Digital Barriers: Making Technology Work for People

This paper was originally given as an oral presentation at the ‘3rd International Conference for Universal Design’, International Association for Universal Design, Hamamatsu, Japan (2010) and subsequently published. Peer reviewed by the conference’s International Scientific Committee, it looks at how the emerging techniques of design ethnography could be applied in a business context and qualitatively evaluates the benefits. It outlines the differences between inclusive design research conducted for digital devices/services and the large body of existing research on inclusive products, buildings and environments. It advances the view that technology companies are today in danger of repeating the same inclusive design mistakes made by kitchen and bathroom manufacturers 20 years ago, and calls for technology companies to develop new techniques to avoid this happening. The paper charts in detail the challenges and processes involved in transferring academic inclusive design research into the business arena, describing research conducted by Gheerawo and his co-authors on projects with research partners Samsung and BlackBerry. The paper helped define the ‘people and technology’ research theme in the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design’s Age & Ability Research Lab, which Gheerawo leads. It was also important, as part of evidence of the benefits of an inclusive technology approach, in persuading a number of companies (Sony, BT, Samsung) to undertake new studies with the Lab. Gheerawo used this pathfinder paper in further work, including an essay on digital communication for www.designingwithpeople.org (i-Design3 project EPSRC), membership of the steering committee for Age UK’s Engage accreditation for business, and lectures at ‘CitiesforAll’ conference, Helsinki (2012), ‘WorkTech’, London (2010), ‘Budapest Design Week’ (2011) and the ‘Business of Ageing’ conference, Dublin (2011). Gheerawo also co-wrote an article ‘Moving towards an encompassing universal design approach in ICT’ in The Journal of Usability Studies (2010), for which he was also a guest editor

Design That Makes a Difference: People-centred Projects from Norway and the UK

Gheerawo was lead curator on the exhibition ‘Design that Makes a Difference’, which was funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in the UK. The exhibition presented 20 inclusive design projects from the UK and Norway including Gov.uk, BT, Nestle, Scandic Hotels and the Olympic Park. It built on the ideas from Gheerawo and Eikhaug’s book, Innovating with People: The Business of Inclusive Design (2010; Gheerawo REF Output 1) and crystallised Gheerawo’s focus as a researcher on knowledge exchange in inclusive design for business, explaining techniques in the field to a broader commercial and public audience. The research element of the exhibition investigated how inclusive design thinking is used in current innovation processes of Norwegian and British organisations. The curators assessed the effectiveness of the outcomes, which included trains, hotels, voting systems and neighbourhood initiatives, and arranged them in three themes: Business-driven, Public-facing and Community-led. The exhibition opening was preceded by an academic seminar which featured case studies from the UK and Norwegian governments. It was widely covered through social media and press, resulting in an invitation to display the exhibition at the University of Cambridge and at City Hall, by invitation of the Mayor of London’s Office (both 2013), and it travelled to Norway in 2014. The work drew on a number of publications detailing research with industry that involved Gheerawo as editor (Living in the Community, for Kingwood Trust; Metricity, for an architectural consortium). Several public-facing publications by Gheerawo laid the groundwork for the exhibition: 'The designer as ethnographer: Practical projects from industry' in Design Anthropology: Object Culture in the 21st Century (2010); Volume magazine’s special edition on ageing, On the Edges of Ageing (2011); and book chapter ‘The designer’s tale’ in The New Millennium Tales (2011)

The Challenges in Universal Design

This book is aimed at an international audience in business, education, design and engineering. The other contributors are academics or practitioners from the Nordic region, UK and USA. Gheerawo co-wrote the introductory chapter with Vavik, the book editor. In Scandinavia, the terms ‘universal design’ (US origin) and ‘inclusive design’ (European origin) are both widely used. The chapter sets out a series of challenges facing inclusive design as it evolves from academic theory into a practical methodology that designers and business organisations can use. It outlines the context and benefits of the approach, and gives guidance to inclusive design practitioners. The research drew together US and European approaches to outline a common history of inclusive design over the past 40 years. It addresses significant topics, including the current move towards co-creation, contemporary design for social inclusion and inclusive design as a global agent of change. As Gheerawo and Vavik establish in their Preface, the book looks at how different design disciplines, including the emerging discipline of service design, can adopt an inclusive approach. It responds to the Norwegian Government’s Action Plan of 2009, which focuses on inclusive design. Although from an academic press, it is aimed at business, providing knowledge, methods and case studies encouraging best practice, and supported by the Norwegian State Housing Bank. Gheerawo used the chapter to consolidate his thinking on the barriers and opportunities facing business organisations in adopting inclusive design. A number of conference publications resulted from the work, including: 'Social sustainability: The challenges facing universal design' (3rd International Conference for Universal Design, Hamamatsu, Japan, 2010); and 'Inclusive Norway – building an approach through design innovation with industry' (Include 2009, London, UK, 2009). Gheerawo was also invited to give a keynote address at the 4th International Conference for Universal Design, Fukuoka, Japan (2012)

Innovating With People - The Business of Inclusive Design

This book brings together the complex academic knowledge that exists in inclusive design and presents it in an accessible format suitable for trade and industry. Co-written with Onny Eikhaug of the Norwegian Design Council, it is a ‘first of its kind’ publication aimed at taking the inclusive design research process into the industrial arena and effecting real knowledge exchange. The research combined academic thinking with market case studies and business evidence for the innovation value of inclusive design. It outlines eight inclusive design activities that could be added to any business/innovation process and nine basic tools for conducting people-centred research. The book addresses both the need to take inclusive design research into the business arena and the Norwegian Government’s ambitious targets for inclusive design by 2025. It builds on practical inclusive design research with Norwegian companies and a series of knowledge-transfer events, most notably two conferences in 2008 and 2010 entitled the ‘European Business Conference on Inclusive Design’. The publication has provided a platform for Gheerawo to undertake further research on the business value and application of inclusive design, including knowledge-exchange workshops, executive education and projects with BlackBerry, Samsung, NorDan, Kinnarps, Stannah and the London Creative and Digital Fusion. He also ran an executive education workshop in Oslo with Eikhaug on inclusive design in 2012, based on the methods and frameworks in the book, with 130 delegates from 14 countries; he organised and spoke at the ‘Ageing and Design – Global Business Perspectives’ conference in Hong Kong in 2012, resulting in a partnership with the Institute of Design Knowledge, Hong Kong Design Centre; gave presentations globally in cities including Moscow, Hamamatsu, Salamanca, Hong Kong and Prague; and was appointed guest editor on the subject for two journals: Design Philosophy Papers in 2011 and The Design Journal in 2013

The Designer as Ethnographer: Practical Projects from Industry

Bichard and Gheerawo (RCA) were invited to contribute this chapter by the book’s editor, Professor Alison Clarke (University of Applied Arts, Vienna), who brought together ‘key thinkers and practitioners involved in making and theorizing our contemporary material and immaterial world’ (p.9). The book charts how designers have begun to use social research as part of their practice, whilst also presenting an anthropological perspective of both the consumption of design, and those involved in the design process (Bichard and Gheerawo). Design anthropology is an emerging discipline and this edited volume was the first to bring together designers, design researchers and anthropologists. The chapter describes ethnographic design research and highlights the temporal tensions between respective practices in both design and anthropology. Following Rees’s (2008) suggestion that the fieldwork methodology of anthropology could learn much from design, Bichard and Gheerawo argue that design(ers) could benefit from the reflexive perspective of anthropology. The use of ethnography in design research is especially pertinent in Bichard’s work with partners from disability and ageing communities. The flexibility of the ethnographic approach has afforded collaborative design research processes, bridging the creative experience of the designer/researcher and the life experience of the partner. A review of the edited volume in Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society (2013) described Bichard and Gheerawo’s chapter as ‘one of the best offerings of the book’. Bichard presented adapted versions of the chapter in her series of guest lectures on design anthropology at the Department of Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London (2010 and 2011)

