Quick Takeaways from 2018 IDSA WDDC

I had an extremely enjoyable time in Portland this past weekend at IDSA's 2018 Western District Design Conference. It was an honor to talk with and be amongst a great lineup of speakers that included Susan Sokolowski of the University of Oregon, Katharine Hargreaves & Sara Anani of WeCoCreate, Eddie Licitra of Lunar Design, Shannon Pomeroy of Adidas, Judy Leung of fuseproject, Wilson Smith of Nike, and Ti Chang of Crave.

Some quick thoughts on the conference:

Don't Sleep on IDSA

Yes, I know the district conferences have, in the past, been of more interest to students and academia than professionals. But the folks at IDSA are working very hard to broaden the topics, speakers, and themes of the conferences, and it was noticeable at the WDDC. The content was relevant for anyone interested in the future of design, and there was a lot of discussion on emerging trends and topics that would have greatly benefitted professionals of all levels. To paraphrase Ferris Beuller, "Design moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." Never more true than right now.

Design + Business

The importance of understanding that business knowledge is a critical skill in the tool bag of designers was once again hammered home. Speakers highlighted the struggles and successes they have encountered as employees of large corporations and consultancies, and as startup founders. Even though the challenges they faced were widely varied, they all needed excellent creative leadership and business skills to achieve success. More than anything else, it was very interesting to be able to see firsthand that there is no single formula for connecting with others as a creative leader. Listening closely, you could hear the individual traits that has made these speakers successful in their careers: Wilson with his energy, Shannon with her deep technical confidence, Ti with her humanity & authenticity, Katharine with her strength of spirit, Eddie with his eyes wide open perspective, etc.

The Evolving Role of the Designer

There was an immense amount of discussion regarding how the role of the industrial designer is changing. No one is jonesing to drive the final nails into the coffin of the GOFID (Good Ole' Fashion Industrial Designer), but cultural and technological changes have forced designers to adjust their toolkit and their skill set. Everyone agrees that the foundational skills are still needed, but now they must be augmented by soft skills, emotional intelligence, and digital competence. The process of creating meaningful design has evolved from being an isolated activity to a social activity, and designers that want to be a part of impactful projects will need to be self-aware, adaptive, inclusive, and collaborative.

The Rise of AI

I was quite frankly surprised at the attention and interest my discussion on artificial intelligence & human ignorance received. I believe part of the interest stems from the fact that folks like John Maeda have given it so much attention. But there was also a palpable mixture of both unease and excitement from the audience about AI unlike anything I have ever experienced in my professional career. The only metaphor I can think of that comes close to describing the emotions I felt from people about AI would be that of humans' first encounters with fire: "Holy crow, we could do some ludicrous stuff with this thing, or we could end up as ashes." One thing I know for absolute certain: as a community if we fear it, if we try to side step it, if we ignore it, we're going to get left behind. We shouldn't be talking about a seat at the AI table, we should be designing the AI table.