Making UC San Diego a world center for design research and education
The UC San Diego Design Lab works on major societal issues, such as large-scale education, automation, healthcare, visualization of complex phenomena and data, social interactions, citizen science, and the ethical issues that are of ever-increasing importance. Design is a way of thinking, of addressing the core issues. For the Design Lab, design is a way of thinking, always taking a systems point of view, emphasizing the role of people in the complex systems of the modern world.
For us, people-centered design means four things:
- Focusing on people
- Taking a systems point of view, realizing that most complications result from the interdependencies of the multiple parts
- Ensuring that we solve the core, root issues, not just the problem as presented to us (which is often the symptom, not the cause)
- Continually testing and refining our proposals, ensuring they truly meet the needs of the people for whom they are intended