The second policy booklet (PDF) from the SEE Project was recently published. There will be a total of four policy booklets over the course of the programme.

Design thinking can be a tool for realising social innovation and sustainable development by contributing to long-term behaviour change and integrating the user experience into significantly improved products, processes, services and systems. This Policy Booklet outlines the rationale behind policy intervention in this domain, explores how design can be employed to address social innovation and sustainable development, provides illustrative case studies and proposes policy recommendations. We have applied this framework under four headings: communities, industry, the public sector and policy-making.

(more…)

Whether you call it user-centred, people-centred, or human-centred design, those organisations that are closest to their customers are the ones that succeed in creating successful products and services. Come learn practical tools to apply design thinking in your own business at two upcoming mini-workshops organised by Meet for Real and delivered by Justin Knecht of the Centre for Design Innovation.

Register for the 10th of October in Cork, or the 17th of October in Galway.

I have always loved minimalist design. It has a beauty about its simple forms and clear lines that appeal to me. I came across this bin design by Grace Youngeun Lee and I liked it so much I began to visualize where I would put her design in my own home. That’s when I began to run into trouble. I live in your average apartment with the standard features, two bedroom, kitchen / living room combo, bathroom. Even though I thought the design was beautiful, I could not think of one place I could put such a distinctive item. It hadn’t really occurred to me before, that all the minimalistic items I love so much would struggle to work in your average home. The qualities that make the design striking cause it to sit uneasily in a mainstream context. Its clean aesthetics clash with your standard mass-produced product.

Does this mean a minimalist design can only work when surrounded by other minimalist products? Or the opposite, a lack of other products and just shear, clean space that allows it to be appreciated for its aesthetic beauty? If this is the case, where is the line drawn for its range of influence? Is the only true home of a minimal piece a modern residence, where clean lines and crisp aesthetics were at the front of the architects mind?

Perhaps the piece is intended to sit in contrast with the relative chaos of mass production? That this contrast serves to highlight its simple beauty.

I guess until I can figure out where to put my beloved Grace Youngeun Lee bin, I’ll just have to stick with my mass produced swing top. Function over form anyway, right?

Photo from IDEO

Is the way we educate keeping pace with the changing needs of the marketplace? Are we creating graduates with the right skills for the 21st century? There are some good signs in the work we’ve been doing with the industrial design programme and industry here at IT Sligo and in other initiatives around problem-based learning. In a recent article from Metropolis magazine, IDEO summarises ten tips based on their Design for Learning efforts for the 21st century classroom.

I particularly like the call to stop calling creativity, collaboration, communication, empathy, and adaptability ‘soft skills,’ as if they were a bonus as opposed to a necessity. I’ve argued before that creativity can be taught, and certainly when it comes to ideas, the ability to come up with ideas is nothing without the ability to communicate them, or work together to commercialise them.

How do we begin to measure and evaluate process as well as outcome?

Read IDEO’s Ten Tips For Creating a 21st–Century Classroom Experience

Here is a good example of a design which looks beyond the simple functions of the product to the emotional perceptions and requirements of the user.

The Playpump is used to pump water in schools in such places as South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia. It is essentially a windmill on its side. Unlike other pumps, the Playpump is designed to be driven by children in play, who use the wheel as a merry-go-round.

Water pumps are placed in areas of high drought and provide drinking and irrigation water. They greatly benefit the surrounding areas and are seen as something to be celebrated. Designing a pump which incorporates the play of children, takes this emotional element into account. Its design combines the function of the pump with the celebration of its installment and use.

Rather then the traditional approach of designing emotion into a product, the Playpump is a manifestation of emotion generated by its presence. It is an interesting perspective to consider when trying to design that ‘must have’ product.

In today’s world most managers face the same problems, which become more pressing since most of the countries are facing recession. The most common question in the current economical environment is: ‘How can we reduce costs?’ and it doesn’t take long for a company to realize that one powerful opportunity lies in improving their energy management strategies.

At this stage there are lots of software companies which provide Real Time Energy Monitoring Systems and there are a lot more which are planning to enter this market.

During the last months I’ve been researching software that allows a company to monitor their energy consumption and here is what I found:

• Most of the software provides real time monitoring and alert systems.
• In order for that to happen, the companies providing the software will install their own meters.
• They store historical data in a database which can be accessed at any time through their software.
• They send alarms every time the energy consumption rises over a certain value.

