content, this formula also aids you in the type of networking you would like to do. If you would like to network to climb the corporate ladder, focus on the value of your topic in business and showcase your professionality and reliability as well as your knowledge and dedication. On the other hand if you would like your networking to be more social and you want to build lasting connections you may want to focus on the impact of your topic in society. You could of course mix the two up for some interesting new line of thought, but both set different tones you can use to start from. When building a network, you really want to ensure that you communicate the right tone so that your network is engaging. What appeals to the Data Driven Designer may not be as inviting to Human centered Designer. While both have value & impact, value is more expressed in facts and figures while impact often is best expressed in stories and cases. Also when starting to build a network, it's good to have a foundation on which to build on. Reaching out to complete strangers online can be intimidating. When you approach a professional you would like to network with, having clearly defined messaging helps. As a content or event creator on a dedicated platform, with a clear topic and tone, you can find common ground with like minded professionals with a demonstrated Ice Breaker. You will be surprised how humble professionals on all levels, including leaders, can be, and often when you have a mission and a vision when you network with them, they are happy to talk to you or join your event as a speaker. Summary The Three ways to start building your network publically on this platform. Networks & Community Area Find Networks and Communities on this platform. Visit Networks & Communities to discover networks relevant for you. Take Charge - Groups Join or Start a Group on this platform. Become a member and get active on this platform and associated media channels to start or grow your network. Design in Focus Content Creator Create public content to build a network with followers. Choose your topics, pillars, and media types. Start publishing content and engaging with the industry to build your reputation and network. Last But Not Least If you can dedicate 24+ hours a month and would like to seriously build a Creative, Innovation and or Design Network, then joining us a a volunteer can be a promising option. We have open positions for all levels from Intern to Board Member at Design in Focus. Here are two examples of how a volunteer position can help you grow you network. Industry Talks Audio & Video personalities This role is open to intelligent and witty interviewers who can bring out the best in our participants. By becoming a Audio / Video Personality, you gain visibility in the industry. During your publications, you could invite professionals to network with or follow you. Publishing content also gives viewers a reason to start a conversation with you. Board Member Creative This role is open to a candidate who will be the voice for Creatives, and champion for the creative industry and professionals. By working as a Board Member for the Creative Industry, you demonstrate your commitment. You also assume a leading role which potentially could inspire other creatives. Network and Speak to industry leaders and help define what is relevant for creatives on this platform. There are many open roles and if you do not find a role you like, you may propose one for us to consider. Either way, when you join the platform and dedicate your free time, you really get to shine. View all jobs Was this information useful to you? Do you have something to add to the conversation? Any other questions or comments? Please add your responses below.

New multimodal, large language, generative AI models, such as those developed by #OpenAI and #Google, are powerful game changers. Their ability to generate novel output by recombing vast sources of data from the web will have profound, as yet unimagined impacts on our economy and society. One of the most profound will be the ways it reshapes the labor market: the jobs that are available (or not) and the skills they require. Because of their ability to produce a variety of graphic, text, audio, and visual outputs, the jobs most likely to be impacted are those in design and other creative professions. Whether these jobs are eliminated or just reshaped will depend on local situations: the demands of a particular set of tasks, for a particular project or job, as they are overlaid on the capabilities of these models. But designers and creatives will be affected. And no doubt, employers will look for opportunities to eliminate jobs when possible, given the way our economy is structured. Whether or not you, as a designer, become redundant depends on how you define, think of, and represent “design”. To avoid being laid off, you must have a deep understanding of both your profession and the capabilities of these AI systems so that you know how to work with them, so that you can emphasize the differences between your capabilities and theirs, and so that you can sharpen your unique capabilities, relative to these systems. Furthermore, you must be able to articulate your unique capabilities to employers and clients. In this article, I will give you a high-level description of the systems most relevant to design: generative multimodal large language AI models. I will help you think about their capabilities and shortfalls. And I will help you think about and maybe rethink the uniquely human, in-the-world capabilities that designers bring to a task and how you can fine-tune these capabilities and emphasize them with your employer and clients. I will help you think about design and our design profession as the uniquely human way to create the world that we want. As Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon puts it, the capability to take us from the current situation to a preferred one, the capability to make the world a better place. What are the Current Capabilities of Multimodal Large Language AI Models? I say “current” here because these models are self-learning and always improving their ability to do their current task set, as they interact with users. In addition, it is very likely that OpenAI, Google, and others, will release subsequent models with additional capabilities, as they compete for market share. These systems are started with certain algorithms, with millions or billions of data points, and with some guardrails. They are then trained on these data sets by humans and/or by self-training. But because they continue to