#DesignThePres

Designing the President

Advance RSVP is available to Primary Entry badge types only. Registrants who sign up online must check-in 15 minutes before the session start time to guarantee their spot. Walk-ups accepted on a first come, first served basis, and will begin 10 minutes before the start of each session.

If you could design the perfect U.S. President, what values, character attributes, and experience would top your priority list--and why? What might others designers say–and how might you (and the nation?) enable conversations that are enlightening, non-partisan, and productive?

The 2020 U.S. Presidential election is unfolding to be the most expensive, most divisive, and most reactive campaign in history. It leaves many voters feel powerless against systems that usurp their individual and collective power. In this immersive session of scenarios, role playing, and experiential play, we’ll explore how design can help us navigate ambiguity, learn from others, question the status quo, check our assumptions and biases, work around constraints, and give form to new ideas. Design creates clarity around values and purpose, and ignites personal agency and collective possibility. In many ways, that’s exactly what our founding fathers had in mind when they created a new form of a democratic government over 200 years ago that begins with "We the People… “

Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.

photo of Nancy Murphy
Nancy Murphy

Worldview Studio

photo of Lisa Kay Solomon
Lisa Kay Solomon

Stanford d.school

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