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Enter your projects for the International Design for All Foundation Awards 2013.
The deadline for submitting entries to the awards is 17th February 2013. Entering is easy – all the details are available on the Awards website.
The Awards offer an opportunity for public bodies, private companies and not-for-profit organisations to gain international recognition for the projects they have undertaken in the field of Design for All. In addition, any individual or organisation can send their ideas for user-centred design projects in Living Labs, in order to find the best design solutions for everyday problems through the involvement of real-life end-users.
The Award ceremony will take place on 20th March 2013 during the International Design Biennial in Saint-Étienne, France.
The Founder and President of the Design for All Foundation is Francesc Aragall, who is co-author of the Gower book Universal Design.
I try to avoid falling to the trap of drawing unsubstantiated conclusions from research. That said, the first thing that leapt out at me when I read Sociagility’s ‘Social Media and the City: The FTSE 100 Social Performance Index 2012′ was that of the 2/3rds of large companies whose social performance index was below that of their peers, many of them either seemed uninterested in social media, had a weak social media strategy or were simply unconcerned with direct external public communications. The 38 page research report is available to download from the Sociagility website. Niall Cook, one of the reports’ co-authors is also author of Gower Publishing’s Enterprise 2.0: How Social Software Will Change the Future of Work and the, forthcoming, The Social CEO: Why Business Leaders Should Make Time for Social Media.
As one of the baby boomer generation, I freely admit that sometimes I have struggled to keep up with the mindset of Generation Xers, let alone the newest generations that have followed, so I found Alexander Manu’s thought piece on how brands can engage the Millennnial Generation a great source of enlightenment – not least because I am beginning to understand and embrace some of the concepts such as gamification to which he alludes. If you are involved in any aspect of brand management, marketing or design, do take a moment to read it. Alexander Manu’s new book Behavior Space: Play, Pleasure and Discovery as a Model for Business Value is published in December.
It’s not a huge leap to realise that the competition for sources of foreign direct investment has become extraordinarily fierce. What is interesting is to see how places are adopting and adapting the techniques of branding as part of their strategy for attracting investors. Check out Daniel Nicholls’ article on this topic which you can download from the OCO website. Daniel Nicholls is author of Gower Publishing’s Foreign Direct Investment: Smart Approaches to Differentiation and Engagement.
Communicating complex information, possibly to various different audiences, can be a challenge for the best of us. In the first of four articles for the website Communique, John Clare offers some very helpful advice. Well worth checking out.
John is author of Gower Publishing’s Communicating Clearly About Science and Medicine.
Originated in the late 1960s by Tony Buzan, Mind Maps are now used by millions of people around the world – from the very young to the very old – whenever they wish to use their minds more effectively.
This page on Tony’s website gives 7 steps to using this powerful technique.
Tony has co-published several titles with Gower over time, the latest ‘Grass Roots Leaders’ is also available in ebook formats.
In a lecture on Innovation in Belgium last week, Gijs van Wulfen put together a 66-point innovation checklist that summarised the benefits of his FORTH method which connects creativity and business reality in five steps: Full Steam Ahead, Observe and Learn, Raise Ideas, Test Ideas and Homecoming. His checklist can be found here.
Gijs book, Creating Innovative Products and Services: The FORTH Innovation Method is out now.
Sociagility, the social media agency run by Niall Cook and Tony Burgess-Webb, have used their social media tracking software to track the performance of all the Olympic sponsors in terms of their social media performance, their status and their potential. I’ll leave it to you to visit the rankings and see who is currently on top. This is an interesting exercise in brand perception but also a very good case example of the rise and rise of social media as a communcation channel. Niall Cook is author of Gower Publishing’s Enterprise 2.0: How Social Software will Change the Future of Work.
Bob Garlick (Business Book Talk) chats with Gloria Moss about this fascinating subject and delves into the root causes of the differences between men and women.
“We find out some amazing stuff, including the fact that men don’t see as many colours as women. The research in this book is topnotch and I see this book becoming a standard for anyone who needs to understand the importance of designing for specific demographics. A must-read for marketers, advertisers, HR managers, and even game developers. “
Gloria is the author of Gender, Design and MarketingAuthor, Francesc Aragall will be speaking at a variety of events focusing on the HUMBLES method demonstrated in his book, Universal Design. HUMBLES is a seven phase model enabling you to assess your current business strategy and design practices, and make your product or service appealing to all your potential customers.
May 2012
11/05/2012 – Moscow 4th International Conference – Equal rights, equal opportunities
22/05/2012 – Salamanca University Congress about Ageing
24/05/2012 – Helsinki Cities for All Conference www.ornamo.fi/citiesforallhelsinki
June 2012
01/06/2012 – Saint Etienne Conference at Ville en Partage
08/06/2012 – Madrid Presentation of the book at CEAPAT Ministry for welfare
15/06/2012 – Paris 5émes assises nationales de l’accessibilité
18/06/2012 – Munich ICE 2012: International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation http://www.ice-conference.org/
If you are attending any of these events and would like to contact Francesc Aragall do say so in the comments, we will help you get in touch.
The HUMBLES method is explained and demonstrated in Francesc Aragall and Jordi Montana’s book Universal Design. You can find out more information on the Design for All Foundation.
