1 Year Anniversary + Designing for Connection

The Human-centered Design Lab (HCD Lab) has grown into a unique space for connection and learning. Over the past year, professionals from diverse industries and backgrounds have come together to collaborate in ways that were creative, energizing, and eye-opening. To honor that spirit, we invite you to join us in celebrating our one-year anniversary.

We’ll begin with our founder, Evan Chan, who will share the journey of starting the HCD Lab and the key lessons learned along the way. From there, we’ll ease into a short hands-on workshop on human connection, inspired by Daniel Coyle’s The Culture Code. To close, we’ll leave plenty of time for mingling and conversation over simple food and refreshments.

Whether you've attended an event in the past or are new to our community, we warmly welcome you to celebrate with us. It’s sure to be a meaningful and joyful way to end the year.

MINI-WORKSHOP

Human connection is at the heart of meaningful collaboration, creativity, and well-being—yet it’s something many of us struggle to intentionally cultivate in our fast-paced, high-demand environments. This workshop draws on concepts from The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle to explore how trust, belonging, and co-creation are not accidents but outcomes of specific behaviors. Through interactive activities and guided reflection, we’ll experience how shared experiences and vulnerability unlock stronger collaboration and deeper connection.

You’ll walk away with

• A clearer understanding of how the HCD Lab came to be—and what makes this community so unique
• A set of activities you can use to jumpstart connection and collaboration on any team
• Meaningful connections with professionals from diverse industries and backgrounds
• Opportunities to reflect on the past year and help shape the HCD Lab’s second year

Agenda

6:00 // Welcome

6:15 // Walkthrough of the Journey of the HCD Lab

6:30 // Mini-workshop on Designing for Connection

7:30 // Mingling over food and refreshments

About the facilitators

Evan Chan is a civic designer, facilitator, and community-builder who is passionate about improving government services and fostering equitable outcomes. He has worked as a public servant and as a consultant, navigating complex bureaucracies and centering the voices of residents and frontline workers at all levels of government. Before coming to design, he worked as a Christian youth minister with a university student organization, mentoring students and fostering a vibrant community. The values of compassion and care that he developed then still ground the work he does today.

Sylvie Abookire is a multidisciplinary systemic and service designer specializing in behavioral science, complexity, and care systems. She leads service design work across government and health in the US and UK, and is particularly passionate about mental/emotional wellbeing, social connection, and prevention. Sylvie is also the founder of Creative Crossroads, where she applies her background in behavioral psychology and human-centered design to help career transitioners build more aligned and fulfilling lives.

About the HCD Lab

The Human-centered Design Lab (HCD Lab) is a volunteer-run professional community. ​It is a welcoming space for professionals to connect with one another and gain design & innovation-related skills through hands-on learning experiences.

Members of our community come from a wide variety of design and non-design backgrounds. Some examples are:

• Design (e.g. service design, UX, architecture)
• Community engagement / activism
• Government
• Non-profits
• Healthcare
• Education
• Social impact start-ups

Learn more about the HCD Lab and our past events at: https://www.hcdlab.com