Professional Documents
Culture Documents
8 IDSA.ORG
was influenced by Wilber’s integral theory, helping the
design firm balance the individual and collective dimensions
of product design both internally and externally. The experi-
ences from using this approach in combination with the
body of Design-in Tech work at Ideafarms are what led us to
the idea of interpreting design through the AQAL framework.
And as such, we think the potential of reducing the blur
between design being, design doing, design thinking and
design results makes sense going forward.
© 2018. Jeff Smith & Sunil Malhotra We have begun prototyping integral design using
Wilber’s quadrants (left). And we are optimistic about the
ers, in addition to a good understanding of and response possibilities to further describe, correlate, and develop fun-
to their needs and wants. And originality, innovation and damental design disciplines and detailed levels of skills.
provocation are not known to proliferate from using typical This way of laying out design makes it easy to under-
customer research methodologies, however design oriented stand the current popularity of its left-brain-oriented quad-
they may claim to be. rants on the right side of the framework (pun unintended).
This is because quantifiable and objective dimensions of
Integral Design Framework reality are almost always more easily accepted by business
We believe that describing design from philosopher Ken leaders. Here we find that design thinking maps well as the
Wilber’s integral reality perspective provides us with a holis- process or system that seems to most drive measurable
tic vantage point to further explain design. results-oriented behavior.
Ken Wilber is an American writer on transpersonal The other dimensions are equally, if not more, sig-
psychology who has proposed a four-quadrant grid to nificant in ensuring that design does not get relegated to
synthesize all human knowledge and experience. All being a mostly quantitative activity and that character and
Quadrants All Levels (AQAL) is his basic framework (see personality do not get diminished. These dimensions, in
diagram on page 8). It models human knowledge and contrast, come from informed points of view combined with
experience along the interior-exterior and individual-collec- interdisciplinary collaboration, both of which reside in the
tive axes as a comprehensive approach to reality. opposing left quadrants.
As the theory goes, everything in the human experi- Once the definition of the disciplines in each quadrant is
ence happens within these four dimensions of reality. Our clear, the next step is to also include design sub-disciplines
aspiration in using this framework is that it leads to a more and skills. And as we do, we imagine the integral design
definitive and holistic approach for all who seek to leverage framework can bridge the left and the right, the top and
design more fully. the bottom, and the corners to corners. In short, we aim to
Much of the design journey of LUNAR’s first 30 years connect all aspects of design successfully to one to another.
—Jeff Smith, Co-founder, Smith+Furbershaw,
designsmith@gmail.com and Sunil Malhotra, Co-founder
and CEO, Ideafarms, sunil.malhotra@ideafarms.com
I N N O V AT I O N S U M M E R 2 0 1 8 9