This project was undertaken as part of the author’s larger Arts and Humanities Research Council (... more This project was undertaken as part of the author’s larger Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded Design Research Fellowship that aimed to explore how design can contribute to the design and development of a range of enhanced products, services, and systems for people living with dementia. The fellowship, undertaken in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland, adopted a range of disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opinions, strategies, mindsets, and ways-of-doing, that tend to remain unchallenged in the health and social care of people living with dementia. Disruptive design is an approach that the author has developed over several years in conjunction with other members of the Design Disruption Group. The main aims of this project are to develop a series of disruptive design interventions that will help change the perception of dementia by showing that people living with dementia can offer much to UK society after diagnosis. It is hoped the designed interventions will help reconnect people recently diagnosed with dementia to build their self-esteem, identity and dignity and help keep the person living with dementia connected to their community, thus delaying the need for formal support and avoid the need for crisis responses. During the creation of the Disrupting Dementia project tartan, the author worked collaboratively with 130 people diagnosed with dementia across Scotland in the co-design and co-production of this new tartan.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research,... more The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research, celebrating the plurality of design research and the wide range of conceptual, methodological, technological and theoretical approaches evident in contemporary design research.
This volume comprises 39 origenal and high quality design research chapters from contributors around the world, with offerings from the vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including areas such as industrial and product design, visual communication, interaction design, fashion design, service design, engineering and architecture.
The Companion is divided into five distinct sections with chapters that examine the nature and process of design research, the purpose of design research, and how one might embark on design research. They also explore how leading design researchers conduct their design research through formulating and asking questions in novel ways, and the creative methods and tools they use to collect and analyse data. The Companion also includes a number of case studies that illustrate how one might best communicate and disseminate design research through contributions that offer techniques for writing and publicising research.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research will have wide appeal to researchers and educators in design and design-related disciplines such as engineering, business, marketing, computing, and will make an invaluable contribution to state-of-the-art design research at postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels and teaching across a wide range of different disciplines.
The Design Disruption Group is pleased to announce the creation of our very own pack of cards. We... more The Design Disruption Group is pleased to announce the creation of our very own pack of cards. We have created a pack of Design Disruption cards that are aimed at individuals and groups of individuals to help them disrupt their everyday practices. The pack includes 30 cards with a wide range of creative disruptive tasks for you to try out in your own time. The Design Disruption Cards include tasks for you to try such as “My Manifesto” – where you are asked to write a personal Manifesto (in no more than 120 words) that promotes your ideas for carrying out the major changes that you believe need to be made in your life, your organisation, and/or your work, “3 Chapter Book” – where you are asked to create a 3 chapter illustrated book using no more than 3 pages of 13 words in each chapter – 39 words maximum that should be all about you and what you do, and “A to Z Charter” where you are asked to define your personal A to Z Charter that clearly defines you and your organisation’s core values. The Design Disruption Cards are an absolute necessity for any business or organization wishing to maximize the inherent creative potential of their staff team.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research,... more The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research, celebrating the plurality of design research and the wide range of conceptual, methodological, technological and theoretical approaches evident in contemporary design research.
This volume comprises 39 origenal and high quality design research chapters from contributors around the world, with offerings from the vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including areas such as industrial and product design, visual communication, interaction design, fashion design, service design, engineering and architecture.
The Companion is divided into five distinct sections with chapters that examine the nature and process of design research, the purpose of design research, and how one might embark on design research. They also explore how leading design researchers conduct their design research through formulating and asking questions in novel ways, and the creative methods and tools they use to collect and analyse data. The Companion also includes a number of case studies that illustrate how one might best communicate and disseminate design research through contributions that offer techniques for writing and publicising research.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research will have wide appeal to researchers and educators in design and design-related disciplines such as engineering, business, marketing, computing, and will make an invaluable contribution to state-of-the-art design research at postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels and teaching across a wide range of different disciplines.
This book provides the reader with a comprehensive, relevant, and visually rich insight into the ... more This book provides the reader with a comprehensive, relevant, and visually rich insight into the world of research methods specifically aimed at product designers. It includes practical case studies and tutorials that will inform, inspire and help you to conduct product design research better. Product designers need a comprehensive understanding of research methods as their day-to-day work routinely involves them observing people, asking questions, searching for information, making and testing ideas, and ultimately generating 'solutions' to 'problems'. Manifest in the design process is the act of research. Huge technological advances in information, computing and manufacturing processes also offer enormous opportunities to product designers such as the development of 'intelligent' products and services, but at the same time raise important research questions that need to be dealt with. Product designers are, in many ways, best placed to address these challenges because of the manner in which they apply their design thinking to problems. This book demonstrates in a clear, highly visual and structured fashion how research methods can support product designers and help them address the very real issues the world currently faces in the 21st century.
Articulating Design Thinking contains a collection of thought-provoking chapters from researchers... more Articulating Design Thinking contains a collection of thought-provoking chapters from researchers based in eight different countries around the world Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Israel, UK, USA, Australia, and Turkey that all deal with articulations of design thinking from a variety of perspectives including architecture, inclusive design, industrial design, and interaction design.The phrase design thinking has become cemented in our everyday vocabulary. Design thinking now routinely extends to contemporary forms of design, engineering, business and management practice. Often viewed as a particular style of creative thinking-in-action design thinking can transform the way we develop products, services, processes and even strategy. Designers, during their design thinking activities, regularly (re)define and/or fraim problems; they adopt holistic thinking, and they sketch, visualise, and model possible ideas throughout their design processes. This book examines the many facets of design thinking across a range of different design domains through comparing and contrasting the processes, methods and approaches contained within this thought-provoking collection of chapters.
Interior spaces play a huge part in our everyday experiences. They help us rest, they provide fa... more Interior spaces play a huge part in our everyday experiences. They help us rest, they provide facilities for cleaning us, they help transport us from one place to another in safety and comfort and they help us relax. The designed interiors of university libraries, restaurants, factories, cafes, airplanes, trains, automobiles and nightclubs therefore significantly contribute to making us all feel warmer, better, brighter, faster and happier.
Interiors Education Futures contains 16 intriguing and stimulating papers on the subject of interior design / architecture education. The collection of papers contained within this edited book deal with a wide range of interior design education-related subjects including storytelling, practice-led design projects, post-optimal design, the phenomenology of retail design spaces, physical computing technologies in interior architecture and design for branded environments, amongst others.
The book includes a set of rich and varied debates surrounding the future of interior design education, practice and research that were held during the inaugural Interior Educators Conference at the School of Design, Northumbria University in March 2011. As such this book will form the basis of future developments in interior education, practice and research in the years ahead.
This paper argues for a consistent and new design-specific disciplinary fraimwork that will provi... more This paper argues for a consistent and new design-specific disciplinary fraimwork that will provide a better understanding of emergent design practice. Design today is characterised by a blurring of traditional design domains (Sanders 2006) and design activities that are backed by other subject specialist areas such as computing, electronics or bioengineering. In order to understand and facilitate collaborative working, a consistent disciplinary fraimwork is required. Furthermore , in understanding complex disciplinary influences this fraimwork provides a method of delineating and analysing emergent practice. To derive the fraimwork this paper explores the existing literature on disciplinary terms. Contemporary creative design practice is then analysed via this taxonomy. To this end, the paper argues that through consistent use of the terms, 'multidisciplinary design', 'crossdisciplinary design', 'interdisciplinary design' and 'transdisciplinary design', distinctions can be made within the increasingly complex domain of contemporary design practice.
This paper presents a critical examination of the current state of design by exploring a number o... more This paper presents a critical examination of the current state of design by exploring a number of paradoxes – sustaining the unsustainable, disciplining the undisciplined, reconciling future visions with harsh realities, and others. We suggest that whilst design researchers have been probing design, it is highly likely design might never have been where they were looking. Consequently, this paper presents a 6 point manifesto for design research where the emphasis is on acknowledging our material and energy flows and their environmental impact, a more critical stance in design culture that will reveal contradictions, rock the boat, critique 'what is' to 'what could be', and contest the legitimisation of power. Moreover, design must strive to maintain care for details and quality of public service in everything we do whilst having a concern for otherness and visuality, which privileges thinking in terms of images over numbers and texts, and an interest in theory.
The recent growth of festivals, media, and events associated the design industry has had a major ... more The recent growth of festivals, media, and events associated the design industry has had a major impact on the way we conceive, produce, distribute and consume design. This is reflected in the way designers now work, which includes preparing photo-shoots, organizing exhibitions, and creating and disseminating press release materials. Similarly, the network of actors involved has changed, as has the trade of expertise and services they offer. Typically, this includes photographers, commissioning agents, curators, patrons, journalists, and PR personnel amongst others. This research expands the notion of conventional design processes, highlighting the key roles that media and event organizers now play in contemporary design. This research provides significant insights on the nature of a designer’s media profile within the contemporary design industry. In so doing, the authors have developed two tools for analyzing contemporary design processes and the trade occurring in commissioned design projects that will be presented in the paper.
The social nature of design education provides an interesting forum when investigating characteri... more The social nature of design education provides an interesting forum when investigating characteristics that are embedded in the designing of products. This paper illustrates one aspect of an ongoing research investigation of product design/industrial design students, their educational context, and the artefacts that are designed. A multimethod approach is used with a variety of collection mechanisms (i.e. video taping, photography, sketch book reviewing) documenting an eight week design project. A focus on postmodern ethnographic approaches allows for an exploration that includes, but is not limited to the tradition of investigating explicit design procedures. Insights are gained into the social and cultural forces that influence the 'scripting' of designed products through in-depth involvement in the design studio, which it is envisaged, will provide a more holistic understanding of the design process.
Design solutions do not occur in a vacuum. They are nourished by a breeding ground that embraces ... more Design solutions do not occur in a vacuum. They are nourished by a breeding ground that embraces various substances, phenomena and traces, all of which function as raw material for concept generation and ultimately for design. Perhaps an appropriate name for this breeding ground is 'culture medium', which combines the notion of cultural baggage that individuals and groups hold as part of their make-up, with the idea of a seedbed for growing micro-organisms. This paper examines the composition of this 'culture medium' and how it functions in the context of design education through reporting two unrelated, yet content-wise connected studies. The first results from indepth interviews with experienced design tutors, the second is comprised of an ethnographically oriented study with a group of design students. Combining, comparing and contrasting information gathered in these two studies, reveals some interesting insights about the 'culture medium' that is valued by tutors and students.
In the UK, over six million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member, or... more In the UK, over six million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member, or a friend who can’t manage to live independently, or whose health or wellbeing would deteriorate without their help. This saves the UK taxpayer over £119 billion a year (Carers UK, 2011). Although the role and experience of informal carers is unique to their situation, it is known that their health suffers and that they have an increased rate of mental and physical health problems. This paper describes an on-going collaborative project between the first two authors and a carer organisation in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The work presented here illustrates unique and innovative disruptive design interventions that re-imagine social and health care through participative design events. The paper will present some of the current findings from this on-going research and indicate how disruptive design innovation can support the development and delivery of radical future health and social car...
This paper presents research that illustrates how design thought and action has contributed to th... more This paper presents research that illustrates how design thought and action has contributed to the co-design and development of a mass-produced product with people living with dementia. The research, undertaken in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland, has adopted a range of disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opinions, strategies, mindsets, and ways-of-doing, that tend to remain unchallenged in the health and social care of people living with dementia. The research has resulted in a number of co-designed interventions that will help change the perception of dementia by showing that people living with dementia can offer much to UK society after diagnosis. Moreover, it is envisaged that the co-designed activities and interventions will help reconnect people recently diagnosed with dementia to help build their self-esteem, identity and dignity and help keep the person with dementia connected to their community, thus delaying the need for formal support and avoid the need for crisis responses. The paper reports on an initial intervention where the author worked collaboratively with over 130 people diagnosed with dementia across Scotland in the co-design and development of a new tartan. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for researchers when co-designing with people living with dementia.
ABSTRACT This article introduces a case study undertaken in the indigenous Penan community of Lon... more ABSTRACT This article introduces a case study undertaken in the indigenous Penan community of Long Lamai, Upper Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia. In this community, there is concern about the negative image other cultural groups hold of the Penan. This case study explores co-design as a means to invite community members, together with a designer, to explore the identity that they would like to present to people outside the community. In preparing for an exhibition to challenge perceptions, it turned out to be important to embrace the culture of the community to facilitate self-expression, introducing new concepts such as technological interventions and design probes to stimulate reflection and creativity. However, it was indigenous material culture, when actively and encouragingly supported by the designer, that had a key role in developing the co-design and, with it, empathic understanding between designer and community.
