New Kind of Design
Current design and business practices will destroy everything we know. We need a New Kind of Design.
New Kind of Design _ Principles
Let's engage with the complexity and computational irreducibility of our current reality. The seven principles of NKD look at the nature of the world and outline several attributes of this world that are critical for us to understand in our design and business contexts.
NKD_1
Anytime we consider anything less than everything, we are missing something.
NKD_2
Nothing can ever be isolated from anything, because it's always connected to everything.
NKD_3
Good is good and bad, and bad is bad and good, and often we can't tell the difference.
NKD_4
Anytime we do something, we don't know exactly what we've done.
NKD_5
We'll never ever know everything, and never even know everything we don't know.
NKD_6
We'll never know what will happen tomorrow, until tomorrow.
NKD_7
A theory of everything, applied to everything, is our only hope of saving everything.
New Kind of Design _ Practices
Respecting NKD Principles require us to create new practice. These new ways of working emerge as we embed the principles into our frames of the world and then see our work within these newly understood realities. Practices include ideas like Consider Everything (NKD_CE), Universal Responsibility (NKD_UR), and Grand Priorities (NKD_GP), with additional NKD practices continuing to be added and others evolving over time as we grow in our understanding of the issues outlined in the principles through efforts at application.
To see what each principle changes in real work, read the NKD in Practice series — one short essay per principle, each with a working method you can use this week.
Sign up for updates on NKD courses and our coming New Kind of Design book.