Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

This case study highlights research excellence in health design by a Group of four multi-disciplinary researchers. Collectively the Group of researchers apply user-centred approaches to design and evaluation of products and services which improve health and wellbeing. The Group employs user-engagement throughout the design lifecycle to achieve societal benefits through improved products, information, services, and systems. The research has delivered:

• Economic Impact: by working with companies and organisations to deliver new products for the growing market in assistive technologies and services which support health and lifestyle improvements
• Health Impacts: by improving health and quality of life for those with specific conditions and disabilities. This includes working with medical practitioners to translate ideas into products.
• Impact on User Engagement in Policy Making: by addressing the challenges of collecting the needs and views of hard-to-reach groups and by using their techniques to develop Europe-wide guidelines for telehealth care services.

Beneficiaries include end-users of assistive technology, patients with long-term conditions and their carers, medical practitioners, policy makers and commercial organisations.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

Between 1992 and 2002, Loughborough University invented an award-winning approach to planning complex, highly interdependent development projects. Since 2008 the Analytical Design Planning Technique (ADePT) method has resulted in:

1. A sustainable spin-out business (Adept Management Ltd) employing 10 staff with a £6.2 million turnover, providing ADePT services to the majority of the UK's top construction contractors — the business is run by four ex-researchers who were integral to the development of ADePT at Loughborough University;
2. Formation of an Adept Management Ltd technology arm in 2008 providing a state-of-the-art commercial design planning software package incorporating enhancements to the method;
3. Establishment of a US office in 2009 and growth in the number of international clients in Europe, the US, the Middle East and Africa; and as a result
4. Application on projects valuing £11 billion since 2008, with higher levels of cost and time certainty, fewer delays and less waste due to improved design management.

Summary of the impact

Professor Follett's research in craft, design and business, developed through the AHRC-funded Past-Present-Future-Craft-Practice project^[2,7], has identified the need for a national design centre. This research has led to the development of the V&A Dundee concept, a £45m centre for design opening 2016/17.

Follett established Design-in-Action, Knowledge Exchange Hub delivering an innovation network, with 450 SMEs and six new products by September 2013, creating a sustainable investment portfolio and "a model of innovation for the sector" — quote by the AHRC.

Impacts of this research consist of:

• the conceptualisation, fundraising and establishment of a major new cultural centre for design;
• increased public engagement with design;
• innovative forms of assistance to SMEs.