Tag: design thinking
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Adventures in Copilot whispering
AnnMarie McKenna and Catherine Scott The AI Design Ed (AIDED) project began in 2024 with a survey of concurrent Open University design students, providing baseline data to support the main research aim of exploring the practical applications AI image generation tools within design education. Survey findings showed student attitudes and understanding of generative AI image…
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Old Hobby, New Panic: What the pottery wheel reminded me about designing
Fifteen years is long enough for a skill to either disappear completely or lie in wait like a smug little party trick. This weekend (31 January 2026), I walked into a pottery studio for the first time since 2011 and sat down at the wheel with the exact confidence of someone about to take an…
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The Psychology of Gaps in Design
Why do unfinished things draw us in? by Rachel A.Wood The inspiration for this blog came during a lively conversation with fellow designers, as we explored new sources of inspiration. I found myself captivated by the concept of ‘intentional incompleteness’ and began to wonder how leaving things unfinished could transform both my practice and my research.…
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The BAD Conference
I recently had the opportunity to attend The Bad Conference, part of Product Design Week #PDW23, organised by Tech Circus in London. The turnout for the in-person event was impressive, with 250 individuals joining in person. Networking, an essential part of such gatherings, felt notably different post-Covid. Rather than the fluid mingling of the past,…
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Corbusier on my mind: Design thinking and post-covid living.
Ever since we have been singing a double Happy Birthday during our 20 second hand-washing rituals at every available washbasin, Le Corbusier has been on my mind. I had previously thought he must have had some rather paranoiac tendencies born of a childhood discomfiture that made him feel it necessary to have sinks throughout his…
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Design dreams of digital worlds – but is digitech sympathetic?
The architectural collective Assemble– winners of the Turner Prize – continue to explore the designed and manufactured world in the second part of BBC Radio 4’s series, The Sympathy of Things inspired by John Ruskin’s views on aesthetics and the central role of sympathy. With Amica Dall and Giles Smith, the BBC state “The series is an argument…
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The U101 Welcome Pack Incredible Give Away Competition Event Thing
Lola herself has been in touch with the Design Group and asked that we spread the cheer of U101 at this time of year. She has donated a number of U101 Welcome packs to give away to at least 7 lucky recipients. Just look at the creative goodness on offer, each object a portal to…
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Design dreams of the material world – but is it sympathetic?
Have a listen to BBC Radio 4’s two-part series, The Sympathy of Things in which the architectural collective ‘Assemble’ – winners of the Turner Prize – explore the designed and manufactured world, arguing that just as mass production has disrupted and changed our relationship to the material world, so digital technologies will also disrupt these relationships…
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Diagrams and design – soft thoughts.
Here is a diagram taken from a recent article in Journal of Cleaner Production which will be familiar with some readers. Are such diagrams useful in designing? Ehsan N et al 2017 Boundary matters: the potential of system dynamics to support sustainability? Journal of Cleaner Production, 140(1) 312-323 I am not talking about sketches of…
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Design and social responsibility
There has been a growing recognition of the ethical and social responsibilities designers face, particularly within the design research community. Many of our current PhD students choose to grapple with problems or questions that affect society more generally, most notably sustainable production or sustainable living, as well as issues of representation, equality, justice and democratisation.…