‘Design thinking’ driven ‘user-centered design’ — once a hero — has now lived long enough to see itself become a villain of the (design) world. Design Thinking found its current definition and identity in the early 2000’s though the term was in academia since the early 60’s. It gained its hype with the help of IDEO and Stanford D.School. Later with the launch of an online course by IDEO in 2015 it further penetrated into non design fields. This article attempts to see the potential of finding an alternative solution for the emerging villain without losing its early heroic qualities.

Is ‘All are creative’ a fact or a myth?

‘We believe everyone has the capacity to be creative’ — this is the first text you would read if you browse the homepage of Stanford — D School. This is very optimistic yet a cliche in design education in the modern world. One might argue this has more to do with profit oriented education as a service in a capitalist context than the pedagogy of creative education — simply it is about making your degree brand relevant to a wider audience. But how does this term relate to a country like…

narrative culture and design anthropology of people living in an isolated village

Imagine you are going to write a novel based on your life story — your past and your future. What would be its genre? What would be its beginning, climax, the story arc and the end? Before skim reading this article — take a few seconds and note down those things about the novel where you are the protagonist.

Now continue reading.

Stories and imaginations or, in other words, humans’ ability to create non-existing information is a key reason for the long journey we came as a human…

Elections are always about human feelings, not about human rationality

Right now you as a Sri Lankan may be happy or unhappy with the result of the 2019 presidential election or as an outsider keen to know what happened in Sri Lanka. This is my attempt to explain and elaborate on what happened in SL presidential election as a communication designer and someone who is interested in propaganda as a subject. As Yuval Harari explains in his recent book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, ‘Referendums and elections are always about human feelings, not about human rationality’. Further he explains…

There is a common norm when it comes to effective communication; ‘keep it simple and keep it visual’. From digital marketing to BTL, every designer practices this as the mantra of effective communication. Because humans are, by nature, very visual beings. 30% of our brains are engaged in the task of processing visual information, as compared with only 8% for touch and 3% for hearing. With so much of our brain dedicated to the task, our visual senses are extraordinary. Reading text is a visual task, but we don’t understand text as quickly as we do images. This is a…