Future Self

Service design for nurturing the dignity and autonomy of formerly incarcerated students

Authors

  • Miso Kim Northeastern University
  • Xing Zhou The School of Art and Communication of Beijing Technology and Business University
  • Tia Thomson Visible Hands

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4013/sdrj.2022.153.06

Abstract

This project explored dignity as a design principle for a service supporting formerly incarcerated students by helping them achieve their higher education goals and career ambitions. We highlight autonomy as the foundation of dignity and explore how autonomy and dignity are intertwined in the context of education. We conducted interviews with formerly incarcerated students and their educators to develop the “Future Self” service strategy. This service inspires the students to stay motivated by assisting them to design their future identities and connect with mentors who can serve as role models, and through income share agreement (ISA) financial plans to provide upfront funding, and ways of giving back to the community by empowering them to become mentors themselves.

Author Biographies

Miso Kim, Northeastern University

Dr. Miso Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Art+Design at Northeastern University where she explores the humanist framework of service design, with a focus on dignity, autonomy, and participation. She holds a PhD in Design, an MDes in Interaction Design, and an MDes in Information Design from Carnegie Mellon University. She taught service design and interaction design at CMU, and worked as a Senior User Experience Designer at Cisco Systems. She has published in key journals and conferences such as Design Issues, the International Journal of Design, the Design Journal, the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), Design Research Society International Conference (DRS), and the International Association of Societies of Design Research World Conference (IASDR).

Xing Zhou, The School of Art and Communication of Beijing Technology and Business University

Xing Zhou is a lecturer at the School of Art and Communication of Beijing Technology and Business University; He is also a doctoral student at the College of Design and Innovation at Tongji University. He was a visiting scholar at Northeastern University from 2017 to 2018. His research interests are in design management, interaction design, and service design.

Tia Thomson, Visible Hands

Tia Thomson is the Vice President at Visible Hands, a pre-seed fund with a fellowship program that supports underrepresented talent in building technology startups. She strive to combine her creative problem-solving skills with her passion for social justice to affect positive and progressive change.

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Published

2023-10-16

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 3 (22): Sep/Dec

Section

Articles

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