Beyond Aesthetics

In part 2 of Art & Education in Design with Margaret Hull, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, we will continue our conversation about the connections between art education and design. We will dive further into how research plays a role in the artistic practice and how art is a pedagogy...or is it?

You will hear more content on this podcast about how art and design are similar and what we can learn from one another. So to kick this off, we have a two-part series with Margaret Hull, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, who describes herself as straddling the worlds of art and design. In part one, you will hear about feedback/critiques and the importance of knowing your audience/user.

What is the relationship between systems, futures, and design thinking? We talk with Adam Zeiner, senior strategic designer at the Design Institute for Health, about applying future thinking as a mindset for designers.In this episode:Adam’s path towards building expertise in design futuresHow he sees the overlap between art and designFutures Literacy as an important 21st-century skillHow and when you should integrate these into your design practicePlease find out more of what Adam is working on at Dezein.co or follow him on Twitter @_dezein

How do you build a UX research practice as a working designer? In this episode of Beyond Aesthetics, we talk to Basim Al-Baker, a UX research consultant who has worked with Soundcloud and Blinkist. We hear about how he became a UX researcher, some best practices for setting up a research practice, and what he hopes to see in the future of UX research.

What does it look like to build resilience in your design career? In this episode, we talk with Janko Jovanovic, a design manager at Zalando, the leading online fashion platform in Europe with over 14,000 employees and 30 million customers. Janko talks about his path from programmer to design manager and his experience with coaching younger designers. We also talk about what good mistakes we have made in our careers and how system thinking could be the key to building resilience.