Interactive Keynote: Social Change by Design
Summary
As experience designers, we know the ins and outs of how to design for change in a product or service: talking to end-users, interviewing subject matter experts, and then working collaboratively within a team to come up with workable solutions to the problem. The extent of the #BlackLivesMatter movement has encouraged a mixture of protest, self-reflection, and openness to learn. However, many people want to take action but don’t know how. Why not apply our skills as experience designers to approach a small, workable issue that supports equality? Join Denise Jacobs as she and a team of SMEs share stories related to the issue, so that participants can work together to share ideas and start the process of designing social change.
Key Insights
-
•
Racism in design is systemic and intentional, requiring designers to actively counteract it through their work.
-
•
Marginalized individuals often bear the exhausting responsibility of raising awareness about bias and racism in workplaces.
-
•
Allyship is most valuable when it shows up even in the absence of those who are marginalized.
-
•
Self-reflection on personal biases and internal pain is essential for effective anti-racist action.
-
•
Performative gestures by companies lack lasting impact without sustained, systemic change.
-
•
Psychological safety is an essential condition for marginalized voices to participate authentically in teams.
-
•
Designers have unique power as change agents to reshape systems and environments for greater equity.
-
•
Shifting responsibility from individuals to collective, everyday actions creates ripple effects for social change.
-
•
Fear of making mistakes or offending others can paralyze efforts unless replaced with a mindset of learning and excellence.
-
•
Ongoing conversations, community engagement, and commitment to continuous unlearning are vital to progress.
Notable Quotes
"Racism is by design, and there's no way to counter it unless we counter it with design."
"I appreciate your allyship when I'm in the room, but I appreciate it more when I'm not in the room."
"It can be so tiring to be the only one constantly saying this has to be done differently."
"If you’re not doing the work of addressing your own pain, you won’t be effective in helping others."
"Racism doesn’t just hurt people like me; you’re hurting yourself by perpetuating beliefs that deny a greater humanity."
"Silence is complicity. Inaction is support."
"We’re not going for perfection. We’re going for excellence and change."
"Designers are change agents. This is part of your passion and what gets you up in the morning."
"When we start changing our behavior, we start changing the voices and behavior around us."
"Every day is a chance to check: is this how I want to be? This is a long-haul, marathon effort."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Setting up a repository as a team of one or two is actually the prime time to establish processes like that."
Taylor Jennings Joe Nelson Alex KnollRepository Retrospective: Learnings from Introducing a Central Place for UX Research
March 9, 2022
"Hope generates optimistic momentum towards a possibility becoming real."
Nicole AleongFuture Orientations to Everyday Life: Futures Anthropology as a Methodology
March 26, 2024
"Disruptive innovation is about changing customer behavior, not shipping features."
Jeff GothelfInnovation Studios: the Engines of Enterprise Experimentation
May 14, 2015
"Leadership needs to be just as behind accessibility as the designers and professionals doing the work."
Saara Kamppari-MillerDesignOps for Inclusive Design and Accessibility
May 26, 2022
"Our culture has diminished a lot of the other things in life that are supposed to give us meaning and put infinite pressure on work."
Tess DixonC'mon Get Happy
September 29, 2021
"We ran ambient workshops so folks could contribute on their own time and remove the friction of synchronous meetings."
Liam ThurstonWhy Your Design Team Is Quitting, And How To Fix It
June 10, 2022
"It’s huge to have a framework so managers and employees speak the same language around skills and growth."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"If you make rules, put numbers in them, and say them confidently, sometimes people actually do them."
Leisa ReicheltOpening Keynote: Operating in Context
November 7, 2018
"A product designer said I can now see glaring inconsistencies before I got my head around design system patterns."
Rachael Greene Alison DavisBuilding a Design Ops Practice that Really Works (Most of the Time)
October 2, 2025
