Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Why I'm Thinking D

In the four plus years since I first dipped a toe into the world of Design Thinking, I've felt at once more connected to other humans (especially those who share my penchant) and also more lonely, when surrounded by D skeptics, or worse, D apathetics.

Along the way, I have met some incredible individuals--teachers, colleagues, mentors, and mentees. I've often wished there were a forum for us all to connect more frequently and casually outside of academic or professional settings.

So consider this blog a first iteration of my thoughts on How To: connect Design Thinkers to ideate, conversate, relate and generate.

To say I'm open suggestions would be an understatement. I would very much appreciate your thoughts on directions in which this could evolve. Will it become a monthly in-person forum? an online community? a lowly little-read blog? All end-states are exciting to me, and hopefully to you too.

I'm especially curious right now re: platform suggestions. If anyone has ideas as to where I should host this blog and/or other tech tips, I'd be super appreciative! Consider this our first community brainstorm challenge...

What to expect here: evolution, first and foremost. To start, we can share stories of d.thinking--whether at work or in our personal lives. We can brainstorm (virtually or in-person). We can ask questions. We can ideate and help each other stay "in shape" creatively, like circuit training for our right brains. What else? I hope this will be a place with many voices, so chime in please!

Thanks for reading and looking forward to hopefully building a D-centric world where we can get creative together and have some fun!

-L



8 comments:

  1. Love it! I think someone on fbook mentioned tumblr, which I just started using, but it doesn't seem that interactive to me (or maybe I just can't figure out how to make it interactive).

    As for content, anything that would be helpful for those who are spread far and wide, away from a critical mass of design thinkers. How can I be a better facilitator without people who already know the drill? How can I keep myself inspired? How do I find people locally and afar who get it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for being the first commentor! So glad you are digging the idea. I have been playing with Tumblr and will see if that's better.

    Love the content questions you pose. Facilitation we can dig into soon, inspiration we can help each other to sustain and reignite. As for finding people who get it, I hope this community will be a start!

    I think there a lot of people out there that are looking for fellow D peeps and it would be awesome to create a catalyst for us to all find one another.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Laura, excited to join the conversation. Agree that tumblr is a good format for sharing visuals but tougher for having conversations... will keep thinking. I would love to know more about what inspires you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice work LJ.

    I'm a big fan of wordpress! It's super flexible and makes it really easy to add on other services / functionality that might be useful as a community grows. The blogging functionality of tumblr and blogger are just as good (and maybe easier to setup), but they're not as extensible. My 2c.

    ReplyDelete
  5. So excited to participate in this forum!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was SO excited to get this, Laura! You know you have a D fan in me! I would love to connect with others who are also passionate about design thinking and innovation. Stay inspired. Get ideas. Pose hairy questions. You know.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Laura, thanks for including me. Excited to learn more and participate in any way I can.

    ReplyDelete