DesignOps Global Conference 2022

Presenter Profile: Giulia Fiorista and Sam Hirsch are two senior service designers working in The Netherlands for design agency Essense, where they share their passion for design for social impact. Giulia has over 8 years of experience working as a design researcher, service designer and all-rounder user-centred design expert. She specialised in working in the tech industry and digital transformation projects, with a particular interest for public sector design, in government and in healthcare. Although she is an Italian in the Netherlands, she lived and worked in the UK for most of her adult life. When she doesn’t design, she is probably drawing, writing, or running around Amsterdam. Sam specialises in helping complex organisations imagine what to do next. He is a design advocate, futurist, and user researcher raised in London and based in Amsterdam. He has worked on service innovation projects in all kinds of industries but is most excited about the power of design to improve lives and the planet. When he is not working, he is most likely drawing, painting, cycling, or daydreaming.

Outline: The promise of the internet was that it was going to give voice to the voiceless, visibility to the invisible, and power to the powerless. Everybody rolled up their sleeves and helped to build it. For a while it was beautiful, it was messy, and it was punk’ says Mike Monteiro. Then things got a little different…remember the data scandal of Cambridge Analytica? We do too. If a metaverse is possible, or even desirable, we are on the brink of a (second) chance to design the internet according to a collective vision that puts People and the Planet before profit. What would a town hall look like in the metaverse? Where and how should our identities shift? Will a person with disabilities experience this in the metaverse? How would we want to jump in, show up, and even switch off from, the Metaverse? These questions have no answers… yet. As strategic and value-driven designers, we believe that everyone should be involved in shaping and questioning this collective vision. Through activities derived from collective imagination, system thinking and speculative design workshop will give an opportunity to do so. After all; when our imagination is collective, it can go further than escapism, and set the stage for action.

Company Website: https://essense.eu