#designleader

St. Pete, Florida. Known for its vibrant downtown, top ranked beaches, and charming way of life - this city located near Tampa has been booming in population. However, with the pandemic and individuals relocating, St. Pete is experiencing high rates of homelessness and gentrification. It’s caught the attention of hundreds of thousands of people who have a desire to call this place home. While now becoming a top destination and place to live, developers have found their way in and city legislation has allowed them to turn neighborhoods into luxury condo/apartment buildings only a certain class of individuals can afford. While the recent boom has brought in more jobs, locals and their businesses are being pushed out. The city no longer feels small and quaint and some are calling it Miami’s little sister.

Having the option for these gender neutral bathrooms is important for inclusivity and DEI initiatives for organizations and public spaces.

The pandemic created a plethora of needs that designers needed to create a new solution to - one that was digital friendly. Telehealth appointments weren’t new to the pandemic, but they weren’t common practice for most offices/physicians either. All over the world, people needed to stay on top of their health more than ever. The problem? The world was on lock-down. Designers had to think quickly, be adaptable, and work toward solutions to address the concerns. Working amongst tangible and intangible solutions, designers had to work against time, emotional constraint, public opinion, and technology to improve Telehealth services worldwide. While advances are still being made to enhance Telehealth today, designers paved the way to exploring digital health and providing better patient experiences and outcomes.

Companies such as Nest, Amazon, Medium and Uber are just a few using design sprints in their growth and design processes. Medium, for example, performed a design sprint on a new app for millennials. The results after the 5 days were both expected and a complete surprise. In my organization, there’s a lot of growth happening - some bad, some great. Sometimes we are going in blind and not really sure what’s at the end of the finish line.

I would say that it’s fair most people have at one point or another struggled to take feedback, whether constructive or not, and the same is true for myself. As designers, I think we can often get caught up in the passion of our creativity and feedback has a way of making one rethink their process or design. However, feedback is also crucial for improvement and ensuring success. Without feedback, we wouldn’t be able to continuously grow our craft and increase our creative ability.

Confections with Convictions is a perfect example of a business that both helps and serves. Based in Kalamazoo, MI - Confections with Convictions serves artisan chocolates that hires young individuals with criminal records who have difficulties finding employment. The sole purpose of Confections with Convictions is to not only serve the community of Kalamazoo with delicious and unique chocolates, but also serving as a safe and reliable place for young individuals looking to better theirselves.

I believe ketchup or condiment bottles such as mustard, ranch, etc. are a great example of a human-centered design. The bottles were originally made of glass and an awkward shape to not only hold, but control the flow of product. Moving to the new bottle provides easy holding (indents in middle), plastic to reduce breakage, and the ability to squeeze or control the product. The new bottle was designed with the user in mind making it human-centered.

Cop, Phillip. (2018, Sept. 6). Trader Joe’s Success Formula and What Can Other Retailers Learn From It [Weblog post] Retrieved from https://www.mytotalretail.com/article/trader-joes-success-formula-and-what-can-other-retailers-can-learn-from-it/