USER-CENTERED DESIGN & INNOVATION IN INDEX: 2007
The program for INDEX: 2007 is in the making. Director of the
program for INDEX: 2007 is architect and designer Lise Vejse Klint. The
ambition for INDEX: Summit in 2007 is to show how the many very
different User-centered Design & Innovation methods can play not
only a part, but as Lise states it "a crucial part" in solving some of
the problems ahead of us on a global level. These problems also fit
into the main focus of INDEX: which is Design to Improve life.
Design as a mediator between economic and cultural contexts
"What
is important in our approach in 2007 is that in the very moment you
begin to talk of user-centered design, you have to relate to the fact
that you are dealing with real people - not necessarily individuals but
also groups of people, and all those people have a context that you
have to consider, no matter how you approach the problem. One of the
two main contexts from the view of INDEX: is the cultural context.
Everyone is embedded in a specific cultural reality which has to be
considered if you want to help or put solutions forward," says Lise,
who continues:
"However, people are also embedded in an
economic context, and all studies show that, no matter whether you live
in what we used to call the first world or the third world, if the
solutions are not put into a viable economic context, it is only
possible to improve life for a short period of time. That may be well
enough, but the ambition needs to be to provide viable solutions. That
is why it is crucial to look into the economic aspect.
"The
cultural aspect looks at what is desirable and what fits in the
context, whereas the economic aspect looks at what is pragmatic and
constructive, thus keeping it rewarding for all partners and
stakeholders. These two main contexts lead us to design, which looks at
what is possible and how we value and evaluate those experiences and
encounters we have in the cultural and economic contexts. This tells us
in which directions we should look to find possible scenarios and
solutions and how we can facilitate them. It is important to us exactly
because design is not part of the traditional 'technocratic' projection
of known solutions. Traditional 'technocratic' thinking only looks at
solutions from one angle; design asks why we do not look in other
places. It lets us consider whether there might be some more fruitful
answers elsewhere. And this is the situation where design not only can
play a role, but an important role."
Taking the challenge of design
Inspiration
for the approach to the events in INDEX: program for 2007 came from
several sources. The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in
Davos, which put design and creative thinking high up on the agenda,
was an especially vital source.
"We are, of course, not the only
ones thinking this way; there was the same underlying assumption at the
World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year. So we are not
reinventing the wheel, but building our knowledge on prior experiences.
"What they did at Davos in January was to look at a series of
problems and say, 'We believe that the answers to the problems should
be found in this direction,' and they pointed to design and creative
thinking as one of the directions. In many ways I see next year's
Summit as a way of taking up the challenge from Davos. Hopefully, in
taking that challenge up through design, we have a part of the answer,
and we can qualify that through the design method we call User-centered
Design & Innovation, in which we explore the potential. I believe
that design is a part of the answer - no doubt about it - and the rest
of the answer from INDEX: Summit are ways to facilitate an
implementation."
The program for INDEX: in 2007 boasts
three major events: the Summit, the Summer Camp and the Network Series,
all of which look at the same issues, but from different perspectives.
INDEX: SUMMIT 2007 (25-28 August)
International
leading experts in design and user-centered innovation are invited to
Denmark to discuss, develop, lecture and share knowledge.
INDEX: SUMMER CAMP 2007 (10-31 August)
Students
from around the world are invited to take part in an international
summer camp with a focus on how design and user-centered innovation can
improve life. The students will be interacting with the experts from
INDEX: Summit.
INDEX: NETWORK SERIES 2007 (August)
Designers,
business and educational/research institutions are invited to debate
and share knowledge with INDEX: Summit participants.
"We
approach it from three different angles. INDEX: Summer Camp will look
at the possible solutions in a very practical way, i.e. how to
implement them, whereas INDEX: Summit will take a much more
philosophical approach, in turn seeking to answer the question 'How to
facilitate?' Lastly, INDEX: Network Series is INDEX: Summer Camp and
Summit's interface with Danish trade and industry, will take a more
debating approach, address relevance and performing a reality check
from their point of view."
