Developing a self-healing supramolecular nucleoside hydrogel

Low molecular weight gelator hydrogels provide a viable alternative to traditional polymer based drug delivery platforms, owing to their tunable stability and in most cases inherent biocompatibility. Here we report the first self-healing nucleoside hydrogel using N4-octanoyl-2′-deoxycytidine (0.5% w/v) for drug delivery. The hydrogel's cross-linked nanofibrillar structure, was characterised using oscillatory rheology and confirmed using SEM and TEM imaging. The potential of this gel for drug delivery was explored in vitro using fluorescently labelled tracers. Cell viability assays were conducted using pancreatic cell lines which tolerated the gels well; whilst no adverse effects on the viability or proliferation of cells were observed for fibroblast cell lines

Lessons from Expert Focus Groups on how to Better Support Adults with Mild Intellectual Disabilities to Engage in Co-Design

Co-design techniques generally rely upon higher-order cognitive skills, such as abstraction and creativity, meaning they may be inaccessible to people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Consequently, investigators must adjust the methods employed throughout their studies to ensure the complex needs of people with ID are appropriately catered to. Yet, there are a lack of guidelines to support researchers in this process, with previous literature often neglecting to discuss the decisions made during the development of their study protocols. We propose a new procedure to overcome this lack of support, by utilizing the knowledge of “experts” in ID to design a more accessible workshop for the target population. 12 experts across two focus groups were successful in identifying accessibility barriers throughout a set of typical early co-design activities. Recommendations to overcome these barriers are discussed along with lessons on how to better support people with ID to engage in co-design

Design thinking and design doing: Describing a process of people-centred innovation

The research forms part of the author’s long-term enquiry into the challenges of implementing Design Thinking (DT) and its relationship to Inclusive Design (ID), something that has been understudied and under-researched. Both fields advocate research with users and have a history spanning decades, but they have remained largely separate in terms of academic research and practical application. The author was approached by the series editor for his expertise at the intersection of ID and DT. “State of the art” DT ideas and approaches were evaluated through study of circa 50 recent academic publications, papers and journal articles. Field research was based on personal leadership of over 70 ID projects with government, business, and the voluntary sector leading to frontline discoveries and insights. Peer-reviewed academic publication, conference presentation, and keynote delivery helped test ideas before making the link between ID and DT and delivering the publication. This 13,000 word, sole-authored chapter outlines gaps in the long-term effectiveness of DT, outlining five principles that aim to engender a more sustainable approach by aligning it to ID. These five ideas give an overview of newly-articulated frameworks, tools and methods for academic and industry application. The chapter sets a context for 16 other chapters within the publication and establishes the need for more empirical research to link between DT and ID. The ideas in the chapter have been used to direct practice-based research projects and education programmes at the RCA as well as organisations in its network. 700 Hong Kong civil servants have been trained using these ideas, alongside numerous industry organisations including Tata Consulting Services and Panasonic

Investigating design cognition in the construction and enactment of team mental models

When discussing the performance of design teams, researchers repeatedly stress the role of design cognition. A major challenge in this research is assessing the collective cognitive structures and processes of a design team. Based on the construct of the team mental model, we present advances to two complementary research methods, latent semantic analysis and reflective practice analysis, to provide a way to model design team cognition over time so as to identify which aspects are relevant to design performance. Together these methods characterize: (1) the emergence of sharedness of the team mental model; (2) the accuracy of the team mental model in relation to a dynamic referent model; and, (3) the enactment of the team mental model as goal-directed behavior

Design games for simulating design communication.

No summary availabl

Development of design collaboration skills

Contains fulltext : 112250.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)19 september 201121 p

Novice-Expert Design Consultations: Findings from a Field Study

This study aimed to investigate the process of novice-expert consultation meetings in an organizational context by identifying phases of the discourse and analysing the nature of these phases. An empirical study was performed at Rolls-Royce Aerospace Engineering by capturing 7 audio-records of meetings between trainees (novices) and expert designers over the course of the design projects of 3 teams of trainees. 3 main phases, context sharing, knowledge creation and information seeking, were distinguished and it was found that these phases alternated often during consultation meetings. Furthermore, over the course of trainees’ design project, the length of the knowledge creation phases increased while the length of information seeking phases decreased and the length of the context sharing phases remained the same. Finally, the different roles of expert and novice are discussed and suggestions for further research are provided.Product Innovation ManagementIndustrial Design Engineerin

Learning histories as an ethnographic method for designing teamwork in healthcare

Designing for teamwork in healthcare requires a thorough understanding of the working context and routines of the different user groups involved. This paper presents a design project in the context of child oncology in which we demonstrate the use of a newly developed ethnographic method for design research called the learning history method. The results of this design research project demonstrate that the method provides the designer with a clear path to gather in-depth insights into the needs and wishes of different users and their interactions, while maintaining flexibility in execution. Moreover, the results also show that the proposed tangible outcomes of each design research step focuses high-quality feedback loops between the designer and the different users.OLD Management and OrganisationApplied Ergonomics and Desig

Reflection-in-Action When Designing Organizational Processes: Prototyping Workshops for Collective Reflection-in-Action

In this paper on designing organizational processes, we combine insight on reflection-in-action with the role of reflection and experimenting from the organizational routine dynamics literature. Illustrated through a case at a strategy consultancy, we show how a prototyped workshop can elicit reflection-in- action when designing organizational processes. The artifacts used in the prototyped workshop made previous implicit assumptions about the work more explicit. This led to on the spot reflection-in-action of how to improve the prototype. This shows how collective reflection-action can be created by creating a space for reflection, that simultaneously allows for experimentation. Future research between design science and organizational science would thus be fruitful when studying the role of collective reflection- in-action when prototyping organizational processes