Filed under: made me think, service design | Tags: mindapples, thriving, voice. twitter
I have had a fantastic couple of weeks…many exciting projects are starting to take shape.
I am proud to now be involved in two inspirational ventures: Mindapples and Thriving too, …and I especially looking forward to meeting Andy and Tessy :)
My masters research question is refined, eagerly awaiting to influence and inspire the world of Service Design….
And, after reading a fantastic article from WritingRoads.com all about Twitter, and with a bit of peer pressure from Jonathan Baldwin… I am now officially a twitterette.
A huge thank you to redjotter followers, your comments and support are priceless. I am very excited about what lies ahead in 2009 and look forward to sharing it with everyone. I am working hard to create new adventures for next year, and you’ll be the first to hear about them. Have a wonderful Christmas!
Filed under: master of design | Tags: Elderly, master of design, mobile communication, service design, T-Labs, visualisation
I have had a fantastic couple of days! I did promise I would tell you about a fantastic project I am involved in as soon as I could.
So here goes…I am embarking upon a 3 month project with Deutsche Telekom laboratories, T-labs, in Berlin :)
This international project initiated by the renowned design researcher Rosan Chow, is made up of an interesting mix of talents. The multi disciplinary team consists of staff and students. We spent the day team building, thinking about our roles within the team and our expectations. You can see pics from the day on flickr.
I am working with three fellow post-graduate design students from a range of fields; interaction design, multi-touch technology and jewellery. Project mentoring, research and facilitation are being carried out by: Mike Press, Professor of Design Policy and Head of School, Hazel White, Director of the Masters of Design program and Fraser Bruce, a specialist in team dynamics and product development.
We will be focusing on information communication for older users. In depth research and analysis will be carried out to define who the elderly are; their social behaviours, lifestyles, physical and cognitive abilities.
Visualising new concepts, processes, existing products and services will be a key tool adopted throughout the project. Aiming to designing for ourselves in the future will be immensely challenging. It will be a huge opportunity for me to explore existing services for older users, describe services in design terms and learn how to categorise services. Our team will visit Berlin throughout the project…:)
Filed under: made me think, people I like | Tags: education, emotional intelligence, kate andrews, ken robinson, live out loud, social design, tessy britton, thriving.org
I have spent this evening exploring the fantastic thriving.org. This beautifully crafted website is designed by Kate Andrews. Thriving focuses on promoting emotional intelligence through training and consultancy. The team want to make us feel excited and positive about the future. Just perfect…
Be part of the social goodness at Thriving’s blog.
Filed under: master of design | Tags: design award, duncan of jordanstone, johanna basford
Congratulations to designer Johanna Basford! A student from Dundee has been named winner of a 4Talent Award, Channel 4’s annual hunt for the UK’s most exciting young creatives.
Filed under: people I like, service design | Tags: award, Design Museum, engine, service design, SILK, social innovation lab
Engine have been nominated for the British Insurance Design of the year award 2009 for their project with Kent County Council and the Social Innovation Lab. Here are a list of all the nominees.
Congratulations! It is a fantastic project that deserves recognition. Although, I was a little surprised to find the nomination in the Graphic Design category…
Via. Choosnick.
Filed under: service design | Tags: film, livework, oxford business school, service designers
Designing for Services in Science and Technology-Based Enterprises was an interdisciplinary research project initiated by Saïd Business School (SBS) at the University of Oxford. This one-year study (2006-2007) explored how academics, service designers, and science and technology entrepreneurs understand the designing of services in science and technology-based enterprises. The excellent project site is now live.
Lots of interesting paper titles here…
Watch the video. What is distinctive about the ways professional service designers go about designing or redesigning services?
Although I wanted it to move a little faster they are addressing a very relevant question! What do you think?
Filed under: service design | Tags: service design, rsa, mindapples, jim rokos, mental health, mind plan
Jim Rokos project ‘Mind – plan’ won the RSA Design Directions 2008 award for the category ‘Think Again’. Mind-plan is a tool to help with the recovery from severe mental illness. John Kentish, Head of Health Psychology at St. Mary’s Hospital’s Clarence Wing commented:
“To the best of my knowledge there is no other similar tool as yet. Until now people have used pen and paper to plan their activities. The Mind Plan is more fun to use so is more likely to be used. It is very graphic and activities stand out in a way that is not possible with pen and paper. Activities can easily be moved around which is not so easy with a paper version. I think the strongest point is that it looks fun to use as well as clearly indicating the planned activities.”
Via. mindapples.org.
Filed under: made me think, master of design | Tags: education, master of design, winter
There is snow on the ground and the sky is clear blue; a beautiful crisp winter day to celebrate my mums birthday! Happy Birthday Mum….
I spent the rest of today envisioning a new education model for 100 years from now….
Filed under: service design | Tags: ben reason, credit crunch, financial, livework, service thinking
“Services adapt and change to meet the changing needs of customers. The future of mortgages lies in offering radically new types of services that at the same time resurrect older values.
We need simple things. Such as statements that are easy to understand, or interest rates that are explained in English. We need to see costs and understand the risks clearly. We need important things. Such as help planning for life events like having a baby or illness. We may even need contentious things. Perhaps lenders could share the risk if things go bad — and the benefit if things go well.”
Filed under: master of design | Tags: hamid van koten, master of design, people and design, project
Our class spent this morning with sustainability expert Hamid Van Koten, director of Design History, Theory and Practice at Dundee University. We covered very interesting topics such as the reality that as society modernizes it fragments. Hamid advised ‘we are at a peak moment in history’ and designers need to be creating in conjunction with our environment. 
My sketch book page from the lecture:
This led us onto our new class project: Rituals. My team got off to a productive start today, I will be working with an ethnographer for the first time!
“It is 2108. You are thinkers in a new society. How has the world developed over the last century?”
Our task is to envision the future 100 years from now and develop ideas for a new society. Considering forms of government, the relationship between states, trade and finance, food production and distribution, health care, education, technology and inter-personal relationships.
At the moment I am drawn towards the future of education and inter-personal relationships. This project only lasts a very short two weeks…I will be posting our progress and final outcomes.
The key skill I want to develop throughout this project is visualisation and story telling…making the intangible tangible!
Filed under: service design | Tags: engine, service design workshop, video
This film was created by Engine’s Cale. It is about a Service Design student workshop.
I liked the quick and dirty approach Cale used to getting the students into the ’service’ mind set by analysing the content of their wallet!
“Engine are committed to developing a greater awareness of the value of service design and help students to develop their capacity to think as service designers with the aid of new tools and new approaches.”
