Due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, working from home (WFH) and collaborating with others remotely have become a new norm. In a remote environment, nuanced signs and spatial understanding we used to always rely on when communicating face to face become almost invisible. This presents new challenges for us to transform our ways of collaborating. Articulating our intention clearly and repeatedly has ever been more important.

In this talk, Akira will explain the basic concepts of Promise Theory, how he applies its lenses and frameworks to navigate and facilitate complex design projects with his teams and clients, and reasons why designing for trust is the crucial aspect of collaborating remotely.

Akira Motomura is a service designer at YUMEMI in Tokyo, Japan. He started his design career at Dubberly Design Office (DDO) in San Francisco, immersing himself in the world of information, interaction, and systems design. After that, he moved back to Tokyo to work for a software development consulting firm where he utilized the knowledge and skills of modeling to navigate complex projects. After that, he began working for YUMEMI. where he leads a service design team. He helps his clients to envision new software product/service concepts through various visualization techniques and frameworks. He enjoys the abstract nature of software and is always looking for new ways to visualize complex and abstract information.