Are digital spaces fit for human futures?

"We've got to bring joy back into what we do," argues Wayne Deakin, Global Principal Creative at Wolff Olins. Speaking as a jury member for the Digital Design category at D&AD Festival, Deakin stresses the importance of a "human touch" when it comes to creating digital spaces. Designers have an opportunity to mould the future, he says, but there needs to be a groundwork of "blendedness" — digital paired with empathy or new tools grounded in inclusivity and, crucially, a sense of joy.

It's a sentiment echoed by Dr Kagonya Awori, Senior Applied Scientist at Microsoft and Digital Design juror, who tells us of the need to "allow people to be human" in digital spaces. The digital world is no longer an addendum, but is integral to how we live — vital, in fact, for countries such as Tuvalu, an island nation that, as a result of climate change, will soon only exist virtually.

This leads to the question of how digital spaces can not merely facilitate interactions, but actively make these interactions (and our lives) better — a principle that Shun Ishikawa, Founding Partner at KESIKI and jury member for the Creative Transformation category, argues that designers always need to keep in mind. For him, the designer has a crucial role in evaluating the consequences of what has been made. Watch our judges discuss the work that moved and inspired them in this video from an Awards insights session held at D&AD Festival.

Panellists: Shun Ishikawa, Founding Partner, KESIKI; Wayne Deakin, Global Principal Creative, Wolff Olins; Des Tapaki, Co-Founder & COO, EQUITBL; Dr. Kagonya Awori, Senior Applied Scientist, Microsoft; Reginé Gilbert, James Weldon Johnson Professor, NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

Watch D&AD jurors unpack more work that captured, provoked and entertained them here.