Join us in-person for the next Design Bites: Designing for Sustainability, at HanaHaus Palo Alto on Friday, December 2, 2022, from 1:00–2:30 PM PDT!
In this interactive session of Design Bites, we will learn more about the topic of Sustainability from Dr. Seema Arora, noted Economist and Sustainability Expert from the Center for Research in International Development & Environmental Economics in Palo Alto.
Examine challenges to creating sustainable solutions and explore a Design-based methodology for brainstorming and ideation with Dan Watters, resident Design Bites lead and Director of UX at SAP. Together, in this special “When Design meets Sustainability” session we will apply (in our typical hands-on manner) a Design-centered approach to offer product/service solutions with a focus towards a more sustainable path in the future.
Come and learn, create, and network with us at this hands-on, interactive event at HanaHaus!
Run of the Show
Welcome and Introduction
About Sustainability
Design Exercise 1
Brainstorming & Ideation
Sustainability Design Challenge
Design Exercise 2
Reflection and Sharing of Final Ideas
Seema Arora PhD
Dr Seema Arora is a PhD economist and the nation’s leading expert on ESG issues. She has conducted pioneering research for over 20+ years. She is a Google Scholar with over 3000+ primary citations and over 50,000 secondary citations for her seminal contributions in the field of ESG. According to the USEPA Administrator, her evaluation influenced the design of 5 nation-wide voluntary programs. It heralded a new approach to regulation through public disclosure and voluntary public-private partnerships that were further deployed by the World Bank, OECD, and NAFTA countries as well as by 1000 largest Chinese companies’ program. Her work on profit with purpose is hailed by thought leadership of Fortune 500 C-leadership including by McKinsey and Unilever. As Assistant Professor, she co-developed and taught a cross-functional sustainability curriculum to over 1200 MBA students at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. The program was ranked as one of the top 3 programs in the country by Business Week. She has held visiting positions at Stanford University during which time she served as Designate Expert on a fintech project with the Reserve Bank of India. She is a two-time recipient of National Science Foundation funding and is a Founder of CRIDEE in Palo Alto.
Daniel Watters, Director of UX at SAP
Dan Watters is a leader in the field of Design, UX, and Research at SAP, Palo Alto. His current role is with the core UX organization and is focused on bringing data-driven insights to the overall design process. Over the past decade, Dan has contributed at SAP in areas such as Design Thinking, Innovation, Mobile Apps, Data-driven Dashboards, and the SAP Fiori design system, receiving multiple patents for the display of data in card-based user interfaces.
About Design Bites:
"It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting" - Jerry Sternin.
If design-thinking is all the rage, why are your skills not getting any better? Has your ability to brainstorm improved? Are you now sketching your ideas, rather than writing them? We sum up the current situation as: too much process, too little craft.
Our stance is: design should be learned skills-first. As you get better at applying your skills and reflect on your experience, you will naturally develop a better understanding of the process as well. Think design-doing instead of design-thinking.
Now, we know just how overwhelming it can be to decide where to start. That's why we created Design Bites. Each session of d.bites takes one skill and teaches it with rigor. See examples from real projects, try it out a minimum of three times and learn from others in a fun, lighthearted way.
As you get better at one skill, you will find yourself getting better at other skills, too. Learning how to interview better will dramatically improve your understanding of your product, and your validation skills, too! Like any good gym instructor, we will push you to do more reps as we push the envelope on design-doing skills ourselves.
You do not need any previous knowledge of design-thinking to join this series. While we will be referring to the design process, all that is needed is a healthy curiosity and willingness to be nudged to action.