DesignLabs is a Brooklyn-based research and strategy studio with a global network of design partners.


We're a team of design researchers, applied ethnographers, data scientists, experience designers, and strategists. Our broader network consists of leading design firms working across disciplines, from digital and industrial design to service design and architecture.


We're often engaged during the earliest stages of projects, when we can conduct foundational learning, set a strategy, and introduce design partners.

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN RESEARCH

Design should be an act of care. Cultivate genuine empathy for the people you're designing for. These are real people living lives just as complex as your own. Learn who those people are, meet them, get to know them well, and align your work with them.

Design should be an act of care. Cultivate genuine empathy for the people you're designing for. These are real people living lives just as complex as your own. Learn who those people are, meet them, get to know them well, and align your work with them.

Design should be an act of care. Cultivate genuine empathy for the people you're designing for. These are real people living lives just as complex as your own. Learn who those people are, meet them, get to know them well, and align your work with them.

METHODS AND OFFERINGS

Research + Discovery

Synthesis + Framing

Planning + Enablement





Evaluation + Experimentation

Research + Discovery

Synthesis + Framing

Planning + Enablement





Evaluation + Experimentation

Research + Discovery

Synthesis + Framing

Planning + Enablement





Evaluation + Experimentation

THESIS

Strange times. Humans are starting to outsource thinking to non-human intelligence.


For designers, this adds a new layer of meaning to the old models of design-thinking and human-centered design. As we adopt increasingly intelligent tools to design products, services, buildings, and cities, we must become increasingly vigilant about aligning our work with the goals and values of real people.


In addition to the alignment problem that exists at the level of foundational AI research, there's another, perhaps less mysterious, alignment problem: ensuring that we use these intelligent systems to design a world we actually want to live in.


DesignLabs is focused on grounding the next generation of design in human experience, context, and care.