self-learn, based on their interactions, they develop capabilities that the developers don’t fully understand. So, we can only make assessments of their capabilities as we observe their current behaviors. What are these capabilities? Generative First of all, these models are generative. That is, they act by analyzing the words in a prompt, for example, and drawing on their analysis of the data they’ve been trained on to respond with, in the case of #Chat GPT, a unique string of words that constitute syntactically and semantically reasonable sentences and paragraphs that address the prompt request. These are surprisingly sophisticated and human-like responses that would impress any ad copy writer. For example, I prompted #Chat GPT4 with: “List four reasons why a client should hire a designer”. And within seconds, it responded, word after word, line by line, with four numbered reasons: Professional expertise, creative problem solving, branding and identify, and time and efficiency. It ended by saying: "Overall, hiring a designer ensures that the client's design needs are met with professionalism, creativity, and expertise, resulting in visually compelling and impactful designs that support their goals and objectives." Chat constructed a unique response; it did not merely reproduce a passage that it found somewhere on the web. The response directly addressed my request both in substance and form. It made four cogent points and then went on to elaborate on each. Each point was made from the client’s perspective, specifying the advantage that the designer provides to the client’s business. And then it went beyond my prompt, concluding with that summary of the points, even though I didn’t specifically request it. Multimodal But text is not the only mode it works in and this is where AI has significant implications for designers and other creatives. While Chat GPT was built on the vast text resources of the Web, other models use data sets of images, music, chemical structures, etc. Generative programmed transformers (GPTs) work just the same with these symbolic data sets as they do with words. That is, they analyze them looking for interconnections and patterns and then match patterns to those they analyze in prompts, whether the data are words, images, musical notes, computer code, etc. The first of the multimodal models that came to the public’s attention was OpenAI’s #DALL-E, which was introduced in January 2021. DALL-E analyzes patterns among millions of image-text pairs scraped from the Web and is able to generate a unique set of images, given text input. For example, I gave DALL-E 2 the prompt: “A photograph of a smiling housewife using ‘Tide’ laundry detergent.” It returned this group of rather unimpressive images for me to choose from: There are problems with the hands, as well as other artifacts, and with the text within the image (perhaps there is a guardrail prohibiting the use of registered trademarks). But these models are constantly improving. Other similar applications, such as #MidJourney and #Stable Diffusion, have come out since DALL-E’s introduction and they allow the option to use of a reference image (as DALL-E 2 does now) along with text as promotes. They also provide a variety of built-in filters and adjustments to generate sophisticated, high resolution images. The quality of these images is coming to match or exceed the quality of human generated art. Some systems, such as #Runway’s #Gen2, even allow you to generate animations based on text or graphic input. Google’s #MusicLM and OpenAI’s #Jukebox are tuned to generate background music or even original songs. And in software design, applications of generative AI, such as Chat GPT4 with GitHub Copilot, take text input and generate lines of operable code. Future trends These generative models are beginning to be integrated into existing applications and this trend will continue, especially for those applications that deal with multimedia. For example, Adobe is integrating its generative text to image model, #Firefly, into #Photoshop such that users can add, subtract, or replace portions of their photos with pieces of AI generated images by using the selection tool and a text prompt. Future applications will be specifically developed to augment various AI models and stich them together, with application programming interfaces, to make suites of tools that are even more powerful and easier to use than the separate applications. This trend might result in something like this hypothetical example, which pulls together various AI models to create an environment that allows for code generation based on natural language voice commands. Another trend is that large language models are becoming specialized using large data sets specific to particular domains. An example of this trend are models trained on databases of chemical structures, contributing to significant gains in the design of new drugs. As this tend plays out, other models are likely to be trained on specialized data sets in architecture, fashion, engineering, scholarly research, and so on, supporting major breakthroughs in these fields. Yet another trend is the use of AI in the design and production of physical products, such as kitchen appliances, shoes, and cars. These designs can be supercharged by connecting generative AI systems with other applications and devices. For example, multimodal AI models are currently being used to aid in product design during the conceptualization phase. The results of this conceptualization phase are mere images but they can be connected to a CAD package for generating the production specifications of the product and then to a CAM application to actually produce the product. Current Limitations of these AI Systems? Again, the word “current” must be used here, since these systems are ever-evolving and novel applications are constantly being produced. This means that, no doubt, there will be other trends that emerge that we can’t yet imagine. But at least for now, there are significant limitations among AI systems. Designers need to know these limitations because they often correspond to the unique strengths that humans can bring to the process. Here I will not address the myriad issues and problems with AI associated with “the apocalypse”, security hacking, the invasion of privacy, intellectual property, deep fakes, etc. Rather I will address issues in a much narrower sense, those most closely associated with the design process. Lack agency and executive function The biggest limitation is that generative AI models cannot make executive decisions. That is, they don’t know what needs