After a prompt from Apolitical, we got to thinking about how we might describe successful service design… particularly to a government audience. Simply put… Successful service design delivers outcomes that matter to all the users and stakeholders of a service. However, this is not so simply done, and there tend...
We are well past the point where we might argue whether specific industries will or won't be impacted by technology. The answer is a very firm: yes. We must now understand how the potential afforded by new technologies will change the shape of specific industries: their...
I read a couple of things in today's Australian Financial Review that I felt like sharing. They quoted business management guru (their phrase) Tom Peters in an article entitled 'Liberal arts sensibility adds human touch'. Particularly interesting for us designerly types were the following: "Business is about...
It's been written about a million times before, but attending the Global Sustainability Jam* over the weekend has reminded me just how important this little change of phrase is to the idea generation process. When you say "Yes, and…" it leaves open the opportunity for someone's...
We began 2013 coming off the back of a few good months towards the end of 2012, and an otherwise ordinary year. In almost every respect 2013 has been different, and better. Our work is more diverse both in terms of type, scale and industry;...
Every standard framework we adopt in our work is chosen to offer a new perspective on an old problem and, in some cases, better enable us to meet the challenges of the future. But in overcoming the blind spots of our old mental frameworks we...
Later this week I'll be flying to Waterloo/Kitchener in Ontario, Canada to appear at the Fluxible conference. In my talk I'll be looking at how conducting research with different groups of customers and non-customers can open up new opportunities for innovation. In preparation for the conference...
As technology pervades our modern life, a truly elegant interaction becomes one in which the interface - the controls - disappear, and the functions of a 'smart object' become inherent to the object itself. Two recent examples give me hope that we're starting to get...
A belated congratulations to the NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC) for winning a gold award at Intranet Innovations 2012 for the Employee Essentials – personalised toolbar....
Don't choose just a single idea to progress: run with multiple, different ideas to uncover the seed of the great concept lurking within. The power of a design-led innovation process is that it allows you to quickly (and cheaply) explore multiple ideas in parallel. Sketches, prototypes,...
