DESIGN INTERACTIVE
Founded an organization educating the next generation of responsible technologists.
Built the operating system, structure, culture, and pro-bono projects, that now puts 125+ students yearly through ethics grounded design work serving local nonprofits and startups.
Project details
Timeline
2024–2025
Role
Founder
Typology
Culture / Strategy / Vision
In the beginning of 2024, I had transferred to UW–Madison and saw that there was no design-tech community for young people. At the same time, I saw increasing fear around the harm that emerging technologies—and the people creating them—could do.
This prompted me to ask: What if there was a community where people could develop not only technical skills in design + tech, but also an informed awareness of people, contextual needs, and societal impact? I wanted to feel that technologists built with my best interest at heart. This was the dream, and the fear, that Design Interactive was born from.
01 / Vision
My vision for Design Interactive was to educate the next generation of responsible technologists. Keeping a broad vision statement presented the opportunity to take a variety of approaches. Questions that stemmed from this were:
+ How could people learn design foundations rooted in critique, ethics, and thought?
+ What would it look like to be initiators of tough, audacious conversations?
+ Why do people yearn for resilient, nurturing futures?
02 / Strategy
How do you teach reflection, critique, and ethics as instincts, not something considered separately? Our approach, was to weave them into every conversation, workshop, and experience.
Education
Foundational workshops rooted in critique & broader consideration
Workshop activities that cue reflection on potential unforeseen consequences, and space to think through how to mitigate them.
Guest speakers + site visits from socially-responsible organizations
Hosting professionals and organizations whose work we felt deeply considered all aspects of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental. Favorite being Trek Bicycle :)
Hands-on experimentation
We believe that people learn best by doing—and doing with a wide range of materials, platforms, and disciplines.
Spotlighting underrepresented voices
There are many brilliant designers and technologists whose stories aren’t mainstream—intentionally or not. It was important to us to tell these stories.
Mission-driven work
Using expertise to support causes with limited resources
Growing up in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Idea—using your privilege of education to serve those who don’t have the same opportunities—is my north star. It felt really important to us that our pro-bono projects would be life-changing to those we served.
Sustainable consulting
To do impactful work, to us, is to deliver value that can be sustained. Throughout our consulting for clients, it was our focus to teach students what building authentic relationships looked like, how to hear what wasn’t being said, and build rituals that the client would be happy and capable of sustaining after hand-off.
Conversations
Using power and leverage to be conversation starters
Being a responsible practitioner, to us, is initiating and existing in hard and ambitious conversations. We wanted Design Interactive to not only model this, but also to transcend beyond the walls of UW–Madison and to impact the greater community. Two highlight events:
Panel: “Transdiciplinary Collaboration in the Age of Emerging Technologies.”
Workshop series exploring what delivers impactful solutions.
03 / Culture
Culture is the engine of any organization, and I believe a direct reflection of the quality of work produced. We were particularly interested in creating a culture around ethics and bold dreaming. Here are a few ways we thought about it.
HUMAN SIDE
Humor and absurd icebreakers to foster psychological safety. 1:1s and weekly exec meetings where the team co-created the future of DI. Modeling aspiration out loud.
STRUCTURAL
Only sourcing locally owned snacks for meetings + events. Firmly upholding commitments. Politely declining collaborations with organizations that didn’t align with our ethics.
Impact
0
250
active members in one year
125
students given real-world design experience
13
person leadership team built and managed
8
speakers hosted
6
pro-bono projects
2
design showcases
CHICAGO, IL
THE GREAT LAKES REGION