Yoko Akama's Blog (8)

1. We (the service design community) need to learn more from the discourse in participatory design. PD community seem to be far better attuned to human factors, more sensitive to power-dynamics and far more open to accepting the complex challenges in how to design with people (with more honesty, I thought). It was a great booster-tonic to be among people who'd been talking about this for the last 30 years..! I still have a lot more to learn...

2. This…

The Australian International Design Award 2012 took place in Sydney at the City Recital Hall Angel Place. It was a pretty fancy event (black tie), dominated (as usual) by product/industrial design submissions. You know like, cars, chairs, electronic equipment etc. (including the Deepsea Challenger…

One of the ideas included in the Australian Public Service (APS) Innovation Action Plan released in 2011 was the establishment of an APS Design Centre that could assist in developing and testing new approaches to complex policy challenges and to enhance government program delivery. This in turn was based…

ABC 1 is currently airing the story of 'The people's supermarket' - a co-op style shop supported by the community for the community. I remember Anna Meroni talking about visiting the one in New York - but now there's another initiative in London. Its a fantastic documentary of how challenging and rewarding social innovation and entrepreneurship can be! Ideology is one thing - but making it into a viable business that actually serves the needs and desires of a diverse community can be really…

From The Guardian, 13th Oct 2011

http://m.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/oct/11/government-planning-designers-finland?cat=artanddesign&type=article

This was on Futuretense on ABC Radio National on the 4th August - on the event that took place last week in Brisbane in July, that brought together roughly 50 people to look at alternative models of collective action for sustainability. Tony Fry talks about 'urmadic university' - a nomadic de-institutionalised places for learning...  and Cameron talks about design being a critical agent in driving and expanding change.…

Just came back from a pretty intense but enjoyable Participatory Design (PD) conferenece in Sydney. I was really struck by the strong sense of 'community' and how people were very supportive of one another. In the closing speech, Toni Robinson (conference chair, UTS) remarked how nervous she was that no one would come to a PDC that is so far away, and that she really apprecaited people from Europe and America in flying this far.…

Lucy Kimbell's direct and quizzical account of what service design is, where it has come from and where it is going. Food for thought - and an amusing introduction..!…