to be designed, they can’t start the design process on their own and they don’t know when it is done. While they have a lot of general knowledge, they don’t understand the local situation and they have no idea of what the preferred situation is, to us Simon’s terms. They don’t know which problem can be addressed by what kind of design: Can the design goal be achieved with a physical artifact, a service, a motivational campaign, or what? Nor do AI systems know which of the many problem situations are top design priorities. All these issues need to have been addressed before AI models are employed and need to be represented in the prompts. Limited by the data they are trained on. Generative models can be very creative in their responses. But this creativity is based on finding patterns in the data they have access to and that they are trained on. They can’t go beyond the data. Chat GPT, for example, has access to vast amounts of data scraped from the Web. At the same time, the data it draws on are very noisy. Consequently, the likelihood of generating many off-target combinations is very high. The noise is also likely to include biases in the results and misinformation. Some of these limitations can be addressed by the careful wording of prompts. Others require careful review and assessment of the output. Accepting the results of a request to generate product ad copy, for example, without careful review would be risky. In addition, the database is often time limited. As far as Chat GPT is concerned, the database was locked as of September 2021. So, it cannot comment on or include in its analyses anything that happened after that. Untrustworthy. A related issue is that the produced results can be inaccurate, not based on reality, or even outright bizarre. Beyond the kind of “hallucination” produced by Kevin Roose’s conversation with Microsoft’s Bing, the more-disconcerting results for designers are those that sound reasonable but are totally made up. For example, a legal brief filed by an attorney using Chat GPT cited legal cases in his argument that, as it turned, did not to exist. Chat GPT and other text models are trained to produce results that sound like reasonable, even authoritative, human speech. And as tempting as it is to cut and paste such reasonable sounding outputs, it is essential to check the accuracy of any factual statements. Unfortunately, this necessity can significantly reduce the productivity gains from Chat GPT, adding to the temptation to skip a review. Lacks local context knowledge. Large language models, such as Chat GPT, have a lot of general knowledge about the world and about language. But they have no context knowledge of the immediate local situation. Yet knowledge of the local situation—knowledge of your client, of those who might use and benefit from your design, of their needs and problems, their physical and social context, etc.—is essential to the design process. All of this relevant information would need to be represented by prompts. But even then, it is not clear that these models would “understand” the complex network of local, interacting factors that affect designs. No emotions or morality. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, these systems have no human emotions or moral grounding. There is significant work being done in which AI systems can at some level “understand” and express emotions. But it is a profoundly limiting factor that AI does not exist in the physical world and cannot directly experience pleasure, pain, desire, etc. that are the basis for human emotions and empathy with the emotions of others. Many psychologists claim emotions are the foundation of moral response among humans. This lack of emotional experience in AI systems limits how they can respond to moral issues and moral situations. The limitation reduces the ability of these systems to understand the affective component of human situations and how they might be able to respond to them. While the outputs of these system often evoke emotions among humans, the systems cannot feel compassion or rage and they do not know what is bad and good. There are built-in guardrails that AI systems follow and their statements may sometimes sound morally authoritative. And researchers are experimenting with AI systems that can reason morally. But these systems operate differently than large language models. They are extremely limited in their capabilities and not nearly able to handle the complex emotional and moral situations in which designers sometimes find themselves. For the foreseeable future, AI systems will be limited in their moral capacity. Finally, related to agency and executive function, these systems don’t have the emotional or moral insight to know what people need, desire, or aspire to nor do they, on their own, have a conception about some ideal or desirable future situation that a design could contribute to achieving. In short, they don’t know what makes a design “good”. What Makes Designers Distinctive (and Your Job Safe) What does this all say about the future of ad copy writers, graphic designers, web designers, app developers, user experience designers, and architects? Functions normally associated with design will continue: ad copy will be written, illustrations generated, websites constructed, apps developed. Products will be produced, buildings designed. But these questions remain: To what extent will these functions be performed by AI systems or by people? And what skills will designers need in the future? At the extreme end, entire sets of functions will be served by AI-controlled systems. For example, one can imagine a fully automated game design process in which given an initial prompt, a generative AI system can come up with a new game concept, implement it in code, distribute it online, continually collect data, and use that to finetune the game. Conceivably, none of this would require human illustrators, programmers, or data collectors or analyzers. At the other end, people will be primarily responsible for these functions, augmented by AI systems. They may even retain their titles: graphic designers, app developers, web designers, etc. But their skill sets will be different; traditional technical skills will be replaced by skills in operating AI systems. However, it isn’t merely by being effective AI tool users that designers will be saved from replacement. It is by emphasizing and fine tuning the distinctions between what AI can currently do, what it can’t do, and the unique contribution people can make. This distinction will establish the worth of designers to employers and clients