UCSD Design Lab

What UCSD Design Lab does

The UCSD Design Lab is an interdisciplinary academic research and education unit within the University of California, San Diego, founded in 2014 by design pioneers Don Norman, Jim Hollan, and Scott Klemmer, and led since 2021 by Director Mai Nguyen. The lab advances "humanity-centered design" — a methodological extension of human-computer interaction (HCI) research applied through the double-diamond design process (Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver) — across three integrated pillars: research, education, and external practice.

Its core programs are organized around an undergraduate Design Minor (728 graduates from 2017 through fall 2023, the 12th-largest of UCSD's 113 minors), a graduate Design Specialization, a quarterly Design@Large public lecture series, and the InnerLab practice arm. InnerLab packages a tiered continuum of services — from free 90-minute Discovery Sessions through full-day paid Discovery Sessions, Facilitation workshops, 72-hour Design-a-thons, multi-week Design & Research Sprints, Community & Action Convenings, and multi-year Organizational Design Transformation via the Center for Design-Driven Transformation (CDDT) — with the proprietary Problem Definition Index (PDI) used to match partners to appropriate service levels.

The lab generates revenue (amounts undisclosed) through a hybrid model: philanthropic gifts and sponsorships channeled via UCSD's giving platform, paid corporate partnerships (e.g., a five-year ViaSat organizational transformation engagement 2018–2023, a 2025 multi-phase Design & Research Sprint with Lytx reaching 68,633 fleet-safety professionals), and grant funding from federal agencies (NSF, NIH/NIMH) and private foundations (Mellon, Kauffman). Its customer base spans enterprise technology and telecommunications firms, civic and government agencies (City of San Diego, City of Tijuana, SANDAG, Caltrans), and community/nonprofit partners, served through both UCSD's academic infrastructure and the downtown Park & Market location.

Name

UCSD Design Lab

Legal name

The Design Lab at UC San Diego

Website

https://designlab.ucsd.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The UCSD Design Lab is an academic research and education unit at UC San Diego that advances humanity-centered design through interdisciplinary HCI research, undergraduate and graduate design education programs, and the InnerLab practice arm serving industry, civic, and community partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Design Research and Education Services

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720), Industrial Design Services (54142)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Makerspace, Innovation Lab & Fab Lab Operations (Tools, Safety, Programming) (EDAEAGAI)

Keywords

• Human-centered design research
• Design education programs
• Organizational design transformation
• Design thinking consulting
• Human-computer interaction research

Headquarters

HQ city

La Jolla

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Philanthropy and Sponsorship: The Design Lab accepts donations and sponsorships to fund undergraduate and graduate research opportunities, collaborative interdisciplinary research, lecture series, Designer-in-Residence programs, and other educational initiatives. Donations are processed through UC San Diego's giving platform.
2. Organizational Transformation Partnerships: Long-term paid partnerships through the Center for Design-Driven Transformation (CDDT) that embed human-centered design practices across partner organizations, including organizational diagnostic, bespoke training, mentorship, and implementation support.
3. Design Sprints and Consulting Engagements: Paid engagements for Design-a-thons, Design & Research Sprints, Facilitation workshops, and Discovery Sessions (full-day paid engagements beyond the free 90-minute introductory session) that provide structured design thinking guidance to civic and industry partners.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

The Design Lab delivers humanity-centered design research, education, and practice through its InnerLab program, which offers a continuum of engagement services (Discovery Sessions, Facilitation, Design-a-thons, Design & Research Sprints, Community & Action Convenings, and Organizational Design Transformation) to industry, civic, and community partners. Complementary offerings include educational programs (Undergraduate Design Minor, Graduate Specialization in Design, Design@Large lecture series) and an online Interaction Design Specialization on Coursera. The lab operates as a university-anchored research and consulting platform that pairs academic expertise with real-world transformation projects.

