philosophy
This site shows my humanitarian and social design portfolio. I do process design, so optimisation of social and humanitarian processes, through system design and product design. I strive for Efficiency of humanitarian actors, through a needs based approach. I research, teach and talk about that.
humanitarian, process design, product design, social design, Frankfurt, international, German design, humanitarian Innovation, Germany, Human Centered design, community centered design, Thomas Jäger, design portfolio,
2050
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PHIL
OSO
PHY

"Adding Design to the discourse of humanitarian
Innovation,
ADDS new
Perspektives.

It creates better solutions for
efficient social
trans-
formation.

It enables better engagement
of the users and
private sector stakeholders."

strategic...
HUman Centerd...
Planet Centered...
Bahavioural...
UX/UI...
Eco friendly...
Product...
System...
Information...
Experience...
...DEsign

WE should to stop seperating these.
Good Design needs to integrate all!

Dipl. Des. Thomas Jäger

sum
mary

Before going into detail, here is an overview of the principles I apply in my projects.

If you want to learn more about, why those are important for me scroll down!

STRATEGIC
HUMAN / COMMUNITY CENTERED
INTEGRAL
EFFICIENCY STRIVING
NEEDS / CONEXT BASED
ALL STAKEHOLDERS BENEFIT
PARTICIPATORY
DISRUPTIVE
PROCESS OPTIMISATION FOCUS

sum
mary

Before going into detail, here is an overview of the principles I apply in my projects.

If you want to learn more about, why those are important for me scroll down!

HUMAN
CENTE
RED

Creating needs based
solutions and positive
experiences using HCD and CCD co- design principles

Combining my design and process expertise with the huge capacities, skills, and knowledge users have.

 

A result will fulfill the needs of the individual if he gets positive experiences from the designed systems and products. It creates the user’s acceptance who is then willing to interact/use. The individual is ready to adjust and even the collective behaviour shows acceptance to a new system that improves the current status quo. These solutions are possible if we allow the incorporation of the users and other stakeholders in a co-design process, considering their knowledge and expertise.

Therefore I insist on clear communication between parties by using different channels such as roleplays, tactile tryouts, informational visualizations, allowing people to express themselves, be understood, and overcome communication barriers.

In the inspiration/identification phase I use tools like photographs, storytelling, conversation-starting triggers, the 1 square meter exercise by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, drawings, user journey maps, or e.g. the 5-Why questions to intensify the users‘ and partners‘ awareness of the local setting and the constraints and  opportunities. Going through the different stages of the process I use SCRUM as a process framework that allows efficient development in a short period of time.

HUMAN
CENTE
RED


STRAT
EGIC/
INTEG
RAL


STRAT
EGIC/
INTEG
RAL

MY work
equals, finding
OPTIMIZED and Integral
Strategies

Keeping the complexity of the entire live cycle in mind …

Initially, it is the status quo that has to be overcome. Creating a functioning and well-executed strategy on how to do so is the aim of my every design.

It needs a development process, that keeps all the factors in mind which influence the design, or gets influenced by it. The most important component is obviously the benefits that design achieves for the immediate users. But besides that keeping social constructs, political systems, politics of project partners, environmental components, local resources, usability aspects, production aspects, logistics, standards, methodologies, and many more in mind, is important to create sustainable long-term strategies.

To achieve that I use experts knowledge, by consulting the actors within a project, but also methods such as domain mappings, complexity maps, product value chain analysis, and many more.

DISR UPT
IVE

Design as a profession, overcomes the status quo, by its nature.

Not just questioning the current state, but also giving answers…

There are different kinds of innovations.

We can for example innovate technologies paradigms or much more, depending on the need. These can then be divided into incremental, sustaining, radical, and disruptive innovations. All of them create different degrees of change, looking at the market, but also the service, or product. Disruptive innovations tend to not just entirely reinvent a service or product, but also create new constellations on the surrounding market. With the same process, we can create less radical innovations than disruptive ones. But the power of disruption can create a highly positive impact.

DISR UPT
IVE

THE
INVIS
IBLE

THE
INVIS
IBLE

Seeing the relationships between political systems, People, nature, Things and the overall Infrastructure...

Regarding  components and actors, within a complex, world or system, as loose components will create failure of the designed solution.

This is a skill that is potentially the basis and most unique aspect of professional design, allowing us to see the connection between the components and actors. A systematic, cross-referencing way of thinking identifies these. I try not to optimise a product or service solely. I reconfigure the visible and invisible connections within a system using all viable and feasible tools creating a desirable condition.

PROD UCT
v.s.
SERVI
CE

PROD UCT
v.s.
SERVI
CE

...to create solutions
that use different mediums to transform.

A problem can’t be solved by reflexively deciding to create just a product or just a service.

Within a project, all potential influencing factors, that can be used to innovate the desired process, should be considered part of the solution. Designing a service has its positives and negatives, as well as designing a product. Services, for example, can be more effective as a simple product solution but also increase the overhead costs immensely. Products, on the other hand, can keep overhead costs low and can be owned by the users, which allows them an empowering use to their own conditions.

At the beginning of my projects, I consider both, and most likely a mixture as potentially adequate and sustainable solutions.

NET WORK
FOCU
SED

Neither
TOP-DOWN, nor
Bottom-up

Every stakeholder in a project should be heard and benefitting.