and, perhaps, even to themselves. Designers are thinking, feeling humans that live in the world and they are great at understanding and acting on complex in-the-world situations. The biggest difference between humans and AI systems is the executive function, the moral compass, and rich local knowledge that humans can bring to the design job. This distinction requires designers and design educators to think very differently about what design is and what it is not, to think quite broadly about design as a process and a profession. Too often design is thought of and taught quite narrowly, as a specialized set of skills and knowledge that address a narrow range of problems defined by disciplines, such as software design, product design, and architecture when the solution may not require the design of software, products, or buildings. Design is not technique. AI systems will dramatically transform creative productions associated with particular artistic techniques. Creatives who spend their education and early career years mastering particular techniques—such as photography, illustration, the mastering of musical instruments, etc.—are the most likely to be replaced by people who do not have these technical skills but have knowledge of AI tools that can be used to generate digital products like those of these creators. This applies less for creatives exercising their craft in the real world, such as live performances in music, dance, and theater. But even here, the employability and income of these creatives will be diminished by the fact that AI-generated music, “actors”, “dancers”, etc. will compete for opportunities in the digital world, opportunities that are currently available to creatives. Furthermore, the creative works of these artists are often used to train generative multimodal models, thus creating a competition between artists and their own works—an intellectual property issue that has yet to be resolved. Even designers who are defined by technical skills that are normally considered safe or even advantaged by technological developments, such as software or app developers and webpage designers, are threatened by AI. Who needs people with sophisticated coding skills in specialized languages if people with high-level programming knowledge but few coding skills are sufficient to produce advanced software products? Art and design schools and their faculty that focus primarily on technique will also be transformed by these AI developments. Curricula that haven’t yet moved away from teaching traditional production and performance techniques and toward digital skills will be forced to do so, as students seek these new, more employable skills. And they are advised to think more broadly about what design really is. Design is not just technique or even primarily about being creative. Design is not about photographic skill, illustration, animation, writing, or coding. Design is about solving important complex problems in the physical, social world. And design is not just about being an imaginative, out-of-the box creator. If your creations are not making a positive contribution to human experience or solving complex human problems, you’re not using your full set of design capabilities. Design is not just the attributes of a good design. Good designs are relatively easy to identify if the criteria are specific attributes of the designed artifact: the color scheme is complementary, the composition is balanced, the design for a building structurally sound, the ad copy is grammatically correct and well-stated, the code is elegant. AI is up to that kind of assessment and can generate some amazing images, building designs, statements, and code. But good design is not only about aesthetics, functionality or look and feel. Design is not just the product, the designed artifact. Design is about solving problems and having a positive impact on the world. And it is about the process for getting there. Therefore, good design, if we use Simon’s definition as a process that takes us from a current state to a desired state, implies a different assessment criterion—not attributes of the product but attributes of its impact on the situation as a result of that process. AI systems are not well suited to make those assessments. The guardrails built into AI systems often tell them what they should not do—not provide information that would knowingly harm someone, not share individual data without consent, not discriminate against individuals or groups, not break the law. But they don’t know what they should do; they don’t know about designs that are good. Designers can make that assessment. Design is about solving complex problems. For the foreseeable future, good design will require human designers if we define design not just as technique, not just as the attributes of the well-designed artifact, but as a process of successfully changing situations that aren’t working, that are problematic, that are harmful into situations that meet people’s needs and desires—designs that solve human problems. These are good designs. Great designs are ones that address problems that are particularly complex, ill-defined and highly constrained. And great designers are ones who can solve these wicked problems, ones who can make the world a better place. What does this involve? What are designers’ super powers? To solve problems, designers need to know a lot about the local design situation: where things are working, where and why they are not, who all are involved in the situation and in what ways, what the constraints are, and what human, physical and financial resources are available. Designers also need to understand the preferred situation, what people need, what they want, what they fear, what they desire, dream about, and aspire towards, things that people sometimes don’t even understand, themselves. AI can’t provide these insights; designers can. Designers need to design with purpose and values and understand the values of the people affected most by their designs. Of course, values vary among people. But there are underlying principles that most people draw on in their lives, even if they disagree on how to get there or what it might look like when they do, principles such as avoid harm, increase happiness and well-being, advance knowledge and agency, address injustice, build relationships. Good designers need to tap into these values, as locally felt, build consensus around them, manage conflicts, and turn these values into articulated, desired outcomes to aim toward. And good designs have the intended impact. So designers must be able to assess the impacts of