Boston + Acumen hosted an evening on Design Thinking and Social Impact with Naz Mirzaie, Service Designer and Design Researcher of Essential. Naz shared techniques that can be used to define problems, identify key stakeholders, and storyboard possible solutions when tackling social innovation challenges.
At the 20th: DMI Academic Design Management Conference, Service Designer Naz Mirzai presented a compelling paper on changes in the practice of design research.
Essential took home 2nd place in a 3-day design challenge to activate the underutilized space under the I-93 overpass in Boston.
Richard Watson and Chris Parlato opened the 2016 Alliance Innovation Summit by outlining 3 key trends that the building industry will need to keep pace with in the Age of Disruption.
I recently found myself at The Berkley Center for Creative Entrepreneurship surrounded by piles of LEGO® bricks. And it was not just for play- it was for “SERIOUS” play.
Overall, CES 2016 was composed of many iterative technology innovations that we have been excited about for years. However, tech is getting smarter, smaller, more ubiquitous and integrated in more meaningful ways.
Service design is the holistic approach to orchestrating customer experiences across all the touchpoints as well as creating value for the service provider. System change, business impact, and quality of life were among the key topics in the conference.
The 2015 Design Exchange Boston, a conference hosted by AIGA, featured a talk and workshop led by one of Essential’s design researchers, Chris Parlato. Chris discussed the tendency of connected devices to be superfluous and the challenges of designing connected objects to produce meaningful change in modern society.
Naz spoke about the importance of design research and explained how her industrial design background has driven her interest in visual information strategies and experience mapping.
As a researcher with Master’s in Design for Sustainability, “Design for Social Innovation” has always been a huge part of my personal and professional life. My work is inspired by field leaders like Victor Papanek and Victor Margolin. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending an event “Learn. Leverage. Lead.” sponsored by Boston+Acumen.
