Relative value(s)….. (nokia again)
Posted by: sorafferty on: August 20, 2008
Some issues that are increasingly important for sustainable designers are perspective and context. These issues have been raised by many practitioners and researchers and the most widely discussed topic relates to “western” designers that are born, raised, educated and employed in a particular country designing solutions for the “developing” world. The design intent of offering solutions becomes fragmented by context. For example, how can a designer explore relative value(s) in any depth?
This is an important issue for sustainable design education in Western design schools – how do you develop perspective and provide context for those students looking to design solutions for development issues. Organisations like Designers Without Borders and Milan Polytechnic develop collaborative design projects. I was struck by the simplicity of the Nokia design blog/project that explores the relative value of objects through user submitted images. Check it out – http://fivedollarcomparison.org
Defra product and materials unit progress review
Posted by: sorafferty on: July 17, 2008
Defra has released a progress review of their recently established product and material unit. This is a timely release as it parallels the review of the England waste strategy.
This document combines Defra’s vision product the selected product roadmaps in combination with vision for sustainable procurement, intervention and evidence and assessment.
Their classification of intervention is not radical but the prominence of innovation and business support alongside the usual demand and supply side instrument is encouraging.
The document highlights the review of the delivery bodies Energy Saving Trust, Carbon Trust, Waste and Resource Action Programme, National Industrial Symbiosis Programme, Envirowise, Action Sustainability, Centre for Remanufacture and Re-use, the Construction Resources and Waste Platform and the Regional Development Agencies.
The delivery review is due at the end of 2008 – I will look forward to reviewing this….
New EU Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) action plan
Posted by: sorafferty on: July 17, 2008
The European Commission has just launched the new Action Plan on SCP. The action plan aims to be a package of measure that will enable the development of more eco-friendly products while assisting the selection of those products by consumers.
At first glance it seems to offer a degree of coherence to existing policy packages without proposing anything radical or new. It seem to take a very light touch on sustainable consumption and will more than likely be a major disappointment to sustainable consumption and production campaigners and researchers. For example, the role of advertising only represents a minor element of the action plan.
This lack of a design-led vision for SCP combined with an emphasis on voluntary measures only sets the ground for future SCP policy development.
Low-cost and low-tech network analysis
Posted by: sorafferty on: May 5, 2008
I am increasingly interested in learning/teaching myself methods for visualising networks and innovation systems in the context of intervention for ecodesign. There are a number of interesting tools and resources available such as network workbench, Pajek and many eyes. There are also some interesting low-tech versions such as Net-Map.
Net-Map is an interview-based mapping tool that helps people understand, visualize, discuss, and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes . By creating Influence Network Maps, individuals and groups can clarify their own view of a situation, foster discussion, and develop a strategic approach to their networking activities. More specifically, Net-Map helps players to determine
- what actors are involved in a given network,
- how they are linked,
- how influential they are, and
- what their goals are.
Determining linkages, levels of influence, and goals allows users to be more strategic about how they act in these complex situations.
Extending ecodesign in Europe
Posted by: sorafferty on: May 3, 2008
According to ENDS, the European Commission is due to extend the scope and depth of the ecodesign legislation already in place within the EU. It will increase the range of products to include clothing, cleaning products, waste water, furniture and buildings components. This is expected to strengthen the ability of the member states to tackle those products with the highest environmental impacts.
These development are coming through the European Commissions latest work on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) and Sustainable Industrial Policy. DEFRA are making worthwhile progress on the development of specific product roadmaps for SCP policies and mechanisms.
One of the weaker elements of all these developments is the the lack of convincing policy frameworks and mechanisms for sustainable consumption. There is still much work to be done in this area as was seen in the open debates at the final SCORE conference in March of this year.
Design for an emerging world
Posted by: sorafferty on: May 3, 2008
There are a selection of interesting short essays on design in an emerging world on the Torino World Design Capital website. They are a welcome contribution to the debate on design in the context of sustainable development. For me they are a refreshing reminder that there is still momentum and debate in the design community on roles, perspectives and responsibilities.
