Design
project: Designing for services in science and technology-based enterprises
Grant Holder: Ms Lucy Kimbell
Designing for Services in Science and Technology-Based Enterprises was an interdisciplinary research project initiated by Saïd Business School (SBS) at the University of Oxford. This one-year study (2006-2007) explored how academics, service designers, and science and technology entrepreneurs understand the designing of services in science and technology-based enterprises. Three case studies were set up in which one science-based service enterprise was paired with a design consultancy, working together for six days over several months. [read more]
project: Bike Off 2 - Catalysing anti theft bike, bike parking and information design for the 21st century
Grant Holder: Mr Adam Thorpe; Dr Dani Davies
This project aimed to generate a ‘Secured By Design” standard for bicycle parking and in so doing test Ekblom’s model of the ‘Conjunction of Criminal Opportunity’ as an appropriate framework for standard generation. To deliver this research the work packages identified and generated standards, using different methodologies, in order to evaluate the efficacy of the standards, and the ‘fitness for task’ of the methodologies that generated them. The standards we generate will be combined to provide a definitive ‘Secured By Design’ standard for cycle parking. [read more]
project: Designing the workhome: from theory to practice
Grant Holder: Dr Frances Holliss
The underlying research is based on the premise that the 'workhome' [the building that combines dwelling and workplace] is an old but little written about or understood building type that has existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and continues to exist all around us in our cities, towns and villages. The history of this building type was traced from medieval times to the present day in England. An investigation of the contemporary form of the workhome was made through an analysis of the lives and premises of 76 home-based workers in urban, suburban and rural contexts in England. [read more]
project: Grippa - concept proofing and testing of anti-theft furniture accessories and design process documentation
Grant Holder: Prof. Lorraine Gamman; Dr Dani Davies
The DAC Research Centre in partnership with the UCL Jill Dando Institute for Crime Science and in collaboration with Elisava school of design (Barcelona), worked with two bars in London (Wetherspoons) and two bars in Barcelona (Glaciar and Horiginal) to assess the usability of the latest DAC bag hanging Grippa design prototypes, for both bar customers and staff. Four bag hanging objects and five graphic communication proposals were tested during the two-month period in order to learn about the public responses to the designs, across the cultures of these two metropolitan cities. [read more]