Mehrafza Mirzazad
Design Researcher
HeartBrainSystem
Mehrafza (Meh-Ræf-Zɑː) Mirzazad is an award-winning NY-based industrial designer, systems thinker, circular economist and educator. Her skills include industrial design, design research, behavioral science, circular economy and project management. Three women designers have been particularly influential for her training and professional work. She aspires to create empathy like Patricia Moore, FIDSA, to think critically like Leyla Acaroglu, and to approach design processing like Ayse Birsel, IDSA. As a leading strategist, industrial designer and systems thinking designer, Mirzazad is a passionate, visual designer and model maker, who anchors her work in theories of circular economy, change and empathy. Originally from northwestern Iran, she completed her BS in industrial design at Middle East Technichal University and her MFA in industrial design at Rochester Institute of Technology. Mirzazad is fluent in Persian, Azerbaijani, Turkish and English.
Cause and Effect in Design: Circular Systems Thinking in Practice
Designers have very powerful tools for making change and influencing the world. We live in a complex world full of interconnections. Everything we design affects and impacts other systems. As design is a complex, rather than linear, process, it requires a mix of talent and knowledge. Empathizing with people, the core of design thinking, is crucial in the design process but it is not the whole story. Everything we design to address people’s needs has a wider influence—stories after stories—on entire systems, in different levels and forms. Mehrafza Mirzazad highlights some of these stories to help and inspire designers to create a thinking tool set for better predicting the outcomes of our designs. By appreciating the wider impact of our efforts, we can work towards shaping a world that works better for all of us.
