The Dott Festival is not only generating interest around the physical site itself, but there is lots of blogging happening. It's been interesting to see the different perspectives on the Festival, both the content of it and the event itself. Here are some links:
The offical Dott 07 website has a daily blog kept up-to-date by Emer and Claire.
Dott 07's Programme Director, John Thackara, has been blogging updates on the Festival at the Doors of Perception blog.
Melissa, Jenny, Ollie and Lisa came over last week from the Köln International School of Design, Germany to document the Festival happenings. Their blog is called Dott07.
Richard Florida has been checking out the Köln team's blog too. Find a link here that Florida posted on his blog to my comments regarding Service Design.
The Dott 07 projects of Alzheimer 100 and Our New School have also been blogging updates on their sites.
Pre-Dott Festival here is what Core 77, CPH127, BusinessWeek Online, Bruce Nussbaum and Experentia all had to say about Dott 07.
To round up an awesome 2 weeks of Dott 07, Northumbria University and the Design Council, London will be hosting a conference called InterSections07: Design Know-How for A New Era. The tickets sold out more than 2 months ago, but you read about the lead up and all the happenings at the InterSections 07 Blog.
Please feel free to email me or leave a message if you know of any more links or have your own blog to add here.
Sunday, 21 October 2007
Friday, 19 October 2007
Dott Festival | Day 4
Design of Sexual Health (DaSH)
Today's Dott Debate focused on the issue of health. John opened the Design for Sexual Health (DaSH) session by saying that sustainability, 'is about looking after each other', and that's exactly what people involved in health are concerned with.
The DaSH Debate's aim was to review the project and focus on some learnings. First up was the Design Options team who were involved with running the project. The first presentation gave an in depth view of the process the team went through in their discovery stage with people.
Various methods, tools and techniques were used such as forming a co-design team, steering committee, doing some stakeholder mapping, questionnaires, interviews and cultural probes.
The outcomes were ideas and recommendations for new modes of sexual health delivery services. These were captured in a consultation document and Service Experience book.
The legacy of DaSH has lived on with the Design Options team working in different areas and regions of the UK in sexual health.
Angela, a Nurse Team Leader and member of the co-design team, also presented giving some insights into what the experience of working on DaSH brought.
She mentioned:
- the ability to complete a wide exploration of the state of sexual health services
- the 'opportunity to get out of our silos'
- the ability to engage people, both those who use and will potentially use sexual health services and
- overall just a different way of doing things and interacting with people involved in sexual health
To summarise, Angela noted that DaSH was able to generate ideas for an integrated sexual health service 'as chosen by the people of Gateshead.'
Jenna, of Design Options, was the final presentation that dealt directly with the DaSH project.
Jenna pushed our imagination towards 'blue sky' ideas on sexual health services. Wouldn't it be great if sexual health services could....
- be found in the back of high street stores where there was a high degree of access for young people
- be around the idea of a 'clinic in a bag' where nurses could visit people in their homes
- use technology, such as vending machine, to distributed condoms.
The following two presentations were on the National Chlamydia Screening Program and the vending machine technology which actually has a functioning prototype that dispenses condoms at the DaSH project space at the Festival.
While these two presentations were interesting, my personal opinion was that they led the debates right into conversations on delivery mechanisms. Throughout our discussion, I found that cultural and behavioural issues that surrounded sexual health were beginning to emerge. Someone even mentioned, 'our nation doesn't talk about sex.' I was left questioning if we could change cultural paradigms by vending machines alone. Do we need to go 'outside the system', do new kinds of studies in sexual health, think more about sexual well-being (rather than sexual health) and deliver the kinds of services which empower people to seek sexual health services, on their own...?
Urban Farming
In the break between the 2 Health Debates I visited the Urban Farming project space.
The Urban Farming project
Design Opportunities for Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough Town Meal
Middlesbrough Town Meal
Alzheimer 100
I have to admit the Debates keep on getting better and better. Alzheimer 100 opened with 'it's all about citizen participation.' Staying true to the statement the goal of the Debate was to take forward ideas and plans from today and do something.
Deborah of ThinkPublic, who were the Senior Producers on the Alzheimer 100 project, gave us an insight into the design practices used in the project.
These included holding a skills sharing days to train the co-design team in research (which involved the use of film), observing and talking to people in the Alzheimer Society network, identifying the 80+ services available to the Alzheimer community and keeping everyone up-to-date and included in the process through a website and leaflet (for those not IT enabled).
Ian and Ivo, also of ThinkPublic, presented the outcomes and opportunities which eventuated. Some of these included the design of a space for a garden, the use of mentors, a Signposting service which enabled face-to-face meetings for help and the use of public spaces eg. cafes for social interactions and activities.
I don't know if I missed something, but I wondered how all these ideas things could connect and work together. Maybe they are not intended too.
The Debate was an uplifting experience marked by the enthusiasm of everyone in the room and building on ideas.
Discussions opened with assistive technology and media training as a starting place to remove the stigma that runs alongside Alzheimers. This led to conversations around the use of film to share the stories of the Alzheimer community and help reduce this stigma. Just before the Debate begun, Deborah put on the one-minute video that was showing in the Alzheimer 100 project space and I found that added a lot of energy to the conversations that followed around the issue. What more proof did we need that film could contribute a whole lot more? As one person put it, 'the voice of people with dementia is a powerful and moving experience.' I would add the voice of the carers would be a powerful and moving experience too.
The Debate was round up with a set of agreed upon ideas as ways to move forward, but the energy would not leave until a list of names was put down on list to further the conversations and deliver some action. I think everyone in the room signed up. The legacy of Alzheimer 100 lives on as it certainly was 'not the end... but the beginning of something.'
Today's Dott Debate focused on the issue of health. John opened the Design for Sexual Health (DaSH) session by saying that sustainability, 'is about looking after each other', and that's exactly what people involved in health are concerned with.
The DaSH Debate's aim was to review the project and focus on some learnings. First up was the Design Options team who were involved with running the project. The first presentation gave an in depth view of the process the team went through in their discovery stage with people.
Various methods, tools and techniques were used such as forming a co-design team, steering committee, doing some stakeholder mapping, questionnaires, interviews and cultural probes.
The outcomes were ideas and recommendations for new modes of sexual health delivery services. These were captured in a consultation document and Service Experience book.
The legacy of DaSH has lived on with the Design Options team working in different areas and regions of the UK in sexual health.
Angela, a Nurse Team Leader and member of the co-design team, also presented giving some insights into what the experience of working on DaSH brought.
She mentioned:
- the ability to complete a wide exploration of the state of sexual health services
- the 'opportunity to get out of our silos'
- the ability to engage people, both those who use and will potentially use sexual health services and
- overall just a different way of doing things and interacting with people involved in sexual health
To summarise, Angela noted that DaSH was able to generate ideas for an integrated sexual health service 'as chosen by the people of Gateshead.'
Jenna, of Design Options, was the final presentation that dealt directly with the DaSH project.
Jenna pushed our imagination towards 'blue sky' ideas on sexual health services. Wouldn't it be great if sexual health services could....
- be found in the back of high street stores where there was a high degree of access for young people
- be around the idea of a 'clinic in a bag' where nurses could visit people in their homes
- use technology, such as vending machine, to distributed condoms.
The following two presentations were on the National Chlamydia Screening Program and the vending machine technology which actually has a functioning prototype that dispenses condoms at the DaSH project space at the Festival.
While these two presentations were interesting, my personal opinion was that they led the debates right into conversations on delivery mechanisms. Throughout our discussion, I found that cultural and behavioural issues that surrounded sexual health were beginning to emerge. Someone even mentioned, 'our nation doesn't talk about sex.' I was left questioning if we could change cultural paradigms by vending machines alone. Do we need to go 'outside the system', do new kinds of studies in sexual health, think more about sexual well-being (rather than sexual health) and deliver the kinds of services which empower people to seek sexual health services, on their own...?
Urban Farming
In the break between the 2 Health Debates I visited the Urban Farming project space.
The Urban Farming project
Design Opportunities for Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough Town Meal
Middlesbrough Town Meal
Alzheimer 100
I have to admit the Debates keep on getting better and better. Alzheimer 100 opened with 'it's all about citizen participation.' Staying true to the statement the goal of the Debate was to take forward ideas and plans from today and do something.
Deborah of ThinkPublic, who were the Senior Producers on the Alzheimer 100 project, gave us an insight into the design practices used in the project.
These included holding a skills sharing days to train the co-design team in research (which involved the use of film), observing and talking to people in the Alzheimer Society network, identifying the 80+ services available to the Alzheimer community and keeping everyone up-to-date and included in the process through a website and leaflet (for those not IT enabled).
Ian and Ivo, also of ThinkPublic, presented the outcomes and opportunities which eventuated. Some of these included the design of a space for a garden, the use of mentors, a Signposting service which enabled face-to-face meetings for help and the use of public spaces eg. cafes for social interactions and activities.
I don't know if I missed something, but I wondered how all these ideas things could connect and work together. Maybe they are not intended too.
The Debate was an uplifting experience marked by the enthusiasm of everyone in the room and building on ideas.
Discussions opened with assistive technology and media training as a starting place to remove the stigma that runs alongside Alzheimers. This led to conversations around the use of film to share the stories of the Alzheimer community and help reduce this stigma. Just before the Debate begun, Deborah put on the one-minute video that was showing in the Alzheimer 100 project space and I found that added a lot of energy to the conversations that followed around the issue. What more proof did we need that film could contribute a whole lot more? As one person put it, 'the voice of people with dementia is a powerful and moving experience.' I would add the voice of the carers would be a powerful and moving experience too.
