CM 062: John Maeda on Great Design

Everyone benefits from understanding great design. Whether you make products, program apps, or provide services, design plays a critical role in how effectively you accomplish your goals. And if you work in the field of design, there has never been a better time to showcase your skills.

In this thought-provoking interview, John Maeda talks about all of this and more. An award-winning designer who was described as a bellwether for the design industry by Wired Magazine, John sits at the crossroads of business, design, and technology.. His TED talks have been viewed by millions, and his books have been translated into dozens of languages.

John began his career Professor and Head of Research at The Media Lab at MIT. He then served as President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), authored a number of books, and then left academia to work as Design Partner for venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. He now works as Global Head of Computational Design and Inclusion at open-source tech firm, Automattic.

John shares what he has learned along the way. Insights from our interview include:

How the arduous practice of engineering informs his perspective on design
How he was raised not to know what he could not be
How curiosity is about having an openness to now knowing
How much of what he saw in Silicon Valley was reminiscent of MIT
How resilience can increase with curiosity
How each challenge he has chosen stretches him
How creatives often lack confidence - a normal occurrence for them
How a brilliant professor taught him to say I do not know
The three kinds of design that exist right now
How digital design is constantly changing, immature
How design thinking is a powerful strategy for understanding users
How schools can benefit from real-world practice
Why stepping out of academia was important for his understanding of the world
Why the addictive aspect of tech is not a problem for him
How he is always looking for new people to learn from
Why he wishes we were talking less about beauty in design and more about effectiveness
How he wishes design were more about who we can serve rather than trends
How he is asking how design can be more inclusive
How we can get caught up in making things in our own image through design
The fact that design tends to come to the foreground only once the tech matures
The challenges of leading and working with people in design
How he is learning to work in a 100 percent remote tech company

Episode Links

John Maeda

@JohnMaeda

MIT Media Lab

Rhode Island School of Design

Kleiner Perkins

Automattic

Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer

Design Report 2016

Walker and Company, Bevel Brand

Grindr

Jackie Xu

Justin Sayarath

The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling

Matt Mullenweg of Automattic

Paul Graham of Y Combinator

CRISPR

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