What Are People For
Design Philosophy by Patrick Whitney
Patrick Whitney is a pioneering human-centered and systems designer who helped shape the field to address today’s complex, interconnected challenges long before designers were applying these methods to areas like healthcare, climate, and civic infrastructure.
Currently a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Brown University School of Public Health and former Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health professor, Whitney previously served as the Dean of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design from 1987 to 2016, where he established the first Design PhD program in the United States.
Whitney has published and lectured throughout the world about making technological innovations more humane, the link between design and business strategy, the behavioral dimensions of health care, and learning in the digital age, and design for the base of the economic pyramid.
Through his appointments, research, and teaching, Whitney changed how design is understood and taught around the world, fundamentally altering design pedagogy.
BusinessWeek profiled Whitney as a “design visionary” for bringing together design and business, Forbes named him as one of six members of the “E-Gang” for his work in human-centered design, and Fast Company has identified him as a “master of design” for linking the creation of user value and economic value.
What Are People For: Design Philosophy by Patrick Whitney is a multimedia legacy project offering a 360 degree view of Patrick Whitney’s life and legacy.
Composed of a documentary film by award-winning filmmaker Gary Hustwit and a book designed by the Smithsonian’s National Design Award recipient Rick Valicenti, What Are People For serves both as a portrait of a visionary thinker and a timely meditation on the role design can play in shaping a more equitable and participatory future.