The Debate was round up with a set of agreed upon ideas as ways to move forward, but the energy would not leave until a list of names was put down on list to further the conversations and deliver some action. I think everyone in the room signed up. The legacy of Alzheimer 100 lives on as it certainly was 'not the end... but the beginning of something.'
Thursday, 18 October 2007
Dott Festival | Day 3
Day 3 was a cold, but sunny day for the Dott Festival. The first influx of people had thinned out a bit, giving the Dott Team, Designers and Volunteers some time to catch their breadth before the weekend.
I spent my morning touching base with people via email whom I had met on Day 1 and at lunchtime headed down to the Dott Festival site to attend the first of the Dott Debates.
Today’s Dott Debates were presentations and conversations around ‘The Movement Dilemma.’ The afternoon kicked off with two presentations from (external to Dott) professionals who deal with mobility in their daily work. After a short lunch and tea break we came back for presentations on the three Dott 07 projects:
1. Move Me
2. Mapping the Necklace
3. Welcomes
I will only cover two presentations here. One from the first half of the Dott Debates session and one from the second half.
In the first session, Andreas Zachariah talked about his journey from Investment Banking to studying Design at the Royal College of Art (RCA). At the RCA, Andreas undertook a project called Carbon Hero. Carbon Hero is a mobile phone interface and information system which lets individuals see their daily carbon footprint. It’s such a brilliant idea because we are in need of becoming more aware of our impact on the environment and most of us carry our mobiles around all day and have it on. Andreas successfully put two-and-two together and the Carbon Hero idea was born.
Andreas’s belief that is even the small steps can make a difference further led him to design the information system people-friendly tracking and comparison measures eg. He designed alternative units of measure so we can all understand, in familiar terms, just how much carbon we were creating. We can also compare our weekly carbon footprints, enabling us to think a little bit more about what made the difference between one week and the next.
I enjoyed Andreas’s final slide titled the ‘Legacy of Design’.
It left us all with some things to think about such as:
- The fact that we need to create ‘waves not ripples’
- We need to encourage ‘empowerment not apathy’
- We need to give ‘transparency and personalisation’
- We need to enable ‘knowledge not spin’
- We may need ‘Failing to succeed’ and finally,
- We must ‘trust the human spirit’
David Towson of Live | Work, Newcastle presented a more in depth story of the Move Me project (the Awards night presentation was Pecha Kucha style ie. Three minute presentations with six slides and 20 seconds to talk about each slide) with which took place in Scremerston and looked at how to bring more mobility to school children in a widely dispersed area without impacting hard on the environment.
One of the things I love about design are the tensions in the problem that must be solved. Horst Rittel called them ‘wicked problems’, and they aren’t black and white, but the grey and complex. The grey and complex are the kinds of problems designers deal with everyday.
David started with the fact that most cars of the road each day travel with empty seats. If every one of these cars took an extra person, half a million cars would be removed from the roads. Powerful facts to begin with, but what and how can we begin to work on this?
David immersed us into the life of Margaret who makes a 5-mile walking trip down, each day to collect her child from school. In the photo we see a bus timetable, a potential point of intervention from a designer, but in the Move Me project, David points out that design did a whole lot more.
Through using the design process, David and his team involved all the stakeholders around the issue of getting children to school in Scremerston. This meant talking to children, staff, parents, bus operators etc.
What they found was that the information could be a whole lot more visible and clear. So the Live | Work team re-designed the timetables and other sources of information for bus services.
But that would not be enough to help fill those empty car seats. The key part of the Move Me project was designing a system of bespoke timetables, where individuals could identify, communicate and share their movements around Scremerston. The sharing and visibility of this information enabled people to become connected so that car pooling could take place, allowing greater mobility of school children and filling those empty seats.
If the success of the project is not already clear, the implementation of this project into other areas around the UK, such as in Berwick and within 53 other schools in the region, certainly demonstrates the extraordinary ability of designers and citizens to solve wicked problems.
Urban Camping
After the Dott Movement Debate, a group of us popped by the Ouseburn Valley to check out Dott's Urban Camping site. In July 07, Dott got together designers from around the world for 10 days to have them explore ideas around sustainable tourism in the North East. The last time I saw the ideas, they were concepts in Powerpoint presentations, but today, we got to see one of those ideas fully realised under the towering viaducts in the Ouseburn Valley.
The Dott Camp is a real accommodation site where one can stay during the Dott Festival for just £15 per person, per night and make very little impact on the environment. The site is a short bus ride and an even shorter walk away from the Dott Festival.
The tents are above ground, on scaffolding for increased safety. There are cooking facilities and toilets on site, and discounts for food at the local Ouseburn pubs and restaurants. It's a peaceful place with pleasant views.
I spent my morning touching base with people via email whom I had met on Day 1 and at lunchtime headed down to the Dott Festival site to attend the first of the Dott Debates.
Today’s Dott Debates were presentations and conversations around ‘The Movement Dilemma.’ The afternoon kicked off with two presentations from (external to Dott) professionals who deal with mobility in their daily work. After a short lunch and tea break we came back for presentations on the three Dott 07 projects:
1. Move Me
2. Mapping the Necklace
3. Welcomes
I will only cover two presentations here. One from the first half of the Dott Debates session and one from the second half.
In the first session, Andreas Zachariah talked about his journey from Investment Banking to studying Design at the Royal College of Art (RCA). At the RCA, Andreas undertook a project called Carbon Hero. Carbon Hero is a mobile phone interface and information system which lets individuals see their daily carbon footprint. It’s such a brilliant idea because we are in need of becoming more aware of our impact on the environment and most of us carry our mobiles around all day and have it on. Andreas successfully put two-and-two together and the Carbon Hero idea was born.
Andreas’s belief that is even the small steps can make a difference further led him to design the information system people-friendly tracking and comparison measures eg. He designed alternative units of measure so we can all understand, in familiar terms, just how much carbon we were creating. We can also compare our weekly carbon footprints, enabling us to think a little bit more about what made the difference between one week and the next.
I enjoyed Andreas’s final slide titled the ‘Legacy of Design’.
It left us all with some things to think about such as:
- The fact that we need to create ‘waves not ripples’
- We need to encourage ‘empowerment not apathy’
- We need to give ‘transparency and personalisation’
- We need to enable ‘knowledge not spin’
- We may need ‘Failing to succeed’ and finally,
- We must ‘trust the human spirit’
David Towson of Live | Work, Newcastle presented a more in depth story of the Move Me project (the Awards night presentation was Pecha Kucha style ie. Three minute presentations with six slides and 20 seconds to talk about each slide) with which took place in Scremerston and looked at how to bring more mobility to school children in a widely dispersed area without impacting hard on the environment.
One of the things I love about design are the tensions in the problem that must be solved. Horst Rittel called them ‘wicked problems’, and they aren’t black and white, but the grey and complex. The grey and complex are the kinds of problems designers deal with everyday.
David started with the fact that most cars of the road each day travel with empty seats. If every one of these cars took an extra person, half a million cars would be removed from the roads. Powerful facts to begin with, but what and how can we begin to work on this?
David immersed us into the life of Margaret who makes a 5-mile walking trip down, each day to collect her child from school. In the photo we see a bus timetable, a potential point of intervention from a designer, but in the Move Me project, David points out that design did a whole lot more.
Through using the design process, David and his team involved all the stakeholders around the issue of getting children to school in Scremerston. This meant talking to children, staff, parents, bus operators etc.
What they found was that the information could be a whole lot more visible and clear. So the Live | Work team re-designed the timetables and other sources of information for bus services.
But that would not be enough to help fill those empty car seats. The key part of the Move Me project was designing a system of bespoke timetables, where individuals could identify, communicate and share their movements around Scremerston. The sharing and visibility of this information enabled people to become connected so that car pooling could take place, allowing greater mobility of school children and filling those empty seats.
If the success of the project is not already clear, the implementation of this project into other areas around the UK, such as in Berwick and within 53 other schools in the region, certainly demonstrates the extraordinary ability of designers and citizens to solve wicked problems.
Urban Camping
After the Dott Movement Debate, a group of us popped by the Ouseburn Valley to check out Dott's Urban Camping site. In July 07, Dott got together designers from around the world for 10 days to have them explore ideas around sustainable tourism in the North East. The last time I saw the ideas, they were concepts in Powerpoint presentations, but today, we got to see one of those ideas fully realised under the towering viaducts in the Ouseburn Valley.
The Dott Camp is a real accommodation site where one can stay during the Dott Festival for just £15 per person, per night and make very little impact on the environment. The site is a short bus ride and an even shorter walk away from the Dott Festival.
The tents are above ground, on scaffolding for increased safety. There are cooking facilities and toilets on site, and discounts for food at the local Ouseburn pubs and restaurants. It's a peaceful place with pleasant views.
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Dott Festival | Day 2
I spent Day 2 wondering around the project spaces of Design of Sexual Health (DaSH) and Alzheimer 100.
If there is one thing that I can say to any visitor going to the Dott Festival, it would be to talk to the Dott Crew at each project space. I can't stress this enough (even I needed some things clarified!) because if you don't, you might miss out on really understanding what the project is all about.
And if you want an even deeper understanding of the project and the issues around it, you must attend the Dott Debates. They bring deeper insights, understanding and richness to each project. The Debates are also a great place to network, bring ideas to the table and find out more on what we can do next.
Design for Sexual Health (DaSH)
A process map of how the DaSH project was done
Stakeholders are of critical importance. DaSH’s stakeholders include the project team to the young people on the streets
DaSH Boardgame shows the different scenarios of an individual navigating their way through sexual health services
An idea could be... sexual health services in high street shops
Alzheimer 100
A guide of the different elements of the Alzheimer 100 project space
Persona's get us well-acquainted with people in the Alzheimer community
Over 80 disparate services for the Alzheimers' community makes for a confusing experience for everyone
The idea of signposts can help people identify the services available and also talk to someone
Talking to a wider group of people can occur in physical meeting places such as cafes
Designing with artists a garden for Alzheimer carers and sufferers
A powerful one-minute video conveying stories of people in the Alzheimer community
If there is one thing that I can say to any visitor going to the Dott Festival, it would be to talk to the Dott Crew at each project space. I can't stress this enough (even I needed some things clarified!) because if you don't, you might miss out on really understanding what the project is all about.
And if you want an even deeper understanding of the project and the issues around it, you must attend the Dott Debates. They bring deeper insights, understanding and richness to each project. The Debates are also a great place to network, bring ideas to the table and find out more on what we can do next.
Design for Sexual Health (DaSH)
Alzheimer 100
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Dott Festival | Day 1
The Dott Festival opened today with an attendance of over 3000 people flocking to the big white and red tent along the Tyne Riverside in Baltic Square.
The Dott Festival is a showcase of projects in the Dott programme that have been going on in the past 18 months. The projects have formed around the themes of:
- Education
- Energy
- Food
- Health
- Tourism
- Movement (transport)
And all the projects have involved local people designing solutions to local problems.
I volunteered some of my time today to help out at the Festival. It gave me the opportunity to strike up conversations with designers, project stakeholders and people on their thoughts on Dott 07. It was a great day of meeting, greeting and seeing engaged and happy faces as they toured the issues that touch everyone in some way, shape or form.
I was in the Our New School project zone when I was approached by a team of students from Köln International School of Design, Germany, who were in town to blog, film, tape and photograph the Dott Festival experience. Jenny, Melissa, Ollie and Lisa were all Service Design students who study under Professor Birgit Mager, who was one of the first academics to write about Service Design.
As the evening fell on Baltic Square, it was time to prepare for the Dott Creative Community Awards night. Held in the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, the Awards night attracted a huge invitation-only crowd and was a fantastic celebration of the projects.
The night was opened by Dott’s Programme Director, John Thackara. Welcome words were delivered by representatives of the two funding partners of Dott 07, Mick Henry of One NorthEast and David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council. David set the tone for the night, gently reminding us that Dott 07 was about designers both professional and public.
The ECO Design Challenge was a competition that got Year 8 students in the UK designing environmental sustainability into their schools. By beginning with diagnosing their school’s carbon footprint, Year 8 students all over the UK were inspired to come up with creative solutions to try and reduce their school’s carbon emissions. Eighty-six schools entered their work into the competition and five were selected as the finalists (you can view the finalists’ work on display at the Dott Festival). These five schools were guests and presenters at the Dott Awards night. Three of them were to receive a £20,000 grant from theNational Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) to realise their idea, with the other two runners up being awarded £5,000.
All the presentations on the Awards night were done Pecha Kucha style. This means that the presentations were 3 minutes, 6 slides and the presenter had 20 seconds to talk through each slide. The schools were first up to present. It’s daunting to think about being first and to speed through your project in 3 minutes in front of an adult crowd, but the Year 8 students made it look like a piece of cake. Not only that, but they were professional, worked as a team (each school had about 8 presenters) and clearly impressed us all. I felt a pang of jealousy at the ease of which the students could get up on that stage and do it!
Following the schools were the 10 Dott 07 projects. Each project leader presented stories of their Dott projects Pecha Kucha style. While it was a lot to take in at once, it was a marvellous way to get acquainted with the projects if one had not known much about them before.
After short break of water and chocolate ices, in our seats (well the night had to go on!), we had two wonderful keynote speeches from Ezio Manzini, Professor of Design at Politecnico di Milano, and Sunil Abraham, Director of mahiti.org, an NGO in India. Both of them commended the Dott 07 programme and inspired us to think a bit differently about how we should be going forward now.
The Awards were presented with the project, Urban Farming, sweeping the floor for the night. The Urban farming project’s work in Middlesbrough got the locals growing food in their gardens and allotments over the summer and celebrating the grown food at a huge Town Meal just last month. The participation and response has been phenomenal and Middlesbrough Council will be continuing the concept and event in 2008.
