* * * * * *
* * * *
* * *
* * *
Home / Events
*
Design Challenge in Japan
*
*
* *

Big in Japan!

A new spin was given to the

DBA Inclusive Design Challenge,
when five DBA members were invited to lead teams of in-house designers from companies such as Mitsubishi, Toyota, Fujitsu, Nissan, Sony and Panasonic at a 48-hour Challenge in Kyoto, Japan.


The Challenge took place as part of the 2nd International Conference for Universal Design in October, with DBA members Tim Fendley from AIG, Stuart May from PDD, John Corcoran from Wire Design, Adrian Berry from Factory and John Bateson from Corporate Edge all taking part.


Having been paired with a single disabled user, each team had only 48 hours (and not a lot of sleep!) to carry out field research, brainstorm, develop and storyboard their designs and produce a six-minute presentation, before finally sharing their projects with the conference audience.

The teams were asked to address the theme of lifestyle, leisure or sport and to design a product, service, environment, or communication which deliberately included the needs and aspirations of young disabled people, focused on mainstreaming their everyday lives.

The aim of the event was to bring a new set of stimuli to the subject of universal design in Japan and to reposition inclusive design in the eyes of manufacturers and the design community, as a means to facilitate product and service innovation and as
a route to good design.

     
 
     
 
     
 
     
 
     
 
     
*
  *

The team's solutions were wide ranging:

Audio Sphere skilfully exploits new softwares allowing moods to be observed, speech to be translated into text and audio sampling to take place;

Any Pack enables disabled users to eat restaurant or take-away food with dignity;

Assist is a discreet symbol system that allows those who need help, or want to offer it, the ability to communicate their wishes to each other;

Seeing with Feeling is a tag system which indicates the size, colour and context of wear of clothing;


U control is a remote control that can be customised to each user’s needs.

John Bateson’s team won best design for U control and Stuart May’s team won best presentation for Any Pack.

The Challenge was organised by the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre (HHRC) part of the Royal College of Art (www.hhr.rca.ac.uk) and the International Association for Universal Design.

Enquiries
For more information please email jolita.vadopalaite@dba.org.uk
* *
*
*
* * * * * *