Designing the First Don Norman Design Award Summit Outside the US
By Aznan Abu-Bakar Role: Senior Specialist at the User Experience Centre (UXC) at Singapore Polytechnic (SP)
There is a quiet moment before every conference begins. The lights are dim. The stage is ready. The audience has not yet arrived.
But behind that calm surface sits nearly a year of planning, coordination, negotiation across time zones, and hundreds of small decisions that shape whether the experience will truly matter. That moment arrived on the morning of 19 November 2025 at the Singapore Polytechnic Convention Centre, when we opened the Don Norman Design Award Summit 2025 (DNDA25) — the first time the summit had ever been held outside the United States and the first of its kind in Singapore. For three days, designers, educators, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and innovators from across the world gathered around one shared belief: Design can shape a better future for people, communities, and the planet.
Looking back now, what stays with me most is not only that the summit was successful. It is how deeply it reflected the very principles of Humanity-Centred Design (HCD+) that it set out to celebrate.
A Global Summit Comes to Singapore
The Don Norman Design Award (DNDA) promotes Humanity-Centred Design — an approach that expands traditional design thinking by integrating systems thinking, sustainability, and holistic wellbeing.
Hosting DNDA25 at Singapore Polytechnic meant translating this philosophy into a real experience. Over twelve months, our team worked closely with the DNDA organisation based in the United States, coordinating speakers, partners, programme design, logistics, and operations across continents and time zones. The summit eventually welcomed over 500 unique visitors across three days. But what mattered far more than the numbers was the energy
in the room — a sense that something meaningful was happening.
Singapore had become a meeting point for a global design conversation.
The Don Norman Design Award Summit 2025 — the first international edition held outside the United States was also attended by Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State of Sustainability and the Environment of Singapore.
A Remarkable Diversity of Voices
One of the most powerful aspects of DNDA25 was the diversity of voices brought together on
stage. Our keynote speakers included:
- Professor Emeritus Don Norman, pioneer of Humanity-Centred Design
- Siddharth Chatterjee, UN Resident Coordinator in China
- Daniel Iacofano, Environmental Planner and CEO of MIG
- Sophianne Araib, Executive Director at NParks
- Dr Simon Schillebeeckx, sustainability entrepreneur and academic
- Aparna Bhatnagar Saxena, CEO of TORAJAMELO
- Dr Wong Sweet Fun, Chief Transformation Officer at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital
- Tong Yee, social innovator and Director of And Pte Ltd
- Sanjay Purohit, CEO of the Centre for Exponential Change
- Dr Ezio Manzini, global thought leader on design for social innovation
Equally compelling were voices shaping the plenaries:
- Arthur Huang, founder of MINIWIZ
- Cesar Harada, founder of MakerBay
- Stephanie Dickson, founder of The WEDGE Asia
- Sam Yen, technology leader at JP Morgan
- Hong Khai Seng, founder of Studio Dojo
- Michael Kotlarz, CTO of Power Analytics Global
The stage became a rare mix of gender, disciplines, cultures, and nationalities. Designers spoke alongside healthcare leaders, sustainability experts, social entrepreneurs, technologists, and policymakers. That diversity was intentional. Because designing for humanity requires hearing from humanity.
A global line-up of design, policy, sustainability, and innovation leaders shaped the conversations at DNDA25.
The People Who Held the Stage
Conferences thrive on conversation. And DNDA25 was fortunate to have exceptional facilitators guiding those conversations.
Our emcees Emma Meyer and Chong Li Min brought clarity, warmth, and energy to the summit, navigating a dense programme with professionalism and ease. Equally instrumental were moderators like Hong Khai Seng and Mario Van Der Muelen, who skilfully synthesised ideas, challenged speakers, and ensured the discussions remained lively, insightful, and engaging.
What emerged was not a series of lectures. It was a dynamic dialogue across disciplines.
Moderators and speakers shaping lively conversations on humanity-centred design.
Designing the Experience — Not Just the Programme
Because DNDA25 centred on Humanity-Centred Design, the summit itself had to embody those principles. Participants could shape discussions through Design Your Conference, a platform allowing them to propose and vote on topics that influenced the plenary conversations. The Unconference sessions invited participants to host their own discussions, following the “law of two feet”: move to where you can contribute or learn most. Participants also travelled beyond
campus through Learning Journeys across Singapore, exploring design in healthcare, sustainability, and urban innovation. The result was a summit that felt participatory rather than performative.
People were not just attending. They were contributing.
Participants experiencing Humanity-Centred Design in real-world environments across Singapore.
Designing for Sustainability
Another principle we wanted the summit to embody was sustainability in action. Rather than treating sustainability as a theme on stage, we embedded it into the event design. Our lanyards were produced using upcycled fabric, including beautiful reused batik textiles. The event tags were crafted from bamboo, designed to be reused after the conference as drink coasters — extending their life beyond the event.
Other initiatives included:
- plant-forward catering
- minimal single-use materials
- recycling points throughout the venue
- encouragement of public transport use
These choices reinforced a simple idea: Every design decision matters.
Bamboo event tags and upcycled fabric lanyards reflecting the sustainability ethos of DNDA25.
The Team Behind the Summit
Events of this scale are never the work of a single individual. DNDA25 was made possible by a remarkable team across Singapore Polytechnic, the DNDA organisation, and numerous partners. Colleagues coordinated speakers, logistics, programme design, partnerships, communications, and visitor experience. Student volunteers brought warmth and enthusiasm that made international guests feel immediately welcome.
Many speakers later shared that DNDA25 was among the best conferences they had attended.
For me personally, the most meaningful moments were backstage where colleagues were solving problems together, volunteers guiding visitors across campus, and teams rallying to make the experience better for everyone.
Leadership in moments like these is rarely visible. Often, it simply means creating the conditions for others to succeed.
The DNDA25 organising team whose dedication made the summit possible.
Aznan Abu-Bakar
Aznan Abu-Bakar is a Senior Specialist at the User Experience Centre (UXC) at Singapore Polytechnic (SP) where he has been teaching since 2012. He was in the team of people that brought Don Norman to Singapore to continue to inspire the design community not only in the small island state, but also with the larger network of ASEAN nations with SP’s DT|UX Regional Consortium. He counts his recent experience with DNDA25 @ SP both a monumentally satisfying achievement and also the beginning of many more efforts to spread the positive impact that HCD+ can bring.