After a closing speech from Alan Clarke of One NorthEast, the audience and presenters retired for drinks and canapes at the Baltic’s Riverside Restaurant.
The Dott Festival is a showcase of projects in the Dott programme that have been going on in the past 18 months. The projects have formed around the themes of:
- Education
- Energy
- Food
- Health
- Tourism
- Movement (transport)
And all the projects have involved local people designing solutions to local problems.
I volunteered some of my time today to help out at the Festival. It gave me the opportunity to strike up conversations with designers, project stakeholders and people on their thoughts on Dott 07. It was a great day of meeting, greeting and seeing engaged and happy faces as they toured the issues that touch everyone in some way, shape or form.
I was in the Our New School project zone when I was approached by a team of students from Köln International School of Design, Germany, who were in town to blog, film, tape and photograph the Dott Festival experience. Jenny, Melissa, Ollie and Lisa were all Service Design students who study under Professor Birgit Mager, who was one of the first academics to write about Service Design.
As the evening fell on Baltic Square, it was time to prepare for the Dott Creative Community Awards night. Held in the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, the Awards night attracted a huge invitation-only crowd and was a fantastic celebration of the projects.
The night was opened by Dott’s Programme Director, John Thackara. Welcome words were delivered by representatives of the two funding partners of Dott 07, Mick Henry of One NorthEast and David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council. David set the tone for the night, gently reminding us that Dott 07 was about designers both professional and public.
The ECO Design Challenge was a competition that got Year 8 students in the UK designing environmental sustainability into their schools. By beginning with diagnosing their school’s carbon footprint, Year 8 students all over the UK were inspired to come up with creative solutions to try and reduce their school’s carbon emissions. Eighty-six schools entered their work into the competition and five were selected as the finalists (you can view the finalists’ work on display at the Dott Festival). These five schools were guests and presenters at the Dott Awards night. Three of them were to receive a £20,000 grant from theNational Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) to realise their idea, with the other two runners up being awarded £5,000.
All the presentations on the Awards night were done Pecha Kucha style. This means that the presentations were 3 minutes, 6 slides and the presenter had 20 seconds to talk through each slide. The schools were first up to present. It’s daunting to think about being first and to speed through your project in 3 minutes in front of an adult crowd, but the Year 8 students made it look like a piece of cake. Not only that, but they were professional, worked as a team (each school had about 8 presenters) and clearly impressed us all. I felt a pang of jealousy at the ease of which the students could get up on that stage and do it!
Following the schools were the 10 Dott 07 projects. Each project leader presented stories of their Dott projects Pecha Kucha style. While it was a lot to take in at once, it was a marvellous way to get acquainted with the projects if one had not known much about them before.
After short break of water and chocolate ices, in our seats (well the night had to go on!), we had two wonderful keynote speeches from Ezio Manzini, Professor of Design at Politecnico di Milano, and Sunil Abraham, Director of mahiti.org, an NGO in India. Both of them commended the Dott 07 programme and inspired us to think a bit differently about how we should be going forward now.
The Awards were presented with the project, Urban Farming, sweeping the floor for the night. The Urban farming project’s work in Middlesbrough got the locals growing food in their gardens and allotments over the summer and celebrating the grown food at a huge Town Meal just last month. The participation and response has been phenomenal and Middlesbrough Council will be continuing the concept and event in 2008.
After a closing speech from Alan Clarke of One NorthEast, the audience and presenters retired for drinks and canapes at the Baltic’s Riverside Restaurant.
Monday, 15 October 2007
Four months on…. The Initial Project Application (IPA)
It’s now 4 months into my PhD and I have spent the past months transitioning from Australia to the UK; from big city to regional city; from full-time work to full-time student and while it has been a bit of a roller-coaster challenge, the dust has finally begun to settle.
Over the past months I have spent time getting to know the projects and the designers who have worked on them. I have also spent time with the Dott 07 Management Team and the Design Council. I have found conversation to be a powerful learning tool, especially with the lack of Service Design literature on designing public services (two key references here are the work of the former RED unit of the Design Council and Jim Collin’s monograph titled, ‘Good to Great and the Social Sector’).
The designers have especially helped me with recognising what have been the most topical and challenging issues in Service Design, and I thank everyone who has spent time talking with me.
The IPA is a research proposal I have to submit to the Northumbria University for approval of my study over the next 3 years. The University also needs to know that I will be making an original contribution to knowledge.
Here’s a brief overview of what I submitted (and the Panel just reviewed it today). My working title is:
Understanding the role of Design Practice in public design commission projects, and their broader relevance to Service Design contexts.
