Reach Global Design Research Network

GOOD’11 was all about what can happen when design and research come together – but what about when this means people, and not just disciplines? Lekshmy Parameswaran and László Herczegh are co-founders of fuelfor, a design consultancy specialised in healthcare innovation. They are a Designer Researcher and Researcher Designer respectively; the challenges and joys of bringing these disciplines together lie at the core of their daily professional practice – and they have both the smiles and the scars to prove it…

At GOOD’11 they be provided a personal and professional account of combining these distinct viewpoints, whilst looking at the fundamental principles that underpin different disciplines and backgrounds working together: What does it mean to be a Designer Researcher and Researcher Designer? What are the innate strengths and weaknesses of each discipline? How can they complement each other to enrich the innovation process? Does learning how to innovate really mean learning how to collaborate?

Health care innovation involves tackling complex problems, and multi-disciplinary collaboration thus becomes an essential tool. With over two decades of experience between them working in the healthcare field, fuelfor have found that when design facilitates research (and vice versa) the results for innovation can be far greater than the sum of these parts. Drawing on selected healthcare product and service innovation case studies fuelfor illustrated a set of key working principles they believe can lead to a successful ‘marriage’ of design and research for innovation.

Design research is centered upon the creation of resonant, engaging insights, but even the most successful projects have to tackle an all-too-familiar problem: how to implement the opportunities they’ve inspired within seemingly rigid organisational structures? This is the issue that was tackled by Dan Szuc (Apogee, China), who looked at how design research can help break down the organisational ‘silos’ that can develop over time and isolate internal teams.

In the this article, he gives an in-depth account of how collaborative workshops – when effectively designed and facilitated – can play a key role in this process. It’s a practical guide borne out of real-world experience, and addresses some of the most common issues design researchers can face during the crucial – but often painstaking – implementation phase, and is a great introduction to some of the wider themes that will be examined at GOOD’11.

Dan’s lectured about usability, user-centered design and user experience in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the US, New Zealand and Japan. He also co-wrote ‘The Usability Kit’ – an implementation guide providing best practices and guidelines for usability teams – and holds a BS in Information Management from Melbourne University in Australia.

How do you design the future models for energy consumption? Smart grid is a huge topic, the upcoming of micro-producers a tendency. The energy providers want to enforce sustainable energy and concurrently they talk about ‘peak shaving’ – peak-shaving meaning a new collaborative way to re-distribute our collective energy consumption with the two-fold outcome: More consumption of wind energy at night and less collective cost with regards to upgrading the distribution-grid leading our energy out in the homes.

One method to design this future model for energy consumption is to design services and setups which encourage involvement. This is the approach taken by antropologerne.com in an ongoing project focusing on electricity consumption. Working from the premise that visibility, materiality and interaction in electricity consumption can encourage consumers to flexibility and to take a greater interest in their energy use, this study revolved around two key themes: the potential impact of home automation technology, and the role of community platforms and collaborative portals.

Exploring the gadget/home automation and the community platform approach provides insights, results and hopefully a new, useful perspective upon people’s attitudes and motivations when it comes to energy consumption.

antropologerne.com came to GOOD’11 to speak about this project in detail, placing it within the context of their previous work in this area. Having recently conducted a major anthropological study into electric car use, they have a wealth of experience from which to draw conclusions about how design research can help foster long-term community involvement in sustainability and re-framing energy usage projects.

GOOD’11 provided several real-world accounts of what it actually means for research projects to take on a ‘global’ focus. One area in which such projects have flourished in recent years has been Energy Awareness, and this was the topic addressed by Indri Tulusan and Fumiko Ichikawa of Spur.

Their presentation will answered two key questions:

Why is learning about others important when local problems present large enough challenges on their own?

And:

Why conduct in-depth research providing detailed accounts of a single person, when the overarching problem facing them is so huge?

Indri and Fumiko will be addressed these questions via a series of real-world case studies drawn from their many years of experience working in this area. The projects they presented went into detail about how energy awareness projects can maintain an effective global focus without losing the rich detail of resonant local insights. They looked at how projects concerning solar power and ownership models can benefit from community involvement at both global and local levels, and applied these principles to a number of real-world challenges, such as the current power plant situation in Japan.

