the helen

hamlyn
>research
associates
programme
show and symposium
autumn 2004

Helen Hamlyn Research Associates 2004

Innovation for an inclusive society:
an exhibition of industry-funded projects
by 16 new design graduates of the
Royal College of Art
Show: 6-14 October 2004
Royal College of Art
Open every day 10am-6pm
Symposium: 5 October 2004
Show designed by Alan KW Lam, Yanki Lee and
Pablo Abellan Villastrigo of HAPYdesignhouse

>contents

Message from the Rector

Message from Helen Hamlyn
Overview by Jeremy Myerson
Research partners
RCA departments
health-check:
projects that promote independent
well-being
Gero Grundmann
Indri Tulusan

10

city-light:
projects that support urban quality
of life
Matthew Dearlove
Megumi Fujikawa
Merih Kunur
Ruth Dillon

12
14

ofce-age:
projects that explore demographic
change in the workplace

3
3
4
6
9

Richard Mawle and Chris McGinley 16

open-house:
projects that address transactions
in the home
Tobie Kerridge
Katherine Gough
Peter Fullagar and Daniel Jones
Jac Fennell
Yanki Lee

28

30
32
34
36
38

Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley 40

Kyushu University, Japan
44

18

20
22
24
26
27

Research associates 2005

Research associate proles
Thanks

47
48
52

Illuminated seating units by Megumi Fujikawa, RCA

Interaction Design: prototypes from an interactive public
lighting project with Philips Design. See page 32

>message from
the rector

>message from
helen hamlyn

Universities today operate in a climate in

which it is not only desirable to interact with
business but essential. The Lambert Review
of Business-University Collaboration, commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
has set the tone for a world in which
academia and commerce move ever closer.
In this context, the Helen Hamlyn Research
Associates Programme at the Royal College
of Art is a shining exemplar of good practice.
This year 16 RCA design graduates have
worked up with industry partners: the outcomes of their collaborative research hold
the promise not only for socially inclusive
new thinking in business but new products
with broader appeal in the marketplace.
I am very grateful to our external partners,
and to the Helen Hamlyn Foundation, for
supporting the Research Associates 2004
and the College in the drive to engage with
business in the community.

The Research Associates Show and Symposium

2004 is the fth in the series and marks an
important milestone in the life of the Helen
Hamlyn Research Centre.
It means that more than 50 Royal College
of Art graduates, drawn from right across the
spectrum of the design disciplines, have now
completed the programme and are out in the
working world.
During their time as research associates,
each young designer will have engaged with
the key principles of inclusive design on an
industry project with practical application.
Already we can see evidence of our former
research associates using the skills and ideas
they have acquired with the research centre
in their professional lives.
This is very encouraging and I am sure that
the Research Associates 2004 will also go on
to do great things. I wish them every success
during this event and in their future careers.

Professor Sir Christopher Frayling

Rector, Royal College of Art

Helen Hamlyn
Founder, Helen Hamlyn Foundation

Jeremy Myerson Co-director, Helen Hamlyn Research Centre

>overview: innovative, inclusive and

international by design
2004 marked a year of rsts for the Helen Hamlyn
Research Associates Programme. With the framework
of interaction between new Royal College of Art
graduates and industry research partners well-established
over a ve-year period, we decided to use our newest
set of collaborations as a platform to innovate in a
number of directions.
The programmes research narratives were revised
and expanded. For example, we introduced a Healthcheck theme related to independent health and wellbeing. This builds on past projects looking at the design
needs of older people and has long been an ambition
of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, given our record
of research into design for patient safety.

Changing dynamics
With our Open-house narrative, we pioneered a group
of projects looking at inclusive design in relation to the
changing dynamics of the home. This theme enables
more cross-generational analysis and brings us closer to
other centres of research expertise in the RCA, such as
the AHRB Centre for the Study of the Domestic Interior
and the Interaction Design Research Studio.
With our Ofce-age theme, we embarked on our
rst major international research collaboration with
the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University in Japan,
whose own projects are featured in the 2004 Show and
Symposium. Ofce-age deals with the impact of an

ageing workforce on ofce design and gives the Helen

Hamlyn Research Centre its own special angle in an area
that we anticipate will grow in political and economic
signicance over the next few years.

