At the Border Between Curiosity and the Unknown

We inhabit the island of what is known. Its shores are the coasts of curiosity and look out toward the vast sea of the unknown.
The more the island of knowledge expands, the more its edges lengthen, and with them curiosity.

from Alberto Cairo, How to Charts Lie

Welcome to my site. If you feel like getting to know me, you'll find something here to satisfy your appetite.

I'm Manuel Colombo. Some know me for my work in Digital Design and research on and with users; for over 15 years I've been following multinational projects and clients of broad technical and relational complexity. Among those who know me only professionally, there are some who think my purpose is to optimize experiences. There is nothing further from reality.

Optimization inevitably leads to the obvious, to routine, to repetition of the most efficient patterns. I help the teams I work with and the organizations that commission the work ensure this never happens. Their users, my brothers and accomplices, must live memorable, exceptional, unique experiences.

There are others, more fortunate, who know me also outside the narrow confines of daily projects. With them I try to take another step forward toward the sea of the unknown.

When it comes to getting serious, or when the problem seems trivial, I find it necessary to destroy my certainties: to explore ideas from at least three perspectives: mine, the opposite one, and that of a third troublemaker, in radical disagreement with both. This approach generates new insights and helps uncover possibilities that conventional thinking often misses.

Here you can find something about me, explore my approach to design and research, and read some of my ideas