their designs, both intended and unanticipated, and adjust the design accordingly. And, of course, designers need to know how to get from current situations to the preferred ones. Designers must have the ability to determine if this situation requires a product, that situation calls for a service, yet another would benefit from a built environment. They need to be able to assemble and coordinate the human and digital expertise, knowledge, and skills of different specializations to address these complex problems. They need to collaborate with the people most affected by the design outcomes. They need to manage the work flow and the resources that support it and make the tradeoffs that will inevitably arise. They need to tryout the products of this process, to see if these products are working, and if they are moving the needle toward the preferred situation. And they need to know when they are done, when the products, services or experiences achieve the desired impact, or perhaps when they are good enough. It is in the process of getting from here to there that AI will be an essential partner. For many of the components of the process, AI and other digital tools will be used in combination to support and augment the conceptualization and generation of prospective desired outcomes, the collaboration among people and resources, the rapid prototyping and implementation of the design, and the assessment of its impact, the finetuning of the design. An essential design skill will be knowing which tool can be effective in the process and in what way. And an essential skill in using AI will be the ability to express in words or images the complex relationships, problems and constrains that exist in the current situation and the as-yet-unrealized future situation that is desired. Words, images, music, and computer functionality will, no doubt, be an important part of these solutions and AI is great at generating these forms. But it will be essential to know when and how these productions can contribute to solving the problem, to making an impact. But above all, to make the world a better place, the designer must be able to make judgments about what is most important to design. AI will not replace the complex set of skills, knowledge, and values of designers, if design is conceived of as the process of solving important, complex, real world, human problems. AI will not replace you; it will be your friend. _________________ I would like to thank @Anshul Sonak, @Suzee Barrabee, and @Anders Sundstedt for comments on an earlier draft. Any remaining errors are mine. #design #designers #ai #largelanguagemodels #multimodal #generativeai #layoffsandjobreductions #designwithpurpose #designwithvalues #digitalskills #digitalreadiness #problemsolving #designabetterworld #maketheworldabetterplace

The platform Channels Categories Pillars Formats Areas Filters Goals Levels Roles Summary Test Cases Conclusion 1. The platform. By building a dedicated platform we are able to amplify our digital voices and build reputation. One good example is to think of making one podcast and publishing that to YouTube. In a sea of video content spanning any and all topics, one podcast can very easily get lost. On the other hand making one podcast published on this dedicated platform helps relevant stakeholders find your podcast more readily, gives you more credibility and because it is also published on other channels that are linked, improves your general SEO and discoverability. Because we have a unified mission to discover and demonstrate the Value & Impact of CID in Business & Society, we are enabled to showcase our work and skills in demonstrable ways to promote our professional contributions to the industry. 2. Channels To realise the mission & vision the platform can be leveraged in two ways or two channels. The first is the multimedia content channel, and the second is the professional platform. Both intertwine in many ways but they serve different goals. The media channel is relevant for any stakeholder interested in CID. The professional platform is relevant for CID professionals specifically who would like to leverage the platform to their advantage. Example 1. Trine Falbe We created an audio podcast and an experience portal together about ethical design, The Ethical Design Network, and with information about Trine Falbe. Anyone who would like to learn about any one of these three topics can view her content and it's relevant to a range of stakeholders. This was a once and done case featuring Founder Candice Storm and Trine Falbe. Example 2. Ricardo Faria Riarco participated in a web series about KPI's in Design. As with Trine, any stakeholder may find the information relevant online. But Ricardo also used the platform as a professional to publish editorial content and a KPI's in Design introduction course. Ricardo is a regular user and is active also in the community space. Example 3. RANDSTAD UX One of the 6 Areas on Design in Focus is Networks & Communities (N&C). *Read more about the areas below. To showcase how the platform may be used by professionals to start their own N&C's, we've created a flagship network called RANDSTAD UX (RÚX). RÚX organises monthly events for UX designers in the Randstad region. Of course if you already have a network or community and do not want to use this platform to manage it, you can also just add your details to the directory so that relevant professionals can find you. Learn more 3. Categories There are three master categories on the platform. Creative, Innovation, and Design. Everything we do centers around these topics and they are pivotal to all our stakeholders. Learn more If you are a professional interested in any one or any combination of topics under these categories, you are welcome to add to the collective, either as a participant in multimedia content such as podcasts, or using the platform to showcase or produce your own contributions. Aside from using the platform for your professional benefit online, you can also become part of the Design in Focus organisation by contributing your professional skills to the organisation in person. We are building a foundation with Design in Focus so as to adhere to our mission and vision with honor serving the professionals who make up our industry. Success is a massive driving force behind Design in Focus, and we wish all our stakeholders financial gains, but to keep it relevant and avoid the pitfalls of other platforms, it's important to secure a not-for-profit structure. Two things to note here: 1. Opportunities If you join the organisation as Volunteer or Board Member, you are not yet financially rewarded. Once we have a treasurer, we can finalise certain documentation and our sponsors may start sponsoring us, then we will start paying where possible. But, joining as an unpaid professional can still reward you in other ways such as personal growth, gaining skills, and adding to your portfolio. Design in Focus in its current state is an MVP (minimum viable product) and living prototype, therefore there is a lot of opportunities to lend your skill and showcase your capabilities. For example, redesign our hastily created icons, and add that to your portfolio, or create a cool campaign and add it to your resume, whatever skills you have can add a lot of value to the organisation and its gold on your resume & portfolio. 