HarvardxDesign is an annual conference launched in 2012 organized by student organizations at Harvard Graduate School of Design and Harvard Business School. We bring together creative thinkers, design luminaries, professors, industry leaders, and students to engage, debate, and reinterpret design across scales and sectors.
Designers have always used their hands to craft and imagine new worlds. While the instabilities and inequities in our society have been exposed over this past year, design can be used to build, leverage, and confront power structures at various scales. This year's theme explores Power by Design as represented by hands and the many forms they take, from vessels of control to symbols of solidarity, to provoke discussions about the power held by designers as agents of change.
The rigidity and volatility of varying societal systems often influence the role of designers in their institutional or personal environments. In what capacity do designers provoke or respond to change in our societies?
A designer is always navigating relationships with other fields, persons, or systems, often with conflicting priorities. How can teams be structured internally to ensure the successful outcome of any given project?
The implications and consequences of design may not align with intentions of a given work. What are the ethical responsibilities of designers, and how do we gauge limitations versus opportunities when considering the ethics behind design decisions.
Special thanks to Sheng-Hung Lee (MIT).
Website and branding by Jenny Fan.
The rigidity and volatility of varying societal systems often influence the role of designers in their institutional or personal environments. In what capacity do designers provoke or respond to change in our societies?
Chief Science Office at the City of Amsterdam and Professor at the University of Amsterdam
Prof. dr. Caroline Nevejan is a researcher and designer who has been involved with the emerging network society and digital culture since the 1980's. Nevejan is a regular presenter at national and international fora. She is an advisor to national and European policy makers. Caroline Nevejan is professor by special appointment with the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam (2018-2023). Her research is focused on Designing Urban Experience and she supervises 5 PhD candidates in this context. As of 20th of March 2017 Caroline Nevejan has been appointed Chief Science Officer of the city of Amsterdam. The Chief Science Officer orchestrates research between the municipality of Amsterdam and the different scientific, academic and artistic universities in the city. With a small team she makes sure that civil servants and researchers can find each other and invent different new ways of working together.
Managing Director of Space Syntax
Tim Stonor is an architect and urban planner who has devoted his career to the analysis and design of human behaviour patterns – the ways in which people move, interact and transact in buildings and urban places. He is an internationally recognised expert in the design of spatial layouts and, in particular, the role of space in the generation of social, economic and environmental value. Tim was appointed Managing Director of Space Syntax in 1995. He has led the company from its origins at University College London to its position today as practice operating globally. He is a founding member and recent director of The Academy of Urbanism, a Visiting Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, a Harvard Loeb Fellow and Deputy Chair of the UK Design Council.
Product Designer at Rainfall, Artist
Summer is a designer and artist with a multifaceted creative practice spanning graphic and interaction design, self-publishing, and more recently, textiles. During the day, she's a product designer at Rainfall, a studio in Seattle, where she works on digital products, websites, and identities for emerging and established companies. Previously, she was part of the in-house design studio at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2018–2021). She led the visual identity for the museum's first large Contemporary Art exhibition, SOFT POWER, and has worked on numerous other exhibitions in the media arts, photography, and painting/sculpture departments. Because of her multidisciplinary background, she's interested in the merging of different design disciplines and moving away from specialization. Little known fact is that Summer a self-taught designer. She loves working with her hands and touching different materials.
Assistant Professor of Practice at USC, Research Affiliate at MIT Civic Design Initiative, and Co-Founder of D.Fluence
Yihyun Lim is an Assistant Professor of Practice at USC Iovine and Young Academy. Her research interests lies in creating value-driven experiences with various forms of interactions, from adaptive materials to ambient intelligences. Yihyun brings together behavioral research and human-centered design methods to situate emerging networked technologies in the current and future societies. Prior to joining USC, Yihyun led MIT Civic Design Initiative and MIT Design Lab. As the director of MIT Design Lab, she led a multidisciplinary group of researchers, engineers, and designers to drive design innovation across various industry sectors from consumer products to sportswear and banking. An architect by training, Yihyun practiced architecture in San Francisco, Seoul, and New York. She received her Master of Architecture degree from MIT, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture/city and regional planning from University of California, Berkeley.
Harvard GSD Design Engineering
Felicia is a Master in Design Engineering candidate at the GSD passionate about combining human-centered design, technology and behavioural science to create social impact. Prior to MDE, she was a Senior Experience Designer at Deloitte Canada where she worked on UX/UI & service design projects in various industries including public sector, healthcare, retail, automotive, and insurance. She is an incoming Interaction Designer at Google and is excited to work on inclusive and accessible education products! Felicia is also an avid traveller having lived, worked, and travelled to over 30 countries. She is inspired by how sociocultural influences and technology have shaped design around the world and hopes to infuse this inspiration into her work.
The rigidity and volatility of varying societal systems often influence the role of designers in their institutional or personal environments. In what capacity do designers provoke or respond to change in our societies?
UX Design Research at LinkedIn, and Tech Wrap Queen Podcast Host
Renee Reid is a Manager of UX Design Research with over 20 years of professional experience in various roles including Project Management, Customer Experience, Sales and User Experience. As a researcher, Renee has led both Consumer and Enterprise research projects across Talent Acquisition, Search & Discovery, Trust & Privacy & Identity. She currently leads a team of researchers on Enterprise Marketing Solutions at LinkedIn. Renee uses her voice to help inform & inspire UX professionals & the next generation of Design Researchers while also helping underrepresented communities learn about Design as a career and how to become leaders in the UX industry. A proud Historically Black College and University (HBCU) alumna from Savannah State University in Savannah, Georgia; Renee also received her Master's in Human Computer Interaction and Design from the University of California, Irvine. She is an active Board Member with 2 non-profits in the California Bay Area, as well as an advisor to several startups. Always adorned in one of her many signature headwraps, in 2020 Renee launched her popular podcast, Tech Wrap Queen, helping to amplify Black voices throughout Tech, Design and Culture through dynamic conversations that inform and inspire.