Quality of life
And for those who argue that inclusive design thinking
overlooks the power of technological change, we
explored digital and sustainable technologies as part
of studies of public space and vehicle systems in our
City-light narrative, a long-standing theme which
promotes design for urban quality of life.
We even planned our annual exhibition of projects
in a new way this year. To demonstrate our commitment
to user-based design, our research associates worked
with Visiting Doctoral Fellow Yanki Lee from Hong Kong
Polytechnic University in a series of workshops to trial
a participative design process as part of her research.
You can see the results in the RCA galleries.
To cap it all, we commissioned two lmmakers, Steve
Connolly and Adam Clitheroe of Rewind Films, to make
a documentary on the life of the Research Associates
2004, entitled Designing for People.
This lm is screened in the exhibition and captures
some key moments from a year in which our talented
research associates and our resourceful industry partners
never stood still and, between them, never failed to
come up with the unexpected.

Research Associates share ideas about the 2004 Show in a co-design workshop to advance participative design

>research partners
Capoco: an independent British design house founded
in 1977 which specialises in fundamental design for city
buses. It has worked for clients across the world from
the UK to Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Africa.
It is a founder partner in Newbus, a venture dedicated
to advanced technology for passenger transport
vehicles. Capocos Design Director Alan Ponsford
is a world authority on
accessible bus design.
www.capoco.co.uk

The Faraday Packaging Partnership: is a powerful R&D

network. Through access to the UKs best academic and
commercial experts, it generates new thinking, tools,
techniques and processes for the design,
manufacture and supply of packaging for
fast-moving consumer goods. The Partnership provides insight, vision and R&D
effort focused on increasing consumer
value and realising novel pack concepts.
www.faradaypackaging.com

Dams Internation: is now the largest manufacturer

and supplier of ofce furniture in the UK. Formed in 1967,
the company is at the forefront of mainstream commercial
furniture design. It currently distributes product through
retail, catalogue and ofce furniture dealer networks in the
UK. Dams also has interests in Europe, as well as new
ventures in China and North America; it is committed
to developing products in
many new market sectors.
www.dams.com

GlaxoSmithKline: is a world leading research-based

pharmaceutical company with a combination of skills and
resources that provide a platform for delivering strong
growth in todays healthcare environment. It has 85
manufacturing sites in 37 countries and manufactures
almost 4 billion packs per year. GSKs

DEGW: was founded in London in 1973. It is an

international design consultancy that is focused on
the planning and design of environments for working
and learning. DEGW applies to design a unique research-

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association: provides

guide dogs, mobility and other rehabilitation services
that meet the needs of blind and partially sighted
people. Through extensive research into eye disease
and high-prole campaigning, The Guide Dogs for
the Blind Association is helping
to push eye care up the nations
health agenda.
www.guidedogs.org.uk

based understanding of user needs, related to organisational and cultural change over time and at scales that
range from the chair to the city. The rm aims to create
solutions and environments that help organisations and
their people to thrive.
www.degw.com

mission is to improve the quality of

human life by enabling people to do
more, feel better and live longer.
www.gsk.com

Hewlett-Packard: a global manufacturer of computing,

printing and imaging products, and solutions, services
and consultancy. HP Laboratories is Hewlett-Packards
central research organisation and its innovation engine.
Recent emphasis has been on developing new ways of
combining user research with both
conceptual and industrial design.
www.hpl.hp.com

The Orange Group: is one of the worlds largest mobile

communications companies and a subsidiary of the
France Telecom group, with operations in 19 countries
across Europe and beyond. It provides a broad range
of personal communications services and other digital
cellular telephone services. At the
end of June 2004, Orange-controlled
companies had over 50 million
customers worldwide.
www.orange.com

IDEO: is an internationally renowned, user-centred,

experience-focused design agency. Operating as a global
network, its work explores new relationships between
products, services and environments. IDEO has evolved
from designing products to creating
experiences and to consulting on the

Pearson Matthews: is a design consultancy that for

many years has focused on healthcare, believing that
design has a great deal to offer when used to make
connections between individual, commercial and social
needs. Our strategic futures thinking is matched by our
proven ability to deliver taking research and developing

creative process itself.

www.ideo.com

it through to ground-breaking products.

www.pmuk.com

Marks & Spencer: is one of the UKs leading retailers

of clothing, food, home products and nancial services.
Some 10 million people shop with Marks & Spencer each
week in over 375 stores. Since rst establishing ready