Global Compact
In
an address to the World Economic Forum on 31 January 1999, United
Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged business leaders to
join an international initiative - the Global Compact - that would
bring companies together with UN agencies, labor organizations and
civil society to support universal environmental and social principles.
The idea was launched at UN Headquarters in New York on 26 July 2000.
Through
the power of collective action, the Global Compact seeks to promote
responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the
solution to the challenges of globalisation. In this way, the private
sector - in partnership with other social actors - can help realize the
Secretary-General's vision: a more sustainable and inclusive global
economy.
The Global Compact asks companies to embrace,
support and enact, within their sphere of influence, a set of core
values in the areas of human rights, labor standards, the environment,
and anti-corruption.
Gender and Environment
The
events will address two major problems facing the world today. So
large-scale are these problems that 189 heads of state decided to
include them in the eight UN Millennium Development Goals: "Once again,
it is not our ambition to reinvent the wheel, so we take our starting
point in UN's eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the 10
Global Compact Principles for the simple reason that we do not have to
discuss the relevance of a given problem. After all, 189 heads of state
agreed that if we do not try to find solutions to these eight problems
before 2015, the world is in serious trouble. It is beyond our reach to
address all eight, so we have decided to address Goals 3 and 7 because
these two affect us all on an everyday basis, no matter what our given
context is."
To accommodate the notion of cultural
diversity in the process, INDEX: takes inspiration from the UN's
educational, scientific and cultural organization.
"If you
are working with the MDGs, it is apparent that you have an ambition to
relate on a very conscious level to the cultural dimension in the
solutions. It would be strange not to look at what UNESCO has to say
about that. They have a lot of considerations on cultural diversity and
its importance in solving problems."
The Advantage of Design
INDEX:
Network Series is an event that invites designers, businesses,
educational and research institutions to be part of the project. Lise's
experience has given her a clear vision of what industry can learn from
design.
"I think that Danish trade and industry - and
perhaps especially the SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) that
make up most of the sector by far - will benefit greatly from learning
how design can play a decisive role in the development of their
business. This aspect was also highlighted by the Committee on
strengthening Danish design: we all agreed that some kind of education
of the buyers of design was necessary, simply to help them realize to
what degree designers can contribute not only to innovation, but also
to rethinking business strategies, organizations and operations, in a
much more effective way than through mere research."
Lise
continues: "We are talking a lot about R&D, and a number of current
economic thinkers point to the fact that we in Europe have
traditionally been more interested in research and less in development,
in which design is a important factor. Research can in general terms
only be conducted by the major players, whereas the potential of the
SMEs to a greater degree is development. The potential of the SMEs in
this respect is huge and to a great extent unexplored. It is important
to compare it to the repeated surveys conducted by Oxford Research in
connection with the committee's work whose results indicate that
businesses are happy with the work of designers. More than 90 percent
answered that they were 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with the
services provided by designers. Of course, this is due to the fact that
we in Denmark have very highly skilled designers, but it is also
because once a company has begun the process of buying design, they
have a sort of 'Aha!' experience that gives them new insights. They
think, 'Can it also be used for that?' I think it is important to push
more of the SMEs in that direction, and that is also our ambition."
The Third and Seventh UN Millennium Development Goals
The
eight Millennium Development Goals have been agreed upon by all the
world's countries and all the world's leading development institutions.
#3: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
#7:
Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country
policies and programs; re verse loss of environmental resources
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
- Achieve significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020
About INDEX: knowledge magazine
This interview orginally appeared in INDEX: knowledge magazine
Lise Vejse Klint
Lise Vejse Klint is a former president of Danish Designers. Last year
she was elected Secretary General of Icograda, the International
Council of Graphic Design Associations. Lise is a member of the
Executive Committee of the International Design Alliance (IDA) as well.
She has a master's degree in architecture from the Royal Academy of
Fine Arts School of Architecture and many years of experience in
teaching at institutions such as The Royal School of Library and
Information Science, the University of Copenhagen and the Royal Academy
of Fine Arts School of Architecture. In addition, she is a board member
for the Danish Arts Foundation, and last year she was appointed by the
Minister of Economic and Business Affairs to join a special committee
on strengthening Danish design.