DRS 2024 at MIT: Designing With, Not For

Designing With, not For addresses design as a collaborative endeavor, one in which users, communities and stakeholders actively participate. Human centered design has traditionally focused on providing expert responses to user needs.
Designing With, not For goes beyond that position to directly involve users, as equals, in the design process. The event will analyze different collaborative design processes, particularly in the African context, through a conversation between Richard Perez, founding director of the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking at the University of Cape Town; Amy Smith, founding director of the MIT D-Lab; Surbhi Agrawal, 2022 MAD Design Fellow, urban planner, and data scientist at Sasaki; and Aditya Mehrotra, instructor of Mobiles for Development at MIT.

Surbhi Agrawal, a 2022 MAD Design Fellow, is a data scientist and urban planner for Sasaki. While at MIT, her work addressed digital equity in informal settlements in India and Kenya. + Read more.
Aditya Mehrotra is a 2022 MIT alum and current graduate student in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. + Read more.
Richard Perez is the founding director of the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. + Read more.

Amy Smith is a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at MIT and the founding director of MIT D-Lab. + Read more

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

MIT Media Lab, 75 Amherst Street, Cambridge, United States