Portland Design Thinkers is excited to announce an evening with Todd Harple - From Silos to Synergy: An Anthropologist's Journey in Bridging Methodologies for Collaborative Design

Over the course of two decades, Todd has adapted his toolkit of methods to suit the audiences, challenges, resources, and desired outcomes of specific projects. With experience and time, he moved from rejecting Design Thinking to embracing it, to relegating elements of it to a part of a multi- (or anti-disciplinary) collaborative toolkit. This talk will illustrate with examples from Todd's work in consumer electronics, fashion, fitness, health and sports how his approach to collaborative design has evolved.

Join Portland Design Thinkers for an evening with Tony Salvador discussing: Catalytic Factor Analysis.

Many (most?) of our design-research methods are designed for point-problems that demand point solutions. All good. But not so good when those methods are applied to complex problems.

Catalytic Factor Analysis is a method designed to address complex sociotechnical challenges through a structured conversation with the crowd. This technique specifically creates a means for both characterizing wicked socio-technical problems and identifying the focus areas to transform the system toward a resolution. The result is the ability to focus resources – state, civil, and institutional, political, entrepreneurial, and educational – on those catalytic factors to transform the system. I will use several examples from recent work to illustrate the method.

Join us for a student-led presentation by the University of Oregon’s Senior Product Design Research class. The online event will reveal the results of a collaboration between PDT’s Advisors (Deb Mrazek, John Furukawa, Colin Bay, and Herman D’Hooge) and the UO students.

The students engaged in a research sprint with their PDT Advisors to uncover valuable insights about PDT’s member community and ecosystem. Over five days, students practiced primary and secondary research, including interviews with members. The four student teams will present their findings to the PDT community for feedback.

Each team will present its research findings to the PDT online community via Zoom on Monday, January 30th, from 4 pm-5 pm PST.

Portland Design Thinkers is happy to announce an evening with Dan Self and the Science of Storytelling: How the Brain Fires on Story.

100,000 years of human reliance on story has rewired the human brain to think in story terms and story structure to make sense and create meaning out of events and others’ actions.

Meaning…Cells that fire together wire together. And, this evolutionary predisposition is reinforced by the dominant use of story throughout childhood.

So what does this mean for all of us? How can we use this knowledge to create memorable stories? And how can we use our predisposition to turn everything that enters through sensory input into story for engagement?

About Dan Self: Story first. Story always. I've spent most of my working life or what is known as "a career" thinking about, studying, and uncovering the importance of story.

And in the pursuit of discovering the importance of story, I've explored many different job paths that have revealed some important aspects of the brain on story.

Bottom line? I'm not a neurologist, but I've played one on TV, and that's my story and I'm sticking with it.

Portland Design Thinkers invites you to join us for an evening with Charles Buchwald: Growing Design Ethics

Charles has been designing, inventing and making in a variety of industries across North America. He's led a wide array of efforts, from online learning to AR/VR museums to digital banking perks, for clients including BMW, Pillsbury, the government of British Columbia and Televisa. Among other current projects, he's growing a design ethics community group in one of the country's largest UX design studios, at U.S. Bank.

This talk will discuss the intersection of design, ethics, and four related topics: behavioral science, data science, personalization at scale, and inclusive design - And what this has to do with making sandwiches.

Portland Design Thinkers is excited to invite you to our first 2023 in-person event of the year. Join us in person on May 18th, 5:30-7:00p and meet your fellow PDTers! Light nibbles and drinks will be provided.

Space is limited, so please register early!

EVENT FAQ

Q: What is the in-person event capacity? A: 50

Q: Is the space ADA accessible? A: Yes

Q: Will there be food and drink at this event? A: Yes.

Q: What is the parking situation? A: The building has a large, free parking lot.

Q: Is there any special information that might help me find the entrance? A: The main entrance is clearly visible from the outside near the building address, the doors are secured but will remain open until 6p for event arrival. Event time 5:30-7p, 2nd floor.

Q: Is there secured bike parking? A: There is a bike rack by the picnic table.

Q: Should I consider using public transportation? A: The building is on the 56 bus route.

Q: Can I bring my dog? A: Sadly, no.