2. Org & Platform The platform initiatives and the platform initiatives are seperate. While the organisation is a foundation, those who use it may still be profit oriented. For example if you are a Professional Design Mentor, you may use the platform to create visibility for your work by creating a podcast or publishing a free intro course on the platform, these are two ways to bring awareness to your professional services, which is of course your bread and butter and therefore profit oriented. But if you are not profit oriented, you may join the organisation as a board member working on crafting that arena in meaningful ways for your industry and its professionals based on what you know about the industry and its needs. There are many existing opportunities and many ways you can create new ones. 4. Pillars There are four pillars that support the multimedia channel. You can participate in our media or create your own under these pillars according to your goals. Industry talks - Showcase your knowledge and skills as an industry contributor The human Experience - Have human conversations showcasing your personality and character. The Dream Team Roundtable - Demonstrate how you fit in and how you help solve business problems. The Dark Side of the Force - Raise awareness and solve challenges in the CID landscape. Learn more 5. Formats We publish content in all of these formats. You may choose any one, combination of, or all media formats to create content in. Make some audio podcasts, write editorial content, film a web show, create some infographics or memes, or create live content in an online talk event. 6. Areas Sketch from the initial brainstorm, the labels have changed a little bit, but most of the focus remains the same. In due time the map will be updated to the current landscape of the Design in Focus platform. Originally the Founders and Makers and Networks & Communities were one, but we decided to split it to make more sense. Also we had one focus area on events, but this needs more development so we support events, but the dedicated events portal is less prominent. What remains are these 6 key areas that you can use to serve your goals. Galleries When you use the platform to publish multimedia content, it all filters through the galleries. As a participant there are 3 starting routes that have been set up based on effort. The route with the least effort is called the leasure route. When we create content, it is only published to the galleries and media channels such as YouTube and Soundcloud. Experience Portals (EP) An Experience portal is a fantastic way to create visibility and give context to your work. On EP's viewers may find more detailed information and additional links and content about the professional or organisation. There are two types of EP's * Standard EP - For content that fits within the predefined framework. Example * Bespoke EP - For pages that have unique requirements. Example We create EPs with Participants, Collaborators, Organisations, Universities & Companies. Typically EPs are part of the second and third routes on the platform, namely, the explorer and adventurer routes. To learn more please visit our Onboarding Portal. We offer various expressions of the EP for our different collectives too. We already have a few collectives build and the Collectives will increase over time as those areas are developed. Currently you can find participant EPs in the main navigation and under the Collectives menu you can see the different types of EPs created for different purposes such as volunteer EPs, and collab EPs. If you use the DiF platform to start your own network or community, you may choose to create EP's for your organisation. For example if you create a network for audio engineers, and you have professionals in that network that give talks or presentations, you can create multimedia together and publish it on personal pages. See the RÚX example for more. Members Area The members area has been built to help achieve some goals for CID professionals and all members are manually approved. As with the public platform, the only data we use is location and number of visitors per day. This is to see how many people come to the site and which pages are popular in which regions so that we can build and improve the website. We do not use any personal information, we do not sell personal information and we do not have affiliations that profit off of your personal information. The members area was created to build a stronger professional platform where members can engage authentically and meaningfully with their industry peers. We offer membership two ways. * Standard Membership gives you access to our forum and groups. Start conversations on the Forum, or, join / create groups dedicated to your focus points. *VIP Membership is almost the same as Standard Membership and should probably be referred to as VIC (very important contributor) Membership as all our members are VIPs. With this membership we assign privileges to the members such as to publish editorial content, events and educational programmes. VIP's / VIC's are typically collaborators who share a goal, but can be participants, volunteers, board members, networks \ communities or founders / makers. Networks & Communities (N&C) Being a member of a network or community is a great way to grow as a professional. Starting your own is a great way to demonstrate your passion. We serve CID professional N&C's in a couple of ways. a. We list them in our directory for other CID stakeholders to find. We will continue building the list out as resources allow, but you can easily add to the list while we build it and after. View Directory b. We create bespoke experience portals for them. External example. Internal Example. c. We provide the ability to create a group on this platform and publish events and content. We support