Yesterday I stumbled across an interesting article, which lead me to an even more interesting site. The article is How to Design Like You Give a Damn in 5 Easy Steps on Fast Company. It’s a quick read with some great photos. The steps, by the way, are: give a damn about process; give a damn about people; give a damn about what you’re designing; give a damn about your impact; give a damn about your community.

One of the related stories lead to this site from Little & Company: thirty conversations on design. The site has thirty short (2-3 minutes) responses to the questions, “What single example of design inspires you most?” and “What problem should design solve next?” I haven’t listened to all of them yet, but my favorite so far is the last one, Richard Saul Wurman, who created the TED conference.

Lest I come across as more designy than is true, I readily admit to recognizing only five out the thirty names. My interest in design is out of admiration — I’m more design fanboy than practitioner — and appreciation of its value. The 5 Easy Steps, though, give voice to values that inform my daily work (or at least the types of values that I try to keep mind of). I don’t design pretty things. But our department does try to create systems that make clear the complexr.