Iteration for Impact: Exploring Design Thinking & Designing for Social Change in Client Projects

This experience report outlines an experiential social justice-focused client project from an upper-level document design course embedded within a larger technical and professional communication (TPC) program. As our TPC classrooms continue to address the precarious social exigencies and cultural issues of writing for the public, our students need experience responding to such needs in their careers and communities. This report addresses this emerging trend by turning to the design thinking process as a scheme to aid TPC instructors in bringing social justice issues into their TPC assignments and curricula, particularly in working with client projects. The author provides lessons learned for TPC instructors involved with social justice-focused client projects, including the successes and shortcomings of employing the design thinking process alongside typical TPC genres such as white paper reports and usability testing of documentation.