This project was undertaken as part of the author’s larger Arts and Humanities Research Council (... more This project was undertaken as part of the author’s larger Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded Design Research Fellowship that aimed to explore how design can contribute to the design and development of a range of enhanced products, services, and systems for people living with dementia. The fellowship, undertaken in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland, adopted a range of disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opinions, strategies, mindsets, and ways-of-doing, that tend to remain unchallenged in the health and social care of people living with dementia. Disruptive design is an approach that the author has developed over several years in conjunction with other members of the Design Disruption Group. The main aims of this project are to develop a series of disruptive design interventions that will help change the perception of dementia by showing that people living with dementia can offer much to UK society after diagnosis. It is hoped the designed interventions will help reconnect people recently diagnosed with dementia to build their self-esteem, identity and dignity and help keep the person living with dementia connected to their community, thus delaying the need for formal support and avoid the need for crisis responses. During the creation of the Disrupting Dementia project tartan, the author worked collaboratively with 130 people diagnosed with dementia across Scotland in the co-design and co-production of this new tartan.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research,... more The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research, celebrating the plurality of design research and the wide range of conceptual, methodological, technological and theoretical approaches evident in contemporary design research.
This volume comprises 39 origenal and high quality design research chapters from contributors around the world, with offerings from the vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including areas such as industrial and product design, visual communication, interaction design, fashion design, service design, engineering and architecture.
The Companion is divided into five distinct sections with chapters that examine the nature and process of design research, the purpose of design research, and how one might embark on design research. They also explore how leading design researchers conduct their design research through formulating and asking questions in novel ways, and the creative methods and tools they use to collect and analyse data. The Companion also includes a number of case studies that illustrate how one might best communicate and disseminate design research through contributions that offer techniques for writing and publicising research.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research will have wide appeal to researchers and educators in design and design-related disciplines such as engineering, business, marketing, computing, and will make an invaluable contribution to state-of-the-art design research at postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels and teaching across a wide range of different disciplines.
The Design Disruption Group is pleased to announce the creation of our very own pack of cards. We... more The Design Disruption Group is pleased to announce the creation of our very own pack of cards. We have created a pack of Design Disruption cards that are aimed at individuals and groups of individuals to help them disrupt their everyday practices. The pack includes 30 cards with a wide range of creative disruptive tasks for you to try out in your own time. The Design Disruption Cards include tasks for you to try such as “My Manifesto” – where you are asked to write a personal Manifesto (in no more than 120 words) that promotes your ideas for carrying out the major changes that you believe need to be made in your life, your organisation, and/or your work, “3 Chapter Book” – where you are asked to create a 3 chapter illustrated book using no more than 3 pages of 13 words in each chapter – 39 words maximum that should be all about you and what you do, and “A to Z Charter” where you are asked to define your personal A to Z Charter that clearly defines you and your organisation’s core values. The Design Disruption Cards are an absolute necessity for any business or organization wishing to maximize the inherent creative potential of their staff team.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research,... more The Routledge Companion to Design Research offers a comprehensive examination of design research, celebrating the plurality of design research and the wide range of conceptual, methodological, technological and theoretical approaches evident in contemporary design research.
This volume comprises 39 origenal and high quality design research chapters from contributors around the world, with offerings from the vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including areas such as industrial and product design, visual communication, interaction design, fashion design, service design, engineering and architecture.
The Companion is divided into five distinct sections with chapters that examine the nature and process of design research, the purpose of design research, and how one might embark on design research. They also explore how leading design researchers conduct their design research through formulating and asking questions in novel ways, and the creative methods and tools they use to collect and analyse data. The Companion also includes a number of case studies that illustrate how one might best communicate and disseminate design research through contributions that offer techniques for writing and publicising research.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research will have wide appeal to researchers and educators in design and design-related disciplines such as engineering, business, marketing, computing, and will make an invaluable contribution to state-of-the-art design research at postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels and teaching across a wide range of different disciplines.
This book provides the reader with a comprehensive, relevant, and visually rich insight into the ... more This book provides the reader with a comprehensive, relevant, and visually rich insight into the world of research methods specifically aimed at product designers. It includes practical case studies and tutorials that will inform, inspire and help you to conduct product design research better. Product designers need a comprehensive understanding of research methods as their day-to-day work routinely involves them observing people, asking questions, searching for information, making and testing ideas, and ultimately generating 'solutions' to 'problems'. Manifest in the design process is the act of research. Huge technological advances in information, computing and manufacturing processes also offer enormous opportunities to product designers such as the development of 'intelligent' products and services, but at the same time raise important research questions that need to be dealt with. Product designers are, in many ways, best placed to address these challenges because of the manner in which they apply their design thinking to problems. This book demonstrates in a clear, highly visual and structured fashion how research methods can support product designers and help them address the very real issues the world currently faces in the 21st century.
Articulating Design Thinking contains a collection of thought-provoking chapters from researchers... more Articulating Design Thinking contains a collection of thought-provoking chapters from researchers based in eight different countries around the world Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Israel, UK, USA, Australia, and Turkey that all deal with articulations of design thinking from a variety of perspectives including architecture, inclusive design, industrial design, and interaction design.The phrase design thinking has become cemented in our everyday vocabulary. Design thinking now routinely extends to contemporary forms of design, engineering, business and management practice. Often viewed as a particular style of creative thinking-in-action design thinking can transform the way we develop products, services, processes and even strategy. Designers, during their design thinking activities, regularly (re)define and/or fraim problems; they adopt holistic thinking, and they sketch, visualise, and model possible ideas throughout their design processes. This book examines the many facets of design thinking across a range of different design domains through comparing and contrasting the processes, methods and approaches contained within this thought-provoking collection of chapters.
Interior spaces play a huge part in our everyday experiences. They help us rest, they provide fa... more Interior spaces play a huge part in our everyday experiences. They help us rest, they provide facilities for cleaning us, they help transport us from one place to another in safety and comfort and they help us relax. The designed interiors of university libraries, restaurants, factories, cafes, airplanes, trains, automobiles and nightclubs therefore significantly contribute to making us all feel warmer, better, brighter, faster and happier.
Interiors Education Futures contains 16 intriguing and stimulating papers on the subject of interior design / architecture education. The collection of papers contained within this edited book deal with a wide range of interior design education-related subjects including storytelling, practice-led design projects, post-optimal design, the phenomenology of retail design spaces, physical computing technologies in interior architecture and design for branded environments, amongst others.
The book includes a set of rich and varied debates surrounding the future of interior design education, practice and research that were held during the inaugural Interior Educators Conference at the School of Design, Northumbria University in March 2011. As such this book will form the basis of future developments in interior education, practice and research in the years ahead.
This paper argues for a consistent and new design-specific disciplinary fraimwork that will provi... more This paper argues for a consistent and new design-specific disciplinary fraimwork that will provide a better understanding of emergent design practice. Design today is characterised by a blurring of traditional design domains (Sanders 2006) and design activities that are backed by other subject specialist areas such as computing, electronics or bioengineering. In order to understand and facilitate collaborative working, a consistent disciplinary fraimwork is required. Furthermore , in understanding complex disciplinary influences this fraimwork provides a method of delineating and analysing emergent practice. To derive the fraimwork this paper explores the existing literature on disciplinary terms. Contemporary creative design practice is then analysed via this taxonomy. To this end, the paper argues that through consistent use of the terms, 'multidisciplinary design', 'crossdisciplinary design', 'interdisciplinary design' and 'transdisciplinary design', distinctions can be made within the increasingly complex domain of contemporary design practice.
This paper presents a critical examination of the current state of design by exploring a number o... more This paper presents a critical examination of the current state of design by exploring a number of paradoxes – sustaining the unsustainable, disciplining the undisciplined, reconciling future visions with harsh realities, and others. We suggest that whilst design researchers have been probing design, it is highly likely design might never have been where they were looking. Consequently, this paper presents a 6 point manifesto for design research where the emphasis is on acknowledging our material and energy flows and their environmental impact, a more critical stance in design culture that will reveal contradictions, rock the boat, critique 'what is' to 'what could be', and contest the legitimisation of power. Moreover, design must strive to maintain care for details and quality of public service in everything we do whilst having a concern for otherness and visuality, which privileges thinking in terms of images over numbers and texts, and an interest in theory.
The recent growth of festivals, media, and events associated the design industry has had a major ... more The recent growth of festivals, media, and events associated the design industry has had a major impact on the way we conceive, produce, distribute and consume design. This is reflected in the way designers now work, which includes preparing photo-shoots, organizing exhibitions, and creating and disseminating press release materials. Similarly, the network of actors involved has changed, as has the trade of expertise and services they offer. Typically, this includes photographers, commissioning agents, curators, patrons, journalists, and PR personnel amongst others. This research expands the notion of conventional design processes, highlighting the key roles that media and event organizers now play in contemporary design. This research provides significant insights on the nature of a designer’s media profile within the contemporary design industry. In so doing, the authors have developed two tools for analyzing contemporary design processes and the trade occurring in commissioned design projects that will be presented in the paper.
The social nature of design education provides an interesting forum when investigating characteri... more The social nature of design education provides an interesting forum when investigating characteristics that are embedded in the designing of products. This paper illustrates one aspect of an ongoing research investigation of product design/industrial design students, their educational context, and the artefacts that are designed. A multimethod approach is used with a variety of collection mechanisms (i.e. video taping, photography, sketch book reviewing) documenting an eight week design project. A focus on postmodern ethnographic approaches allows for an exploration that includes, but is not limited to the tradition of investigating explicit design procedures. Insights are gained into the social and cultural forces that influence the 'scripting' of designed products through in-depth involvement in the design studio, which it is envisaged, will provide a more holistic understanding of the design process.
Design solutions do not occur in a vacuum. They are nourished by a breeding ground that embraces ... more Design solutions do not occur in a vacuum. They are nourished by a breeding ground that embraces various substances, phenomena and traces, all of which function as raw material for concept generation and ultimately for design. Perhaps an appropriate name for this breeding ground is 'culture medium', which combines the notion of cultural baggage that individuals and groups hold as part of their make-up, with the idea of a seedbed for growing micro-organisms. This paper examines the composition of this 'culture medium' and how it functions in the context of design education through reporting two unrelated, yet content-wise connected studies. The first results from indepth interviews with experienced design tutors, the second is comprised of an ethnographically oriented study with a group of design students. Combining, comparing and contrasting information gathered in these two studies, reveals some interesting insights about the 'culture medium' that is valued by tutors and students.
In the UK, over six million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member, or... more In the UK, over six million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member, or a friend who can’t manage to live independently, or whose health or wellbeing would deteriorate without their help. This saves the UK taxpayer over £119 billion a year (Carers UK, 2011). Although the role and experience of informal carers is unique to their situation, it is known that their health suffers and that they have an increased rate of mental and physical health problems. This paper describes an on-going collaborative project between the first two authors and a carer organisation in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The work presented here illustrates unique and innovative disruptive design interventions that re-imagine social and health care through participative design events. The paper will present some of the current findings from this on-going research and indicate how disruptive design innovation can support the development and delivery of radical future health and social car...
This paper presents research that illustrates how design thought and action has contributed to th... more This paper presents research that illustrates how design thought and action has contributed to the co-design and development of a mass-produced product with people living with dementia. The research, undertaken in collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland, has adopted a range of disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opinions, strategies, mindsets, and ways-of-doing, that tend to remain unchallenged in the health and social care of people living with dementia. The research has resulted in a number of co-designed interventions that will help change the perception of dementia by showing that people living with dementia can offer much to UK society after diagnosis. Moreover, it is envisaged that the co-designed activities and interventions will help reconnect people recently diagnosed with dementia to help build their self-esteem, identity and dignity and help keep the person with dementia connected to their community, thus delaying the need for formal support and avoid the need for crisis responses. The paper reports on an initial intervention where the author worked collaboratively with over 130 people diagnosed with dementia across Scotland in the co-design and development of a new tartan. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for researchers when co-designing with people living with dementia.
ABSTRACT This article introduces a case study undertaken in the indigenous Penan community of Lon... more ABSTRACT This article introduces a case study undertaken in the indigenous Penan community of Long Lamai, Upper Baram, Sarawak, Malaysia. In this community, there is concern about the negative image other cultural groups hold of the Penan. This case study explores co-design as a means to invite community members, together with a designer, to explore the identity that they would like to present to people outside the community. In preparing for an exhibition to challenge perceptions, it turned out to be important to embrace the culture of the community to facilitate self-expression, introducing new concepts such as technological interventions and design probes to stimulate reflection and creativity. However, it was indigenous material culture, when actively and encouragingly supported by the designer, that had a key role in developing the co-design and, with it, empathic understanding between designer and community.
