Prof.
Annette Diefenthaler

What can design contribute to improving our society? This question has guided my work for many years. At global design firm IDEO, my team and I focused on a fundamental societal issue: design for learning, reimagining education and schools. At IDEO.org, we worked to create authentic oportunities for participation for those most impacted—yet least heard—in the design of systems, as we collaboratively reimagined child welfare as family wellbeing. From these experiences, I have come to understand the immense value of design in making our future more livable. As Professor of Design and Transdisciplinarity at TUM, Executive Director of the Munich Design Institute (MDI), and board member of the iF Foundation, I aim to help ensure that we, as designers, live up to this responsibility.