Deaa Bataineh Champions Choice-Making Over Decision-Making

Deaa Bataineh (PhD 2025) taught design processes and branding as an inaugural faculty member of Jordan University of Science and Technology’s design program, but he yearned to do more for the society around him.

“I wanted to get involved in problem solving in a constructive, proactive way,” Bataineh says.

So, after nearly 15 years of practicing, teaching, and co-founding a pioneering design program at a top university in his home country of Jordan, Bataineh set out to rethink the role of design in shaping complex institutional and societal transformations.

“I witnessed how emerging platforms were reshaping infrastructures—not always intentionally, and often without regard for local systems or long-term coherence,” Bataineh says. Bataineh noticed how the emergence of digital advances like ridesharing exposed a lack of long-term thinking. It appeared governmental officials had been unprepared—hadn’t first explored potential choices before making decisions.

“This sparked a deeper inquiry,” Bataineh explains. “How can design become a mediator between institutional purpose and technological momentum? That’s what led me to pursue a PhD.”

He chose the Institute of Design as a platform to deepen his exploration of design as a driver of systemic transformation.

During his time at ID, Bataineh’s research focused on redefining design as a strategic choice-making practice, where institutions are equipped to generate multiple potential possibilities, all in their divergent contexts.

His work has received multiple awards and recognitions, including the National Designer of Jordan in 2008 and the One Show Award—One Club Organization in New York, Fast Company’s World-Changing Ideas Awards, and a Core77 Design Award, in categories such as politics & policy, urban design, consumer technology, and transportation.

“Take a city upgrading its transportation system and approached by a ride sharing platform,” Bataineh explains. Decision-makers must navigate competing agendas—convenience, integration, displacement, profit, and sustainability. It’s not just a tech or policy issue; it’s about reconciling conflicting institutional logics.” Strategic choice-making, he adds, helps surface alternatives that align long-term purpose with broader societal needs.

Designers, he argues, can expand possibilities—not just by capturing stakeholder needs, but by revealing unseen consequences, surfacing tensions, and identifying strategic leverage points within systems. “Design is inherently political,” Bataineh adds. “It’s about negotiating competing agendas, mediating institutional purposes, and reshaping what and who gets to decide what’s possible.”

With accelerating technological shifts and their disruptive impact on societies and economies, Bataineh sees a widening gap between the complexity of today’s challenges and the institutions we rely on to address them. “We are confronting twenty-first century problems, but remain governed by nineteenth century institutions,” he says. “Institutions often stutter because the models guiding them haven’t evolved enough. Design, when used strategically, can help prototype new institutional logics—ones aligned with sustainability, equity, and long-term purpose.”

Through his Spotify podcast espresso?, Bataineh explores the edges of systems, design, and strategy—condensing complex ideas into full-bodied, accessible narratives.

In addition to his work in academia, he founded his own design practice, Made of Labs, while teaching at Jordan University of Science and Technology. Bataineh worked for Jordan’s National Center for Curricula Development on creating the framework for the country’s K-12 art and design curricula.

He recently delivered a talk at the United Nations Global Compact’s SDG Innovation Accelerator for Young Professionals as part of their global deep dive series, titled “Designing Platforms for Impact: How to Design Infrastructures for Everyday Life,” and currently serves on the Auxiliary Board of the Design Museum of Chicago.

Now Bataineh is dedicated to operating and activating the strategic choice-making practice.