Log in
Research at Kingston University led by Hilary Dalke has established the beneficial effects of colour design for application in long-term health care environments for people with neural disabilities. This work has led to the development of spatial design principles for improving the experience of service users, patients and staff.
Through her consultancy work with architectural firms, individual NHS hospitals, mental health units, independent charities and healthcare furniture and equipment suppliers such as Hill-Rom, Dalke has influenced their understanding of the issues involved, leading to improved design in hospitals, care homes and day centres, with consequent benefits for patients, staff and visitors in four institutions.
The i~design research programme, which has been running in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) since 2000, sought to understand population diversity in order to better inform design decisions for mainstream everyday products and services. Impact from this programme, since 2008, includes: skills embedded in companies through direct training of over 280 designers and design managers from industry; direct involvement in the improved design of more than 10 new products and services that have gone into production; educational resources for teaching Design and Technology trialled in nine secondary schools; over 800 wearable impairment simulators sold; and extensive web-based guidance, methods and tools for inclusive design accessed in over 170 countries.
Design research at the Royal College of Art (RCA) has pioneered projects and studies developing a design-led, systems-based approach to improve patient safety in hospital and mobile healthcare. It has led a multidisciplinary culture in which designers, clinicians, psychologists and business specialists collaborate in development projects. This new approach to Design for Patient Safety has had a profound impact on understanding public service provision, on practice and policy, and has realised commercial benefit.
Research by the University of Huddersfield's School of Art, Design and Architecture has made a significant contribution towards ensuring that patient safety is a central feature of the rapidly expanding transfer of healthcare from hospitals to the home. By demonstrating that traditional nursing bags can be carriers of disease and creating a 21st-century successor that addresses this longstanding failing, Dr David Swann's pioneering work has generated international interest, influenced design practices and drawn much-needed attention to the dangers of exporting healthcare without hygiene in an age when rises in demand and costs are making non-hospital treatment one of the industry's fastest-growing sectors.
In late 2010 Professor Sanderson decided to form the Flux ceramics spin-out company at Staffordshire University in order to exploit a significant market gap he had discovered via his KTP research project for Aynsley China Ltd., Stoke-on-Trent. Flux has been able to exploit the market gap discovered in a way that Aynsley China was unwilling to pursue. Flux has produced cutting edge ceramic tableware design that has been successful in terms of both sales and recognition as a valuable contribution to contemporary tableware design. Flux won the Home and Gardens Design Award in 2012.
Misconnection errors involve the administration of drugs via the wrong route. For example, the injection of a toxic drug into the spine which should only be injected into a vein. Following a death in 2001 and 13 others in the UK over the previous 15 years, work began to find an engineered solution to misconnection errors. R.Lawton, at the University of Leeds (UoL), evaluated the usability and acceptability and explored the implementation of these different engineered solutions. This research was the basis for the UK National Patient Safety Agency policy and was used by companies to inform the design of these new devices. Ultimately, this research has led to the production of safer devices that are now being purchased by NHS Trusts to reduce patient risk.
Through the introduction of innovative design approaches, processes tools and methods into the research of complex healthcare issues, a range of individuals — including members of professional groups, e.g., in nutrition management and physical rehabilitation, clinical trials managers, healthcare professionals and patients (involved, e.g., in random controlled trials), are now able to consider and use tools and approaches that they did not use previously. These, policy-makers, leads in research councils, charities, and members of lay user representative groups have seen, through demonstrations, national and international presentations and professional publications, advantages of these innovative tools and approaches that enable more patient-centred treatment and enhanced patient-professional relationships.
A sustained programme of research at the Royal College of Art (RCA) since 1994, led by Coleman, Myerson and Bichard, has played a leading role in the emergence of Inclusive Design within design, industry and education, defining its theoretical principles and developing relevant real-world practice tools and business case studies. This research had made an impact in four key areas: it has influenced the public discourse and the ethics and methods of the design profession; contributed to national policymaking for older and disabled people; enabled economic prosperity through development of new products and services; and supported advances in design education.
Work by Carmona et al has supported the national drive for better design in the built environment, helping to mainstream ideas about the importance of urban design and develop tools for design governance. A major strand of this research has focused on the use and potential of design codes in England, and has been a major contributor to their widespread adoption. As a result, by 2012, some 45% of local authorities and 66% of urban design consultants had used design codes.
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.