{"id":5392,"date":"2024-09-16T13:40:33","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T13:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?p=5392"},"modified":"2024-09-16T13:40:33","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T13:40:33","slug":"shaping-inclusive-futures-with-your-design-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/shaping-inclusive-futures-with-your-design-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaping inclusive futures with your design career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Are you a design student embarking on a new journey?\u00a0Wondering where your skills can take you and the impact you can make?\u00a0In this blog post,\u00a0I explore design careers with a focus on\u00a0<strong>inclusive futures<\/strong>.\u00a0I&#8217;ll start by summarising the insights from a Careers and Employability Service event at OU in March 2024,\u00a0featuring a diverse panel of designers, and offer some additional pointers to build your career with OU resources.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our March event brought together a dynamic panel of design professionals,\u00a0including:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<li>Gareth Thomas, Product Designer, XDesign<\/li>\n<li>Rachel Wood, Service Design Lead, Local Government &amp; OU PhD Researcher<\/li>\n<li>Sam Osys, Customer Journey Framework Lead Consultant, NatWest &amp; OU PhD Researcher<\/li>\n<li>Rebecca Davies, Senior Recruiter, Arup<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The panel discussed the evolving landscape of design careers,\u00a0with a strong emphasis on\u00a0accessibility, inclusion, and emerging trends.\u00a0Here are some key takeaways:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<li><strong>Inclusive design takes centre stage:<\/strong>\u00a0The demand for designing with accessibility and inclusion in mind is growing rapidly across private and public sectors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rise of service design:<\/strong>\u00a0Service design is becoming an increasingly important field,\u00a0focusing on user experience across different touchpoints.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Data storytelling:<\/strong> Working with diverse audiences and creating compelling data visualisations are essential skills for designers who want to effectively communicate design ideas.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Responsible tech integration:<\/strong> The responsible integration of new technologies like AI, VR, and 3D modelling is crucial. As Sam Osys emphasises, \u201cpeople are wanting to have more customised interactions with the technology that they use, both digital and kind of in real life\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sustainability and ethics:<\/strong>\u00a0Companies are prioritising sustainability,\u00a0circular economy principles,\u00a0and ethical practices.\u00a0Design roles will play a key role in shaping these initiatives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gareth Thomas highlights that design careers are\u00a0dynamic and ever evolving.\u00a0You might start as a product designer,\u00a0but your skills can take you in diverse directions.\u00a0 Transferable skills\u00a0like teamwork and leadership are invaluable,\u00a0allowing you to adapt your design process to tackle various challenges.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The OU&#8217;s new\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/courses\/design\/degrees\/bachelor-of-design-r63\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" ><strong>BDes Bachelor of Design degree<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0equips you with the knowledge and skills mentioned by the panel. Whether you&#8217;re starting your design journey or looking to upskill,\u00a0explore the program!<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can gain further insights from the experts by watching the full panel discussion here:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/uLbmwaX_mJ4?si=m9cRM1fKRB4pIpaO\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you are just starting out as an OU student, there are several tools available for you from the Careers and Employability Service to plan your career journey. For example you can orientate yourself with our <a href=\"https:\/\/opportunityhub.open.ac.uk\/students\/workflows\/detail\/5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" >Navigate Your Future activity pathway<\/a>, which makes the process of working out your goals and next steps simpler. It\u2019s designed to build your confidence and help you progress towards your goals at your own pace.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Careers and Employability Service also offer <a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/build-your-future-with-career-confidence\/how-confident-do-you-feel\" >confidence pages<\/a>, which highlight some key resources and practical activities to help grow your confidence in your career or personal development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you a design student embarking on a new journey?\u00a0Wondering where your skills can take you and the impact you can make?\u00a0In this blog post,\u00a0I explore design careers with a focus on\u00a0inclusive futures.\u00a0I&#8217;ll start by summarising the insights from a Careers and Employability Service event at OU in March 2024,\u00a0featuring a diverse panel of designers, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5395,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions\/5395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}