Greetings All: Yes we are back with more authentic perspectives on the subjects of design, design thinking, design doing, strategic design, meta design and design for complexity. Happy to have you back as a reader and subscriber.
Overview History of NextD Journal: How we got here:
Concerned about the state and future of strategic design/meta design leadership in the context of complex organizational and societal change we began NextD Journal in 2002 as a community sensemaking experiment. Many of our long time readers will know that when we parked NextD Journal in 2013 it was at the end of a 30 conversation, multiple publication cycle that had sought to illuminate the arriving and emerging future of strategic design/meta design leadership in this rapidly shifting era.
We have been delighted to see our readers around the world making use of the strategic insights and the many materials that we created, viewable in the NextDesign Futures Library including Teaching CoCreation Now and NextD Geographies containing what became known as the Skill-to-Scale advocacy.
In retrospect much of the perspective seen in NextD Journal was ten years out in front of the marketplace, in particular around the subject now known as Design for Complexity. Many of the issues then being raised and shared are just now appearing in mainstream conversations.
Having made that contribution to community sensemaking for changemaking we wanted to take a hiatus and refocus our efforts elsewhere for a while. What is bringing us back for this experimental reboot is the astronomical level of confusion that has been building in the marketplace where meaningful strategic design journalism remains largely abscent.
In this experimental reboot of NextD Journal we intend, with the help of numerous guest contributors to look at and offer up authentic "Peer Review" perspectives on numerous selected public documents that have the potential to influence (confuse or clarify) public perception of these subjects. Some of the stuff that has been published on the subject of design thinking is rather outragious quite frankly and the abscence of a meangingful strategic design journalism makes it worse. Some of the nonsense just goes on and on and one. In addition we intend to gather and share collections of contributor perspectives for a time-to-time refresh, as the world continues to change in ways, many could not imagine just a few years ago.
NextD Journal [Reboot] hopes to offer-up some fresh perspectives on several outstanding questions including: How the subject of Design Thinking got so confused and where is the confusion coming from, What is driving the need for change, and unpacking the impact of the increasing complexity of challenges being faced.
In parallel to the sensemaking content on this simple site we recently published the book: Rethinking Design Thinking: Making Sense of the Future that has Already Arrived. Folded into that book are many of the learnings gleaned from many years of swimming in these subjects, doing community research and operating Humantific practice.
In parallel we are taking a relook at several other aspects of NextD Network, NextD Library and NextD Academy so stay tuned.
GK VanPatter,
Founding Editor
NextD Journal [Reboot] Defuzzing the Future!
For anyone who might have missed the earlier NextD activities here are a few example documents that can be found in the NextDesign Futures Library: