The Touchscreen Revolution?

10 May 2013 - Ahead of our Product Design + Innovation conference, Duncan Smith, Head of Products & Systems at Cambridge Consultants, has written a blog for us on the user difficulties of touchscreen interaction on PCs.

He writes: “Windows 8 has been targeted and advertised as being in equal parts a touchscreen interface and usable in the traditional way with a mouse… but, as we’ve seen, these two methods of use have very different ergonomic set-ups.” Read Duncan’s blog.

At our Product Design + Innovation conference on 15-16 May, Duncan will take part in a session called: “The Internet of Things: Designing connected objects”. Read an earlier Q&A with Duncan on this topic.

Find out more about the conference, the speakers and how to book your place.

Speakers set to unlock potential of industrial design

9 May 2013 - Leading industrial designers are reconvening in London on 15 and 16 May for our third Product Design + Innovation Conference.

Paul Priestman, Clive Grinyer, Jeroen Raijmakers, Dee Cooper, Gus Desbarats, Jim Dawton, Jamian Cobbett, Ignacio Germade, Fabien Grégoire and many other thought leaders will take part in presentations and panel discussions at the event. 

Joining them will be newly-announced speakers. Chris Sherwin (pictured), head of sustainability at Seymourpowell will be among those sharing their expertise on how to increase sustainability and longevity by designing for reuse, repair and recycling. 

Nico Macdonald will contribute insights on innovation and creativity from his perspective as co-author of Big Potatoes: The London Manifesto for Innovation and as chair of the Media Futures programme.

Read our latest press release. Find out more about the conference, the speakers and how to book your place. 

Your chance to network

30 April 2013 - It's not long until Product Design + Innovation 2013, taking place in London on 15-16 May. Book your place today and you can network with delegates from these companies who are seeking new business opportunities through design and innovation:

Alloy, Bespak Innovation, BMT Defence Services, Canard Design, Chelles & Hayashi Design, Curventa, DCA, Eastman Company, Hozelock, Impulse, LA Design, Lucid Innovation, ML Electronics, Morphy Richards, NMHG, Norbar, PDD Group, Pearlfisher, Planmeca, SPD Development, The Wrigley Company, Unilever

Find out more about the conference, including the programme themes and speakers. 

Precipice designs smart pan concept

29 April 2013 - London design agency Precipice has created an intelligent saucepan concept as part of the BBC Future website’s Imagineering project to redesign widely used objects.

The Precipice team, led by Miles Hawley, created Simr, a concept designed to help improve cooking skills, reduce accidents, and make product care and maintenance easier.

The saucepan has a series of innovative features, including a lid that can be tilted to allow steam to escape and for straining. It has a twin skin construction which allows a heat exchanger to be used between the skins to provide more even heat distribution. The inner skin is easy to clean due to a curved design and a hydrophobic coating.

A removable smart module sits in the handle which tells the user about cooking temperature, weight and sounds an alarm if the contents are about to boil over.

What does The Internet of Things mean to Cambridge Consultants?

25 April 2013 - Cambridge Consultants, which has built a leading global business on the combination of cutting-edge technology and industrial design, has put itself at the forefront of the next big thing in tech: The Internet of Things.

At our Product Design + Innovation conference on 15-16 May, Duncan Smith, Head of Products & Systems at Cambridge Consultants, will take part in a session called: “The Internet of Things: Designing connected objects”. In a Q&A article, he discusses some of the emerging issues that will be explored further at the conference.

The iPhone has shown how much people want to interconnect, but Duncan says the paradigm of smartphones and tablets has now plateaued. "If the future form and function of the mini computer on my person were a faster, more capable iPhone, I would be disappointed." Read the whole article.

Find out how to book your place at next month’s conference. Image: Cambridge Consultants’ Connected Bike concept.

A wheelchair that grows with the child

22 April 2013 - In a partnership with the NHS, Renfrew Group has developed Chair 4 Life, a powered wheelchair with a modular design that adapts as the child grows.

The chair employs universal docking and fastening systems so that different seating modules and additional parts can be added to meet the user’s changing needs. 