external CID N&C's, those wanting to start their own unique N&C's or wanting to start N&C's under the Design in Focus Umbrella (internal). Training & Mentoring (T&M) If you are a trainer or mentor or offer any educational content, you can publish free introductory or complete courses on this platform. Founders & Makers (F&M) Choosing topics, themes and structures for creating content online can be a challenge. Have you ever thought of making a podcast but didn't know how to structure it? Have you ever wanted to manage your own channel related to a CID topic you are passionate about? There are many advantages to becoming an F&M, but the most obvious is power in numbers. By making stuff happen under one umbrella, we are able to improve discoverability, build credibility and share resources. We also already have a northstar and a couple of processes predefined. Learn more 7. Filters Our three Categories can be filtered into 7 key channels. The three CID categories seem quite basic, but when you filter into it, you discover that there are actually many ways to define content. Creative Innovation Design Creative Innovation or Innovative Creativity Innovative Design or Design innovation Design Creativity or Creative Design Creative + Innovation + Design 8. Goals We've identified eight main goals that this platform can help achieve and you can use your own creativity to imagine more. With all our initiatives we can reach one or more goals Awareness Expression Inspirational Leadership Connectivity Solving Building Demonstrating For example, by participating in a podcast, you can create awareness of a problem you are solving. By starting a network you can demonstrate leadership through building a connected professional collective. Learn more 9. Levels We've created nine levels based on general considerations. There are three main tiers that each have three sub tiers, resulting in 9 total levels of tiers. You're welcome to take things to whole new levels based on your personal situation. Category 1 : Routes Leisure Route - Based on the least effort possible needed to publish content or perform an activity. Explorer Route - A little bit more effort, but not extensive enough to keep you very busy. Adventurer Route - Go on a journey and exert all the effort you like, get active and dedicate working hours to build up in ways that delivers the most potential and reward. Category 2 : Medium Promotion - Efforts geared towards activities that may be interpreted as promotional in nature. E.g. Using the platform to create multimedia about your specialization. Organisation - Efforts geared towards organizational activities with bigger impact. E.g Using the platform to organise activities surrounding your specialisation. Direction - Efforts geared towards directing activities aiming to create movement. E.g leading the way to sustainable outcomes by becoming a Board Member and working on that as director. Category 3 : Time Although you are welcome at all times to partake and collaborate as you please, at any given time we typically exert effort on three levels. One & done - Make one podcast, volunteer on one projects, or support one initiative. Occasionally - Invest your effort in, on or during specific occasions. Regular - Create a web series, work as a volunteer or board member for a committed period of time, or regularly use the platform. Examples : 1+4+7 Creating a single audio podcast that is published in the Galleries and Social Channels to be informative on a topic or area that you are knowledgeable about. 1+5+8 Occasionally assist the organisation with simple projects. 2+4+9 Create an experience portal filled with content surrounding your topic / specialisation such as a regular web show. 3+6+9 Become a (board) member and regularly spend effort to build up specific areas related to your topics or specialization. It can all be very easy with a level 1 initiative, or you can incrementally increase the effort based on your own circumstance. 10. Roles The final pieces of the puzzle is made up out of the roles that you may play as a Design in Focus stakeholder. Stakeholder may find one or more roles interesting, and all the roles serve to solve some specific problems and reach specific goals. Viewer. As a viewer the platform may be interesting to you to find content. Participant. Participants do not really engage beyond the multimedia channel and usually take similar predefined routes. *Outlined above. Networks & Communities. Showcase, grow or start your N&Cs. Collaborator. You do not want to be bound by our organisation, but you are working on mutually interesting things, being a collaborator means that we can work together separately. Sponsor. Becoming a sponsor enables you to demonstrate and support CID professionals and industry. Member. Join the platform and become a member. *Outlined above. Leader. Lead you CID related industry, topics, or professionals. Founders & Makers. Work as a managing director by founding your own regional, topic specific or language based chapter of Design in Focus, or make content specific to the pillars under your own art direction and viewpoint. Mentoring & Training. Use this platform to upskill, update, teach and inform CID professionals. Volunteer. Become a volunteer and make a difference, add to your resume or portfolio, or fill in some empty time. Learn More 11. Summary This platform be leveraged in a myriad of ways ranging from simple to complex, from one and dones, to dedicated performance, and from many perspectives and angles. The best way currently to get started is by visiting the onboarding portal and exploring the avenues that seem most relevant to you. In the coming weeks we will be publishing assisted onboarding which will help you decide by answering a few questions, to make it more easily understandable. Visit Onboarding Portal 12. Test Cases 1. Leisurer X would like to talk about a specific topic in a web show but does not have a lot of time to spare and would like to take the easiest route to publish the web show. Step 1. Visit Onboarding Step 2. Fill in Leisure Onboarding form. Wait for us to contact you ASAP Step 3. Introduction - We arrange an introduction to meet and align on topics, pillars, and categories. We then schedule a recording date. Step 4. Record. After the recording you may decide to reshoot if it did not go well. If you are happy with the recording, you let us know and we start the editing. When we are done we send the final version and release form to you. Step 5. Review the final cut and if you are happy please sign the release form. This form is an agreement that must be signed, please