'...we're not designing for a specific user at key stage 3'. Teachers' lack of planning of user-centred tasks in Design and Technology at key stage 3 in England and implication this has for pupils’ understanding of complex design tasks

This paper discusses the importance of user-centred design by outlining its history , embodiment in national and international standards (for example, British Standards Institute, 2005) and its relevance in addressing the needs of an ageing population. It also outlines how a user-centred approach to design and technology has been part National Curriculum in England since 1989. Using data collected from two schools which includes, teacher interviews (n=4); pupil focus group interviews (12 pupils comprising 6 boys and 6 girls from two schools); a pupils survey (n=50) and departmental documents such as schemes of work, we found that many of the tasks teachers plan for students, do not provide them with the opportunities that allow for a user-centred approach. We discuss the implications of this and make some initial conclusions as part of our on-going research

Patterns of Living: Hong Kong’s High Rise Communities

Following her publications on housing design, French was commissioned to contribute to a project coordinated by Dr Lee at Hong Kong Design Institute, a unique opportunity to gain access to the standard ‘social housing’ units designed by architects and occupied by ordinary families. Inspired by European modernism, the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) has pioneered land reclamation and high-rise construction, producing some of the world’s densest, most vertical residential areas built since the mid-1950s. Data were collected and analysed from 120 typical homes to discover how families occupy the compact flats that have continued to be developed, maintained and rented by HA. The research shows for the first time the interiors – the lived reality of modernism's housing project – and has highlighted a particular flat type that housing studies now categorise as ‘indeterminate’: it is offered to tenants as a shell to partition to suit their own desires. Its success offers a model with international significance, controversial especially in rental housing, but with the potential to reduce housing costs and allow future flexibility potentially a way forward in reducing housing costs and allowing future flexibility. French designed and led the overall project and contributed an essay tracing the history of the design of Hong Kong’s low cost housing from the 1950s. She developed a drawn analysis of the development of the Hong Kong standard housing types. Historical sources included the HA, Colonial Building Notes published by the Building Research Station, and other reports by the British Architects and Housing Commissioners. Dr Lee managed the data collection with student volunteers as research assistants. The resulting sketches, drawings, photographs and notes were analysed, organised and drawn to the same style for legibility and comparative purposes. French gave a paper based on this research at the Design History Society Annual Conference, ‘Towards Global Histories of Design: Postcolonial Perspectives’, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India (2013)

銀齡創造力: 黃金清華‧銀齡創新 The ingenuity of ageing: for designing social innovation

What can a remarkable community of 6,000 retired academics living on the campus of Tsinghua University, Beijing, tell us about strategies for ‘ageing well’ in societies around the world? The Ingenuity of Ageing tells the story of an experimental piece of design research carried out by Dr Yanki Lee, a research fellow in the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, who spent a year in China investigating new approaches to design for ageing

How old is old? Designing participation tactics to nuture the ingenuity of ageing for our future selves

Introduction: Ageing and design -- According to the United Nations 2009 report, the global population of people aged 60 and over is 680 million, representing 11 percent of the world\u27s population and the figure is increasing very year. Specific questions are raised for/by design researchers to this global phenomenon: who should be our research subjects and where is the starting point to design for ageing? ..

Where (does it happen and in what contexts)?

A broad perspective on practice from institutions, education and research to new forms of practitioner initiated projects: Interviews with Pelin Derviş (TK), Joseph Grima (IT/US), Ou Ning (CH), Meike Schalk (SE/DE), Yanki Lee (UK), Ana Betancour (SE), Otto von Busch (SE), Mauricio Carbalan (AR) and Tor Lindstrand (SE), by Magnus Ericson