• DesignUp Newsletter
  • Posts
  • DesignUp 👁Issue #111 > Meta brouhaha, alt.realities, ethics canvas, creative voices + school updates

DesignUp 👁Issue #111 > Meta brouhaha, alt.realities, ethics canvas, creative voices + school updates

👁 With all the brouhaha going on about Facebook aka Meta, and the power of social media platforms in today's society, a quote from the podcast below got us thinking: ‘Whoever controls the flow of information, they are going to control power in the modern world.’ How much power do we as product makers wield in society? What is our societal responsibility?

As designers, we identify as change-makers, as influencers of behaviour, and so we tread a delicate balance, between business goals and doing the right thing for everyone who is affected by the experiences we design.

Today's newsletter comes with stories from different kinds of communities and platforms, alternate realities, and some tools for you to apply as you consider your role in the world.

And finally, two artists show what can happen when you use your creative voice to challenge the status quo 💪

+ 🔔 Updates from DesignUp.School's Founding Cohort 🔔

🪢 Communities and Platforms

Why employees love the software, and bosses don’t!

“TikTok was a canteen; Instagram is a café. But the canteen has better food, and the café serves costly coffee that not everyone drinks.”

Shivam Shankar Singh and Anand Venkatanarayanan talk about their book, The Art of Conjuring Alternate Realities: How Information Warfare Shapes Your World.

🧰 For your toolbox

What is the future of design? Which skills will you need in the 21st century? In this video, Don Norman gives four examples of the tasks that designers might be doing in the 21st century.

This free-to-download convenient canvas helps designers and product managers identify and de-risk potential sources of harm from their products and experiences. It focuses on 6 areas: attention disruption, addictiveness, impediment of social connection, misleading information, algorithmic biases, and unrealistic world views.

❤️ The power of the creative voice

Handi Kim's distinct visual language “mirrors the ‘un-pretty parts of society and transcodes them into diverse visual languages with humor and quirkiness”. She tells us why she’s now using her practice for social means.

In the multimedia show ‘Sun at Night’ at London’s Barbican, Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta's installations are a rousing reminder that free speech used to be a noble cause.

And an update from the DesignUp.School's founding Cohort 

Week 1 and 2 have been intense. In week 1 - students dived deep into their Strengths - understood it against the backdrop of team strengths, with Jody Rodgers. And onward to a journey of self-coaching and and flipping perspectives with Alysha Naples! We're on a short break for the Festival of Lights. And to give students a breather to introspect (and catch up on the homework)...

A short snippet from Mohana Das, part of the founding cohort, and an UxWriter: "one thing that really stood out for me - the realisation that the reason I might be unhappy at my job is not being given an opportunity to fully utilize my strengths."

Keep learning and stay inspired,