Chair 4 Life also has a vertical lift, enabling eye-level interaction with peers, which has been shown to facilitate social and educational development and improve feelings of dignity and independence.

Renfrew says: “Chair4 Life is aimed at maximising mobility and independence for disabled children as they grow into adulthood. As children grow their physical and developmental needs change rapidly, and are at greater risk of deterioration if their wheelchair is not appropriate.” 

Healthcare innovators to share insights

16 April 2013 - The Consumerisation of Healthcare session at our Product Design + Innovation conference next month will examine the role product design can play in the complete cycle of a person’s care: from disease prevention, screening and diagnosis, through to treatment, monitoring and health management.

Jeroen Raijmakers, global creative director for healthcare at Philips Design, and Matt Pattison, an ex-clinician who founded design consultancy Anatomy-HCD will headline the healthcare session on 16 May. 

“‘Design for life’ means designers now have the opportunity to use their creative power in support of a changing society; from one that is focused on cost and wealth to one that is about care and health,” says Jeroen Raijmakers who recently published the acclaimed paper People Focused Innovation in Healthcare. Read our press release on the healthcare session 

Paul Priestman: Future thinking in transportation

11 April 2013 - Paul Priestman will give a keynote at our Product Design + Innovation conference next month on Wired Transport. Considering Priestmangoode’s global reputation in transportation design, he is sure to provide inspiration and insight to the product designers in the audience. In a conversation ahead of the conference Paul gave a taste of the future thinking that delegates can expect from him, writes David Eldridge.

Priestmangoode has had great success in designing for the hotel, train and aviation industries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Paul says that what Priestmangoode learns from its work in one sector, such as hotels, can be transferred to its designs in other areas, such as train interiors.

It seems that, for Paul, thinking about the future of transport is not simply “blue sky thinking”. Take the company’s Air Access project, for example, which humanises the experience of wheelchair users when flying. 

“When designing for trains, buses and trams, there are requirements to do with accessibility, but this is not so in aircraft. So we thought we would see if we can kickstart a debate and the response has been amazing.” Read the whole article

Tom Dixon in Milan: 3D printing and the designer-user

9 April 2013 - At this year’s Milan Furniture Fair, Tom Dixon is exploring 3D printing’s potential for designer-user interaction in an open design competition.

In a collaboration with Dassault Systèmes – which is sponsoring and speaking at our Product Design + Innovation conference next month – plus 3D printing company Sculpteo and technology group Stratasys, Dixon will give participants access to the design files of modular products, which they can reconfigure to form new functional objects.

For the competition, Dixon has designed a number of interconnecting joints which can be 3D printed by Sculpteo. One idea for an object using the modular parts is a coat stand (pictured).

Throughout his career, Dixon has shown affinity with the manufacturing processes and materials used in design. Previous events have included a mini-factory he set up in Selfridges store to injection mould the component parts of the Snap lamp for shoppers.

A session on 3D printing at our conference is called Return of the Makers. Participants include Stijn de Rijck from Materialise, a leading company in 3D printing. Find out about our conference speakers.

Powell: Changes in D&T curriculum are not ambitious enough

27 March 2013 - Dick Powell, co-founder of Seymourpowell, has criticised the UK government’s draft Design and Technology programme, saying it “is hopelessly out of step with the needs of our modern world”.

In a speech at the Design and Technology Excellence Awards, held on 8 March at the IET London, Powell said: “I, for one, had long thought that our existing D&T curriculum needed a major review. But what is now being proposed by the DFE is a step back, not a step forward.”

The government’s approach was apparent when design, technology and art were excluded from education secretary Michael Gove’s plan for an English Baccalaureate. The Ebacc plan was ditched – “The battle was won… but alas, the war is not,” said Powell.

“The [curriculum] proposals are nowhere near ambitious enough – surely, we can we do better than home maintenance skills, when we could be equipping our children with more advanced learning in design, engineering and technology.”

Read our Product Design + Innovation conference coverage of Powell’s speech in 2012 and a discussion on ‘What new skills do industrial designers need?’ in 2011.