Product overview

The UCSD Design Lab is an academic research and education institution focused on humanity-centered design, not a commercial product company. It operates as a platform of interconnected programs and services: InnerLab provides direct collaborative design services (Discovery Sessions, Facilitation, Design-a-thons, Design & Research Sprints, Community & Action Convenings, and Organizational Design Transformation via the Center for Design-Driven Transformation); Education offerings include an Undergraduate Design Minor, Graduate Specialization in Design, and Design@Large public lecture series; and workforce development programs include Designer-in-Residence, Junior Designer, and Design Ambassador programs. The Lab functions as a research and educational ecosystem connecting faculty, students, and community partners rather than a product-based company.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• InnerLab: The part of the Design Lab where faculty, practitioners, and students collaborate directly with civic organizations, companies, and community groups to solve real-world challenges.
• Center for Design-Driven Transformation (CDDT)
• Design@Large
• Design-to-Action Networks (DANs)
• Discovery Sessions
• Facilitation
• Design-a-thons
• Design & Research Sprints
• Community & Action Convenings

Products and services

• InnerLab The InnerLab program enables faculty, practitioners, and students to collaborate directly with civic organizations, companies, and community groups to solve real-world challenges through humanity-centered design methodology, serving as the umbrella for all external partner engagements.
• Discovery Sessions Structured 90-minute introductory session (free) or full-day paid engagement that helps teams articulate complex challenges, develop a clear problem statement, and create an initial design roadmap.
• Facilitation Custom-designed workshops and multi-stakeholder sessions using humanity-centered design methods to build shared understanding and move organizations toward action.
• Design-a-thons A high-energy 72-hour sprint in which cross-disciplinary student teams tackle real-world challenges through a double-diamond process, generating multiple prototypes and concept portfolios.
• Design & Research Sprints Sustained engagement over weeks or months working through the full double-diamond process of discovery, synthesis, concept development, and prototyping with access to stakeholder voices and the broader Design Lab ecosystem.
• Community & Action Convenings Public engagement events that convene community members, subject matter experts, and civic leaders to move beyond dialogue into co-design toward collective action.
• Organizational Design Transformation A long-term partnership through the Center for Design-Driven Transformation that embeds human-centered practices across an organization's teams, processes, culture, and leadership through bespoke education, training, and mentorship.
• Center for Design-Driven Transformation (CDDT) A center that embeds human-centered practices across organizations through bespoke education, mentorship, and organizational guidance for design transformation, including flagship multi-year partnerships such as the ViaSat five-year engagement (2018-2023).
• Design@Large A quarterly speaker series highlighting central themes within design, featuring leading voices from research, industry, education, law, health, and the arts. Open to the public and offered as UC San Diego courses DSGN 119/219, attracting over 100 students per series.
• Undergraduate Design Minor A campus-wide undergraduate minor focused on design as a way of thinking through an iterative cycle of field observation, problem finding, and evaluating solutions through prototyping and testing. Available to all UC San Diego students across all departments.
• Graduate Specialization in Design A graduate specialization exposing master's and Ph.D. students to a breadth of design approaches and training in power, privilege, and ethical responses, available across multiple UC San Diego departments.
• Interaction Design Specialization (Coursera) Online interaction design specialization offered by UC San Diego through Coursera, open to the public without UCSD enrollment; students completing the specialization may receive course credit upon enrolling in UCSD's CSE master's program.