Just looking at the past approaches to the engagement of the actual users, a shift towards more and more decision-making power of them is obvious. This happened even to a degree, where a previous executed top-down approach, shifted to a bottom-up one.

I don’t believe in any of those. I believe in cooperation on equal footing. To create the best possible outcome of a project, all stakeholders should be included in the decision-making process. This concerns the entire humanitarian innovation network including private sector companies, NGOs, local businesses, political decision-makers, users, academia, and many more. Each actor is the expert, for the part of the process in which they interact.

Their fears, hopes, and wishes should be respected. Key is a cross-fertilization and the benefit of the project outcome, they deserve and need to sustain part of the network.

NET WORK
FOCU
SED

PART ICIPAT
ORY

A safe space in which
DESIGN as a visual
and haptical Language,
enables partizipation

Opening a space in which everybody can raise doubts and proposals and adding demonstrators and research through design to an intercultural dialogue

It is a matter of power, over the process and the outcome. Being aware of the potential imbalances and actively creating a sense of trust in the cooperation with me as a designer and supposedly decision maker is important. I guide participatory processes, that enable people to give quality input, make them think of possible solutions, and make decisions based on facts and numbers, without forgetting about opinions and feelings.

Within these processes, I use design as a language, that gives firstly more detailed answers about the potential future experiences with the process product and secondly enables people to communicate their thoughts.

PART ICIPAT
ORY

METH
ODOL
OGY
FIT

METH
ODOL
OGY
FIT

UNderstanding social enterprises and HUmanitarian Organisations

Efficient cooperation between me and my clients is just possible, if I understand, how they do what they do and why they do it in a certain way.

Some of these aspects belong to very specific and internal organisation/enterprise politics. But all of these are based on the sector/market they belong to. Understanding a sector, set up, basic methodologies like the response cycle, ways of funding, or for example principles and incorporating these into my own work assures that I work accordingly to their processes, which enables quick understanding of each other and therefore efficient humanitarian design processes.

ADAQ UETE/
SCALE ABLE

Needs and existing
ressources based,
but scaleable
and Cross-context

We owe it to the people being disadvantaged to provide them with, what they need to live a life in dignity, when the solution proven functioning.

The humanitarian context is very complex having two contradictory aspects. Solutions must fit the local context e.g. political, timely, infrastructural, economic, and cultural parameters. But they must be scalable and applicable in different contexts. The tailormade solutions for a community may need investments that are not used efficiently, affecting the other communities. It then requires a new solution for almost every community.

I initially design a solution for one community where it gets tested, improved, and validated. It results in the assumption that the solution can solve a similar problem for a different community. Using design methods like provoking adaptation, opening to local infrastructure, repurposing, and knowledge transfer designs arise that can be applied somewhere else.

Like that the redesign/direct implementation ratio of the solution continuously shifts to direct implementation with the certainty of a local fit.  

ADAQ UETE/
SCALE ABLE

EFF
ICIE
NT

EFF
ICIE
NT

From effectivenes
to efficiency

Instead of having an impact, having the biggest and most positive impact possible, with the least effort should be the aim. 

Especially when it’s about securing or enabling life in dignity, the quality of a project or even the design solution needs to be measured on its actual, provable positive and negative results. It is not about any positive intentions. If the wanted impact is achieved and no negative consequences are foreseeable a project can be considered effective. But furthermore, the results should not be the only measure. Even if there is actually no price too high to enable a person to have a safe life in dignity, the needed investments must be included in the calculation of the success of a solution or project. Just if the investments are feasible and viable, long-term success and therefore sustainability can be achieved.

PURP
OSE
DRIV
EN

WE shouldn't innovate
for the sake of
innovation

Ones need to ask themselves, why they want to do something before thinking about what they what to do and how.

Before a project starts all stakeholders should be informed and on the same page concerning the purpose of the project. This is mostly the case. But often in the midst of a project actors can lose track of it Furthermore there are examples of projects that get started just as a vague idea of better performance.

Just when we are able to clearly describe, in a word or sentence, what we want to innovate and why we can first find the best way of innovation and create an impact.

I run projects that firstly clarify to the clients what the actual aim is and remind myself of it constantly.

PURP
OSE
DRIV
EN

RESI
LIEN
CE

RESI
LIEN
CE

Bringing People
together and equiping them with what they need to HELP themselves locally

Local capacity building as a parameter of every project…

A sustainable project is a project that functions so well, that outside influences can’t irritate it to a degree where it gets incapable of fulfilling its aim.

To create something like that the dependencies on the outside factors need to be limited. Communities, which get empowered to solve their problems with locally available resources make them independent from other actors. The so-called resilience, allows communities to care for and prepare themselves in the initial crisis but also in the following ones. That relieves humanitarian actors from the workload and has the potential of overcoming crisis long term.

To achieve this I work closely with users and try to actively empower them on the most possible levels.

OVER
VIEW
STRATEGIC
INTEGRAL
EFFICIENCY STRIVING
NEEDS / CONEXT BASED
ALL STAKEHOLDERS BENEFIT
PARTICIPATORY
DISRUPTIVE
PROCESS OPTIMISATION FOCUS

IMPRINT

E-MAIL

thomas@thomasjaeger-portfolio.com

Phone

+49 1520 7659546

INSTAG
RAM

@jedi.humanitarian.design