Design That Matters
Ξ March 4th, 2009 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |
It’s been far too long since my last posting. The sun is melting the snow outside of our office here and it seems like nature is tapping me to end the winter-long freeze of writing on this blog…my apologies.
Anyways, I’ve been reading a book as of late called “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future”. It’s a strong title, I know, but it seems that publishers have to resort to shouting these days to get their projects off the shelf and into the shopping cart. In any case, the author, Daniel Pink, makes a pretty compelling case that we are departing what he has dubbed “the information age” and are on the doorstep of the “conceptual age”. To summarize what this means, essentially Pink believes that the days in which financial rewards flow to those who can crunch numbers, draft legal documents, write code and generally excel at activities leaning heavily on the left hemisphere of the brain will give way to those who can effectively employ their creativity, empathize and see the big picture. In no way is Pink saying that programmers, CEOs and lawyers will be out of work. Rather, he is hypothesizing that the zeitgeist of the coming economy will be one in which the artist in each of us will be prized as the primary engine of progress. In a nutshell, to be able to make sense of the ocean of information the internet has unleashed, keep up with the complexity of globalization and solve humanitarian problems whose solutions span several disciplines demands the sort of holistic thinking that is the trademark of right-brained thinkers.
I closed “A Whole New Mind” and put it on my bedstand last night before going to sleep, but it was still fresh in my head while perusing the blogosphere this morning when I ran across a post on Riches for Good about a non-profit design firm called Design That Matters. The first thing that came to my head was the fact that this firm seemingly embodies almost all of the traits that Pink espouses. They are a vanguard of the “conceptual age”.
Design That Matters brings together volunteers from academia and industry to create products that will significantly improve the lives of the citizens of the developing world. Some of their incredibly creative products include “a rugged, lightweight, low-power projection system, which uses a microfilm cassette to store 10,000 pages of information at a fraction of the cost of paper books” as well as micro-credit smart cards that will allow microfinance institutions to grow without sacrificing security, accuracy or efficiency. Other projects include a low-cost incubator and isolation unit for babies born prematurely and an improved intravenous drip flow controller for hospitals in which nursing staff shortages can often lead to deadly errors by family members controlling the IV in their stead, while attending to loved ones.
If Daniel Pink is right and the future will by ruled by right-brainers, then Design That Matters is on the path to success. They see the big picture and have empathy in spades as demonstrated by their global reach and human-centric approach. Most importantly, however, is the fact that they have the incredible ingenuity and creativity to act with compassion on this vision. In a period of contraction and fear, it’s good to know that firms like Design That Matters still recognize that a bright future can only be wrought from empathy, creativity and the courage to act on the grand vision of a safer and more prosperous world for all of humanity.