Philips: Royal Philips Electronics is one of the worlds

biggest electronics companies with activities in the
three interlocking domains of healthcare, lifestyle and
technology, and 165,600 employees in more than 60
countries. Philips Design is a multidisciplinary community of researchers
and designers within Philips, looking at
how design can best serve peoples
current and future values and needs.
www.design.philips.com

meals in the UK over 30 years ago, Marks & Spencer has

built a speciality food business, known for its quality,
value, freshness and innovation.
www.marksandspencer.com

Steelcase: is the worlds pre-eminent designer and

manufacturer of products used to create high-performance work environments. Steelcase research explores
the notion of work as a social activity and speculates
about the role of ofce design in cultivating organisational
culture. A main objective is the harmonious integration of architecture, furniture
and technology to enable individuals and
organisations to work more effectively.
www.steelcase.com
Targetti Sankey SpA: is an international manufacturer
of lighting products based in Italy. Its expertise in
interior and exterior lighting and street furniture,
combined with the foundation of its Lighting Academy
La Sfacciata, underline its commitment to innovation across a wide
range of lighting applications.
www.targetti.com

At work in the studios of the Royal College of Art

>RCA departments
>architecture & interiors
The Department of Architecture and Interiors is
recognised as one of the most energetic architecture
schools in Britain, an engine room for new ideas. Using
London as a research platform and live laboratory, its
programme combines experiment with plausibility,
working closely with specic areas and particular
groups of people.
Head of Department: Professor Nigel Coates; Academic
Co-ordinator: Mark Garcia; Research Tutor: John Smith

>communication art & design

>industrial design engineering

The Department of Industrial Design Engineering
celebrates the fusion of industrial design and
engineering with products and systems that address
the whole spectrum of human experience. At MA level,
its joint course with Imperial College provides a detailed
education and training in industrial design professional
practice for graduate engineers. The department
actively encourages funded research.
Head of Department: Professor Tom Barker

>interaction design

The Department of Communication Art and Design

reects the multidisciplinary nature of contemporary
communications. It combines the disciplines of Graphic
Design and Illustration both of which have an
unrivalled track record at the RCA to provide a creative

As new technologies develop, new elds of design

emerge. This department is a pioneer in the eld of
interaction design the design of interactive products,
services, systems and experiences. Leading companies
employ its graduates and support the Interaction

and energetic working environment for the exploration,

development and cross-fertilisation of ideas.

Design Research Studio. Although concerned with

emerging technologies, its focus is on people.

Head of Department: Professor Dan Fern; Deputy Head: Jeff

Willis; Senior Tutors: Professor Andrzej Klimowski, Jon Wozencroft

Head of Department: Professor Irene McAra-McWilliam;

Research Administrator: Lynn Williams

>design products
The Department of Design Products does not embrace
any one design ideology or favour a specic style. Its
purpose is to create a culture engaged in an on-going
debate about all aspects of design that thrives on new
ideas, new ways of doing things and new areas of
exploration and risk-taking.
Head of Department: Professor Ron Arad;
Deputy Head: Hilary French

>vehicle design
The Department of Vehicle Design pioneers new
approaches for our mobile futures. Central to its work
is an understanding of the broader issues of vehicle
design necessary to optimise opportunities for mobility:
accessibility, aerodynamics, environmental impact,
ergonomics, legislation, materials, production, safety
and technology, as well as aesthetic principles.
Head of Department: Dale Harrow; Research Co-ordinators:
Helen Evenden, Paul Ewing, Andrew Nahum

Poster campaign to promote eye health by Gero Grundmann, RCA Communication Art & Design:
a project in collaboration with The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

10

health-check
projects that promote independent well-being
Save your sight
Circles of care
Which pill when

Gero Grundmann
Indri Tulusan
Richard Mawle and Chris McGinley

11

Gero Grundmann RCA Communication Art & Design

>save your sight: a campaign

to improve eye health
As we get older, our eyesight deteriorates. The
problem for people over 45 is not simply loss of visual
acuity but the real possibility that they could develop
such eye conditions as glaucoma, macular degeneration
or diabetic retinopathy which pose a threat to health
and well-being.
Regular eye check-ups will ensure that such conditions
can be detected for early treatment. But according to
The Guide Dogs for Blind Association, not enough of us
take our eyesight seriously. As a result, eye-threatening
illnesses remain undetected.

