...for design to truly address issues of sustainability necessitates a change in how we define innovation, and move beyond what we can do to what we should do.

Much as participatory design and placemaking was a reaction to the lack of citizen involvement in the planning process, the history of incremental city design was a reaction to the utopian master plan that dictated whole scale redevelopment in favor of an incremental approach that gradually affected the status quo. As a theory of policymaking, incrementalism was first introduced by Charles Lindblom in the 1950s.

Design does not, and cannot, operate on philosophy and theory alone. Without the connection between the design concept, the artifact, and the user, design does not exist.

One of the ways that designers can challenge themselves to think about their work differently is to look outside of design to ways that other disciplines research, evaluate, and interpret their work.

The paradox of impact is that while design shapes the world in profound ways, it is also being shaped by the world. Design as a process necessarily interfaces with many other systems to shape and redefine the world and our human experience within it. Designers and design in general is, however, uniquely situated to be critical mediators between the various entities, forces, and agendas that are constantly at work in developing the future that we collectively and individually want.