Professor at UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, Co-Director, Management of Technology Program
Sara Beckman has spent her years as a boundary spanner at UC Berkeley where she has held faculty appointments in both the Haas School of Business and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. She teaches courses such as Collaborative Innovation which integrates Art Practice, Theater and Dance Performance Studies and Business perspectives on both collaboration and innovation. Sara's research focuses on the pedagogy of teaching design and on the role of diversity on design and innovation teams. She has also published case studies on design for sustainability, design roadmapping, and leveraging design approaches in sales processes. She directs the Product Management Program for the Berkeley Center for Executive Education, serving over 350 product managers from around the world each year. Before joining UC Berkeley, Sara worked at Booz, Allen & Hamilton and Hewlett-Packard. Sara received BS, MS and PhD degrees in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University.
Product Designer at Okta
Pancham is a product designer based in San Francisco, currently designing for trust and security at Okta. Previously, he led the design team at Blockchain at Berkeley and completed coursework in Cognitive and Data Science from UC Berkeley. Having been born and raised in Delhi, India, he is deeply interested in leveraging design to bridge the gulf of trust between humans and technology for the next billion users. Outside of work, he can be found exploring new hikes, geeking out about maps and tinkering in the web3 space.
Design Leader at Adobe, Emerging Design Team
Lexi is a leader on the Emerging Design team at Adobe, questioning, provoking, and sketching out the future of creativity. She spends much of her time communicating through visuals and stories. Lexi's previous UX design experiences span education, healthcare, and commerce. However, Lexi was not always a designer; in fact, she didn't really know what design was until she started doing it. A first-generation college student and alumna of UCLA, Lexi spent her first 3 professional years in HR/Recruiting before she nurtured her love of people, research, technology and storytelling into a career transition into Design. Lexi lives in San Francisco with her partner, cat, and dog, dabbling in analog art (her latest interests are acrylic and aquarelle).
MIT Designer and Research, Chair at IDSA
Sheng-Hung Lee is a designer, MIT AgeLab researcher, MIT xPRO course experience designer, MIT Office of Sustainability fellow, and Chair at IDSA Boston. He is inspired by multiple domains of knowledge, different perspectives, and he thrives on creating new value for clients on multi-disciplinary teams. He is trained as an industrial designer and electrical engineer, and his approach to problem solving is influenced by his passion for how design and technology impact and can be integrated into society. He was invited to be a jury member for multiple international design competitions including IDEA, Spark Design Award, IDA Award and A' Design Award and Competition. His works have also been showcased in Dubai Design Week, Venice Design Week, and the Cooper Hewitt museum. In 2019, He won a designer in residence scholarship sponsored by the Germany government, EMMA Creative Center, and Pforzheim University to stay and to exhibit his design at Stuttgart. Lee taught product design at Fudan University Shanghai Institute of Visual Art and Detao Masters Academy as an adjunct Associate Professor from 2015 to 2019.
The implications and consequences of design may not align with intentions of a given work. What are the ethical responsibilities of designers, and how do we gauge limitations versus opportunities when considering the ethics behind design decisions.
Creator of Design Ethically and Product Designer at Spotify
Kat (she/her) is the creator of the
Chair of Industrial Designers Society of America
Jason Belaire, IDSA, has more than 20 years of experience as an industrial designer, product developer + manager, and product photographer for high-profile global clients in the outdoor industry. His specialties include industrial design services, product management, graphic design, packaging design, product management and lifestyle photography. He has designed, managed, and led national and international product development efforts for innovative and award-winning kids products, travel gear, sleeping bags, backpacks, tents, outdoor furniture and lighting. One of Belaire's strongest skills is his ability to serve as a liaison between consumer product corporate managers and directors down to the factory and production staff. He is particularly attuned to customer needs and requirements, and he has gained a strong reputation in the global outdoor industry for his ability to successfully communicate those requirements to diverse corporate and factory production audiences.
Senior UX Researcher at Meta
Gabriel Mugar is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Meta, where his research informs the design of products for content creators and their fans. Prior to Meta he was a Design Research Lead at IDEO where he worked on designing opportunities for learning, collaboration, and storytelling with public and private sector clients. Gabriel was previously a researcher and faculty member at the Emerson College Engagement Lab where we conducted research and taught courses on civic design. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology from the Syracuse University School of Information Studies and is co-author with Eric Gordon of Meaningful Inefficiencies: Civic Design in the Age of Digital Expediency (Oxford U Press, 2020).
Multidisciplinary Product Designer at Palantir
Jenny is a multidisciplinary product designer, researcher, and artist. Her work focuses on designing for complex systems, ranging from building visual programming tools to defining democratic digital governance mechanisms for social computing systems. She's currently a Product Designer at Palantir and visiting researcher at UW's Social Futures Lab, and has worked at IDEO, TED, Accenture Interactive, and a number of Series A start-ups. She holds a Masters in Design Engineering from Harvard and a B.S. in Economics from UPenn Wharton.