What role can Design Research play when tackling social issues? Increasingly well-established when it comes to product and service innovation, the principles upon which the approach is based are equally applicable to the challenges faced in a variety of social work. Minds & makers (Ger), addressed this topic at GOOD’11, providing an in-depth account via their analysis of the ‘workstreet’ project.

Workstreet is a project designed around street children in Cologne. By ethnographically exploring their everyday life, a range of opportunities to improve their living conditions could be developed from the ground-up, tackling issues such as outreach and inclusion at the earliest possible stages of the design process.

Minds & makers are currently working with a social institution in Cologne to test this approach out in the field, and will be presented some of their findings at GOOD in September. They went into detail about the issues faced in such work, providing insights on how to engage a difficult target group, and how involving local stakeholders in innovative ways can drive such projects forward.

How can insights affect meaningful change? Even the most resonant of local insights can quickly disappear within the bureaucracy of a global organisation – even one that’s open to new thoughts and ideas. Feel the Future (Brazil) came to GOOD’11 to present their thoughts on this issue, reflecting upon their own experiences helping companies enter – and indeed learn from – the Brazilian market.

Having worked with major multinationals such as HSBC and Electrolux, Feel the Future have a great deal of experience working with global companies who have used local teams to come up with solutions that subsequently influence the entire organisation. They used their time at GOOD to go through this process in detail, explaining how local feedback can maintain global implications.

IDSL (Fr) came to GOOD’11 to talk about collaboration. Their argument is that there is one vital ingredient without which designers can never truly reach the people their designing for – empathy. It’s via resonant, intimate, and emotional insights that designers can really connect with people’s lives – but even when these are available, designers still need the right tools in order to use them effectively.

IDSL’s presentation took an in-depth look at the different methods available for taking designers into the world they’re designing for. These tools are all designed to help those participating in a project or workshop move beyond technicalities; thinking in terms of emotion, rather than technology, is often the most effective way to create an empathic link with the world outside.

The tools they showcased revolve around a key notion; creating a space that’s playful and open enough to inspire real creativity, whilst remaining structured and focus enough to generate coherent, focused results.

Spur, Singapore

Spur’s Indri Tulusan is also now based in Singapore. She holds a Medical Science, Design products BA Hons + MA(RCA), and has previously worked at Nokia, where she was responsible for setting up and conducting exploratory design research in Japan, China, India and Ghana. She also designed and facilitated co-creation processes to successfully inform and inspire design teams, business and marketing divisions. Prior to moving to Japan she was based in London for 10 years. Here she was the co-founder and creative director of the user research and service design consultancy TEKO, who successfully created future services and products by placing new technologies in the right social contexts.

Spur offers a wide range of innovation activities; whether working within mobile, health or communication industries their process usually starts from involving the consumer creatively to discover opportunities, then taking these into product and service ideas and strategies.

Contact Indri Tulusan
indri.tulusan@gmail.com
Skype: indritulusan

Daniela Hammel, Jan Schröder, Martin Beyerle (principals) – Cologne (GER)

minds & makers is a dynamic and interdisciplinary team of Service Designers with comprehensive experience in the fields of service innovation, human centred design, qualitative research and strategic marketing.
minds & makers’ approach is based on the integrated methods of Service Design and Design Thinking and their work spans accross the whole process: from identification of the right questions, the exploration of the user’s needs, the development of solutions to the implementation of ideas into practice. minds & makers design not just novel and future oriented service concepts, but also test their acceptability and suitability for daily use by prototyping ideas in real life scenarios.

minds & makers is based in Cologne, Germany and was founded in 2009 by Daniela Hammel (Dipl. Des.) and Martin Beyerle (MDes., Dipl-Kfm.). In May 2010 Jan Schröder (Dipl. Des.) joined minds & makers as equal partner. Depending on the project context minds & makers are additionally supported by a network of precious freelancers and experienced experts from a variety of disciplines.