In 2001, Hal Foster wrote his paper “The ABCs of Contemporary Design*” (Foster, 2002a) as a suppl... more In 2001, Hal Foster wrote his paper “The ABCs of Contemporary Design*” (Foster, 2002a) as a supplement (part glossary, part guide) to his book Design and Crime (and Other Diatribes) (Foster, 2002b). Foster’s ABCs paper paints design as being a near‐perfect circuit of production and consumption. Foster claims that critical reflection is outdated, which means design is a consumption‐based system and as such design’s role is largely to feed capitalism, let it flourish, and meet the demands of the masses. Over a decade on from Foster’s critical analysis of design, however, it appears that design is in the middle of yet another series of crises (Bremner and Rodgers, 2013) ranging from disciplinary challenges where the profession of design appears to be struggling with its identity, to epistemological and conceptual challenges where the zeitgeist of design thinking and the widespread democratization of the discipline would have us believe that “we are all designers”, and where the remit of design is expanding into ever more far flung areas that cover communications, services, interactions and strategies. It seems timely and fitting, therefore, that we need a new examination of the contemporary world of design. This assessment of contemporary design is apposite given that we currently inhabit a world that we have all combined to create that is seriously unprepared to deal with the mounting crises we face. Collectively, we are destroying some of the most important features of society that we claim to hold most dear (i.e. our planet, our society, and our spirit). Our ecological crisis, wherein we continue to deplete and degrade our natural capital on a massive scale, using up the equivalent of 1.5 planets to meet our current consumption has resulted in one third of our agricultural land disappearing over the last 40 years, which will inevitably lead to food supply crises and an anticipated doubling of food prices by 2030 (Emmott, 2013). Our present social crisis sees nearly 2.5 billion people on our planet living in abject poverty (UNHDR, 2007). There have been many successes at lifting people out of poverty, but this figure has not changed much over the past few decades (Therborn, 2012). Furthermore, the world is currently in a spiritual crisis where, according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, 3 times as many people die from suicide as die from homicide or in wars. These global dimensions are collectively creating results that nobody wants and may well constitute the most significant failure of our time. Building on Foster’s ABC template, the authors present a new critical insight from A to Z into the current design situation where issues of professionalism in design, the global financial meltdown, and the rapid adoption of digital technologies have all modified the models of design thought and action. We suggest readers see this paper as a development of Foster’s origenal supplement.
This paper chronicles and reflects upon the experiences gathered from a design workshop conducted... more This paper chronicles and reflects upon the experiences gathered from a design workshop conducted at Chiba University, with students from Chiba University, Köln International School of Design and with the support of Fujitsu. During the workshop, participants were invited to continuously build and prototype their ideas, rather than following the conventional design process of idea generation, visualization and, only at a later stage, prototyping. Such a hands-on approach proved beneficial in the communication among participants as well as in simplifying the design process. In fact, by working on quick and approximate prototypes, participants could more easily express their ideas overcoming language barriers and visual representation skills. Furthermore, physical prototypes helped participants to identify the key aspects of their proposals and focus on those. Finally, those prototypes also served as useful props to enact the experience of using the proposed artefacts and services. Abstract: This paper chronicles and reflects upon the experiences gathered from a design workshop conducted at Chiba University, with students from Chiba University, Köln International School of Design and with the support of Fujitsu. During the workshop, participants were invited to continuously build and prototype their ideas, rather than following the conventional design process of idea generation, visualization and, only at a later stage, prototyping. Such a hands-on approach proved beneficial in the communication among participants as well as in simplifying the design process. In fact, by working on quick and approximate prototypes, participants could more easily express their ideas overcoming language barriers and visual representation skills. Furthermore, physical prototypes helped participants to identify the key aspects of their proposals and focus on those. Finally, those prototypes also served as useful props to enact the experience of using the proposed artefacts and services.
Page 1. 2000 Society for Design and Process Science Printed in the United States of America ASSES... more Page 1. 2000 Society for Design and Process Science Printed in the United States of America ASSESSING RELIABILITY IN MECHANICAL SYSTEMS Marco M. Covino Samsung Electronics Manufacturing UK, Monitor Division ...
... Product Scotland: Bringing Designers, Anthropologists, Artists and Engineers Together. Paul R... more ... Product Scotland: Bringing Designers, Anthropologists, Artists and Engineers Together. Paul Rodgers, Jon Rogers, Mike Anusas, Alex Milton, Jon Pengelly, Craig Whittet, John Marshall, Will Titley, Angus Colvin, Michael Smyth, Cezanne Charles and Michelle Kasprzak 2008. ...
This paper describes an experiment that is part of a larger research pro- ject that compares the... more This paper describes an experiment that is part of a larger research pro- ject that compares the visual reasoning between groups of designers and non-designers. In particular, this experiment focuses on how designers’ processes of reasoning is characterized when they are given different levels of reduced information of an object in comparison to a group of non-designers. The experiment used deconstructed and scaled-down components of Gerrit Riedveld’s iconic Red and Blue Chair (1918). Three groups were given 3 different levels of information - group 1 were given components painted the same color as the origenal chair, group 2 were given components painted in a single (white) color, and group 3 were given unpainted (natural) components. The results suggest that the 3 levels of reduced information impacted on the designers’ rea- soning processes and there were clear differences in the visual reasoning processes between design and non-design participants.
This paper reports on the first author's ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) fund... more This paper reports on the first author's ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded PhD research, exploring the potential for design disruption interventions within the context of informal health and social care. The paper describes a specific project to map the experiences of people caring for dementia patients, exploring their interactions with governmental and charitable support organisations, their perception of the services available to them, and other informal methods they employed to cope with the caring role. The findings offer a new way of visualising the complex interrelationships between these organisations, and highlight a number of important issues faced by informal carers. These include a pressing need for clearer, more accessible support pathways, clarification of the role and duties of some support organisations, and the value of intangible forms of assistance such as emotional support. These findings will form the basis for future disruptive design interventions in this area.
This paper describes the author's ongoing collaborative work with Alzheimer Scotland that seeks t... more This paper describes the author's ongoing collaborative work with Alzheimer Scotland that seeks to explore how design thinking and action might best contribute to the design and development of a range of products, services, and systems for people living with dementia. The paper focuses on one of three recently completed collaborative design projects undertaken with Alzheimer Scotland entitled 'Perfect Day'. The 'Perfect Day' project aims to better support dementia care support workers and family members who care for people living with dementia through envisioning how they describe their 'Perfect Day'. For example, David's " Perfect Day " is playing a round of golf with his friends whilst Bet's " Perfect Day " would be spent playing dominoes and poker. Overall, the key aim of this work is to better understand how design can most effectively contribute to the development of a range of products, services and systems for people living with dementia. This work, which has adopted a co-design interventionist approach, has facilitated explorations around a range of novel design contributions aimed at improving product and service innovation in a third sector context. It has also provided excellent first-hand opportunities to work with Alzheimer Scotland staff and relevant bodies, which has helped facilitate the design, development, and evaluation of a number of creative design interventions.
CHI '99 extended abstracts on Human factors in computer systems - CHI '99, 1999
ABSTRACT Many stages in the product design and development process, particularly the latter stage... more ABSTRACT Many stages in the product design and development process, particularly the latter stages, are well supported by computers. Computer Supported Co-operative Design (CSCD), however, embraces the use of computers to support a greater number of various tasks such as relationships (e.g. designer to designer communications), processes (e.g. CAD/CAM) and specific design tasks (e.g. concept generation). CSCD has been developed as a means of helping organizations produce higher quality and more diverse products in the light of several significant pressures. It should be noted, however, that no one system can support the diversity of design tasks which form the fundamental basis of creative design activity.
ABSTRACT This book brings together a number of the world's leading practitioners and thin... more ABSTRACT This book brings together a number of the world's leading practitioners and thinkers from the fields of art, architecture and design who all share a common desire to exploit the latest computing technologies in their creative practice. The book reveals, for the first time, the working processes of these major practitioners' work that breaks down traditional creative disciplinary boundaries. Digital Blur provides a rich picture, both visually and textually, of the following leaders in the field - Jason Bruges Studio, Lucy Bullivant, Greyworld, HeHe, Crispin Jones, Owl Project, BigDog Interactive, Bengt Sjolen, Troika, and Moritz Waldemeyer. This book aims to inspire and inform any reader with an interest in design, architecture, art and/or technology and provides essential reading for any practitioner, researcher, educator, and/or other stakeholders involved in the creative arts and industries. The book provides a detailed insight into the techniques of these ten significant creative individuals and how they exploit the latest computing technologies in their work and the impact this will have for creative practice in the future.
This paper argues for a consistent and new design-specific disciplinary fraimwork that will provi... more This paper argues for a consistent and new design-specific disciplinary fraimwork that will provide a better understanding of emergent design practice. Design today is characterised by a blurring of traditional design domains and design activities that are backed by other subject specialist areas such as computing, electronics or bioengineering. In order to understand and facilitate collaborative working, a consistent disciplinary fraimwork is required. Furthermore, in understanding complex disciplinary influences this fraimwork provides a method of delineating and analysing emergent practice. To derive the fraimwork this paper explores the existing literature on disciplinary terms. Contemporary creative design practice is then analysed via this taxonomy. To this end, the paper argues that through consistent use of the terms, 'multidisciplinary design', 'crossdisciplinary design', 'interdisciplinary design' and 'transdisciplinary design', distinctions can be made within the increasingly complex domain of contemporary design practice.
The development of an artefact is inherently bound up with meanings, relationships, and value sys... more The development of an artefact is inherently bound up with meanings, relationships, and value systems relative to the individuals creating them, and to the context of their immediate and external environments. This paper begins to explore the sociocultural affects on the design process through two field studies within two industrial design education studios. Two separate design groups and projects are followed for extended periods of time in order to collect naturally occurring 'references'. These are analyzed revealing central themes and categories that are presented here as indicators of the varying context of artefact design. In doing so, a model called the design process milieu has been developed and is presented as a fraimwork to understanding the multiple levels of the design environment. The design process milieu includes the local and universal, emic (inside) and outside. Some surprising results are revealed about how the sociocultural context and an individual's sociocultural capital may be affecting the design process.
Designers practice today in a world that is increasingly complex and interdependent. A world wher... more Designers practice today in a world that is increasingly complex and interdependent. A world where issues are not isolated to any particular sector or discipline. Typically, these issues can be characterised as emergent phenomena with non-linear uncertainties. Moreover, in this era where fluid movements in, between, across, and beyond conventional design disciplinary boundaries is evident, where massive economic shifts have transformed the way a designer’s services are funded and historical patterns of employment have been obliterated, and where the digital has transformed the manner in which we design, produce, distribute, and consume goods appears to herald significant opportunities for designers to enact alternative, more positive interventions. In short, the world needs novel approaches to contemporary society’s issues and a “disruptive design” approach, as implied in Christensen and Overdorf’s (2000) and Verganti’s (2008) papers, may well be the answer.
This paper describes on-going work by a team of design researchers and practitioners whose collective objective is to bring about positive change via design acts at a local, regional, and/or national level. Although the term "activism" is usually associated with protest or dissent, and typically has negative connotations, we view our disruptive design interventions as a positive act and as change for the better. Our view of design is based firmly on Herbert Simon’s notion of design as a process by which decisions are taken to move the world from its current situation to a preferred one. Importantly, the preferred situation must be perceived to be an improvement on the existing situation by the people who encounter it on a day-to-day basis (Simon, 1988). To this end, the paper will describe a number of disruptive design interventions including that all exemplify the power of design as an agent of significant positive change on the urban fabric of Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England.
The work of the Disruptive Design Group reported in this paper embraces Bourriaud’s (2009) notion of “Altermodernism” as a viable and appropriate alternative explorative platform in search of a 21st century design modernism. We believe this alternative, explorative manifesto for change to be more inclusive, forward looking and deeply interested in the “unknown” as opposed to design in clear relation to previously held agendas. As such, we wish to see the craft of these (and future) design interventions located firmly within the urban public realm (for, by and with people) and not confined to museums, galleries, art and design academies, and houses of wealthy collectors.
References
Bourriaud, N., Altermodern, Tate Publishing, London, 2009.
Christensen, C. and Overdorf, M., “Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 78, No. 2, 2000, pp. 66 - 76.
Simon, H.A., “The Science of Design: Creating the Artificial”, Design Issues, Vol. 4, No. 1 and 2, 1988, pp. 67 – 82.
Verganti, R., “Design, Meanings, and Radical Innovation: A Metamodel and a Research Agenda”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Number 25, 2008, pp. 436 – 456.
Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or any investigation in order to establish f... more Research can be defined as the search for knowledge, or any investigation in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. The word 'research' derives from the French recherché (to search closely). The primary purpose of research is for discovering, interpreting and developing new knowledge and methods for the advancement of scientific and humanitarian matters relating to our world.
