The Design Academy, Inc. is a human-centered educational collaboratory dedicated to advancing society through design. Founded in 2003, we help organizations, governments, and communities apply humanity-centered design thinking to drive systems-level change, solve complex challenges, build capacity, and advance equity.
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A core partner in the Democratizing Design initiative led by the UC San Diego Design Lab with CETYS University- is a global effort to make design more inclusive, community-driven, and transformative. We also serve as a member of the UC San Diego Educator’s Alliance to evolve education systems through design. Our innovation consulting arm, Intersection, extends this work through UX, UI, ID, Design Research and Strategic Design.
The Design Academy is a certified Women Owned Business Enterprise (WBE)
Our vision is expansive.
Our processes are proven.
Our results are impactful.
A Transformative Initiative
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In 2024 we held a series of roundtables, in-depth interviews and surveys to understand how we could Democratize Design in our mega region.
Based on this research, a flexible, humanity-centered Global Model has been created to embed design thinking and practice across diverse systems and communities. A Regional Democratizing Design Ecosystem was developed that includes a UC San Diego Design Lab Regional Advancement Lab prototype to explore the implementation of the Global Model in government.
Visit the Democratizing Design website for updates.
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Democratizing Design is led UC San Diego, in partnership with CETYS University and The Design Academy.
