Will Zhang

Equity-Centered Design

Reimagining the way innovation can be done at Doblin and Deloitte Consulting.

Team: 4
Initiative Lead (me)
Senior Design Researcher


Junior Service Designer
UX Designer

Timeline: Ongoing

Client: Doblin and Deloitte Digital

In the wake of the racial and political events of 2020, I established this internal initiative with a team of designers, strategists, and researchers to respond to the failures of "Design Thinking" and commercial innovation. We wanted to reimagine the way we work by centering equity and anti-racism.

We first read and synthesized content from thought leaders in the inclusive- and equity-centered design space such as Project Inkblot, Creative Reaction Lab, Center for Humane Technology, and many others.

Referencing these resources, we began redesigning our practice's design processes.
Currently, we are piloting these frameworks in multiple client-facing projects, and have received funding to build a centralized platform for practitioners across the organization to use.

Our frameworks are currently being refined and operationalized by Deloitte Ethos, a new business that helps brands drive initiatives for social good, activism, and equity. You can see our pre-Ethos frameworks below, which was less focused on scaling and more on community adoption.

Automation in Numbers

This isn't just a personal story. Populations and nations across the world are currently facing multitudes of risks without proper regulation of automation and re-skilling. These are the figures that we must understand and act upon:

Our Redesigned Frameworks

There are 4 frameworks included below. Feel free to flip through them! Email me if you have any feedback or ideas on how they might be used :)

Race Against AI

IxD

UX

Discursive Design

Exhibition Design

Thesis complete – view interactive prototype from the exhibition here: https://raceagainstai.github.io/
More documentation coming soon.

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For my thesis project, I'm currently designing an interactive exhibition/ experience in which participants view conceptual visualizations of the future of work through narratives. Through my academic exchange at University of Arts Berlin, and lectures from DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence), I researched AI ethics and legislation in the European Union.
Utilizing the resources and location, I began to understand the regulatory process that the European Commission is undergoing to control artificial intelligence and work automation. In combination with research in America, I will produce an future-cast experience.

Below is my project plan. More Documentation coming soon.

Future Visualization Clips

Clips are pieced together, like parts of a puzzle, to create one reflective narrative. The reflective narrative reflects the visitor's answers to the survey - details ranging from marriage status to hopes and fears of automation.

Take a peak at two sample clips below:

Project Plan and Details

Below is the full project plan. I present a shorter version to community collaborators and to request for exhibition/installation permits in public spaces.

Microbe Orchestra

IxD

Computer Vision

Machine Learning

Discursive Design

What if microbial activity can be mapped into music?

I will be designing a web application that allows people to observe microbial activity with just their smartphone camera and a plastic lens attachment. The libraries I'm currently using are:

  • tone.js: Music and Synth Library
  • darknet: Computer Vision Neural Network (users train app to identify specific microbe species)
  • tracking.js: Motion and Color CV Tracking Library

More documentation coming soon.

Proof of concept (midterm): 
Using openFrameworks to demonstrate functionality.

Recording of micro-organism activity in order to test ofxCv's blob detection and contour-tracking libraries. The goal is to store up to 10 cells (micro-organisms) from the field-of-view into a vector. Then, attach a sound sample to each cell. You can see the basic structure of how cells are tracked and stored on the screenshot at right.

Contour-tracking of micro-organisms from a river-water culture (OFxCV)

Collaborating with RISD Nature Lab for organism observation: Observing baby and adult sea monkeys (brine shrimp)

Working with the RISD Nature Lab, I'm using the micro-organisms of various aquacultures to observe for this project.