Design needs a Life-centred approach, helping us rebalance how we sleep, eat & move.
I attended Accel’s first Design Connect, where Akshay Verma (Founder, Prophecy) hosted a fireside chat with Simona Maschi (CEO, CIID). I’ve long admired CIID since my NID days as an institute that truly empowered students to explore diverse domains. It was a privilege to hear Simona talk about her journey & perspectives on teching & practicing design.
Akshay kicked off the conversation with “What is Interaction Design”, that led to Simona reminscing when the term was coined (in 80’s!). She highlighted that while Interaction Design is in most (physical) things, the field really became key when designing digital experiences/software.
Simona talked about her journey from designing vending machines at Polytechnico Milano, to starting one of the early Interaction Design programs at IVREA (birthplace of Arduino & Processing). She then talked about the inception of CIID, and the recent focus on Life-centred approach to design.
She spoke about the culture of sharing at CIID & focus on sacrificial prototypes aimed at problem setting (before problem solving). I loved her reminder that prototyping can help eliminate [bad] ideas quickly, and is a better way to ask questions.
Simona & Akshay reflected on the shifting role of design from problem solving to facilitating, advising, sense-making. I have been evangelizing the idea of designer-as-a-facilitator for a while, so I resonated with these themes a lot.
I asked about the role of an educator in the ever-shifting world of design, and how to inspire students to pursue bigger goals than just landing a job. While there wasn’t a clear answer to this, her perspectives on helping students feel more confident after a course was a good way to measure how well I teach.
Simona recommended rebalancing how we sleep, eat & move — 3 areas that she believes will be crucial for humans in the next few years. I’m curious to see how these efforts will play out in a capitalist world that seeks profits above all else.
Overall, it was a wonderful evening with a bunch of familiar faces. Hope we have more such conversations!
You can read more about the session on Accel’s Linkedin post and my Linkedin post.