Martin graduated in 2005 in Business Studies from the University of Mannheim. He then studied Humanitarian and Sustainable Design at Design Academy Eindhoven, where Martin in 2007 also graduated with a Master in Design. He worked as project lead for the Service Design Research Center at Köln International School of Design, before he founded in 2009 minds & makers together with Daniela.

Daniela graduated in 2006 with a Diploma in Service Design from Köln International School of Design. She worked as project lead for the Service Design Research Center at Köln International School of Design before she went to London to work for Participle, an agency specialized in Social Innovation. In 2009 Daniela then founded minds & makers together with Martin.

Jan graduated in 2008 with a Diploma in Product and Service Design from Köln International School of Design. He worked as a freelance project lead for the Service Design Research Center at Köln International School of Design and then worked as User Experience Manager in the Concept Development Team of Vodafone. Jan joined the minds & makers team as an equal partner in May 2010.

Some clients from the private, public and social sectors they have worked for:
Aktion Mensch, Deutsche Bank, Deutsche Telekom, Design Council (GB), Siemens Health Insurance, Swindon Borough Council (GB), Swisscom (CH), Vodafone…

For more information see www.minds-makers.com

Contact Daniela Hammel
dh@minds-makers.com
+49 163 431 86 15
Skype: madameela

At the 2009 Service Design Network Conference in Madeira, STBY and Spur presented a paper together with Reach client T-Mobile on in particular how our use of video made our design research ‘stick’ throughout the process. In the paper we discuss the problem of the lost shoes. At the start of concept development processes we often do some kind of ethnographic research to be able to step into the shoes of the people we design for. But when the process develops, these shoes don’t fit anymore or get lost. We wondered: How can we keep walking in the shoes of our users throughout the entire design process?

Short video films recorded by the participants in our initial research proved to be an answer that not only worked surprisingly well to keep stories from the people we designed for at the centre of the design process and even the business case we had to develop, but these films were also very inspiring for the whole team. The paper explains how we benefitted from the films in detail.

IDSL – Nicolas Gaudron and Virginia Cruz (principals) – Paris (FR)

IDSL is a product and service design consultancy based in Paris, specialised in interaction design,
Human Computer Interaction (HCI), a consultancy on innovation and emerging technologies.

IDSL applies a people-centred design thinking process to a variety of projects ranging from experience design, innovation strategy, R&D projects, services and social innovation. Clients they have worked for range from large corporations to public research labs, like Essilor, IBM, the LIG (Laboratory of Informatics in Grenoble (FR)), Orange, Renault, Sony CSL.

Nicolas Gaudron (left on the photo) founded IDSL in 2007. He has worked for IDEO in Palo Alto
(California), for INRIA (French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control)
where he has worked on the “Interliving” European research project of the Disappearing
Computer IST programme. He has then joined Renault ”Prospective & Concept Cars” design
studio where he has contributed to the development of the Human-Machine Interaction group.
He holds a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art in London.

Virginia Cruz (right) joined IDSL as an interaction designer in 2008. After working for Electrolux
in Sweden, Sony R&D in Paris, Virginia worked for Orange/France Telecom as an interaction
designer for four years, rst at the Smart Objects and New Interfaces Lab in Grenoble (FR), then
at the ExploCentre Innovation Centre in Paris. She has also contributed to the Eternal Gandhi
Multimedia Museum project in New Delhi. She holds Engineering degrees from Ecole
Polytechnique (FR) and Ecole des Mines des Paris (FR) and a Master of Arts from the Royal
College of Art in London (UK).

For more information see www.id-sl.com

Contact Nicolas Gaudron
contact@id-sl.com
+33 6 67 83 78 67
Skype: IDSL

As we’ve been learning about in our Charging Up user research, requiring people to purchase new charger accessories when they shift or upgrade a product is seen as very frustrating. Here’s an owner of a brand new iPhone 3GS feeling the pain

Yes, an old original iPhone car charger and…what’s this? The iPhone 3Gs cannot take the same charging accessories as the iPhone original!? So..basically the introduction of something new forces something old to be tossed out? Maybe there’s something that can be done with the old charger, but, I mean…really? Is this “Good Design” or adhering to those Green sensibilities that Apple is so often associated?

