Those of us who practice, fund, commission, and teach the nascent discipline of social design agree without hesitation on a couple of things: People who experience this type of design in action believe it can transform the way we approach and solve social problems, and are investing a great deal of money and energy—by any measure—in developing the field based on results so far.

We also agree that we don’t agree on whether it should be called social design, human-centered design, social innovation design, or impact design; nor can we agree on precisely where the boundaries lie between it and more traditional design approaches.

We find ourselves at an inflection point, with a need to define, measure, and scale the impact of social design if we are to realize its potential.

This complex and somewhat amorphous challenge, as it happens, is exactly the kind that designers like to take on. And it was, in fact, the inspiration for the Measured Summit our Design for Social Innovation MFA program hosted at New York’s School of Visual Arts. Social designers, researchers, foundation heads, monitoring and evaluation leaders, and data scientists gathered to take on these challenges, beginning with the impact of design on human health.

The core principles of social design are: Solutions come from understanding and engaging communities in need of help (not from conference rooms), prototyping and observation are more effective than five year plans, and all social issues are systemic and must be understood and acted upon that way.

One clear lesson that emerged from the summit, however, is that while social design—wherever we practice it and at whatever scale—is defined by a common process, we cannot always measure it in the same way. We need different yardsticks to measure the impact of product design, service design, built environments, and the design of new cultures. Each application impacts change in a unique way.

Read the source article about measuring impact by design by Cheryl Heller at Stanford Social Innovation Review.