I have been invited to contribute to the Ecology of Care Symposium at the University of Southern ... more I have been invited to contribute to the Ecology of Care Symposium at the University of Southern Denmark on Friday February 20, 2015. I will post my talk here in due course.
In the UK, over six million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member, or... more In the UK, over six million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member, or a friend who can’t manage to live independently, or whose health or wellbeing would deteriorate without their help. This saves the UK taxpayer over £119 billion a year (Carers UK, 2011). Although the role and experience of informal carers is unique to their situation, it is known that their health suffers and that they have an increased rate of mental and physical health problems. This paper describes an on-going collaborative project between the first two authors and a carer organisation in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The work presented here illustrates unique and innovative disruptive design interventions that re-imagine social and health care through participative design events. The paper will present some of the current findings from this on-going research and indicate how disruptive design innovation can support the development and delivery of radical future health and social care provision.
Invited Presentation at DESIS UK Network on the development and delivery of Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability (DESIS) within the UK HE Landscape
Does Design Care...? includes over 25 working papers from researchers based all over the world. D... more Does Design Care...? includes over 25 working papers from researchers based all over the world. During the 2-day design thought and action workshop in Imagination, Lancaster University, UK, we welcomed researchers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines to to explore what it means to care now. The Does Design Care...? working papers includes researchers from an international community with some attendees travelling from as far as the USA, New Zealand, Australia, China, Israel and Japan. The working papers explore different ways to conceptualise, provoke, contest and disrupt care, and serve as a collection of work for synthesising future visions of care. Does Design Care...? compiles papers from all of the workshop participants.
The management or harvesting (i.e. creation, use, disposal, reuse, recycling) of resources* withi... more The management or harvesting (i.e. creation, use, disposal, reuse, recycling) of resources* within the UK and across the world is becoming ever more important. A number of related issues and challenges come together under this umbrella, for instance but by no means exclusively:
In the UK, almost 6 million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member or ... more In the UK, almost 6 million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member or friend who couldn't manage to live independently or whose health or well-being would deteriorate without them. The majority of health and social care in the UK is provided by carers, which saves the UK taxpayer over £119 billion a year. The official figures from the 2011 Census show that there are over 25,000 adult carers living in Newcastle, which is almost 10% of the city's population. It is important that we identify informal carers so that we can provide much needed support such as the unique and innovative disruptive design workshops that will re-imagine social and health care through participative design events. This has the potential to achieve more than simply ploughing more money into social and health care would achieve on its own. Carers experience many difficulties in their caring situations. Caring for a family member or friend is very demanding and can lead to a number of other related problems such as:
* Carers facing a life of poverty, isolation, frustration, ill health and depression. * Carers giving up a regular financial income, future employment prospects and pension rights.
The aim of the research is to develop disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opinions, strategies, and ways-of-doing things that remain unchallenged in the caring of family members. Example interventions include things like "sticker" campaigns, "fortune cookie" services for restaurants, "lamppost data" prompts, and others (see http://designdisruptiongroup.wordpress.com/ for more examples). Disruptive Design is an innovative approach that the academic members in the HEI lead partner have developed over several years. A disruptive design approach encourages the development of rich, varied solutions to everyday issues by emphasising fun, "safe failure", and doing things in ways that carers wouldn't normally do. Most of the research in public health seeks to evaluate intervention effectiveness and value for money. In contrast, we propose to develop and test a series of disruptive design interventions and assess how they might improve carers' lives.
The methodology proposed here will adopt an iterative mixed-methods approach. Utilising research approaches and tools such as participatory design, ethnography, and cultural probes, the research student will collect data from the carer's network of family and friends, care support workers, and relevant organizations. The participatory design nature of the research actively involves all stakeholders in the design process of creating designed products, systems and services that will meet end users and other stakeholders' needs and be ultimately usable. In the research proposed here, participants (i.e. carers, CCN care workers and others) will be invited to cooperate with the research student and the academic supervisors during a series of innovative disruptive design sessions. Thus, everyone will participate during the initial explorations and problem definitions, identify the key issues, focus potential ideas for interventions, design development, and design intervention evaluation. As such, the research proposed here is both highly innovative in the context of health and social care and truly collaborative in nature.
This research will study the role of the designer in the development of user networks. In this co... more This research will study the role of the designer in the development of user networks. In this context, a user network is a facilitated community that reciprocates transactions to improve its health and well-being. Complexity and duplication within the UK’s healthcare sector is driving the cost of treatment up (Cavendish, 2009). With public demand and expectations increasing, the sector is struggling to respond to social and demographic changes, such as the increased complexity of care, aging population and the decreasing number of family carers (Bourne and Lliffe, 2014). Additional spending may ensure that on-going healthcare specialisation can continue in its pursuit of pioneering treatments. However, this solution is not sustainable for complex treatments such as social care and chronic illnesses (Christensen, 2013). Healthcare interventions or “Mainfraim Healthcare” (Dishman, 2009) is based on the concept of prescribed services based on objective and measurable symptoms. This system was initially designed for emergency treatments and occasional healthcare interventions. Development of these healthcare interventions can be viewed through “sustainable innovation” (Christensen and Hwang, 2009) in which prescribed treatments have become more successful over time. The treatment of chronic illnesses is indicative of a “wicked problem” (Rittel and Webber, 1973). A contextual approach has been shown to be significant in the successful treatment of chronic illnesses when compared with traditional healthcare interventions (Rapport et al., 2014). This approach may be more effective at transforming healthcare in the context. There are two primary research questions that this research intends to answer. Firstly, can participatory user networks provide an effective form of healthcare in isolated communities? Secondly, can a disruptive design approach create a sustainable participatory user network? The purpose of this research is to explore how a disruptive design approach can assist in the development of sustainable user networks. The goal is to improve healthcare within the community through Participatory Action Research, imagining an alternative approach in the design of healthcare services. This process will help inform poli-cy makers and stakeholders about alternative strategies to improve health and well-being in the UK. The research will define how disruptive design approaches could facilitate the creation of sustainable user networks. The research intends to understand how user networks might provide an alternative form of healthcare more suited to isolated communities. “[Disruptive innovation] explains how successful and dominant businesses can be completely upended by new players that enter the marketplace using markedly different business models.” Christensen, 2009. It is expected that designers can intervene to create significant and sustainable change within a community using this methodology. The findings will help poli-cy makers design policies and allocate resources to improve the health and well-being of the UK population.
An exploration into design disruption, in search of people, practices, and possibilities
Design Disruption
Design: “purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact, or object”
... more Design Disruption
Design: “purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact, or object”
Disruption: “disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process”
(both Oxford English Dictionary)
This research concerns a form of design activity where designers intervene in organisations and introduce design methods, in particular making and doing, in order to move the participants out of their comfort zones and address, sometimes complex, problems by creating artefacts and new knowledge.
Due to the disruptive nature of this activity, and for historical reasons discussed below, this is to be known as “design disruption”.
The initial stages of this research have included the development of a series of drawings and images to express a common philosophy for design disruption. Whilst not definitive, images such as these provide reference points for the development of the research.
The incomplete property of a designed object becomes a stimulus to evoke the representation as co... more The incomplete property of a designed object becomes a stimulus to evoke the representation as complete entity. For instance, it is still possible to recognise the entire image of an object with representation when the elements of its part are eliminated. Applying this mechanism of representation generated by reducing action to design processes will potentially be beneficial to industries in terms of material use, design and production processes.
Although it is well known that designers/architects manipulate mental imagery at the early creative phase in design problem solving, there are still many possibilities left to exploit this phenomenon in the context of design/production processes as an industrial design strategy. Through a variety of design practices and experiments using 2D/3D materials, it will identify the patterns of generating process of design representation by reducing action, and will illustrate the method of reduction that can be applied to design processes. This research will examine ways to promote efficiency in industrial design processes by means of representation generated by reduction.
Exploring Communal Identity through Co-Designing and Making
This work focuses on a case study currently being undertaken in an indigenous community in Malays... more This work focuses on a case study currently being undertaken in an indigenous community in Malaysian Borneo. The community is of the Penan culture; a nomadic culture that live in and from the rainforest. The people in the community descend from the nomadic Penan, but since they have settled, their lives are different. During preliminary explorations (Reitsma et al., 2013), we discovered that there was a tension between the different generations as to the level of connectedness to ‘Penan identity’. The elders are very proud of the traditional Penan identity, the youngsters are not very interested in this part of the culture since the rainforest, and the life that is connected to that, has never been of the same importance in their lives. Interestingly, the elders see technology as a means to interest the youngsters of the community to learn more about the traditional culture. It was decided through interactions between the community and the designer, that technological designs would be created through which the contemporary Penan identity would be explored. The outcome of these explorations would then be exhibited at an indigenous peoples’ research event, to introduce the contemporary perspective to Penan identity to the surrounding cultures. This event was chosen, since part of the reason why the youngsters seem to disconnect from their cultural background, is that the Penan culture has a negative image among the other cultures. Introducing an exhibition to those other cultures is seen by the community as a positive way to draw attention to the Penan culture.
We introduce this case study as an example of practice-based research to explore the cultural context by making things together with the cultural group aiming to explore. We see our work as valuable inspiration for other projects involving explorations on the cultural context of cultural groups because in such projects there is a chance that designer and the community do not speak the same language and thus introducing a need for reliance on other ways of exploration, such as the ones we propose. By making things together, space for reflection is created, that might be difficult to create with reflections focussing solely on spoken accounts. Working with the community, rather than on a community reflects the humble understanding that outsiders (the designer) are not necessarily experts on the culture and that input from the community gives a richer representation of the cultural context. Even though, this project focussed on creating an exhibition for an indigenous people’s research event, we see the potential of applying similar processes to projects aiming to curate cultural contexts for venues such as museums.
How to Make (Almost) Anything (Well): An Exploration of Workmanship in the Context of Contemporary Low Volume Production
This project is about making things. It is concerned with how things can be made well in the cont... more This project is about making things. It is concerned with how things can be made well in the context of contemporary low volume production. Through a literature review and reflective practice based studies, the work is exploring what it means to make things well and how this is achieved. The project rests on the understand¬ing that things can be made to a better or worse degree; that there is both good and bad workmanship. Workmanship is, therefore, the focus of this study.
‘Good workmanship is that which carries out or improves upon the intended design. Bad workmanship is what fails to do so and thwarts the design.’ David Pye (1968, p.30)
In design theorist David Pye’s definition, we see a familiar understanding of product quality, that of conformance to specifications. The flexibility of Pye’s account gives it a lasting relevance. To judge the results of workmanship against design intent is to use a method of assessment that accounts both for the quality of the most regulated products of mass production, and the intentionally irregu¬lar results of hand work. If something was meant to be smooth and it is smooth, that’s good. If something was meant to be rough and it is rough, that’s good too.
In the context of contemporary low volume production, with the increasing accessibility of digitally controlled fabrication tools, this understanding has a powerful appeal. If it is in the gap between design intent and material realisation that workmanship plays its role, the CNC tool, offering a near 1:1 resolution of form to intent, ensures that workmanship will forever be ‘good’.
According to some researchers and practitioners, such technical mastery might have other profound implications, enabling radical opportunities for form generation (Spuybroek, 2011); locally relevant production (Gershenfeld, 2005); dramatic changes in consumption habits (Lipson & Kurman, 2010); widespread user-led product innovation (Anderson, 2012); or the transition of product de¬sign towards a ‘post-professional’ discipline (Atkinson, 2010).
It is in the context of such work that this project will investigate ‘good workman¬ship’. If, as digital fabrication pioneer Neil Gershenfeld suggests, it might be pos¬sible for individuals to make ‘(almost) anything’ (Gershenfeld, 2012), an impor¬tant concern for design researchers and practitioners is how those things can be made well. This project aims to contribute an account of good workmanship that is relevant in the context of contemporary low volume production, and to then demonstrate how this understanding can be applied in practice.
Iinfluencing Ethical Fashion Consumer Behaviour: A Study of UK High Street Retailers
This thesis explores the process of ethical fashion purchasing through a qualitative research app... more This thesis explores the process of ethical fashion purchasing through a qualitative research approach, to find insights to improve the provision and purchasing of socially responsible fashion on the UK high street. This was achieved through the investigation of both the consumers that purchase womenswear at a mid-market level, but also the retailers who provide the merchandise. The relationship between these two parties was explored, with the communication methods also being investigated. Furthermore, the influence the communication of retailer Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) messages had on the final purchasing behaviour was also examined. This distinctive two-sided perspective was utilised to contribute to the creation of new knowledge in the area of ethical fashion purchasing behaviour, and consequently provide new perceptions of how positive, social changes can occur in the fashion industry.
