as designers and design researchers, we work collaboratively and in context on problem identification, definition, and design, which results in a range of designed outcomes, including artifacts, products, information, interactions, experiences, environments, services, and strategies. 

We are communication designers whose vision of design is interdisciplinary, collaborative, and co-designed. We view design as an expanded and speculative practice—one in which we constantly reinvent and assess, is respectful to people and the environment, considers implications, is informed by research, fieldwork and lived experiences, and other data, and strives to be responsive. We believe design’s value is when it lives in the world. We are process-focused and research-oriented, as we design in context, with people, for a range of outcomes. 

We use Florida as our laboratory to research, identify, and co-design solutions to our most pressing problems. To be relevant and sustainable, we believe these problems must be explored collaboratively and in context. To this end, we are committed to working with people—users, stakeholders, and subject matter experts—in context, working together to design for complexity. 

What do you want to explore through design? We invite collaborators to contact us to see how we might work together. 

This program is centered on collaborations by designers with others to address pressing problems in context. Who are others? Experts at UF, people in communities, public and private interests, and anyone in a particular problem’s stakeholder eco-system. Our design methodology—centered on working in context—makes designing outcomes that are both relevant to people and the environment and sustainable all the more possible. Our goal is to design better, together. Email is the best way to reach us. 

Our approach and capabilities include:

• Culture: We are attentive to culture and context as we work, using horizontal methods where everyone has a seat at the table. We are inclusive, respectful, and embrace diverse perspectives. To accomplish this, we develop partnerships to work with people with the goal of developing something together that is sustainable and has a positive impact.  
• Research: Working alongside our partners, our role as design researchers is to study and learn from experiences, behaviors, and contexts in order to mutually understand problems. We use design research to inform invention, i.e., design practice. 
• Design Thinking: We brainstorm and iterate with diverse perspectives to understand issues, generate concepts, ideas, directions, and explore opportunities.
• Strategy: We strategize alongside our partners so that what we co-design has impact & purpose. 
• (Co-)Design: Our approach is centered on designing with people, in context, so that what we design is relevant, impactful, and sustainable. 
• Production and Dissemination: We are makers who want to see what we develop and design live in the world. It can do so in many ways and we are not medium specific—in addition to designed artifacts, we make strategies, processes, interactions, experiences, technologies, environments, and services.  

We make Florida, and the world, better through design.