Vigilance required
The challenge is to raise awareness about eye health
and encourage people to take eye tests regularly and
be more vigilant, says Paul Day of Guide Dogs, a
charity which has expanded its remit in recent years
from providing guide dogs for blind people to being an
educator on eye health and ophthalmic research.
As part of its Healthy Eyes campaign, Guide Dogs
teamed up with the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre to
develop a new communication programme which aims
to encourage people over 45 to be less complacent
about their eye heath.
Research associate Gero Grundmann interviewed
medical professionals and visually impaired people,
studied award-winning healthcare campaigns and
visited Finland and Germany for overseas comparisons

in the early phases of his research. He concluded: It

is all about targeting people where it matters at the
point of denial.
Grundmann then developed a range of creative ideas
designed to promote the message about eye health in
the context of peoples everyday lives on the street,
in the gym, at school, while driving or shopping.
The campaign is spearheaded by a high-impact
communication idea entitled Number Plate which
encourages drivers to take an eye test before they lose
their licence and get taken off the road. This can be
expressed either in poster form or as a real number plate.
A further concept expands the remit of tness
coaches to include healthier eyes with healthier bodies.
Eye Coach is a laminated information guide for tness
trainers to use during their work in gyms and health
spas. It is available both as a complete manual and
as a quick reference card.

12 research partner: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association

health-check

Left and above: different elements of the camapign target over-45s at the point of denial

For schools, a Little Optician activity pack introduces

eye health to pupils who can then in turn engage their
parents in the issue. The pack includes playful materials
to test for visual acuity, eld of vision, blind spots, colour
blindness and so on.

Feast your eyes

The three main aspects of the campaign aimed at
drivers, tness centres and schools are supported by
additional communication materials. These include:
recipe cards bearing the message feast your eyes to
encourage healthy eating to combat eye disease by

increasing lutein levels; eye health information

incorporated into packaging for protective eyewear
such as sports goggles; and mirrors which reveal
campaign messages when they steam up.
All facets of the programme have been evaluated by
Guide Dogs, and key community and business partners
have been identied to roll out the main campaign messages. A whole new range of creative opportunities
have been developed to enable us to move forward,
says Paul Day of the Guide Dogs communication team.

research partner: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association 13

Indri Tulusan RCA Interaction Design

>circles of care: a new approach to

healthcare based on social networks
As western economies struggle with escalating healthcare costs, there are growing calls for a paradigm shift
from a system that simply treats patients to a model for
health services in which the focus is on prevention rather
than cure.
Within this context, there has been rapid growth
in the market for self-monitoring and self-diagnosis
products that enable people to take a more proactive
approach to managing their own health. But, according
to Helen Hamlyn Research Associate Indri Tulusan, there
is an in between space between self help and the
expert help of medical professionals that has received
relatively little attention from designers, manufacturers,
service or social providers.
This is the social network of friends, family, work
colleagues and neighbourhood facilities such as health
food shops and tness centres which operates alongside
the GP or hospital professionals in helping us to maintain
our health.

Complementary model
Tulusans study is a collaboration between the RCAs
Department of Interaction Design, healthcare product
designers Pearson Matthews and mobile network
company Orange. It has identied the social network
as a complementary healthcare model and given it a
name: Circles of Care. The question we sought to
answer, she explains, is what kind of new circles of

Above: research participants were encouraged to sketch

their own circle of care on a special glove. Opposite: the
concept mapped through different life stages

14 research partners: Orange and Pearson Matthews

health-check

care can be evolved and what new services are needed

to sustain them?
The project began with a cross-cultural analysis of
individual attitudes to maintaining health by focusing on
a user group of 20 people (ten in the UK, ten in India and
Italy) who had recently moved to a new town or country,
necessitating the creation of a new circle of care.
Displacement was the key factor to get people to
focus on the social relationships that support their health
and a user research exercise invited participants to
dene their own circle of care on a glove.
The ndings of this research revealed that people
have three universal requirements to support their
own health: tness of body, autonomy of mind and
relatedness to others. The study chose to explore this

partnering and friends coaching. From these insights,

a series of eight service narratives were created which
illustrate how the space between self-help and expert
help can be populated with new services that activate the
social network. Some services use network technology:
Health Heritage Blog, for example, is an online family
health diary that dispersed family members can access
and contribute to wherever they are living in the world.

third aspect in greater detail, creating a Circles of Care

map which addresses health activities across the span
of different life events, from childhood to old age via
leaving home, marriage and having a family.
The study identied the main activators and patterns
of behaviour within circles of care, such as family caring,

Pearson of Pearson Matthews. Now the aim must be

to esh out an exciting concept with case studies to
demonstrate its potential. Stephen Hope, international
research manager at Orange, adds: The value of this
research is in a people-centred approach that provides
the glue for the technical framework.

