Category: Design comment
-
Design at the Sharps End
The smell of oil and grease evokes happy memories of hours teaching in a secondary school engineering work shop, the clatter of tools and low rumble of machinery, familiar and almost homely – but there is another odour, a whiff of ozone, and this is not year seven last period on a wet Wednesday afternoon.
-
Designing for Futures
Designing for Futures: Building a Blueprint for Human Potential by Rachel A.Wood. In a world where every moment counts, our early experiences and continuous support shape not only individual destinies but the fabric of our communities. This blog is a tribute to David Farrington’s life course approach and builds upon the ground breaking insights of […]
-
Energy Performance Certificate Reform: Mighty Metrics!
Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) are required whenever homes are sold or let in the UK. The initial aim of EPCs was to provide a simple method for prospective occupants to compare and benchmark the energy and environment impact of homes, and to provide advice on potential improvements. EPCs rank a home’s performance from A (highest) […]
-
Navigating Learning at the OU: Neurodivergence
This blog post documents my experience of being a neurodivergent student at The Open University. Navigating Learning at the OU: Neurodivergence Studying at The Open University has been a pretty big deal for me, especially since I’m neurodivergent with ADHD and Autism. When I decided to take this step to join U101 and become a […]
-
Desire-based Design as a Transformative Practice in Humanitarian Design Projects
In the last few years, I have been working on several action-based research projects in the Global South focused on designing with marginalised communities in low-resource settings. In these contexts, designing frugal innovations is crucial to alleviating big and small problems that affect individuals and groups. However, questions about people’s agency and how to foster […]
-
Reflections on our face to face design meet-ups this year
We have been delighted to be able to run a number of informal face to face meet ups at various venues across the country this autumn. It has been wonderful to meet with students as well as their partners, children and grandchildren! It has been a joy to meet such enthusiastic students and to see […]
-
Geographies of Disruption
The concept of disruptive innovation entered the mainstream some 30 years ago (Bower and Christensen, 1995) and has gained considerable traction in response to strategic and ethical imperatives. Strategically, profit seeking firms often work to find the next disruptive innovation and create new “winner takes all” scenarios. Equally, organisations seeking public benefit often frame disruption […]
-
Dark foundations for heavenly architecture
My research has always focused on the interactions between the arts, design, science and philosophy, particularly in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition to teaching on the level one design module, U101, I am fortunate to teach on A111 where students examine the impact of the arrival in Europe of artefacts from […]
-
National Engineering Day event for OU students
On 13th November 2024, the School of Engineering & Innovation hosted on online event for Open University students to celebrate National Engineering Day. This year’s theme of national engineering day was ‘Role Models’, and the event was organised by the School’s Women in Design and Engineering group. The aim of the event was to share […]
-
The Computer Desk Revolutionised
Before starting my BDes Design Internship, I was tasked with writing about my favourite design object. The Computer Desk Revolutionised In the world of modern design and creation, one object has always stood out to me. Daily, I find myself amazed at the functionality, form, and utility of an object designed by carpenter Herwig Danzer […]