Summary
The speaker, joining from Long Island on indigenous land, reflects on a multi-day exploration of civic design at various governmental levels and international contexts, including New York City. Over the past days, the discourse covered practical tools for navigating careers in civic design, such as framing RFPs, testing, and partnership-building. Today’s session zooms out to a 100-year trajectory of civic design, highlighting trauma-responsive design, radical participatory methods, disaster resilience, risk anticipation, and ethical tech regulation. The talk draws on collective insights from distinguished speakers who integrate research and lived experiences to transcend past limitations and imagine futures based on evolving values like equity, healing, decolonization, and relationality. Participants are encouraged to reflect and share their signals of change through collaborative synthesis, aiming to inspire informed action and better decision-making for current and future generations.
Key Insights
-
•
Civic design is evolving to include trauma-responsive and radically participatory frameworks to address complex societal challenges.
-
•
A long-term perspective spanning 100 years helps anticipate risks and prepare ethical regulatory frameworks for future technologies.
-
•
Equity, healing, decolonization, and life-centered values are increasingly central to civic design principles across global contexts.
-
•
Successful civic design requires navigating ecosystems of partners through building trust, sharing power, and collaborative testing.
-
•
Designers must embrace uncertainty as an opportunity for informed decision-making rather than a barrier to progress.
-
•
Indigenous perspectives and histories are foundational to understanding place-based civic design practices.
-
•
The use of synthesis at the end of multi-day conversations helps integrate diverse insights into actionable knowledge.
-
•
Practical tools for civic design careers include writing clear RFPs and developing relational mindsets for effective collaboration.
-
•
Future-facing civic design integrates trauma-awareness with disaster resilience to better serve communities in crisis.
-
•
Ongoing community engagement via platforms like Slack fosters continuous reflection and exchange beyond the event.
Notable Quotes
"I'm joining you from Long Island, the land of many diverse indigenous nations, still home to many indigenous communities."
"We began by exploring civic design across levels of government and international stories of resilience, like New York City."
"Yesterday, we heard about the tools and mindsets needed to navigate careers, write RFPs, conduct testing, and build trust."
"Today, we'll take a 100-year view exploring trauma-responsive, radical participatory design and ethical technology regulation."
"We can’t predict the future, but we can learn how to think about it systematically, turning uncertainty into inspiration."
"Each speaker draws on their observations, research, and lived experience to shift civic design beyond past limitations."
"Some keywords threading across talks include relational, decolonized, life-centered, healing, and equitable."
"We are curious what resonates most with you and the signals of change you see in your own life and practice."
"Building trust and sharing power in the design process is essential to effective civic design."
"Synthesis is what we do best together, integrating insights to inform better decision-making for future generations."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Users’ perception predicts attrition and paid referrals — design absolutely matters when people decide to buy or go."
Standardizing Product Merits for Leaders, Designers, and Everyone
June 15, 2018
"Building a map is like learning to play chess—you have to see the board to decide your move."
Simon WardleyMaps and Topographical Intelligence (Videoconference)
January 31, 2019
"Designing for the dominant default ignores people whose identities are marginalized or excluded."
Sandra CamachoCreating More Bias-Proof Designs
January 22, 2025
"By observing, appealing to interests, and promoting accountability, we can build empathy and respect to combat toxicity."
Darian DavisLessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
January 8, 2024
"Stakeholder communication is crucial to professional strategy because without it, we run the risk of activity without impact."
Fisayo Osilaja[Demo] The AI edge: From researcher to strategist
June 4, 2024
"Nobody wants to buy or use a sloppy product, especially when enterprise users engage daily for hours."
Uday GajendarThe Wicked Craft of Enterprise UX
May 13, 2015
"What’s so difficult about designing a login? On the surface, it’s simple, but the real challenge was cultural alignment across business units."
Davis Neable Guy SegalHow to Drive a Design Project When you Don’t Have a Design Team
June 10, 2021
"Everyone wanted to know what was the official pattern and who was accountable for it."
Eniola OluwoleLessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site
October 24, 2019
"The operational glue that binds strategy, execution, and measurement in design is often missing, and that’s critical for scaling."
Aurobinda Pradhan Shashank DeshpandeIntroduction to Collaborative DesignOps using Cubyts
September 9, 2022