(more…)

Tuesday 2 September 2008 (6.00pm)
Lecture Theatre 212, Peter Froggatt Centre, Queen’s University Belfast

Design Thinking has its roots in the creative suites of industrial design, product usability, and the right-brained branch of engineering. It’s a fundamentally human-centred way to match products to markets. But it turns out that design thinking is useful in many other arenas besides the creation of exceptional physical products.

Professor Michael Dearing will present an Innovation Lecture on ‘Design Thinking for Innovation: Treat Your Company, Your Team, Your Products as Prototypes’. His lecture will consider what works and what doesn’t when you integrate design thinking into all aspects of your company’s strategy, organisation design, and product / service to customers.

Michael Dearing joined the d.school faculty at Stanford in Spring 2006. Since that time, he has co-developed and co-taught courses including Creating Infectious Action and Creating Mass Market Experiences. He also teaches graduate seminars including Innovation in Complex Organizations, and Creative Product Marketing. Michael’s current interests include process design for new product development, “productising” emerging technologies, web-based businesses, product marketing, and pricing.

Download the entire document [MSWord, 48k], which includes how to RSVP.

Photograph by Christopher Lamarca

The lessons that Amy Smith has learned developing the phase-change incubator, screenless hammer mill and sugarcane charcoal in the Third World are equally applicable to any design project. You might ask how “try living on $2/day” is relevant to everyday design projects. Sounds like deep understanding of those you are designing for to me.

I especially like the idea of providing skills, not just finished technologies. How does a solution go beyond just solving a problem and actual enable people to create solutions themselves?

For more, check out Amy Smith’s TED talk.

I look forward to reading the transcript from Bill Buxton‘s lecture tomorrow (11 June) at the Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon (CHIFOO). The Oregonian caught up with Microsoft’s principal researcher prior to the lecture for an interview and an explanation.

The pervasive notion was that thinking and knowledge were somehow something that happened inside the head … more recently, our notion of cognition has broadened considerably, and in particular, it embraces the notion that thought and knowledge may well occur as much in our physical and social environment as in the cortex itself.

Can design thinking be institutionalized, or does it happen to cities and businesses serendipitously?

This is one of the most important questions to ask. My answer is decidedly yes, it can be institutionalized. But at the same time, I have to qualify this by saying that the most creative challenge of any management is to figure out how.

Additional reading:

A New Mantra for Creativity

Design Delivers is a one-day workshop run by the Centre for Design Innovation. In this highly interactive session, you will learn practical tools for identifying your key customers and applying design research tools to extract meaningful insights that can be developed into product and service offerings.

The first half of the day focuses on user-centred design; what it is, why it is important to your business and how to do it. You’ll be taken through a straight-forward process of applying user-centred design (Identify, Look, Involve, Try, Plan). Each step will be illustrated using tools that can be applied after the workshop. Why would you want to invest resources to develop ideas or services your customers don’t want or need?

The second half of the day will focus on branding. Branding adds value to your business, helps you differentiate your offering from the competition and helps you connect with your customers. A brand is not a logo or an identity, it is much more. You will learn why branding is important to your business, as well as the components that make up successful brands. Convey your message more effectively and consistently. Sell your products and services at a premium. Attract better customers, distributors, partners, suppliers and staff.

What have past participants said about the day?
“Practical tools to bring back to the workplace.”
“This kind of seminar should be available as soon as you enter into business. Day one.”
“Informative and essential for any discerning SME who wants to drive value in their business.”
“Like the interaction exercises … I hate sitting and listening for hours solid. Thanks.”
“It has taken the blinkers off to what design can be and do for the business.”

Why should I care?
Research conducted by the Centre has proven that Irish businesses who use design innovate more often, more effectively and compete less on price. Companies that integrate design at the highest strategic levels are 2.5 times more successful than those that do not yet only 15% of organisations use design at this level. Why? One of the reasons may be they just don’t know how. Begin to learn how during this one-day workshop.

How much does it cost?
The event is fully subsidised by the BMW Assembly and is free of charge to organisations in the BMW region of Ireland.

Is one day enough time to learn this?
Our goal at the Centre is to help demystify the design process and provide tools that allow you to use design thinking for yourselves. When it is time to undertake more detailed work you will feel more confident and empowered to brief the appropriate expert to provide you with further support. You’ll get a lot of value from the day.

Where and when will it take place?
The workshop will be run three times, with the second session taking place Tuesday, April 29th, from 10-4PM at the offices of the Centre Design Innovation, Room G1003, Business Innovation Centre, Institute of Technology Sligo campus. Please RSVP to Justin Knecht, Programme Manager, justin@designinnovation.ie.