At the World Economic Forum discussions encompass many topics, including the design field. A panel of four prominent thought leaders in the design field spoke on their expectations for the future, and I find some of these ideas not only interesting but applicable to the development field.
Rarely do I hear design and development spoken of at the same time, but I think there is something each field can learn from the other. After all, what are we all looking for but solutions to a problem?
In particular I found the comments by John Maeda, President of RISD, relevant. He indicated there needs to be an increased transparency in design (in fact noting the processes of developing open-source software as a model that had applications in the design field), simplicity and the goal of simplification, and finally the importance of finding beauty (or something good) in every day things. To me all three of these concepts are directly relevant to improving information management projects for development.
An article about this event can be found online in the International Herald Tribute article by Alice Rawsthorn at http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/25/arts/design28.php
