Designing for the Common Good

Our societies are becoming more complex, dynamic, and networked every day. Public organizations and companies alike are learning the hard way that the societal challenges before us cannot be resolved as they were in the past. We need new approaches to these problems.

Over the past ten years, an increasing number of government organizations, companies, and individuals have realized that special practices from design can help us rise to the challenge. At the core of this book are twenty case studies from around the world that demonstrate how design approaches can be used for societal change. These extensive case descriptions are interspersed with reflections, lessons learned, and tricks and tips for the practitioner, culminating in a vision of how design can revolutionize society.

Author
Kees Dorst trained as an industrial design engineer at Delft University of Technology. He has worked as a product designer for various design firms and, as a researcher, he has studied the ways in which designers work. He is Professor of Design Innovation at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is the author of Frame Innovation and Understanding Design: 175 Reflections on Being a Designer, and the co-author of Design Expertise.

Press

“In this visually engaging book, the team behind Sydney’s Designing Out Crime research centre shares 21 projects, from reducing theft in stores through a better shopping experience to ensuring that young revellers get home safely along bike routes. Changing perceptions and embracing human nature are common threads in the book’s case studies – and its cup-half-full philosophy.” 
- Azure Magazine