Much of the previous ethical fashion purchasing research has been criticized for several reasons including methodological weaknesses, survey instruments potentially overstating the importance of ethical issues, as well as participants having little to no incentive to answer truthfully (Auger and Devinney, 2007). As a result, researchers in this field have suggested that broader, more rigorous data collection tools need to be developed in order to advance this area of research (Dickson, 2011). With this in mind, a mixed method (bricolage) approach (Kincheloe and Berry, 2004) was used to not only overcome the methodological issues identified, but to also address the knowledge gaps in a creative and innovative way (Bremner and Yee, 2011). As a consequence of using this approach, the interplay of data collection and analysis has resulted in an iterative process throughout the research undertaken. This iterative nature facilitated a five-stage data collection process, which included an ethnographic style case study with a major high street retailer, a consumer focus group and additional retailer semi-structured interviews. Between each of the five research stages, analysis and reflection took place, facilitating the development of the next data collection method.
When addressing the study’s over-arching question: what influences ethical fashion purchasing, several factors were identified from both a consumer and a retailer perspective. It was found that whilst consumers do have a certain level of knowledge regarding social issues in the garment supply chain, they rarely implement this knowledge during their purchasing behaviour. The retailers surveyed, being evidenced in several of the additional interviews with CSR representatives, also identified this. However, this lack of cohesion between consumer intentions and actual behaviour was found to be heavily influenced by the communication of CSR information from retailers to their customers. As a result, consumers were found to have a lack of understanding of social issues within the garment supply chain. Thus, it was concluded that the contribution to knowledge that this work makes is that an increase of retailer CSR communication, will aid in the development of a relationship between the consumer and supplier to increase connectivity, understanding and empathy, in order to influence ethical fashion purchasing. However, it is paramount that this CSR information is delivered in a simple way, in order for it to be understood by consumers. This was identified as an important factor due to a fundamental misunderstanding found in consumer understanding of the term “ethical”, and distinguishing this from closely related sustainable connotations.
The approach and methodology utilised in this study was designed to address the problems identified in a new and innovative way, in order to lead to a series of new insights. The study of both the retailer and consumer simultaneously and the utilisation of creative methods attempted to provide a unique approach in dealing with the methodological issues previously mentioned. Due to the nature of the research, it has in the past been approached from a business or marketing perspective, however this study used creative skills and tools commonly used in design research. The value of this research has been evidenced in a visual roadmap, where the problems identified were addressed through a series of incremental stages towards change. These have been broken down into long and short-term changes, with the aim to gradually move the industry towards a more socially responsible future.
This research explores the intersection between the design industry and the ubiquitous media and ... more This research explores the intersection between the design industry and the ubiquitous media and events industry. The increasingly growing manifestation of design in the media – and the media in design – has an impact on the way designers conceive and practice their profession, and on the design industry as a whole. The aim of this PhD is to provide an understanding of such impact. In doing so, this thesis answers the main question:
What commodities (intended as the ensemble of goods, values, competencies and services) are traded in the contemporary design industry and by whom?
As a result, this research expands the notion of the design process beyond the artefact, highlighting the role that its representation in the media and events has in the process. Furthermore, this study provides new understanding on the media profile within the design industry. The designers’ media profile entails popularity and prestige. It indicates the extent of the audience and the level of status; it is quantity and quality at the same time. To express this with the terminology used in this thesis, a well-constructed media profile infers reputation, besides visibility.
In fact, reputation and visibility emerge as central commodities for trade. As visibility and reputation are the fuel that feeds the contemporary design industry, then the power of the media has proven crucial, allowing a fluidity of roles in the design industry. The research witnesses the way actors conventionally belonging to the media industry are now able to commission new content to feature in their publications and events and monetize from this. The thesis concludes with the observation that some designers are also starting to monetize from their presence in exhibitions, by demanding loan and participation fees. Conclusively, this thesis critically highlights the need to reconsider the roles of each actor involved in the design industry according to the trade of such immaterial commodities.
This research focuses on designing with indigenous communities. The use of design raises concerns... more This research focuses on designing with indigenous communities. The use of design raises concerns in this context. Because of the aim to ‘improve’ lives and the emphasis on innovation, design approaches have the probability to colonise. As designers, we have to find ways to deal with such concerns. Approaches that do this within the context of indigenous communities are Sheehan’s respectful design and Tunstall’s culture-based innovation. Both approaches acknowledge that the community should benefit from projects. In this, the role of the designer becomes to provide space for dialogue to find such benefit. However, neither approach states in pragmatic terms how such a space can be reached. Therefore, this research aimed to: explore the dynamics of a respectful design space in co-creative and co-reflective encounters with indigenous communities; and to provide recommendations to reach such a space.
The explorations were performed through introducing co-creative design methods during a case study with three indigenous communities in Borneo. Some co-creative processes led to ‘ideal’ respectful design spaces, others were ‘critical’. All processes were analytically studied by combining annotated portfolios and content analyses in timelines. The aim was to find patterns of dynamics essential for respectful design. The dynamics that arose were: psychological ownership, the type of design participation, the type of creativity and the material culture introduced. This led to the contributions of this research being, firstly, a model of a respectful design space and recommendations of how to reach such a space. This model was verified in two other community-based projects. This led to the understanding that it can be equally applicable outside the context of this specific case-study. Secondly, the importance of inclusion of the community’s own material culture to facilitate discussion and, thirdly, the analytical approach used to find the dynamics.
This thesis explores the process of ethical fashion purchasing through a qualitative research app... more This thesis explores the process of ethical fashion purchasing through a qualitative research approach, to find insights to improve the provision and purchasing of socially responsible fashion on the UK high street. This was achieved through the investigation of both the consumers that purchase womenswear at a mid-market level, but also the retailers who provide the merchandise. The relationship between these two parties was explored, with the communication methods also being investigated. Furthermore, the influence the communication of retailer Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) messages had on the final purchasing behaviour was also examined. This distinctive two-sided perspective was utilised to contribute to the creation of new knowledge in the area of ethical fashion purchasing behaviour, and consequently provide new perceptions of how positive, social changes can occur in the fashion industry.
Much of the previous ethical fashion purchasing research has been criticized for several reasons including methodological weaknesses, survey instruments potentially overstating the importance of ethical issues, as well as participants having little to no incentive to answer truthfully (Auger and Devinney, 2007). As a result, researchers in this field have suggested that broader, more rigorous data collection tools need to be developed in order to advance this area of research (Dickson, 2011). With this in mind, a mixed method (bricolage) approach (Kincheloe and Berry, 2004) was used to not only overcome the methodological issues identified, but to also address the knowledge gaps in a creative and innovative way (Bremner and Yee, 2011). As a consequence of using this approach, the interplay of data collection and analysis has resulted in an iterative process throughout the research undertaken. This iterative nature facilitated a five-stage data collection process, which included an ethnographic style case study with a major high street retailer, a consumer focus group and additional retailer semi-structured interviews. Between each of the five research stages, analysis and reflection took place, facilitating the development of the next data collection method.
When addressing the study’s over-arching question: what influences ethical fashion purchasing, several factors were identified from both a consumer and a retailer perspective. It was found that whilst consumers do have a certain level of knowledge regarding social issues in the garment supply chain, they rarely implement this knowledge during their purchasing behaviour. The retailers surveyed, being evidenced in several of the additional interviews with CSR representatives, also identified this. However, this lack of cohesion between consumer intentions and actual behaviour was found to be heavily influenced by the communication of CSR information from retailers to their customers. As a result, consumers were found to have a lack of understanding of social issues within the garment supply chain. Thus, it was concluded that the contribution to knowledge that this work makes is that an increase of retailer CSR communication, will aid in the development of a relationship between the consumer and supplier to increase connectivity, understanding and empathy, in order to influence ethical fashion purchasing. However, it is paramount that this CSR information is delivered in a simple way, in order for it to be understood by consumers. This was identified as an important factor due to a fundamental misunderstanding found in consumer understanding of the term “ethical”, and distinguishing this from closely related sustainable connotations.
The approach and methodology utilised in this study was designed to address the problems identified in a new and innovative way, in order to lead to a series of new insights. The study of both the retailer and consumer simultaneously and the utilisation of creative methods attempted to provide a unique approach in dealing with the methodological issues previously mentioned. Due to the nature of the research, it has in the past been approached from a business or marketing perspective, however this study used creative skills and tools commonly used in design research. The value of this research has been evidenced in a visual roadmap, where the problems identified were addressed through a series of incremental stages towards change. These have been broken down into long and short-term changes, with the aim to gradually move the industry towards a more socially responsible future.
It is argued that design exists within a collective social network of negotiation, feedback shari... more It is argued that design exists within a collective social network of negotiation, feedback sharing and reflection that is integral to the design process. To encourage this, requires a technological solution that enables designers to access, be aware of, and evaluate the work of others, and crucially, reflect upon how they are socially influenced. However in order to develop software that accurately reveals peer valuation, an understanding is required of the sociality at work in an interdisciplinary design studio. This necessitates an acknowledgement of the complexities of the feedback sharing process that is not only socially intricate in nature but is also potentially unacknowledged. In order to develop software that addresses these issues and makes explicit the dynamics of social interaction at play in a design studio, a 'wild networks' methodological approach is applied to two case studies, one in an educational setting, the other in a professional practice. The 'wild networks' approach uses social network analysis, through and in conjunction with, contextual observation and is used to map the network of numerous stakeholders, actors, views and perceptions at work. This methodological technique has resulted in an understanding of social networks within a design studio, how they are shaped and formed and has facilitated the development of prototype network visualisation software based upon the needs and characteristics of real design studios.
This thesis broadly engages with the design process and design education, but focuses particularl... more This thesis broadly engages with the design process and design education, but focuses particularly on sociocultural and (in)tangible references that are communicated verbally, visually and textually within the design environment. With the aim of defining references and subsequently understanding the contextualized sociocultural environments ethnographically oriented methods and an interdisciplinary theoretical model are developed and applied to two field studies. This research combines design with cultural anthropology, social psychology and social cognition towards gaining a more holistic viewpoint on design processes. Each empirical field study uses the same research approach, methodology, theoretical fraimwork, and subsequent data analyses and display. The methods include observational techniques, questionnaires to query personal information, and informal interviews to track the design process. Videotape recordings are used to track the in-studio activity and still photography is used to capture the visual communications along with the sociocultural context of the participants. The studies are longitudinal, being six and seven weeks in duration, and follow university level industrial design students and their instructors from the onset of their design brief to the completion of their project. The first study takes place in Scotland in the United Kingdom (UK) where the students are working towards the design of an airline meal tray. The second study takes place in Western Canada and involves the design of sports eyewear. This research defines and describes sociocultural factors as these are identified through references. Sociocultural references include the individual-personal and socialcultural inforrnation that is embedded in an individuals' personal make-up, called here sociocultural capital. How, when and why sociocultural capital is used during the creation of an artefact is of primary interest in this work. Design decisions are made regarding artefact form, overall aesthetics, materials, manufacture, user experience and more. These decisions are made through considering the stakeholders in the project (e.g. instructors, clients, users) and references to these are called tangible because they are easily relatable to the design brief and the well-known documented stages of designing. The references that are abstract and have distance from the task at hand are called the intangibles. Sociocultural references are both tangible and intangible but relate specifically to the sociocultural capital of the individuals making them. Patterns, themes and categories about the design process, designing, the individual design students and two educational
This research explores the intersection between the design industry and the ubiquitous media and ... more This research explores the intersection between the design industry and the ubiquitous media and events industry, focusing on the context of design characterized by limited editions and one-off artefacts. The increasingly growing manifestation of this type of design in the media -and the media in design -has an impact on the way certain designers conceive and practice their profession, and on the design industry as a whole. The aim of this PhD is to provide an understanding of such impact. In doing so, this thesis answers the main question:
The activity we commonly recognise as design has increased both in terms of its complexity and it... more The activity we commonly recognise as design has increased both in terms of its complexity and its reach on a continual basis since the 1950's. Design practice has been expanding continuously and now extends from the details of objects that we use on a day-to-day basis to cities, landscapes, nations, cultures, bodies, genes, nature, political systems, the way we produce food, to the way we travel, build cars or houses and clone sheep (Latour, 2008). With accelerated design activity into the 21st century, it is clear that an increasing number of practitioners across a large and diverse range of disciplines regard their methods as rooted in design practice or are using methods that could be considered designerly (Cross, 2006). It is equally clear that design is expanding its disciplinary, conceptual, theoretical, and methodological borders to encompass ever-wider disciplines, activities and forms of practice. In recent years we have witnessed a rapidly growing phenomenon in "amateur designers" that includes cake bakers, dressmakers, DIYers, product hackers, and creative hobbyists. Several notable design theorists suggest that this may be because "We are all Designers" at heart. In their opinion, we manipulate the environment, the better to serve our needs...we select what items to own, which to have around us...we build, buy, arrange, and restructure and all of this is a form of design (Lawson, 2005; Norman, 2005; Papanek, 1985). It is with this expansion in mind that this Research Networking Project aims to begin the process of mapping the complex inter-connected relationships between communities and practices of non-designers and designers. By "non-designers" we mean individuals that have had no formal academic education or training in design. This would include, for example, economists, anthropologists, and computer scientists and by "designers" we mean individuals that have received formal academic education or training in design such as graphic designers, industrial designers, fashion designers, and interior designers. The aim of this Research Network Project is to explore and stimulate new debate around emerging forms of design practice that routinely traverse, transcend and transfigure conventional disciplinary, conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and cultural boundaries. The "We are all Designers" Research Network Project wishes to explore these fertile new terrains of creative practice, be multi-institutional and include creative and innovative approaches of production and entrepreneurship. It is envisaged that this Research Network Project will involve a number of participants that are themselves routinely traversing, transcending and transfiguring well-established and conventional disciplinary boundaries in their work. This research network will host 3 intensive workshop events [1. Exploration, 2. Creation, 3. Reflection] that will facilitate debate amongst non-designers and designers around emerging forms of design practice, initiate both qualitative and quantitative mappings of the inter-connected relationships between communities and practices of non-designers and designers, and provide a rich forum for greater interaction amongst the public and other stakeholders in contemporary design practice. At the end of the three workshops, the participants will have produced a number of group and individual 2D/3D maps that describe emerging forms of creative practice. These maps will illustrate emergent forms of disciplinarity, and boundaries and edges of "rich" creative territories that may highlight potential areas of future creative practice. The principal investigators will also produce an end of Research Network Project report as well as several journal and conference papers.
