Design in Systems
An Emergent Paradigm Shift in Research & Practice
An 80-page publication on our shift to humanity-centered design.
I was a consultant for the Research & Development team at the Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) in the summer of 2025. TDRI had recently collected 1,600+ conference papers, 890+ design school courses, and 240+ journal articles, and were analyzing emergent themes in design research and practice.
The plan was to synthesize the findings in a word processor, report-style. If you read my bio, you know how I feel about word processors. This was really interesting stuff: hauntology, de-centering humans in design, a reimagined internet. I proposed instead that I bring these concepts to life through original graphics and thought-provoking images.
It’s a fine line writing a publication both academics and designers would want to read. I spent the summer poring over a six-chapter narrative structure for the themes we identified. The voice needed to be polished yet playful, drawing readers in. Once I was happy with the voice, it was time to turn to layout and visualizations. I sketched, Figma-ed, sketched again, InDesign-ed, then sketched again…you get the idea.
By the end of the summer, we had the entire 80-page publication. We sent it to an agency for final edits and printing, and then it was launched at the IASDR 2025 annual conference in Taipei. Don Norman, a panelist for IASDR, endorsed our publication, writing to us that he felt this work should be included in design education curriculum. It was a very proud moment.
This publication was a testing ground for everything I’d learned in my first year at Stanford: systems thinking, graphic design, and how to turn theory into something usable. I am proud of this work as both a designer and a human being. The content feels like a manifesto because I believe what it says. Design has a massive role to play as the problems of our world become increasingly complex.