DesignObserver

Art Dubai 2026 is on hold, amid the ongoing US-Israel war in Iran. Scheduled for April 17; organizers have optimistically rescheduled it for May 14-17 at Madinat Jumeirah, its usual venue. Organizers are scaling back, lowering exhibition prices, and promising a “more focused, curated, and flexible format, bringing together galleries, artists, and institutions through a combination of presentations, collaborations, and public programming.” Sounds like a plan. bit.ly/48bYeEQ

How is Larry Miller turning his expertise into new hope for the formerly incarcerated? Ellen McGirt is planning to find out at the @GPTW_US Summit on April 23 in Las Vegas. Curious? Subscribe to the Observatory and stay tuned on our socials platforms. designobserver.com/newsletters/

His latest project is JUMP, the Justice & Upward Mobility Project, which aims to build a bridge for the formerly incarcerated through education, employment, policy reform, narrative change, and cross-sector coalitions.

Throughout Larry Miller's career at Nike as president of Jordan Brand, he kept his past hidden. When he was sixteen, he shot and killed a boy whom he wrongly believed to be a rival gang member and was sent to juvenile detention.

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@farman thinks usability in tech design is a problem, but not the way you think. “The problem isn’t usability itself; it’s what it has become—a design approach that replaced any need whatsoever to understand complex systems with the ability to thoughtlessly interact with them.” slate.com/technology/202…...

Cultural gumbo. A call for climate action. Milan Design Week. Here's what we're observing this week:

Now, he’s ready to apply his extraordinary leadership and brand management expertise to an issue with far less crowd appeal than Jordan Brand: the more than 80 million people with arrest records in the US.

Throughout Larry Miller's career at Nike as president of Jordan Brand, he kept his past hidden. When he was sixteen, he shot and killed a boy whom he wrongly believed to be a rival gang member and was sent to juvenile detention.

What resources are you observing right now to track this? We're genuinely curious what's cutting through. Drop your links below ⬇️

Al Jazeera Interactive / AJ Labs is Al Jazeera’s dedicated data/visual team. Their Day-by-Day Attack Map widens the scope from the Strait of Hormuz to tell a data-driven picture of the war, using on-the-ground reporting and data from The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), an independent global conflict monitor. aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/16…

The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that provides resources, training, and networking for investigative journalists in newsrooms of all sizes around the world. They publish a weekly Top 10 in Data Journalism roundup that incorporates reliable reporting and data sources on urgent global news, especially in Iran. They’re fucking outstanding. gijn.org/stories/data-j…

Thanks to the war in Iran, online chatter is now dominated by amateur oil flow and tanker experts, typically repeating partisan talking points. Here's where independent, responsible data journalism is actually doing the work to cut through the noise -->

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) appears to still be functioning. It’s not a live tracker; it offers a regularly updated baseline view of oil transit flows. Their chokepoint analysis follows seven important passages and daily transit volumes. Non-partisan, methodology, and inputs are fully cited. Start here and click through for maps: eia.gov/international/…

Even in peaceful times, Hormuz is a challenging part of the world for tankers. The Strauss Center at UT Austin, a security policy center, explains the region’s geography to provide a detailed understanding of bathymetry (look it up), shipping lane depth, and visibility conditions. strausscenter.org/strait-of-horm…