Think not.

Epic Fail. Epic, epic fail. I’m slack jawed. Shocking.

Intrigued to see this promo by mobile telco Orange to bring mobile phone chargers that you pump by hand into concert venues for the summer. There’s an angle here about sustainability but I was most excited to see that the service providers are really thinking about the needs clearly, the idea that summer festivals bring groups of people together to interact and text, send pictures, and so on, and that when you’re in an environment like that, there’s no access to power. It may simply be a promotion but it’s a powerful acknowledgement of need and ties nicely to some of what we’re uncovering in our current Charging Up research project, especially as we begin to focus on key needs and heading into ideation.

Tendril, a startup based in Boulder, CO, has developed a device that converts existing electrical meters into smart meters that can track customers’ energy use as frequently as once every few minutes. Working with utility companies, Tendril plans to introduce it to thousands of homes this year.

The device could help speed the spread of the so-called “smart grid,” a network of sensors and controls that could reduce energy consumption, enable the large-scale use of renewable energy, and save consumers money. Smart-grid projects will receive billions of dollars in funding under the stimulus bill signed into law in February. Tendril’s device could be used by utilities to introduce variable-pricing schemes that discourage the use of electricity during times of peak demand, reducing the need for the most expensive and most polluting power plants. Eventually it could be used to help the electricity grid accommodate more electricity from variable sources of renewable electricity, such as wind and solar. Read more..

There are several easy ways to reduce your home’s digital footprint, and save money while you’re at it.

A recent column of Graeme Philipson on energy consumption in the IT industry raised a lot of interest. It said that this year might be the year of green IT – the year corporate computer users become aware not only of the energy consumption of their IT function, but of the important role IT has to play in reducing the carbon footprint of the whole organisation. Read more..

Products traditionally are created in rich nations and repackaged for emerging ones. But General Electric, Nokia, and others are reversing the process . This month, General Electric’s (GE) health-care division will begin marketing a first-of-its-kind electrocardiograph machine in the U.S. Although packed with the latest technology, the battery-powered device weighs just six pounds, half as much as the smallest ECG machine currently for sale. It will retail for a mere $2,500, an 80% markdown from products with similar capabilities. But what really distinguishes the MAC 800 is its lineage. The machine is basically the same field model that GE Healthcare developed for doctors in India and China in 2008. Read more..

Fuelfor – Lekshmy Parameswaran and Laszlo Herczeg (principals) – Barcelona (ES) and Budapest

Fuelfor is an innovation design consultancy specialised in health care. Founded in June 2008 by Lekshmy Parameswaran and László Herczegh, the company is based in Barcelona and serves global clients in the private and public sectors.
Fuelfor offers clients a 360° perspective on health to identify viable new opportunities for growth and translate them into tangible health care solutions and strategies that improve the health care experience.
With a strong belief that research-driven design and multi-disciplinary collaboration are essential for innovation in healthcare, fuelfor provides innovation consulting, design research and experience design services.
Clients include: hospitals, regional and national healthcare systems, healthcare policy makers, pharmacy chains, medical device manufacturers, psycho-social services, patient organisations.

Lekshmy is an innovation design consultant whose specialist skills include: strategic thinking and facilitation to help clients define and implement successful innovation strategies, and delivering compelling qualitative research to make sure these strategies align with people’s needs. Prior to founding fuelfor, Lekshmy enjoyed a 10-year career at Philips Design in London, New York and Eindhoven. As Innovation Director of the global healthcare team she created and led programs to generate and translate insights into new value propositions for Philips Healthcare supporting their Care Cycle strategy and Ambient Experience business. She learnt how to use design to shape and embed an innovation process and mindset within a leading global healthcare business.She holds a Master of Engineering degree from Cambridge University and a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art in London.

