Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Session Chair: Prof. Yuanyuan Yin, University of Southampton
Location:Wim Crouwel Hall
Presentations
A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND: TEACHING DESIGN IN A BUSINESS SCHOOL
Ian Parkman
University of Portland, United States of America
This pedagogical discussion paper describes the experiences of an instructor developing and teaching design- centered courses within a business school context. Historically, courses focused on business strategy have emphasized concepts, frameworks, and methods to aid resource allocation decisions within organizations. However, this paradigm, largely centered on the question of; “How to make?” is increasingly challenged in contemporary markets where consumer preferences are poorly understood and technical possibilities are poorly defined. This paper begins by framing the background and evolution of business strategy education from an overriding focus on ‘up- stream’, within-firm activities of production, distribution, and manufacturing to the ongoing contemporary shift to acknowledge the emergence of design thinking as a perspective to better understand and address customer needs through empathic problem-solving. This perspective focuses business decisions on the questions of “What to make?”. However, this new orientation is oftentimes painful, frustrating, and difficult for business students. To illustrate these issues this paper presents examples of business student projects from a recent undergraduate elective course that employed the mentality and methods of design. The paper hopes to highlight the growing recognition of design as a strategic asset within organizations while advocating for the continued integration of design thinking principles into business education curriculums.
Designing for Love, Design as an agent for empathy, compassion and love between ourselves, our communities and society.
Clive Antony Grinyer
Clivegrinyer Limited, United Kingdom
Can design help us to have compassion, empathy, and love to support greater understanding between each other and foster love in our daily lives? Can design play a role in helping us act more compassionately and detoxify society?
The paper follows the work of 20 designers who have been using design methods to create artefacts, rituals and interactions that have the objective of fostering love. The paper describes the processes and frameworks of the creative approach to this challenge.
This paper reflects on how different design concepts and prototypes can create new forms of love in our daily lives. Across physical artefacts, digital interactions, services, workshops and the use of AI, the paper will capture the key moments of the process and explore how we might measure impact.
This paper is an opportunity to focus on this emerging field for academics and design practitioners. In a world dominated by technology enablers such as AI, understanding how design can develop our emotional resilience, empathy and embrace positive human values such as happiness and love, is an exciting and challenging field for research and exploration - this paper aims to contribute to and offer direction for future research.
