Jon Kolko

Jon Kolko is the founder of Austin Center for Design, a progressive educational institution teaching interaction design and social entrepreneurship.^[1][2] He was also a partner at Modernist Studio, and is now a partner at Narrative.

Jon Kolko
Jon Kolko
Born	1978 (age 46–47) Rochester, NY
Occupation	Designer and Author
Language	English
Nationality	American
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Carnegie Mellon University
Genre	Non-fiction
Subject	Design
Notable works	Creative Clarity; How I Teach; Well-Designed; Exposing the Magic of Design; Wicked Problems; Thoughts on Interaction Design;
Spouse	Jess Kolko
Website
Official website

Kolko has held the positions of Vice President of Design at Blackboard and at MyEdu; Executive Director of Design Strategy at Thinktiv, a startup accelerator in Austin, Texas; and both Principal Designer and Associate Creative Director roles at frog design, a global innovation firm. He was also a professor of interaction and industrial design at the Savannah College of Art and Design.^[3] Kolko has also held the role of Director for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), and Editor-in-Chief of Interactions magazine, published by the ACM.^[4]

Kolko is the author of the following books:

• Thoughts on Interaction Design (Brown Bear Press, 2007; Morgan Kaufmann, 2011)
• Exposing the Magic of Design: A Practitioner's Guide to the Methods and Theory of Synthesis (Oxford University Press, 2011)
• Wicked Problems: Problems Worth Solving (Austin Center for Design, 2012)
• Well Designed: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People Love (Harvard Business Review Press, 2014)
• How I Teach (Brown Bear Press, 2017)
• Creative Clarity: A Practical Guide For Bringing Creative Thinking Into Your Company (Brown Bear Press, 2017)
• This Chainsaw Cannot Fly: The power of storytelling to shape and drive product roadmaps (Brown Bear Press, 2022)
• Cashing Out: A handbook for selling your creative services company, and a million reasons not to do it (Narrative, 2023)