UNITED WE STAND: Design Swarms Workshop

We have become a deeply divided country. The rise of populist leaders is pushing us to extremes and each side has become fearful and suspicious of the other. At this workshop, you will be asked to propose innovative solutions to this hard social challenge. What would happen if we used design-led approaches to heal the divide? Can we use human-centered thinking to create solutions that drive empathy? Can we creatively utilize data and emerging tech like AI to bring people together? Can we harness mindsets like Inclusive Design to help people value diversity?

A Design Swarms Workshop is a unique innovation sprint that brings together the agility of hackathons with the power of user-centered design thinking. You will be matched with others with complementary skills to form a swarm team. Over the course of six hours, your team and other swarm teams will be led through a series of sprints to create actionable design proposals. You will learn how to quickly gain empathy for users, creatively frame a complex problem space, move through intensive ideation, run cheap and high velocity experiments, and produce a Minimum Viable Experiences (MVX). All work is done on the Design Swarms Canvas, and you will be provided all materials and tools. 

Design Swarms have helped to accelerate solution development in large corporates (Amazon, Autodesk, Microsoft, T-Mobile), small startups (Authentic, DataDesignBiz, ColorTool), non-profits (Net Impact, Clinton Global foundation, Global Humanitarian Lab), education (UW, SVC, RMIT) and social innovation projects (eg. Reducing women’s homelessness in Seattle, aging with independence in Hong Kong, traffic safety in Indian cities, maker labs for refugee camp in Rwanda).

This workshop will be led by Surya Vanka the creator of Design Swarms Workshops technique. Workshop is limited to 60 participants. No previous design knowledge or experience is needed. All are welcome. 

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of AUTHENTIC the regular workshop fee of $400 has been subsided to only $40 only for Seattle Design Festival 2017 attendees. If you are a student or have financial hardship, please contact us and we'll ensure you can still attend.