Trends & Signals
Design
Explore the latest insights, thought leadership, and research from FCAT®
A Conversation with Julian Bleecker: Author of The Manual of Design Fiction
May 5, 2025
Engineer and author Julian Bleecker joined FCAT to offer his perspective on how the design field is changing as we enter a new era of emerging technologies. FCAT’s Will Reed spoke with Bleecker to discuss how artists, technologists, and everyday users can envision the future of design.
Humanity-Centered Design: An Interview with Don Norman
February 14, 2023
FCAT had the pleasure of welcoming Don Norman, author of Design for a Better World, for a speaking event where he presented an eye-opening diagnosis of how human behavior has led to numerous societal crises from collapsing social structures to climate change. Norman, both a scientist and business executive, proposes how we can reconsider what’s important in life and how that new way of thinking can help save humanity. As a sneak peek to his new book, FCAT’s VP of Research, John Dalton interviewed Norman to dive into his philosophy of humanity-centered design.
I Guess We're Not in Kansas Anymore: Art, NFTs, Gaming & the Blockchain Experience
February 1, 2022
I’d never heard of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – digital proof of ownership enabled by the blockchain – until 2021. Like many, I came to them through mass media, through the likes of Kevin Roose of the New York Times auctioning off his column as an NFT and the artist Beeple selling an NFT of his artwork for $69 million at Christie’s. What was this new phenomenon all about? Clearly people were excited about it, and not just the “hodl” crowd. (For an overview of NFTs and the myriad ways they are being used today, this video is a good primer.)
Behind the Scenes: The Intersection of Art and Technology
February 1, 2022
FCAT’s Luke Paxton and Kseniya Galper are responsible for the unique artwork accompanying this year’s Priorities Report, created using digital and physical techniques. The results of their collaboration will be included in a set of limited edition NFTs which will serve as prizes for the winners of a Play&Learn game based on the report. Visit the NFT Experiment to learn more!
Social Connection from Any?where
December 14, 2021
We need to talk about social… How many people did you talk to today? (Extent of social activity) Did it make you feel better or worse, closer or more dista
Teaching a Robot to Read
August 18, 2021
Over the last several years one of the FCAT AI teams - code named “RoboReader” - has been working on processing documents and taking needed information from unstructured text and transforming it into structured data that can be used by the business. In the course of the work, we have noticed parallels in the way we are “teaching” the system and how we read as humans.
The Future of Work
July 29, 2021
The Future of Work was brought into sharp focus during the Covid-19 pandemic, as workers worldwide found themselves suddenly in the greatest work-from-home experiment in modern times. This crisis has shifted values, behaviours, and attitudes across all areas of work and life, in particular about where, when, and how we work.
Building Trust in AI Systems
January 28, 2021
Bias in data used by AI algorithms is drawing increasing attention. The internet is full of examples of AI systems bias: recruiting algorithms trained on data that favored male candidates, facial recognition software unable to appropriately identify people of color, medical systems trained with data that is not sufficiently diverse, and many other examples. However, there is another aspect to bias that impacts AI systems and bears some scrutiny as well - the cognitive biases that users bring to the table.
Learning about Leadership by Talking About Art
September 21, 2020
I was struggling to facilitate my first Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) session when it hit me — this was "another growth opportunity." Specifically, it was an opportunity to rethink what it means to be a leader in our hyper-connected, ambiguous, and shape-shifting environment. And it started with 3 simple questions.