Category: Design engagement

  • Claiming our turf. Making spaces safe through inclusive urban design.

    Claiming our turf. Making spaces safe through inclusive urban design.

    Over recent weeks the media has been full of women sharing their stories about their experience of sexual harassment, and the statistics are shocking. It’s shocking too, that women, myself included, are not surprised by them. 97% of young women have been the victim of sexual harassment and, over the last decade, a woman has […]

  • Ensuring effective user input in design

    Stephen Potter and Lisa Bowers Here are a couple of perspectives on how we can engender effective user input in design – one being the experience of doing this as part of three major research projects, and the other in terms of design teaching. Firstly, the research examples. A good many years ago Steve Potter […]

  • Meaningful participation through digital engagement

    When COVID19 forced us to retreat into our social bubbles and our homes, the government needed to make plans so that people could still participate in planning matters that concerned them. Therefore, they issued emergency planning procedure guidelines for local authorities to ‘make any temporary amendments that are necessary to allow plan-making to progress, and […]

  • Two Barriers to Inclusive Design

    Two Barriers to Inclusive Design

    Inclusive Design is broadly defined as the advocacy for and participation of often overlooked or marginalised people in the design process.  While the concepts of participation, inclusion, fairness, and accessibility seem well known in our everyday, there seem to be significant barriers to their use in design projects. Amongst others, two barriers are proposed below […]

  • Black Inventors and Innovators: New Perspectives

    Black Inventors and Innovators: New Perspectives

    As part of Black History Month, The Smithsonian Institute’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation held a week-long webinar series, from 16-20 November 2020, about Black and other inventors of colour and Black technology consumers. The seminars also explored strategies for building a more equitable system of invention, patenting, finance and innovation […]

  • Art History and Design in Dialogue: Abutments and Confluences

    Art History and Design in Dialogue: Abutments and Confluences

    Design at the Open University has always bridged knowledge systems and approaches from the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences. The Design Group connects to other schools within STEM but also to other faculties and schools at the Open University. The new Special Issue in the Open Arts Journal ART HISTORY AND DESIGN IN DIALOGUE: […]

  • Design @Open YouTube channel

    Design @Open YouTube channel

    We have curated a collection of videos authored by OU Design staff and students on our newly opened YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5dwgQTcTO0bCgA1Oiu-TBQ/playlists The collection introduces research projects, qualification engagement events and seminars. We seek to grow the collection, and each month we will introduce a Design academic in a video interview. In October, I interviewed Prof […]

  • Civic action during and beyond COVID – challenges and opportunities

    Civic action during and beyond COVID – challenges and opportunities

    It is without doubt true that the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted our ‘normal’ way of life, our work and the way we communicate and socialise with others. Many people now increasingly face important economic, health and mental wellbeing challenges and some groups within our society are hit worse than others (e.g. women, and BAME groups). […]

  • Reflections on participatory design at the OU- in a Design Emergency

    Reflections on participatory design at the OU- in a Design Emergency

     There are a few advantages that stem from the current pandemic. As well as momentary improvement in air quality and watching wildlife re-occupy some urban environments, conferences that previously we would have had to travel to, can now be joined on a mobile phone. This opens up many possibilities – conversations taking place across the […]

  • The Challenge of Re-Opening a Community Garden – The Covid-19 Crisis and Access to and Uses of Green spaces in Cities 

    The Challenge of Re-Opening a Community Garden – The Covid-19 Crisis and Access to and Uses of Green spaces in Cities 

    Now that the UK lock-down has been eased, although we observe increasingly local lockdowns being actioned, we can start to look back at what impact the Covid-19 crisis had and continues to have on social life in cities. In this short blogpost, I want to share some initial thoughts on the access to and uses […]