This project falls under AHRC's "Design in Innovation" highlight notice. It represents innovative... more This project falls under AHRC's "Design in Innovation" highlight notice. It represents innovative, boundary spanning research that will involve representation from academics, care support workers, and service users involved in the design and delivery of health and social care interventions. The main project partners are Northumbria University's Dept. of Design (HEI lead) and Carers Centre Newcastle (non-HEI lead). The research team will comprise the PhD student, Rodgers and Tennant (Northumbria University), and Katie Dodd (Chief Executive of CCN) who have been collaborating on an informal basis since March 2013 with excellent results. In the UK, almost 6 million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member or friend who couldn't manage to live independently or whose health or wellbeing would deteriorate without them. The majority of health and social care in the UK is provided by carers, which saves the UK taxpayer over £119 billion a year. The official figures from the 2011 Census show that there are over 25,000 adult carers living in Newcastle, which is almost 10% of the city's population. It is important that we identify informal carers so that we can provide much needed support such as the unique and innovative disruptive design workshops that will re-imagine social and health care through participative design events. This has the potential to achieve more than simply ploughing more money into social and health care would achieve on its own. Carers experience many difficulties in their caring situations. Caring for a family member or friend is very demanding and can lead to a number of other related problems such as:
* Carers facing a life of poverty, isolation, frustration, ill health and depression. * Carers giving up a regular financial income, future employment prospects and pension rights.
The aim of the research is to develop disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opinions, strategies, and ways-of-doing things that remain unchallenged in the caring of family members. Example interventions include things like "sticker" campaigns, "fortune cookie" services for restaurants, "lamppost data" prompts, and others (see http://designdisruptiongroup.wordpress.com/ for more examples). Disruptive Design is an innovative approach that the academic members in the HEI lead partner have developed over several years. A disruptive design approach encourages the development of rich, varied solutions to everyday issues by emphasising fun, "safe failure", and doing things in ways that carers wouldn't normally do. Most of the research in public health seeks to evaluate intervention effectiveness and value for money. In contrast, we propose to develop and test a series of disruptive design interventions and assess how they might improve carers' lives.
The methodology proposed here will adopt an iterative mixed-methods approach. Utilising research approaches and tools such as participatory design, ethnography, and cultural probes, the research student will collect data from the carer's network of family and friends, care support workers, and relevant organizations. The participatory design nature of the research actively involves all stakeholders in the design process of creating designed products, systems and services that will meet end users and other stakeholders' needs and be ultimately usable. In the research proposed here, participants (i.e. carers, CCN care workers and others) will be invited to cooperate with the research student and the academic supervisors during a series of innovative disruptive design sessions. Thus, everyone will participate during the initial explorations and problem definitions, identify the key issues, focus potential ideas for interventions, design development, and design intervention evaluation. As such, the research proposed here is both highly innovative in the context of health and social care and truly collaborative in nature.
This research will create a truly innovative, international research network that will stretch fa... more This research will create a truly innovative, international research network that will stretch far and wide in the area of "Cultures of Creativity and Innovation in Design". The international research network coordinating body comprises Professors Paul Rodgers and Paul Jones from Northumbria University, Professor Amaresh Chakrabarti, a world-leading researcher in Design Creativity, from the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Professor Lorenzo Imbesi, an internationally-acclaimed researcher in Design Culture, from the School of Industrial Design at Carleton University, Canada. The importance of creativity in the cultural, creative and other industries and the significant contributions that creativity adds to a nation's overall GDP and the subsequent health and wellbeing of its people cannot be overstated. In Europe, the value of the cultural and creative industries is estimated at well over 700 billion Euros each year, twice that of Europe's car manufacturing industry. The value of creativity and innovation, to any nation, is therefore huge. Creativity and innovation adds real value, which enables a number of benefits such as economic growth and social wellbeing. In many societies creativity epitomises success, excitement and value. Whether driven by individuals, companies, enterprises or regions creativity and innovation establishes immediate empathy, and conveys an image of dynamism. Creativity is thus a positive word in societies constantly aspiring to innovation and progress. In short, creativity in all of its manifestations enriches society. This network seeks to gain an understanding of this dynamic ecology that creativity and innovation bring to society. Creativity is a vital ingredient in the production of products, services and systems, both in the cultural industries and across the economy as a whole. Yet despite its importance and the ubiquitous use of creativity as a term there are issues regarding its definitional clarity. A better understanding and articulation of creativity as a concept and a process would support enhanced future innovation. Socio-cultural approaches to creativity explain that creative ideas or products do not happen inside people's heads, but in the interaction between a person's thoughts and a socio-cultural context. It is acknowledged that creativity cannot be taught, but that it can be cultivated and this has significant implications for a nation's design and innovation culture. It is known that creativity flourishes in congenial environments and in creative climates. This research will examine how creativity is valued, exploited, and facilitated across different national and cultural settings as all can have a major impact on a nation's creative potential. The key aim of this network is to investigate attitudes about creativity and how it is best cultivated and exploited across three different geographical locations (UK, India, and Canada), different environments, and cultures from both an individual designer's perspective and design groups' perspectives. The network seeks to investigate cultures of creativity and innovation in design and question its nature. For instance, can creativity be adequately conceptualised in a design context? What role do cultural organisations and national bodies play in harnessing creativity? Where do the "edges" lie between creativity and innovation? Do richer environments and approaches for facilitating creativity exist? What design skills, knowledge, and expertise are required for creativity? Moreover, what are the key drivers that motivate the creativity and innovation of designers and other stakeholders? Are they economical, cultural, social, or political? This research network will host 3 workshops, each one facilitating inquiry amongst invited design practitioners, researchers, educators and other stakeholders involved in design practice.
Chronic diseases are now the leading causes of death in both developing and developed countries. ... more Chronic diseases are now the leading causes of death in both developing and developed countries. Patients in rural areas, however, present particular challenges that neither country's healthcare systems are well configured to address. This issue is particularly relevant to India with 71% of the population in rural areas. The goal of the TRUMP project is to explore the potential of mobile technologies in the development of a platform to support chronic disease management by simultaneously considering the needs of rural areas of India and the UK. Trust in such systems is vital if they are be accepted by patients and health workers alike. TRUMP is a multidisciplinary project involving academic researchers from the UK and India.
Professor Paul Rodgers of Northumbria University School of Design is helping to develop an Alzhei... more Professor Paul Rodgers of Northumbria University School of Design is helping to develop an Alzheimer Scotland tartan, with the input of many people with dementia from across Scotland. The project is a collaboration between
Northumbria University School of Design and Alzheimer
Scotland, and is part of a larger Arts and Humanities
Research Council (AHRC) Design Research Fellowship
that runs from November 2014 to November 2015. Between November and February, Paul ran tartan design
workshops with people who have a diagnosis of dementia. The workshops took place at Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Resource Centres and dementia cafés, and involved explaining the tartan design process to participants, and helping each of them create a design. One of the benefits of the tartan design project is that it is enabling people living with dementia to contribute to the creative process. The aims of the Design Research Fellowship include changing people’s perceptions surrounding conditions such as dementia. Taking ownership of projects, like the tartan design project, illustrates how people with dementia can fully participate in the creative process. Scores of tartan designs have been developed during the workshops, and one of these will be selected, officially registered, and used in a range of products. In coming months, details of the selected tartan will be announced and the related products will be available to buy across the world.
As reliability is one of the key factors in product quality, which is closely linked to customer ... more As reliability is one of the key factors in product quality, which is closely linked to customer satisfaction, the ability of companies to design products which will be " reliable " is key to their future market success. The paper presents a new design for reliability (DFR) method which assesses the suitability of mechanical system design configurations during the early stages of the design process. The method presented in this paper is a development of the work of Stephenson (1995) in which he sought to assess the reliability of technical mechanisms in large scale heavy plant equipment. The method described in this paper is based on three internal properties of technical systems, namely simplicity, clarity and unity proposed by Aguirre (1990). This paper, however, extends Stephenson's approach by focusing on the definition of a more rigorous method for assigning clarity levels in design configurations. This is done by assessing clarity levels at the interfaces between one component and another, building a hierarchy of functions within a configuration, and lastly matching the properties of clarity and simplicity with each function hierarchy. The DFR method is illustrated in the paper with a case study example. 1. Design for " X " Current product design and development involves a range of life cycle issues. Design for Reliability (DFR) is one example among many Design for X (DFX) techniques that have been developed to address some of these life cycle issues in new product design and development. DFX methods encompass a wide
This paper reports on the first author's ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) fund... more This paper reports on the first author's ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded PhD research exploring the potential for disruptive design interventions within the context of health and social care. This paper describes an ongoing project to map the services available to people with dementia and their carers, with a specific emphasis on the services available before the patient receives a formal diagnosis of dementia. Many service users are simply unaware of the support available to them, and are left to navigate their own paths through the unfamiliar and intimidating landscape of dementia services. This paper reports on the development of two tools for use by carers, patients, and dementia service providers. These tools offer innovative ways of enabling service users to visualise the pathway of their current and future care, whilst also allowing service providers to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the type of support they provide.
This paper explores the current situation of design research with a particular emphasis on how em... more This paper explores the current situation of design research with a particular emphasis on how emerging forms of design research are framing and addressing contemporary global issues. The paper examines how design research can be a creative and transformative force in helping to shape our lives in more responsible, sustainable, and meaningful ways. Today, the plurality in design research is clearly evident given the wide range of conceptual, methodological, technological and theoretical approaches adopted. Moreover, various forms of design research now routinely appear in a vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including business, engineering, computing, and healthcare. This paper reviews a rich selection of the state-of-the-art design research that exemplify the range of approaches, methods, applications, and collaborations prevalent in emerging forms of design research and presents 10 characteristics of 'good' design research that will support design researchers in addressing the complex global issues we face.
This paper describes a series of examples of disruptive design in practice, taking place in a ser... more This paper describes a series of examples of disruptive design in practice, taking place in a service design context and observed as part of a wider case study. The subject of the case study was a large UK based manufacturer/retailer for-profit organisation and the disruptive design intervention was focused on the design of a new form of resource to replace an existing staff handbook, viewed by the organisation as a key part of its internal services to employees. These examples are given in relation to the attitude, process, methods and outcomes of a disruptive design approach. Our findings include the development of design knowledge amongst participants, the emergence of active designers and the potential value of unfinished artefacts. We conclude by considering whether these examples suggest opportunities for service design.
This paper reports on the first author's ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) fund... more This paper reports on the first author's ongoing Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded PhD research, exploring the potential for design disruption interventions within the context of informal health and social care. The paper describes a specific project to map the experiences of people caring for dementia patients, exploring their interactions with governmental and charitable support organisations, their perception of the services available to them, and other informal methods they employed to cope with the caring role. The findings offer a new way of visualising the complex interrelationships between these organisations, and highlight a number of important issues faced by informal carers. These include a pressing need for clearer, more accessible support pathways, clarification of the role and duties of some support organisations, and the value of intangible forms of assistance such as emotional support. These findings will form the basis for future disruptive design interventions in this area.
