Rockport publishes a number of books beginning with the word Universal, all edited by a different team of experts on the field. Design researchers and creative strategists of any kind, can benefit from using this as a reference. I find that the methods themselves are too specifically named, and rigid in their description, but if you also believe that everything that’s designed can be redesigned, you can crack open any of the techniques and turn them into what you need them to be. I find that strategists coming from business, marketing or technology hang everything on jobs to be done or business model canvas, irrespective of how suitable those assets are of the project they’re working on. In some cases they may be necessary but not sufficient. I flip through this book to see what I haven’t thought of yet, or what I’ve forgotten to try in a while.

There’s a lot to talk about in response to claims of “universal” methods or knowledge. Entry level accessibility knowledge easily destabilizes claims of anything being universal. For now I overlook this claim and put the text to use where appropriate. That said, it’s worth being aware that the term doesn’t serve us as designers who make things for real people in the real world.

more coming soon