Upcoming Lectures

Inclusive and Consequential by Design: “Futurefying” Design Thinking through Vision Concepting

Date TBD in response to COVID-19

Abstract

“How we design technologies reflects what we value; who we think is important, and in what ways; which places, people and possibilities are in our imaginations, and which are not. Current ways of designing technologies frequently narrow these possibilities….” asserted Phoebe Singers in her 2018 ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) keynote. While “unintended”, the negative consequences of this narrowed view to technological design for Blacks/African-Americans, in particular, have been evidenced and are profound. More inclusive and consequential technological design approaches are needed. This talk introduces Vision Enabled Design Thinking (V.E.D.T) as a pathway forward. V.E.D.T leverages futures thinking, engaged through vision concepting, in imagining future-forward design artifacts to catalyze more inclusive and consequential near-term design solutions. Afrofuturism is discussed as a design lens for enacting V.E.D.T and like approaches in demonstrating their value in helping the technology designer understand and think through the sociocultural consequences/implications of their technical decision-making.

About the Speaker

Woodrow W. Winchester, III, PhD, CPEM is a Senior Lecturer and the Director of Engineering Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His teaching and scholarly activities are centered on advocating for more humanity-centered approaches to the design and management of technological products and systems. Woodrow is a Certified Professional in Engineering Management (CPEM) with over ten (10) years of industry experiences. Woodrow is also under contract with the CRC Press to write Inclusion by Design: Future Thinking Approaches to New Product Development (ISBN: 978-0-367-41687-4); co-authored with Frances Alston, PhD, CHMM, CPEM and slated for a late 2020 release.