To flesh this out, I will be looking at the design practice (that is the methods, processes, tools, techniques and roles of the designer) used in the Dott 07 public sector projects. I will be looking at 7 projects, which used Service Design-type practices. These projects are:
1. Alzheimer 100
2. Design and Sexual Health (DaSH)
3. Low Carb Lane
4. Move Me
5. New Work
6. Our New School
7. Urban Farming
These 7 projects will form a case study, which will build evidence and an argument for the value and role of design in public sector services.
My original contribution to knowledge lies in thinking about Dott 07 as an artificial ecosystem, created by the Design Council, for designers to experiment and play in. The implications of this mean that there are conditions bespoke to the Dott 07 programme, that may not be relevant to the broader context. For example, the tolerance of failure in Dott 07 projects may be higher because the funding partners (the Design Council and One NorthEast) are not going to pull the plug like a commercial client might if things go a bit hairy. What I intend to do is identify what is bespoke to Dott 07 and what can be applied in the ‘real-world’ of Service Design. I hope to make a contribution here to the embryonic discipline and along the way, design a method to do this. I know that designers, researchers, academics are creating these artificial ecosystems all the time, but how do you then transfer and apply the knowledge and ensure a legacy?
To further illustrate what I mean, the Designing for Services project at Said Business School, Oxford University is a programme of similar nature.
A bit about Dott
Designs of the Time (Dott ) is a ten-year programme, to be initiated every two years in a different region of the UK. Each Dott consists of a suite of public commission projects utilising design-led interventions (i.e. Design processes, methods, tools and the roles of designers) to involve people (the public) in designing solutions to local issues. The key issues were:
- Education
- Energy
- Food
- Health
- Tourism
- Movement (transport)
The first Dott (Dott 07) was undertaken in North East England between 2005 and 2007.
To celebrate the projects, a showcase Festival will begin tomorrow on the Tyne River at Baltic Square. I will be blogging updates of the Festival here.
Over the past months I have spent time getting to know the projects and the designers who have worked on them. I have also spent time with the Dott 07 Management Team and the Design Council. I have found conversation to be a powerful learning tool, especially with the lack of Service Design literature on designing public services (two key references here are the work of the former RED unit of the Design Council and Jim Collin’s monograph titled, ‘Good to Great and the Social Sector’).
The designers have especially helped me with recognising what have been the most topical and challenging issues in Service Design, and I thank everyone who has spent time talking with me.
The IPA is a research proposal I have to submit to the Northumbria University for approval of my study over the next 3 years. The University also needs to know that I will be making an original contribution to knowledge.
Here’s a brief overview of what I submitted (and the Panel just reviewed it today). My working title is:
Understanding the role of Design Practice in public design commission projects, and their broader relevance to Service Design contexts.
To flesh this out, I will be looking at the design practice (that is the methods, processes, tools, techniques and roles of the designer) used in the Dott 07 public sector projects. I will be looking at 7 projects, which used Service Design-type practices. These projects are:
1. Alzheimer 100
2. Design and Sexual Health (DaSH)
3. Low Carb Lane
4. Move Me
5. New Work
6. Our New School
7. Urban Farming
These 7 projects will form a case study, which will build evidence and an argument for the value and role of design in public sector services.
My original contribution to knowledge lies in thinking about Dott 07 as an artificial ecosystem, created by the Design Council, for designers to experiment and play in. The implications of this mean that there are conditions bespoke to the Dott 07 programme, that may not be relevant to the broader context. For example, the tolerance of failure in Dott 07 projects may be higher because the funding partners (the Design Council and One NorthEast) are not going to pull the plug like a commercial client might if things go a bit hairy. What I intend to do is identify what is bespoke to Dott 07 and what can be applied in the ‘real-world’ of Service Design. I hope to make a contribution here to the embryonic discipline and along the way, design a method to do this. I know that designers, researchers, academics are creating these artificial ecosystems all the time, but how do you then transfer and apply the knowledge and ensure a legacy?
To further illustrate what I mean, the Designing for Services project at Said Business School, Oxford University is a programme of similar nature.
A bit about Dott
Designs of the Time (Dott ) is a ten-year programme, to be initiated every two years in a different region of the UK. Each Dott consists of a suite of public commission projects utilising design-led interventions (i.e. Design processes, methods, tools and the roles of designers) to involve people (the public) in designing solutions to local issues. The key issues were:
- Education
- Energy
- Food
- Health
- Tourism
- Movement (transport)
The first Dott (Dott 07) was undertaken in North East England between 2005 and 2007.
To celebrate the projects, a showcase Festival will begin tomorrow on the Tyne River at Baltic Square. I will be blogging updates of the Festival here.
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Inspiration and Influences
The funny thing about the mind map that I first did for this blog is that it led me to an idea for my next posting here.
I often pass on my favourite articles that have been my comfort food during the challenging and questioning times (only with less calories). I thought I would post links and put references to these here on my blog.