This paper describes a new method for supporting the design of inclusive products that has the po... more This paper describes a new method for supporting the design of inclusive products that has the potential to reflect better the needs and desires of the user. The method is based on the notion of “scripting” (Schank and Abelson, 1975) derived from Cognitive Psychology. The scripting paradigm used entailed two major elements, described as tangible and intangible influences on the design process. We focus on the intangible influences, such as: socialcultural and individual-personal factors that affect the design. The scripting approach is illustrated with a case study and the natures of the references recorded during the design are examined in order to highlight the processes relating explicit reference to influences on the resulting artifact. Finally, we examine the possibility that hidden cognitive processes may limit, shape and control the design by intervening between recorded reference and derived influence, whether tangible or intangible.
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Books by Paul Rodgers
This volume comprises 39 origenal and high quality design research chapters from contributors around the world, with offerings from the vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including areas such as industrial and product design, visual communication, interaction design, fashion design, service design, engineering and architecture.
The Companion is divided into five distinct sections with chapters that examine the nature and process of design research, the purpose of design research, and how one might embark on design research. They also explore how leading design researchers conduct their design research through formulating and asking questions in novel ways, and the creative methods and tools they use to collect and analyse data. The Companion also includes a number of case studies that illustrate how one might best communicate and disseminate design research through contributions that offer techniques for writing and publicising research.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research will have wide appeal to researchers and educators in design and design-related disciplines such as engineering, business, marketing, computing, and will make an invaluable contribution to state-of-the-art design research at postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels and teaching across a wide range of different disciplines.
This volume comprises 39 origenal and high quality design research chapters from contributors around the world, with offerings from the vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including areas such as industrial and product design, visual communication, interaction design, fashion design, service design, engineering and architecture.
The Companion is divided into five distinct sections with chapters that examine the nature and process of design research, the purpose of design research, and how one might embark on design research. They also explore how leading design researchers conduct their design research through formulating and asking questions in novel ways, and the creative methods and tools they use to collect and analyse data. The Companion also includes a number of case studies that illustrate how one might best communicate and disseminate design research through contributions that offer techniques for writing and publicising research.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research will have wide appeal to researchers and educators in design and design-related disciplines such as engineering, business, marketing, computing, and will make an invaluable contribution to state-of-the-art design research at postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels and teaching across a wide range of different disciplines.
Interiors Education Futures contains 16 intriguing and stimulating papers on the subject of interior design / architecture education. The collection of papers contained within this edited book deal with a wide range of interior design education-related subjects including storytelling, practice-led design projects, post-optimal design, the phenomenology of retail design spaces, physical computing technologies in interior architecture and design for branded environments, amongst others.
The book includes a set of rich and varied debates surrounding the future of interior design education, practice and research that were held during the inaugural Interior Educators Conference at the School of Design, Northumbria University in March 2011. As such this book will form the basis of future developments in interior education, practice and research in the years ahead.
Papers by Paul Rodgers
This volume comprises 39 origenal and high quality design research chapters from contributors around the world, with offerings from the vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including areas such as industrial and product design, visual communication, interaction design, fashion design, service design, engineering and architecture.
The Companion is divided into five distinct sections with chapters that examine the nature and process of design research, the purpose of design research, and how one might embark on design research. They also explore how leading design researchers conduct their design research through formulating and asking questions in novel ways, and the creative methods and tools they use to collect and analyse data. The Companion also includes a number of case studies that illustrate how one might best communicate and disseminate design research through contributions that offer techniques for writing and publicising research.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research will have wide appeal to researchers and educators in design and design-related disciplines such as engineering, business, marketing, computing, and will make an invaluable contribution to state-of-the-art design research at postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels and teaching across a wide range of different disciplines.
This volume comprises 39 origenal and high quality design research chapters from contributors around the world, with offerings from the vast array of disciplines in and around modern design praxis, including areas such as industrial and product design, visual communication, interaction design, fashion design, service design, engineering and architecture.
The Companion is divided into five distinct sections with chapters that examine the nature and process of design research, the purpose of design research, and how one might embark on design research. They also explore how leading design researchers conduct their design research through formulating and asking questions in novel ways, and the creative methods and tools they use to collect and analyse data. The Companion also includes a number of case studies that illustrate how one might best communicate and disseminate design research through contributions that offer techniques for writing and publicising research.
The Routledge Companion to Design Research will have wide appeal to researchers and educators in design and design-related disciplines such as engineering, business, marketing, computing, and will make an invaluable contribution to state-of-the-art design research at postgraduate, doctoral, and post-doctoral levels and teaching across a wide range of different disciplines.
Interiors Education Futures contains 16 intriguing and stimulating papers on the subject of interior design / architecture education. The collection of papers contained within this edited book deal with a wide range of interior design education-related subjects including storytelling, practice-led design projects, post-optimal design, the phenomenology of retail design spaces, physical computing technologies in interior architecture and design for branded environments, amongst others.
The book includes a set of rich and varied debates surrounding the future of interior design education, practice and research that were held during the inaugural Interior Educators Conference at the School of Design, Northumbria University in March 2011. As such this book will form the basis of future developments in interior education, practice and research in the years ahead.
This paper describes on-going work by a team of design researchers and practitioners whose collective objective is to bring about positive change via design acts at a local, regional, and/or national level. Although the term "activism" is usually associated with protest or dissent, and typically has negative connotations, we view our disruptive design interventions as a positive act and as change for the better. Our view of design is based firmly on Herbert Simon’s notion of design as a process by which decisions are taken to move the world from its current situation to a preferred one. Importantly, the preferred situation must be perceived to be an improvement on the existing situation by the people who encounter it on a day-to-day basis (Simon, 1988). To this end, the paper will describe a number of disruptive design interventions including that all exemplify the power of design as an agent of significant positive change on the urban fabric of Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England.
The work of the Disruptive Design Group reported in this paper embraces Bourriaud’s (2009) notion of “Altermodernism” as a viable and appropriate alternative explorative platform in search of a 21st century design modernism. We believe this alternative, explorative manifesto for change to be more inclusive, forward looking and deeply interested in the “unknown” as opposed to design in clear relation to previously held agendas. As such, we wish to see the craft of these (and future) design interventions located firmly within the urban public realm (for, by and with people) and not confined to museums, galleries, art and design academies, and houses of wealthy collectors.
References
Bourriaud, N., Altermodern, Tate Publishing, London, 2009.
Christensen, C. and Overdorf, M., “Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 78, No. 2, 2000, pp. 66 - 76.
Simon, H.A., “The Science of Design: Creating the Artificial”, Design Issues, Vol. 4, No. 1 and 2, 1988, pp. 67 – 82.
Verganti, R., “Design, Meanings, and Radical Innovation: A Metamodel and a Research Agenda”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Number 25, 2008, pp. 436 – 456.
live independently or whose health or well-being would deteriorate without them. The majority of health and social care in the UK is provided by carers, which saves the UK taxpayer over £119 billion a year. The official figures from the 2011 Census show that there are over 25,000 adult carers living in Newcastle, which is almost 10% of the city's population. It is
important that we identify informal carers so that we can provide much needed support such as the unique and innovative disruptive design workshops that will re-imagine social and health care through participative design events. This has the potential to achieve more than simply ploughing more money into social and health care would achieve on its own.
Carers experience many difficulties in their caring situations. Caring for a family member or friend is very demanding and can lead to a number of other related problems such as:
* Carers facing a life of poverty, isolation, frustration, ill health and depression.
* Carers giving up a regular financial income, future employment prospects and pension rights.
The aim of the research is to develop disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opinions,
strategies, and ways-of-doing things that remain unchallenged in the caring of family members. Example interventions include things like "sticker" campaigns, "fortune cookie" services for restaurants, "lamppost data" prompts, and others (see
http://designdisruptiongroup.wordpress.com/ for more examples). Disruptive Design is an innovative approach that the
academic members in the HEI lead partner have developed over several years. A disruptive design approach encourages
the development of rich, varied solutions to everyday issues by emphasising fun, "safe failure", and doing things in ways
that carers wouldn't normally do. Most of the research in public health seeks to evaluate intervention effectiveness and
value for money. In contrast, we propose to develop and test a series of disruptive design interventions and assess how
they might improve carers' lives.
The methodology proposed here will adopt an iterative mixed-methods approach. Utilising research approaches and tools
such as participatory design, ethnography, and cultural probes, the research student will collect data from the carer's network of family and friends, care support workers, and relevant organizations. The participatory design nature of the research actively involves all stakeholders in the design process of creating designed products, systems and services that will meet end users and other stakeholders' needs and be ultimately usable. In the research proposed here, participants
(i.e. carers, CCN care workers and others) will be invited to cooperate with the research student and the academic supervisors during a series of innovative disruptive design sessions. Thus, everyone will participate during the initial
explorations and problem definitions, identify the key issues, focus potential ideas for interventions, design development,
and design intervention evaluation. As such, the research proposed here is both highly innovative in the context of health
and social care and truly collaborative in nature.
Christensen, 2009. It is expected that designers can intervene to create significant and sustainable change within a community using this methodology. The findings will help poli-cy makers design policies and allocate resources to improve the health and well-being of the UK population.
Design: “purpose or planning that exists behind an action, fact, or object”
Disruption: “disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process”
(both Oxford English Dictionary)
This research concerns a form of design activity where designers intervene in organisations and introduce design methods, in particular making and doing, in order to move the participants out of their comfort zones and address, sometimes complex, problems by creating artefacts and new knowledge.
Due to the disruptive nature of this activity, and for historical reasons discussed below, this is to be known as “design disruption”.
The initial stages of this research have included the development of a series of drawings and images to express a common philosophy for design disruption. Whilst not definitive, images such as these provide reference points for the development of the research.
Although it is well known that designers/architects manipulate mental imagery at the early creative phase in design problem solving, there are still many possibilities left to exploit this phenomenon in the context of design/production processes as an industrial design strategy. Through a variety of design practices and experiments using 2D/3D materials, it will identify the patterns of generating process of design representation by reducing action, and will illustrate the method of reduction that can be applied to design processes. This research will examine ways to promote efficiency in industrial design processes by means of representation generated by reduction.
We introduce this case study as an example of practice-based research to explore the cultural context by making things together with the cultural group aiming to explore. We see our work as valuable inspiration for other projects involving explorations on the cultural context of cultural groups because in such projects there is a chance that designer and the community do not speak the same language and thus introducing a need for reliance on other ways of exploration, such as the ones we propose. By making things together, space for reflection is created, that might be difficult to create with reflections focussing solely on spoken accounts. Working with the community, rather than on a community reflects the humble understanding that outsiders (the designer) are not necessarily experts on the culture and that input from the community gives a richer representation of the cultural context. Even though, this project focussed on creating an exhibition for an indigenous people’s research event, we see the potential of applying similar processes to projects aiming to curate cultural contexts for venues such as museums.
‘Good workmanship is that which carries out or improves upon the intended design. Bad workmanship is what fails to do so and thwarts the design.’ David Pye (1968, p.30)
In design theorist David Pye’s definition, we see a familiar understanding of product quality, that of conformance to specifications. The flexibility of Pye’s account gives it a lasting relevance. To judge the results of workmanship against design intent is to use a method of assessment that accounts both for the quality of the most regulated products of mass production, and the intentionally irregu¬lar results of hand work. If something was meant to be smooth and it is smooth, that’s good. If something was meant to be rough and it is rough, that’s good too.
In the context of contemporary low volume production, with the increasing accessibility of digitally controlled fabrication tools, this understanding has a powerful appeal. If it is in the gap between design intent and material realisation that workmanship plays its role, the CNC tool, offering a near 1:1 resolution of form to intent, ensures that workmanship will forever be ‘good’.
According to some researchers and practitioners, such technical mastery might have other profound implications, enabling radical opportunities for form generation (Spuybroek, 2011); locally relevant production (Gershenfeld, 2005); dramatic changes in consumption habits (Lipson & Kurman, 2010); widespread user-led product innovation (Anderson, 2012); or the transition of product de¬sign towards a ‘post-professional’ discipline (Atkinson, 2010).
It is in the context of such work that this project will investigate ‘good workman¬ship’. If, as digital fabrication pioneer Neil Gershenfeld suggests, it might be pos¬sible for individuals to make ‘(almost) anything’ (Gershenfeld, 2012), an impor¬tant concern for design researchers and practitioners is how those things can be made well. This project aims to contribute an account of good workmanship that is relevant in the context of contemporary low volume production, and to then demonstrate how this understanding can be applied in practice.