#liveinclusive

New design projects from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design This exhibition presents socially inclusive design at the Royal College of Art. The 16 projects in this exhibition look at how we can enable more inclusive living for people from all walks of life and in a variety of contexts, from the home to the hospital, from the street to the surgery, from the office to the high street bank. We are a group of design innovators and a community of researchers that use design to address some of society’s toughest challenges. All the projects in this exhibition aim to improve life. The exhibition is divided into four categories: Age & Diversity – projects that benefit people of all ages and abilities, embracing the full diversity of human experience Healthcare – projects that look at health from a medical, personal and aspirational perspective Work Futures – projects that focus of new ways of working and advance the working environment across a number of different sectors Major projects – large scale mobility and community projects The exhibition is called #liveinclusive, a nod to our digital strategy moving forward but also an attempt to encapsulate what we do in two words

Creative Leadership: Design meets neuroscience to transform leadership

Creative Leadership is a tripartite leadership model that has been developed and pioneered by Rama Gheerawo, Director of The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA). It evolved over the last decade through observation and experience of the limitations of hierarchical models of leadership across a diverse range of sectors. During this, the three Creative Leadership attributes of Empathy (EMP), Clarity (CLA), and Creativity (CRE), have been explored through a range of primary and secondary research methods. The next stage of research and development involves a multidisciplinary convergence of design thinking with neuroscience that relates to brain plasticity, neural connectivity, and emotional intelligence theory. The aim is to develop a comprehensive grid of key performance indicators of Creative Leadership. Dr Melanie Flory, neuroscience project partner, explains that the three attributes are learnable, and correlate positively with wellbeing-sustaining values and behaviours in individuals and groups. When the cognitive, emotional and behavioural aspects of these traits are identified and understood, a three-dimensional complementary feedback loop of Learn – Retain – Apply can ensue through experiential learning and development. This positioning paper presents the evolution, scope and applications of Creative Leadership alongside a discussion on the emerging opportunities for novel design-neuroscience intersection relating to personal, leadership and organisational development, growth and transformation. It also reflects on the pandemic context of 2020

Systematic review on the effects of the physical and social aspects of the community pharmacy environment on pharmacy patients' and staffs' engagement with pharmacy health services

Systematic review on the effects of the physical and social aspects of the community pharmacy environment on pharmacy patients' and staffs' engagement with pharmacy health services. Review question - What study designs are used to investigate the physical and social aspects of the community pharmacy environment? - What are pharmacy patients' and staffs' experiences of the physical and social aspects of the community pharmacy environment when accessing or delivering pharmacy health services? - What barriers and enablers, relating to the community pharmacy environment, do pharmacy patients and staff experience; and possible health, social or professional implications of this

Towards a Gold Standard Operations Control Centre (OCC): Applying Creative Leadership principles in the re-design of an OCC at a leading international airline

Creative Leadership (CL) is a leadership model comprising the three values of Empathy, Clarity and Creativity, which are considered baseline operational and leadership attributes in a Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) world. This paper presents a case study charting the application of CL principles within delivery of a complex research project involving international collaboration between The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD) at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA), a strategic partner – TATA Consultancy Services (TCS), and an airline client [the Airline]. The purpose of the design research was to improve the operational efficiency of the Airline, whilst improving staff and customer experience. This addressed three discrete, yet interlinked areas of delivery within the Airline Operations Control Centre (OCC), namely Technology, Environment and People. The three values of CL – Empathy, Clarity and Creativity – were exercised to align physical, technological and psychological factors. These were implemented in the design of a UX technology that made complex information accessible at a glance, and the re-design of the OCC office environment to enable better communication and personal wellbeing. This paper captures the process and outcomes, whilst reflecting on the efficacy of the CL model as a progressive framework for innovation, growth and development

Understanding how attitudes towards autonomous vehicles can shape the design of cities

Understanding public attitudes towards autonomous vehicles is an important starting point when designing and engineering future cities, both to ensure acceptance and to deliver social benefits. The GATEway project is a consortium of industry and academic organisations that are establishing a test bed for driverless vehicle technology within public streets in Greenwich, London. Each partner is using public trials to explore the potential for autonomous technology within a city transport network. The Royal College of Art (RCA) is exploring how public attitudes can be used to enhance social benefit. This paper shares the first findings from a series of workshops including people with additional needs, non-drivers, drivers, technology enthusiasts and professional stakeholders. The workshops delved into people's hopes and fears for driverless technologies and used co-design methods to explore how designers can respond when designing autonomous vehicles, the services they provide and the wider urban environment