László is an experience design consultant whose specialist skills include: translating human insights into design solutions and strategies that apply product, service, interaction or spatial design, and defining design qualities that powerfully communicate the human and business value of new propositions.
Prior to founding fuelfor, László spent 8 years as a senior design consultant in the global healthcare team of Philips Design. He led several award-winning innovation projects and developed concepts including Ambient Experience, a paradigm-shifting contribution to the healthcare industry that won an IDSA gold award in 2005. A key learning from this project was how to overcome the challenges in bringing an innovation design concept from vision to business reality. He holds a Master of Arts degree from the Academy of Arts and Design in Budapest, including study at the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki.

For more information see www.fuelfor.net

Contact Lekshmy Parameswaran
lekshmy.parameswaran@fuelfor.net
+34672252681
Skype: fuelfor

STBY – Geke van Dijk and Bas Raijmakers (principals) – London (UK) / Amsterdam (NL)

STBY (Standby) is specialized in consumer research during the early stages of innovative service design projects, when designers, engineers and marketeers need to discover what matters to the people they are developing new products and services for.

STBY offers a wide range of research activities that contribute to this multi-disciplinary, exploratory process of consumer centered-innovation. Some examples of these services: qualitative consumer research, ethnographic studies, Lead User research, Open Innovation workshops, youth studies.

STBY is based in London and Amsterdam, and was founded in 2002 by Geke van Dijk and Bas Raijmakers. Previous to their involvement in STBY, Geke and Bas both worked as managers and user experience consultants in the internet industry. They founded and successfully developed the first usability company in The Netherlands, ACS-i media research & projects (1993-2000), which was acquired by Lost Boys.

In 2007 they both completed a Phd research in London. Bas in Design Interactions (RCA) and Geke in Human-Computer Interactions (OU). Their work for STBY greatly benefits from this research.

Some of the clients they have worked for: Reed Elsevier, Philips Design, BBC, HP Labs, Intel, France Telecom, KLM and ING Bank.

For more information see www.stby.eu

Contact Bas Raijmakers
bas@stby.eu
+44 7787334123 (UK)
+31 6 5515 7794 (NL)
Skype: basraij

When traveling from Paris to the Alps by highspeed train this winter we found this sticker above our seats.

It looked like a shy mobile phone to me at first, but it’s true meaning became clear when I needed to visit the toilets later on and came across the yellow sticker.

It was above a cosy bench in the corridor between carriages. A special corner for making calls! So this is how to do it:

The only tricky bit is that your cosy bench is doubling as a baby change unit. I’m not sure the babies will stand in line until you finish your call. If not, close your nose!

Antropologerne – Rikke Ulk (principal) – Copenhagen (DK)

Antropologerne creates innovation that works in real life. We work in an explorative, strategic and hands-on way in order to design better products and services and provide good societal change by involving you and your users.

At Antropologerne we are people experts. We help clients understand needs, barriers and possibilities in people’s everyday life. We explore, how a product or a service is used and perceived, and we test how things could be designed even better. Our approach, methods and mindset ensure that change will happen and work.

Our unique way of helping you make business and innovation that really works is based on a combination of applied anthropology and design methods. And it is also based on the historic Nordic tradition of Participatory Design, and on a democratic involvement of users and other stakeholders – cross-cutting hierarchy – in the innovation process. As we are people experts and culture experts, and as we have had worldwide projects, also in Hong Kong, we believe we have an advantage as your future innovation-partner. If you need to know not only HOW to design the best solutions, but also WHAT to design and WHY to design it, we can help you.

Antropologerne is a Copenhagen/Denmark-based consultancy company with 10 design and research partners all over the world. At Antropologerne, we are both anthropologists and designers. We work with and for people engaged in product innovation, service design and societal change, and we provide our clients with a new mindset and an ability to discover and test undiscovered possibilities within their fields – with real people.

Contact Info
Antropologerne
Kompagnistræde 16, 2
DK-1208 Copenhagen
Denmark
Telephone: +45 8813 2000
www.antropologerne.com

Contact Person
Rikke Ulk
CEO and Chief Anthropologist
Direct tel: +45 2811 2010
E-mail: ru@antropologerne.com