The one that shall always top my list, is a collection of people-centred stories in design by Lauralee Alben, gathered together in an article called At the Heart of Interaction Design. The full article can be downloaded by clicking on the link or going to Alben Design’s website.
*Image from Alben Design's website
The next reference I love to pass on, has fed my interest in always having one foot in a design bucket and the other in a business bucket. It is a fabulous book called Managing As Designing. The authors who put the book together, Richard J. Boland and Fred Collopy, came to recognise the potential of a ‘design attitude’ in a business through their interactions with renowned architect Frank Gehry during the conception, planning, designing, development and construction of their faculty building, the Weatherhead School of Management. The result of these interactions resulted in a conference in 2002 and the subsequent published works are the papers delivered at the conference. It is a great read for both designers and business people. What I also love about Managing as Designing is that it is a demonstration of the transformative experience non-designers may have with design.
Wicked Problems in Design Thinking by Richard Buchanan (which can be found in the book the Idea of Design) is an article which really sharpened my focus on what I wanted to do in design. Buchanan provides for us a framework of Four Orders that designers work in. He uses the Four Orders to encourage our thinking about the potential of design in new and different areas and even today, Wicked Problems offers a rich and colourful seabed which always gets me thinking about design in so many directions.
An article that did precede all other articles, was one by Anne Patterson called Managing Upwards. As a Graphic Design Intern, I was struggling with being ostracised for using the wrong length hyphen (sorry em-dash) and knowing there was a greater potential for design. As we had a lot of down time between projects I would immerse myself in the graphic design studio’s library and one day came across this article which made me see a light!
In Managing Upwards, Patterson wrote about a Designer’s journey throughout their career which begins as a designer and moves forward and upwards into management. She wrote about how Designers applied their design thinking to managing
*An illustration from Patterson's thesis
Last and definitely not least is the thing that began it all- The Design Council. In 2002, a Creative Director I was working under passed me a brochure to read and from that point on, I was hooked!
The Design Council is the UK’s national strategic body for design and have a role in creating the right eco system for design and designers to play, experiment and work in. They are advocates for design and its use in business, government and society. I have been using the Design Council website as a source of inspiration and information for my personal, education and career interests over many years now, so I feel very lucky to be here, in the UK, at Northumbria University and collaborating with the Design Council on this PhD.
I often pass on my favourite articles that have been my comfort food during the challenging and questioning times (only with less calories). I thought I would post links and put references to these here on my blog.
The one that shall always top my list, is a collection of people-centred stories in design by Lauralee Alben, gathered together in an article called At the Heart of Interaction Design. The full article can be downloaded by clicking on the link or going to Alben Design’s website.
*Image from Alben Design's website
The next reference I love to pass on, has fed my interest in always having one foot in a design bucket and the other in a business bucket. It is a fabulous book called Managing As Designing. The authors who put the book together, Richard J. Boland and Fred Collopy, came to recognise the potential of a ‘design attitude’ in a business through their interactions with renowned architect Frank Gehry during the conception, planning, designing, development and construction of their faculty building, the Weatherhead School of Management. The result of these interactions resulted in a conference in 2002 and the subsequent published works are the papers delivered at the conference. It is a great read for both designers and business people. What I also love about Managing as Designing is that it is a demonstration of the transformative experience non-designers may have with design.
Wicked Problems in Design Thinking by Richard Buchanan (which can be found in the book the Idea of Design) is an article which really sharpened my focus on what I wanted to do in design. Buchanan provides for us a framework of Four Orders that designers work in. He uses the Four Orders to encourage our thinking about the potential of design in new and different areas and even today, Wicked Problems offers a rich and colourful seabed which always gets me thinking about design in so many directions.
An article that did precede all other articles, was one by Anne Patterson called Managing Upwards. As a Graphic Design Intern, I was struggling with being ostracised for using the wrong length hyphen (sorry em-dash) and knowing there was a greater potential for design. As we had a lot of down time between projects I would immerse myself in the graphic design studio’s library and one day came across this article which made me see a light!
In Managing Upwards, Patterson wrote about a Designer’s journey throughout their career which begins as a designer and moves forward and upwards into management. She wrote about how Designers applied their design thinking to managing
*An illustration from Patterson's thesis
Last and definitely not least is the thing that began it all- The Design Council. In 2002, a Creative Director I was working under passed me a brochure to read and from that point on, I was hooked!
The Design Council is the UK’s national strategic body for design and have a role in creating the right eco system for design and designers to play, experiment and work in. They are advocates for design and its use in business, government and society. I have been using the Design Council website as a source of inspiration and information for my personal, education and career interests over many years now, so I feel very lucky to be here, in the UK, at Northumbria University and collaborating with the Design Council on this PhD.
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