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This case study describes the impact of research undertaken by Falmouth's Autonomatic Research Group on developments in the UK Craft and Designer-Maker sector. This sector consists of individual or small groups of creative practitioners producing high value individual and bespoke products in studio/workshop environments using ceramic, glass, metals, textile and mixed media. This sector has been slow to benefit from the digital economy for reasons including cost, perceptions of relevance, accessibility and training. Autonomatic has worked to highlight digital technologies relevance to small scale and bespoke manufacturing, increase accessibility, and provide opportunities for businesses' and communities' creative development.
Green and Lilley's research on the management of innovation within creative organisations, with a specific focus on people-centred and socio-technical systems design of digital technology, has benefitted two companies significantly through two knowledge-transfer partnerships. One company — Bulb - more than doubled its staff numbers from 8 to 18 and increased turnover from £700,000 to £1.2 million. This research contributed to the basis for a new company — CrowdLab - now worth £1.5 million. Both companies have been short-listed for a number of awards, one recently winning the 2013 Leicester Mercury Innovative Company category. The School has embraced the University's Knowledge Exchange provision to respond effectively to the Government's economic development agenda which has placed HEIs `centre stage' to deliver private-sector led innovation and economic recovery.
Members of the Work, Interaction and Technology (WIT) Research Centre, King's College London have had a significant impact on the ways in which a number of global corporations and other major organisations design, deploy and evaluate advanced systems. They have developed innovative video research methods that have provided critical resources for organisations, including Hitachi, Xerox, BT, Microsoft, and London Underground, to undertake fine-grained analysis of work, communication and technology in complex organisational environments. Their methods and approach have formed the foundation to a range of more applied `interventions' in areas that include health care, transport, education, markets and the cultural industries.
The switch of the nation's televisions to receive digital signals is widely acknowledged as the biggest government-enforced change in British life since 1971's decimalisation. Jonathan Freeman's research on the human factors of digital switchover is recognised as an essential source of information to government, industry, and consumer groups (including charities such as RNIB) and therefore as a key foundation in the success of the switchover. In particular, his research influenced the design of easy-to-use TV equipment, and communications about switchover to different types of viewer, improving the experiences of millions of TV viewers in the UK and beyond.
Our research on the ways in which digital platforms enable people to make and share creative material online, and thereby foster creativity in individuals and groups, has had a number of particular direct impacts on the media and cultural industries. At the LEGO Group, there have been several impacts, on policy, on training, and on product development. At BBC Children's, collaborative research about an online world for children led to changes in commissioning processes. At S4C, the work had an impact on digital media strategy, and led to a change in the company's statement of overall corporate aims and values.
Design thinking has benefited the economic performance of business and particularly the creative industries, changed awareness of design in everyday life, and informed public policy. Users and consumers have benefited from wider understanding of the genesis of products and services and effects on their quality of life. Design thinking research has been instrumental in forming a new business sector that provides design thinking expertise as consultancy. It has changed the processes of designers and design practices, and fed into UK design education policy. Design thinking has crossed discipline boundaries; for example framing new methods and processes in software engineering.
CHAPMAN's research into emotionally durable design has radically shifted the values and practices of global businesses, helping them to cut waste and to enhance product, material and brand value. Through publications, exhibitions, master-classes and films, this research has transformed understanding of sustainable design in professional (Puma, Sony), policy (House of Lords, UN) and cultural (Design Museum, New Scientist) settings, propelling the field beyond its focus on energy and materials, towards deeper engagements that link psychosocial phenomena with ideas about consumption and waste. Furthermore, it has contributed to public debate and policy with the effect that the term `emotional durability' has now entered the international design lexicon, providing valuable shorthand for complex phenomena influencing product longevity.
Research at UWE Bristol in new media and games has engaged business and policy communities. The resulting knowledge exchange has underpinned the AHRC Creative Economy Hub REACT (Research and Enterprise for Arts and Creative Technologies) which has stimulated £200k value of new business for SMEs in its first year of operation. The research has enabled start-ups, micro businesses and SMEs in the digital economy to use our critical and creative methods to improve their products and services. It has also made a significant contribution to the development of policy on games for young people.
Cruickshank's interdisciplinary research challenges the role of the professional designer and celebrates the potential of the citizen-designer. Insights from the research have developed a series of tools that facilitate design-creativity in the non-specialist. The research demonstrates that technology can be an enabler for the non-professional, impacting on design methods and their implementation. The process of developing the research has had a direct impact through significantly improving the consultation and design activities of the City and County Councils in Lancaster (with potential for scaling this up to other local authorities) and shaped the potential development of a 10-hectare city-centre green space over a 10-year period.
This case study is based on research and impact of the development of creative systems and creative systems management to enhance professional in-house design capabilities of design and manufacturing companies through the use of new technologies. The research was conducted by Dave Henley and Rob Cooksey over the duration of several years (2008-2012) to develop the transferable application of design systems and management for SMEs. The research included three different Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) with Fairfield Displays & Lighting Ltd., China Industries Ltd., and Tough Furniture Ltd. The research evidences impact in the development of the companies' creative capabilities through significant increases in turnover, employment and market penetration and a number of awards, as well as in public benefits such as social inclusion, community health and well-being.