Debating the power of people-centred design to affect meaningful cultural change
A new people-driven and socially engaged definition of design, which puts people at the heart of its process, is increasingly becoming a crucial paradigm in the global design discourse and practice. It has reinvigorated the field of design and the impact it can have on our lives, and provides a valuable addition to the other paradigms (e.g. political, technological, scientific, commercial) that have driven cultural and social changes so far.
There is not yet a fully settled consensus on how this people-centred design paradigm should be implemented, with some focusing more on culture (e.g. Ranjit Makkuni), others on sustainability, some emphasising business innovation, other focusing mainly on contextual research, and there are of course various degrees of overlap between these approaches.
Niti Bhan: Design for an emerging world
The technically proficient, the engineering experts, the world class designers are all who practice in conditions of abundance. They create with no shortage of materials, funds, resources, fuel or energy. If we need to design products and systems under maximum constraints using minimal resources, husbanding our natural resources and rationing our use, where better to begin seeking answers but amongst those who already live under these conditions?
Design policies for a sustainable future
Designers know they hold the key to more sustainable, responsible future. What is needed now is not just a variety of government regulated environmental or carbon emissions policies, but the willingness to address all the issues at the root level, by the entire design industry. As policy. As belief. As a mark of faith for future.
story originally linked from Core77
Nokia Remade
Posted by: sorafferty on: May 3, 2008
Mobile communications are an interesting focus for sustainable design because they are a convergence of product, user, interaction, experience, UI, service and systems design. I have been interested in the sustainability activity of Nokia for some time now, mainly since they started with the European IPP project. They have now allocated a great deal of R&D resources to future communications. Their approach is more interesting than most R&D programmes because they have moved front-line designers to research.
Some of the related activities include the “Homegrown” project, recycling surveys and the “conversations” blog. Here is a short interview, by Rachel Hinman, with Raphael Grignani of Nokia Design about “Homegrown”.
A short excerpt:
“With Remade, Andrew Gartrell (Homegrown project lead and Remade father) pushed design beyond skin deep aesthetics. He considered covers, key mats, and displays but also engine, connectors, and other components. We discovered that a typical mobile phone contains around 44 of the 117 elements currently known to science. Andrew’s approach was to de-construct everything and rebuild it from scratch using recycled materials and sustainable technologies — from the inside out.
The end of Endnote?
Posted by: sorafferty on: May 2, 2008
Probably not, but Zotero is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.
It boasts much of the functionality of bibliographic software while being embedded in your browser. Interestingly it is able to “sense” reference information from a web page.
Zotero integrates tightly with online resources; it can sense when users are viewing a book, article, or other object on the web, and—on many major research and library sites—find and automatically save the full reference information for the item in the correct fields. Since it lives in the web browser, it can effortlessly transmit information to, and receive information from, other web services and applications; since it runs on one’s personal computer, it can also communicate with software running there (such as Microsoft Word). And it can be used offline as well (e.g., on a plane, in an archive without WiFi).
Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?
Posted by: sorafferty on: May 2, 2008
Nokia’s user anthropologist Jan Chipcase was followed by the New York Times on his design research visits to the developing world. What is most interesting about Chipchases’s work is that the now fairly humble mobile phone is transformed through new context.
Something that’s mostly a convenience booster for those of us with a full complement of technology at our disposal — land-lines, Internet connections, TVs, cars — can be a life-saver to someone with fewer ways to access information. A “just in time” moment afforded by a cellphone looks a lot different to a mother in Uganda who needs to carry a child with malaria three hours to visit the nearest doctor but who would like to know first whether that doctor is even in town.
Some of the user insights and observations of Jan Chipchase are being transformed into design responses such as producing phones with multiple address books for as many as seven users per phone to support the practice of sharing cellphones inside of families or neighborhoods.
Future Perfect is the personal blog of Jan Chipcase and on a similar vein “thoughtless acts” is an interesting collection of images and descriptions.
- None
- gersapa: Definitely a great research tool I use it all the time, even for applications not normally designed for (thesupermemoblog.wordpress.com). Germán Sal
- Slow is an emerging discussion « Renounce Network: [...] a comment » is slow beautiful? « simon’s blog Slow is an emerging discussion coming out of the Slow Food movement over the last number
- xaviernoguera: Simon, thank you very much for your blogroll. See http://wordpress.ecoinnovation.com blogroll. Best regards, Xavier