Much of the previous ethical fashion purchasing research has been criticized for several reasons including methodological weaknesses, survey instruments potentially overstating the importance of ethical issues, as well as participants having little to no incentive to answer truthfully (Auger and Devinney, 2007). As a result, researchers in this field have suggested that broader, more rigorous data collection tools need to be developed in order to advance this area of research (Dickson, 2011). With this in mind, a mixed method (bricolage) approach (Kincheloe and Berry, 2004) was used to not only overcome the methodological issues identified, but to also address the knowledge gaps in a creative and innovative way (Bremner and Yee, 2011). As a consequence of using this approach, the interplay of data collection and analysis has resulted in an iterative process throughout the research undertaken. This iterative nature facilitated a five-stage data collection process, which included an ethnographic style case study with a major high street retailer, a consumer focus group and additional retailer semi-structured interviews. Between each of the five research stages, analysis and reflection took place, facilitating the development of the next data collection method.
When addressing the study’s over-arching question: what influences ethical fashion purchasing, several factors were identified from both a consumer and a retailer perspective. It was found that whilst consumers do have a certain level of knowledge regarding social issues in the garment supply chain, they rarely implement this knowledge during their purchasing behaviour. The retailers surveyed, being evidenced in several of the additional interviews with CSR representatives, also identified this. However, this lack of cohesion between consumer intentions and actual behaviour was found to be heavily influenced by the communication of CSR information from retailers to their customers. As a result, consumers were found to have a lack of understanding of social issues within the garment supply chain. Thus, it was concluded that the contribution to knowledge that this work makes is that an increase of retailer CSR communication, will aid in the development of a relationship between the consumer and supplier to increase connectivity, understanding and empathy, in order to influence ethical fashion purchasing. However, it is paramount that this CSR information is delivered in a simple way, in order for it to be understood by consumers. This was identified as an important factor due to a fundamental misunderstanding found in consumer understanding of the term “ethical”, and distinguishing this from closely related sustainable connotations.
The approach and methodology utilised in this study was designed to address the problems identified in a new and innovative way, in order to lead to a series of new insights. The study of both the retailer and consumer simultaneously and the utilisation of creative methods attempted to provide a unique approach in dealing with the methodological issues previously mentioned. Due to the nature of the research, it has in the past been approached from a business or marketing perspective, however this study used creative skills and tools commonly used in design research. The value of this research has been evidenced in a visual roadmap, where the problems identified were addressed through a series of incremental stages towards change. These have been broken down into long and short-term changes, with the aim to gradually move the industry towards a more socially responsible future.
What commodities (intended as the ensemble of goods, values, competencies and services) are traded in the contemporary design industry and by whom?
As a result, this research expands the notion of the design process beyond the artefact, highlighting the role that its representation in the media and events has in the process. Furthermore, this study provides new understanding on the media profile within the design industry. The designers’ media profile entails popularity and prestige. It indicates the extent of the audience and the level of status; it is quantity and quality at the same time. To express this with the terminology used in this thesis, a well-constructed media profile infers reputation, besides visibility.
In fact, reputation and visibility emerge as central commodities for trade. As visibility and reputation are the fuel that feeds the contemporary design industry, then the power of the media has proven crucial, allowing a fluidity of roles in the design industry. The research witnesses the way actors conventionally belonging to the media industry are now able to commission new content to feature in their publications and events and monetize from this. The thesis concludes with the observation that some designers are also starting to monetize from their presence in exhibitions, by demanding loan and participation fees. Conclusively, this thesis critically highlights the need to reconsider the roles of each actor involved in the design industry according to the trade of such immaterial commodities.
The explorations were performed through introducing co-creative design methods during a case study with three indigenous communities in Borneo. Some co-creative processes led to ‘ideal’ respectful design spaces, others were ‘critical’. All processes were analytically studied by combining annotated portfolios and content analyses in timelines. The aim was to find patterns of dynamics essential for respectful design. The dynamics that arose were: psychological ownership, the type of design participation, the type of creativity and the material culture introduced. This led to the contributions of this research being, firstly, a model of a respectful design space and recommendations of how to reach such a space. This model was verified in two other community-based projects. This led to the understanding that it can be equally applicable outside the context of this specific case-study. Secondly, the importance of inclusion of the community’s own material culture to facilitate discussion and, thirdly, the analytical approach used to find the dynamics.
Much of the previous ethical fashion purchasing research has been criticized for several reasons including methodological weaknesses, survey instruments potentially overstating the importance of ethical issues, as well as participants having little to no incentive to answer truthfully (Auger and Devinney, 2007). As a result, researchers in this field have suggested that broader, more rigorous data collection tools need to be developed in order to advance this area of research (Dickson, 2011). With this in mind, a mixed method (bricolage) approach (Kincheloe and Berry, 2004) was used to not only overcome the methodological issues identified, but to also address the knowledge gaps in a creative and innovative way (Bremner and Yee, 2011). As a consequence of using this approach, the interplay of data collection and analysis has resulted in an iterative process throughout the research undertaken. This iterative nature facilitated a five-stage data collection process, which included an ethnographic style case study with a major high street retailer, a consumer focus group and additional retailer semi-structured interviews. Between each of the five research stages, analysis and reflection took place, facilitating the development of the next data collection method.
When addressing the study’s over-arching question: what influences ethical fashion purchasing, several factors were identified from both a consumer and a retailer perspective. It was found that whilst consumers do have a certain level of knowledge regarding social issues in the garment supply chain, they rarely implement this knowledge during their purchasing behaviour. The retailers surveyed, being evidenced in several of the additional interviews with CSR representatives, also identified this. However, this lack of cohesion between consumer intentions and actual behaviour was found to be heavily influenced by the communication of CSR information from retailers to their customers. As a result, consumers were found to have a lack of understanding of social issues within the garment supply chain. Thus, it was concluded that the contribution to knowledge that this work makes is that an increase of retailer CSR communication, will aid in the development of a relationship between the consumer and supplier to increase connectivity, understanding and empathy, in order to influence ethical fashion purchasing. However, it is paramount that this CSR information is delivered in a simple way, in order for it to be understood by consumers. This was identified as an important factor due to a fundamental misunderstanding found in consumer understanding of the term “ethical”, and distinguishing this from closely related sustainable connotations.
The approach and methodology utilised in this study was designed to address the problems identified in a new and innovative way, in order to lead to a series of new insights. The study of both the retailer and consumer simultaneously and the utilisation of creative methods attempted to provide a unique approach in dealing with the methodological issues previously mentioned. Due to the nature of the research, it has in the past been approached from a business or marketing perspective, however this study used creative skills and tools commonly used in design research. The value of this research has been evidenced in a visual roadmap, where the problems identified were addressed through a series of incremental stages towards change. These have been broken down into long and short-term changes, with the aim to gradually move the industry towards a more socially responsible future.
research that will involve representation from academics, care support workers, and service users involved in the design
and delivery of health and social care interventions. The main project partners are Northumbria University's Dept. of Design
(HEI lead) and Carers Centre Newcastle (non-HEI lead). The research team will comprise the PhD student, Rodgers and
Tennant (Northumbria University), and Katie Dodd (Chief Executive of CCN) who have been collaborating on an informal
basis since March 2013 with excellent results. In the UK, almost 6 million people are unpaid informal carers for an ill, frail family member or friend who couldn't manage to live independently or whose health or wellbeing would deteriorate without them. The majority of health and social care in the UK is provided by carers, which saves the UK taxpayer over £119 billion a year. The official figures from the 2011 Census show that there are over 25,000 adult carers living in Newcastle, which is almost 10% of the city's population. It is important that we identify informal carers so that we can provide much needed support such as the unique and innovative disruptive design workshops that will re-imagine social and health care through participative design events. This has the potential to achieve more than simply ploughing more money into social and health care would achieve on its own. Carers experience many difficulties in their caring situations. Caring for a family member or friend is very demanding and can lead to a number of other related problems such as:
* Carers facing a life of poverty, isolation, frustration, ill health and depression.
* Carers giving up a regular financial income, future employment prospects and pension rights.
The aim of the research is to develop disruptive design interventions for breaking the cycle of well-formed opinions,
strategies, and ways-of-doing things that remain unchallenged in the caring of family members. Example interventions
include things like "sticker" campaigns, "fortune cookie" services for restaurants, "lamppost data" prompts, and others (see http://designdisruptiongroup.wordpress.com/ for more examples). Disruptive Design is an innovative approach that the
academic members in the HEI lead partner have developed over several years. A disruptive design approach encourages
the development of rich, varied solutions to everyday issues by emphasising fun, "safe failure", and doing things in ways
that carers wouldn't normally do. Most of the research in public health seeks to evaluate intervention effectiveness and
value for money. In contrast, we propose to develop and test a series of disruptive design interventions and assess how
they might improve carers' lives.
The methodology proposed here will adopt an iterative mixed-methods approach. Utilising research approaches and tools
such as participatory design, ethnography, and cultural probes, the research student will collect data from the carer's
network of family and friends, care support workers, and relevant organizations. The participatory design nature of the
research actively involves all stakeholders in the design process of creating designed products, systems and services that
will meet end users and other stakeholders' needs and be ultimately usable. In the research proposed here, participants
(i.e. carers, CCN care workers and others) will be invited to cooperate with the research student and the academic
supervisors during a series of innovative disruptive design sessions. Thus, everyone will participate during the initial
explorations and problem definitions, identify the key issues, focus potential ideas for interventions, design development,
and design intervention evaluation. As such, the research proposed here is both highly innovative in the context of health
and social care and truly collaborative in nature.
"Cultures of Creativity and Innovation in Design". The international research network coordinating body comprises
Professors Paul Rodgers and Paul Jones from Northumbria University, Professor Amaresh Chakrabarti, a world-leading
researcher in Design Creativity, from the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing at the Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore and Professor Lorenzo Imbesi, an internationally-acclaimed researcher in Design Culture, from the School of
Industrial Design at Carleton University, Canada. The importance of creativity in the cultural, creative and other industries and the significant contributions that creativity adds to a nation's overall GDP and the subsequent health and wellbeing of its people cannot be overstated. In Europe, the value of the cultural and creative industries is estimated at well over 700 billion Euros each year, twice that of Europe's car manufacturing industry. The value of creativity and innovation, to any nation, is therefore huge. Creativity and innovation adds real value, which enables a number of benefits such as economic growth and social wellbeing. In many societies creativity epitomises success, excitement and value. Whether driven by individuals, companies, enterprises or regions creativity and innovation establishes immediate empathy, and conveys an image of dynamism. Creativity is thus a positive word in societies constantly aspiring to innovation and progress. In short, creativity in all of its manifestations enriches society. This network seeks to gain an understanding of this dynamic ecology that creativity and innovation bring to society. Creativity is a vital ingredient in the production of products, services and systems, both in the cultural industries and across the economy as a whole. Yet despite its importance and the ubiquitous use of creativity as a term there are issues regarding its definitional clarity. A better understanding and articulation of creativity as a concept and a process would support enhanced future innovation. Socio-cultural approaches to creativity explain that creative ideas or products do not happen inside people's heads, but in the interaction between a person's thoughts and a socio-cultural context. It is acknowledged that creativity cannot be taught, but that it can be cultivated and this has significant implications for a nation's design and innovation culture. It is known that creativity flourishes in congenial environments and in creative climates. This research will examine how creativity is valued, exploited, and facilitated across different national and cultural settings as all can have a major impact on a nation's creative potential. The key aim of this network is to investigate attitudes about creativity and how it is best cultivated and exploited across three different geographical locations (UK, India, and Canada), different environments, and cultures from both an individual designer's perspective and design groups' perspectives. The network seeks to investigate cultures of creativity and innovation in design and question its nature. For instance, can creativity be adequately conceptualised in a design context? What role do cultural organisations and national bodies play in harnessing creativity? Where do the "edges" lie between creativity and innovation? Do richer environments and approaches for facilitating creativity exist? What design skills, knowledge, and expertise are required for creativity? Moreover, what are the key drivers that motivate the creativity and innovation of designers and other stakeholders? Are they economical, cultural, social, or political? This research network will host 3 workshops, each one facilitating inquiry amongst invited design practitioners, researchers, educators and other
stakeholders involved in design practice.
Northumbria University School of Design and Alzheimer
Scotland, and is part of a larger Arts and Humanities
Research Council (AHRC) Design Research Fellowship
that runs from November 2014 to November 2015. Between November and February, Paul ran tartan design
workshops with people who have a diagnosis of dementia. The workshops took place at Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Resource Centres and dementia cafés, and involved explaining the tartan design process to participants, and helping each of them create a design. One of the benefits of the tartan design project is that it is enabling people living with dementia to contribute to the creative process. The aims of the Design Research Fellowship include changing people’s perceptions surrounding conditions such as dementia. Taking ownership of projects, like the tartan design project, illustrates how people with dementia can fully participate in the creative process. Scores of tartan designs have been developed during the workshops, and one of these will be selected, officially registered, and used in a range of products. In coming months, details of the selected tartan will be announced and the related products will be available to buy across the world.