Design for Belonging is a must have for all professionals that create public facing content. The examples show how to create more inclusive design to draw in more community.

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Design an Env of Belonging
𝗙𝗮𝘃 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿: The exercises
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Easy
𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗲: Book
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: Non-fic societal
4/𝟱

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ Great examples to consider belonging
~ Self awareness questions that are important
~ Allows for a shifting of focus & thought

The book considers belonging - through the lens of numerous authors & professionals in the field - who have developed ways to think about & plan for the feelings of being safe, seen & cared about in different spaces & instances. It presents situations & questions for your day-to-day that allow you to act & be a positive change in improving collective experiences.

🌵
I feel that these issues related to belonging are better solved when you also consider yourself as an ‘other’ - as out of the ‘main’. What would it take to make you comfortable? I think many international schools have to navigate this daily - & they do an excellent job at it - this is something that can be studied, modified & replicated.

Overall a good read to analyze how the society around you operates & how it can improve.

✨𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.

🌱THE MEH
~ Seems to a stance of ‘looking at’ instead of situating yourself 🤔 or putting yourself in the space

♡🌱 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲 ;)

Generally a useful and interesting book. It's unclear to me what makes this specifically a design book, as the principles, exercises, and perspectives in this book seem applicable to any organization or community group. While there was some jargon, most of this was very accessible and did a good job of laying out a path toward emphasizing how to make everyone feel belonging and why it is so important. There was more space devoted to mini-biographies of people discussed in the text than I thought was necessary, but by personalizing those figures maybe it makes for a more belonging space?

Design for Belonging by Susie Wise provides framework for strategies to make environments more inclusive and inviting. The guide opens on talking about what belonging (as well as othering) feels like and then transitions into approaches you can take to help initiate these emotions.

The thoughtful illustrations by Rose Jaffe highlighting the main ideas of the book as well as authors from some of the referenced works are great additions to the overall work.

This book is a great read for leaders of any type of community whether a group, a workplace, or even a neighborhood or town! Between the framework it provides and the other resources it cites, it is a great starting point for thinking about creating inclusive environments.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ten Speed Press for the ARC

This book was not at all what I expected--I expected a practical how-to guide to achieve inclusion during the design process. But nevertheless, the books was interesting enough to keep me reading--since the haptic feel and the beautiful design are a bit at a loss in the digital version, I might want to keep an eye out for the printed version.

Design for belonging by Susie Wise is a wonderful book that dives deep into the social and emotional aspects of belonging and is a wonderful tool for anyone who is trying to belong and those building a community where people feel they belong. I suggest this book for anyone who this applies to. I believe this is a great book to add to your personal library.

I found my way into this book because I was looking to build up my “self-taught” design library and knowledge and i although way different from the expected, “Design for belonging” is exactly what I needed. It has everything, overall designing content but foremost a truly beautiful inclusive speech and an amazing line up of persona stories about how belonging is essencial in all our hearts

Design for Belonging by Susie Wise is such a wonderful source for people really wanting to understand the ins and outs of what it means to belong. Through colorful illustrations, exercises and mind maps, the author pays tribute to a number of researchers and theorists in the myriad of belonging while also drawing from her own experiences.

Before addressing design itself, I appreciate how Wise prefaces herself with her positions of privilege out of the gate and how she sites various folks on their methods of thinking/speaking/addressing people. The author expertly raises a plethora of questions to consider and rewire the reader’s brain to think about situations from multiple POVs in addition to recognizing their own POV in a thorough manner.

The profiles of each individual does seem random in placement. Would love to see a bit more depth in their profiles and lines that draw them to the text. Certain names are capitalized while others aren’t which without context seems off.

Design For Belonging further guides the reader to consider various spaces and how to think beyond themselves to make that space approachable, accessible and welcoming. Everyone deserves to feel like they belong and this book really engages the reader to think about their own POV of belonging before highlighting frameworks to put into action.

This would be a fabulous resource in a wide range of classrooms, communities, organizations, households and beyond.

Thank you so much Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an ARC!