read the formalities on the the onboarding page. Do not sign or return it to us unless you are happy with the final cut. Step 6. We publish the final cut to the galleries and social channels. Done. 2. Explorer X would like to create a video & audio podcast about creative innovation so that she can find new opportunities, and can only afford to spend and hour or two writing her summary for the page, her introduction if she would like one, and adding her links and keywords she would like to be found on. For this route Explorer X must follow the 6 steps outlined in the first example, and after Step 3, we have two additional steps. Next step. Once we've made a plan for the podcast, we can build the experience portal. Generally the page can be created purely by what you have filled in during the onboarding steps. But we can align to make it more relevant and interesting with additional content, a story, a design style etc. Last step. When the portal has been activated, we send you the link for approval. If you are happy with the page we can share it. The more content we collectively create, the more slots will be activated. Each time we create something and upload it to the database, the content is automatically added to the relevant slots and they appear on your portal. Done. 3. Adventurer X would like to build out his professional services and work on his personal development by doing something to give back. He has a fair amount of free time that he wishes to invest in strengthening his professional and digital presence. Here is an invissioned example featuring the index items 1-10. Using our vision To Discover & Demonstrate the Value & Impact of CID in Business & Society, he decides that he will create valuable design content aimed to make a positive impact on a professional. He decides that he will use both the Media Channel and the Professional platform. He selects Design as his main category For the Media side he will create content in all four pillars He chooses to create media in all 5 formats. He is active in all 6 areas on Design in Focus. Adventure routes can include any three or more areas on the platform. a. Galleries *standard b. Experience Portal - Visit his experience Portal *standard c. Members Area - See his Member Profile d. Networks & Communities - He has his own community which he nurtures through the groups portal on Design in Focus, see his group. e. Training & Mentoring - He publishes mentoring content on the platform. f. Founder & Makers - He makes video content for his professional talk show on the Design in Focus platform. He only focuses on Design and Design professionals & industry. He has 6 goals which he can accomplish using this platform. Creating awareness, being Inspirational, growing Leadership, Solving professional insecurities, Building resilient professionals, Demonstrating his passion and dedication to the industry and its people through his efforts as board member Design Mentoring & Training. He operates as a level 9 stakeholder which is the highest level of contribution possible. He decides to take on various roles including participant, member, leader, and writer to maximise his toolbox. Once he has an idea, he follows the same steps as outlined in Leisurer X and Explorer X above. This is an ongoing process and we have as many conversations as needed. Adventurer X needs to learn how to use the CMS to publish events, articles and training programs. He also needs time to act as board member and perform board member activities. Adventurer routes can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on what level of adventure is within the candidate. On the Onboarding Portal you can read more details and start envisioning your own adventure. Visit Onboarding Portal 11. Conclusion There are many ways that you can use this platform to your professional advantage. You can take it at your own pace, on levels that you are comfortable with and can fit into your schedule, based on what your goals and aspirations are.

Up Up Design in Focus > Roles > Viewer Founders & Makers For those who are building up using the Design in Focus platform and format locally and within their own fields. You like the De s ign in Focu s concept and would love to do s omething to demon s trate the value and impact of CID in bu s ine ss and s ociety? We are continuously developing our DiF Founders & Makers program which enables others to host podcasts, make web series, create events, write and publish valuable and impactful information about creativity, innovation and design, from both industry and professional viewpoints, and a whole bunch more. Visit our Onboarding to learn more. Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe Visit out onboarding portal to learn more about participating and making content. Would you like to participate? LEARN MORE

Up Up Up Design in Focus > Experience Portals > Maria Helena Nunes Roles Pillars Categories Multimedia Designer Maria Helena Nunes Maria Helena Nunes is a designer specialized in branding and publications. With 18 years of experience, her focus is on the client's needs, and therefore they are the center of her design process. She creates a strong relationship between the brand identity and the workers, with the purpose to build solid brands and unique design products. In her practice she likes to combine modernity and tradition, using analog techniques and taking them into digital. TALKS ABOUT Media art, motion design, brand design, popular culture, experimental design, interfaces, innovation LOAD MORE LEARN MORE LOAD MORE ​ ​ LOAD MORE ​ Subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribe Visit out onboarding portal to learn more about participating and making content. Would you like to participate? LEARN MORE

This program is for everyone who wants to have coaching or training sessions about ROKS - Result Oriented KPI System and User Experience methods. Visit Ricardo Faria's Experience portal and watch our web series on KPIs in Design.

In this step we carefully record definition details for any aspect of the KPI that may be ambiguous and could affect the accuracy of that measure. We can also set targets for the KPI at this stage. . Precisely define measures and KPIs . Document known issues . Make definitions shareable

If we fail to engage the correct stakeholders at the right time and in the right way, we may well have to repeat our work and risk completed disengagement. Key steps to engage stakeholders and assess the situation: . Identify key stakeholders . Develop communications plan . Develop a plan for mitigating resistance, hostility, or concerns