Some months ago I was approached by Rolake Ojo, a young doctor who realised she’s a designer at heart and had the guts to follow her passion, inviting me to chat about the many overlaps between design and healthcare on her podcast Brand New Dr. You can listen to our conversation here, discussing, amongst many interesting … Continue reading “Talking About Design & Healthcare”
Category: Problem Solving
About a brief
“– We want to change people’s lives through sound and music, and have sound and music really adapt to their everyday lives’– Now, that would be a great brief… and it’s short!” Yves Béhar, designer of Jambox portable speaker for Jawbone, 2010. Béhar’s example of a great brief, apart from being, well, brief, is an … Continue reading “About a brief”
Changing behaviour through design
If you’ve read some of my blog posts you’ll know I believe in the power of design; that design can solve problems, make things work better for us, bring pleasure and beauty to everyday things. But can design also change how we behave? This bench can. How? I’ve received a variety of answers from students … Continue reading “Changing behaviour through design”
Can you teach empathy?
“Empathy is the capacity to step into other people’s shoes, to understand their lives, and start to solve problems from their perspectives. Human-centered design is premised on empathy, on the idea that the people you’re designing for are your roadmap to innovative solutions…” Emi Kolawole, Editor-in-Residence, Stanford University d.school We ask students to consider who … Continue reading “Can you teach empathy?”
‘What If…?’
What would you draw for the word ‘kettle’ in a game of Pictionary? This is my 16 year old’s attempt: although we’ve never owned a kettle which looks like this drawing, somewhere in his mind there exists an imprint of such a form: a kettle archetype. Without even realising, we all store a range of … Continue reading “‘What If…?’”
Design in the age of Covid
When the UK went in to lockdown in March, the creative industries were hit hard, throwing many in to professional uncertainty and financial stress. This inadvertently conveyed the message that although the sector’s contribution to society may be ‘nice to have’, it is surely also ‘non essential’. But the global crisis brought by the Covid-19 … Continue reading “Design in the age of Covid”