Quantifiable outcome

• 728 students graduated from design minor from 2017 through fall 2023
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Lytx, Inc.flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Multi-phase Design and Research Sprint (January-December 2025) combining academic literature review with large-scale industry survey reaching 68,633 fleet safety professionals. Produced two publicly available open-access research reports and a framework for next-generation intelligent driver coaching systems.
• World Design Organization (WDO)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Design Lab led the effort to secure and deliver the World Design Capital 2024 designation for the binational San Diego-Tijuana region, the first binational WDC in history. Design Lab designed, prototyped, and launched Design-to-Action Networks serving as the foundation for the WDC 2024 Legacy Program.
• City of San DiegoflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Municipal partner in WDC 2024 designation year, collaborating on regional design-driven transformation initiatives including public convenings, design events, and policy engagement across the binational San Diego-Tijuana region.
• City of TijuanaflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Municipal partner in WDC 2024 designation year, collaborating on binational design initiatives that united two countries and hundreds of designers, creatives, and community leaders around design-driven progress.
• ViaSat Inc.flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Five-year organizational transformation partnership (2018-2023) through UC San Diego's Center for Design-Driven Transformation (CDDT) to embed human-centered design thinking and Customer Experience strategy across ViaSat's global operations in California, Colorado, and Ireland. Included bespoke training curricula, organizational restructuring, and sustained multi-year collaboration with weekly cross-team calls.
• SANDAGcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with SANDAG, Caltrans, and City of Chula Vista to convene a 2018 regional consortium sharing updates on California's autonomous vehicle testing regulations and gathering public input on AV outreach and education strategies.
• REIMAGINE Center, UC San DiegocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with UC San Diego's Center for Research, Education, Innovation and Transformation in Organ Donation to run a 2026 Humanity Centered Design-a-thon tackling the equity gap facing under-resourced kidney patients who need living donors.
• UN FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed the San Diego Intergenerational Town Hall for the UN Foundation's 2100 Roadmap on December 7, 2024 at the Border View Family YMCA, convening 140 participants ages 12 to 80 to contribute borderland voices on youth empowerment, climate justice, and child well-being.
• National Science FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCivic partner providing research funding and grant support for Design Lab research initiatives across health, technology, and social impact domains.
• NIH / NIMHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCivic partner supporting Design Lab health research initiatives including digital health, public health, and healthcare innovation projects.
• Design Forward AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partner in WDC 2024 designation year and ongoing collaboration in design-driven regional transformation initiatives across the San Diego-Tijuana megaregion.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Broad incumbents

• IDEO: Global design consultancy that pioneered and commercialized human-centered design and design thinking for enterprise clients. Operates the IDEO U education arm and competes for the same enterprise transformation and design sprint engagements.
• frog (frog design): Global design and engineering consultancy (part of Capgemini Invent) offering design-driven transformation, product design, and brand strategy. Directly comparable in enterprise design transformation engagements and is a competitor for InnerLab/CDDT-style work.
• Pentagram: Independent design consultancy with partners across design disciplines. Comparable as a senior, established design practice but oriented toward communications and brand design rather than organizational transformation.

Direct peers

• Georgia Tech Digital Media (DM) Program: Interdisciplinary graduate program combining computing, design, and media at Georgia Tech. Comparable academic HCI/design program with industry-sponsored research and studio-based learning.
• Parsons School of Design: The New School's design school offering undergraduate and graduate programs with strong industry partnerships and applied design research. Comparable in combining design education with practitioner engagement.
• MIT Media Lab: MIT's interdisciplinary research lab at the intersection of design, technology, and societal impact. Comparable in combining human-centered design research, industry sponsorship, graduate education, and high-visibility thought leadership.
• Stanford d.school (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design): Stanford's design institute offering design thinking programs, K-12 and executive education, and cross-disciplinary studio courses. Directly comparable as a university-anchored design lab combining research, education, and partner engagement.
• Carnegie Mellon Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII): CMU's premier HCI research and education institute offering PhD, master's, and undergraduate programs with strong industry partnerships. Closely comparable in HCI research focus, CHI publication record, and industry engagement model.

Regional players

• Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID): Interaction design institute offering education, research, and industry collaboration with a strong focus on human-centered design methodology. Comparable methodology and applied research, but based in Denmark rather than the US.
• Royal College of Art (RCA): UK's only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering design research, executive education, and industry collaboration. Comparable in design-led research and education, but operating primarily in the UK and Europe.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/DesignLabUCSD
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/school/designlabucsandiego/?viewAsMember=true
• Instagraminstagram.com/designlabucsd
• Xx.com/designlabucsd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about UCSD Design Lab