What if design is not really about products at all, but about bridging the gap between the world as it is and the world we hope for?

In this episode of Data Malarkey, Master Data Storyteller, Sam Knowles, speaks with Judah Armani, Head of the Public Service Design Practice CIC. Judah is a collaborative designer, educator, and social entrepreneur. The two discuss design as problem solving, insight as a "liquid understanding", and the role of care, curiosity, and creativity in tackling some of society's toughest challenges.

Judah's work spans public service design, education, prison reform, and systems change. From founding the world's first record label launched in prison and run by prisoners, to creating football-based learning programmes and teaching around the world, he offers a completely different lens on how data, information, and human understanding can lead to action.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why Judah sees design as the connective tissue between reality and aspiration

• Why solving problems is something everyone does, not just trained designers

• How gathering information, specifying intent, and taking action underpin most problem solving

• Why taxonomy shapes what we can see and what we miss

• Why efficiency can quietly erode care if we are not careful

• How Judah defines insight as a "liquid understanding"

• Why outliers, clues, and hints often matter more than neat summaries

• How InHouse Records was created inside prison to reduce reoffending

• Why Judah sees AI as useful for summarising, but not yet for true creativity

Topics we cover:

• Design as problem solving

• Retirement, mission, and a life spent solving problems

• Taxonomy, categorisation, and reordering information

• von Humboldt, Ruskin, and different ways of seeing the same world

• Care, efficiency, and what modern systems make us lose

• Socratic inquiry and the different states of knowledge

• Outliers, patterns, and the power of different vantage points

• InHouse Records and designing for social impact

• AI, creativity, and the limits of large language models

About the guest:
Judah Armani is a collaborative designer, educator, and social entrepreneur whose work focuses on social change, public service design, and reimagining systems for those most often left out. He has worked across product design, charities, education, and justice, and is the founder of projects including InHouse Records and Crossbar.

Links and resources mentioned:

• Judah's LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hodajudaharmani/

• His CIC's home page - https://www.hodajudaharmani.design/

• InHouse Records - https://www.inhouserecords.org/

• Crossbar Education Innovation Programme - https://ifdesign.com/en/winner-ranking/project/crossbar/744665

• Take the Data Storytelling Scorecard: https://data-storytelling.scoreapp.com