A blog about design at the OU.
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Designing the OU
We’ve been teaching design at the OU since its beginning in the 1970’s. So it’s always been fascinating to me how you design a thing like The Open University? And trust me, the OU was designed. If you look at the history of the the early vision and ideas for the OU, you can see […]
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The Textile Flood Is Coming – And It’s Closer Than You Think
Imagine standing in the middle of a desert, surrounded by mountains—not of sand, but of clothes. Fast fashion, forgotten donations, discarded trends. Welcome to the Atacama Desert, a dumping ground for the world’s cast-offs. Now imagine this crisis hitting closer to home—because it already is. The UK is on the brink of a textile […]
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Graphical abstracts: great advertising?
I was at an interdisciplinary professional development session last week exchanging tips on how early career academics could promote newly published journal articles to various audiences, academic, policy and even ‘normal people’. In a lull in the discussion of social media and industry newsletters I said, ‘And you could of course always create a graphical […]
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Learning to live with artificial intelligences and autonomous technologies
Society is rarely ready for new technologies and AI is no exception. Suddenly AIs seem to be ‘everywhere’, in our work and home lives, in universities, health care systems and even on border patrols. Yet we haven’t deliberated and decided what circumstances AI may be useful; how to govern and regulate them for public benefit; […]
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Six Months of Growth: My Journey as an OU Design Intern
Six Months of Growth: My Journey as an Open University Design Intern As I approach the end of my six-month internship as a Design & Communications intern, I reflect on my journey that has been anything but ordinary. Coming into this as a neurodivergent student, I knew there would be challenges, but I never expected […]
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Campus Life_1: our green spaces
Walton Hall Campus As a 4 nation university we may sometimes forget that we have a central campus in Milton Keynes. Academics, technicians and administrators – the wearers of muddy boots on a building site in the early 1970s – today have the benefit of working in a green and diverse landscape covering 111 acres […]
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Service Design in Practice: Reflections on Co-Teaching for the T190 Module
By Rachel A. Wood & Samantha Osys. Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of co-teaching a session on Service Design in Practice as part of the Open University’s T190 module. As both PhD researchers and service designers, we wanted to offer students a real-world perspective on how service design unfolds in practice. The session […]
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Linley Sambourne and his visualisation techniques
In one of our Level One design modules, U101, students are shown how to create an abstraction from a photograph to communicate a story. It’s a good technique to use, and great for building confidence in visualising ideas. I saw this process played out when visiting the fascinating home of Edward Linley Sambourne (1844-1910) last […]
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Reflections on Mentoring in Design Practice
Once upon a time… when I was a young, carefree designer… many earth cycles ago… I found myself stuck under what they call a “glass ceiling.” I struggled to advance within my organisation until my line manager suggested I get a mentor. At the time, I had no idea what she meant. A quick search […]
