Foreword

For too long, design and technology have been cast as rivals.

Which is more important?

Technologists will argue for technology. Designers will argue for design. But in this strange new era of AI’s ascendance, the question itself feels beside the point. What matters is not who wins the debate, but who benefits from the result. For if we let this question get kicked too far into the future, it will be set in stone and automated for the rest of time. There will be no undo.

That is the reminder at the heart of Thamer Abanami and Albert Shum’s Impact by Design. With more than 50 years of combined experience at the intersection of design, technology, and business, they show us that real innovation is never about capability alone. It is about impact: what technology actually does for people. And it’s about people thinking about their future(s) in terms of their most pressing priorities.

With this book Abanami and Shum remind us that real innovation is not about what technology can do in the abstract, but what technology does for people. Their perspectives are shaped by having led countless efforts at Microsoft that touched billions of people worldwide. Together, they illuminate a vital principle: Technology must be measured by how it elevates lives, not by how quickly it changes the game.

The beauty of their five stories lies in their elegant simplicity—a simplicity earned
by designers wrestling with complex human systems and through intersectional lenses of design thinking and design making, while recognizing opportunity’s uneven landscape. These stories remind us that today’s meaningful design challenges are less about sleeker devices or engagement metrics than they are about creating impact by design through inclusion, connection, and empowerment.

What uniquely sets Abanami and Shum’s approach apart is their abject rejection of the Silicon Valley mantra to “move fast and break things.” They argue for moving fast and fixing things. For whom? For you. For me. For all of us. Because when technology can touch billions of lives, responsibility must sit at the center, placing repair, inclusion, and connection ahead of the inevitable harms of disruption.

This book is a beacon, a call to look beyond the allure of shiny new things toward the heart of progress: creating a world where technology cultivates connection
and meaning with purpose. By revealing the hidden patterns that drive these transformations, Abanami and Shum provide a roadmap for all of us seeking to create lasting impact through thoughtful design.

This is a future worth imagining, and worth designing. Right now.

John Maeda
Author, How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us and The Laws of Simplicity