A manifesto for change

The main output of the project is a special publication
which sets out a manifesto for the Circles of Care model.
This describes its main characteristics and the opportunities
for new services to be created. The study has identied
a neglected terrain in design for healthcare, says Mike

research partners: Orange and Pearson Matthews 15

Richard Mawle and Chris McGinley

RCA Industrial Design Engineering

>which pill when: medicine

packaging that aids compliance
in taking prescribed drugs
One consequence of a rapidly ageing population is the
growing number of older people in society who must
take prescribed medication on a strict regime of
compliance. However, many older people nd it difcult
to take their pills or medicines to a regular timetable.
Older patients take three times as many drugs as the
general population and their rates of non-compliance are
higher 55% compared to a 43% non-compliance rate
for the general patient population. Overall, one in every
two consumers of prescription-only medicines is said to
be non-compliant.
The cost of this problem is enormous estimated
at 60 billion a year worldwide. In older patients, noncompliance accounts for 40% of all hospital admissions
and contributes to 125,000 deaths a year. A quarter of
nursing home admissions are due to an inability to take
drugs as prescribed.

A stubborn problem
Plenty of different compliance aids exist to tell people
which pill to take when. But according to Christopher
Wood, innovation manager at pharmaceutical company
GlaxoSmithKline, This is a problem that refuses to
go away. The question is how can we integrate the
compliance aid into medication packaging in a way
that is low-tech but of high value to the user?
In the rst year of the two-year project, existing
compliance solutions were analysed and user behaviour

16 research partner: GlaxoSmithKline

Older users directly inuenced the pack exemplars

was observed by handing out a specially-designed

research diary to a group of patients taking prescribed
drugs for such conditions as asthma, depression,
diabetes, epilepsy and enlarged prostate.

health-check

Left: visual prompt in Compliance Kit for designers to make packs easier to access. Right: the kit styled as a First Aid Box

A trio of design concepts were then generated to

communicate three distinct problems related to noncompliance: accessing the pack, taking pills on the
move, and remembering to take the medication.
The resulting prototypes demonstrated how packaging
could incorporate some form of low-cost compliance aid.
In the second year of the project, the study
substantially expanded the user research base by
consulting four distinct groups: people suffering from
specic medical conditions such as asthma and arthritis;
medication users with severe mobility impairments; a
broader cross-generational group to gain insights into
diverse needs; and a medical professional group of
pharmacists, carers and nurses.
Each group assessed the initial prototypes and design
iterations were introduced and rened in response to
user feedback. Three proposals emerged from the study:
the Access Pack, which has an easy-to-open matchboxstyle mechanism and an access aid as an intrinsic part of

the packaging; the Moving Pack, which has a special box

detachable from the main pack to support discreet use
of medication on the move; and the Remind Pack, which
has a collection of prompts such as stickers and cards
that can be removed from the pack and placed around
the home as personal reminders.

Creative response
These three-dimensional pack exemplars form the centrepiece of a special Compliance Kit produced to provide
design guidance on the issue for GlaxoSmithKlines inhouse design teams. The kit, styled as a First Aid box,
also includes simulation tools such as spectacles and
gloves to better understand the reduced capabilities
of older people, as well as visual prompts to highlight
compliance issues and stimulate a more creative
packaging approach.

research partner: GlaxoSmithKline 17

Envelope desk concept for homeworkers by

Peter Fullagar and Daniel Jones, RCA Industrial
Design Engineering: the product is set for
manufacture by Dams International

18

open-house
projects that address transactions in the home
Weather watchers
On a plate
Home work
Biographical objects
Home

Tobie Kerridge
Katherine Gough
Peter Fullagar and Daniel Jones
Jac Fennell
Yanki Lee

19

Tobie Kerridge RCA Interaction Design

>weather watchers: animating

networked objects in the home
Weve always had a special relationship with the objects
that surround us in the home. These private possessions
create a sense of who we are, for other people and for
ourselves. As digital technology extends through the
domestic space, these objects share data, linking with
each other and with spaces outside the home.
This project explores how these networked objects
might behave. What form and other characteristics
will they adopt? In particular, how might these digital
objects physically move in order to describe the streams
of data which ow through them?

Intense relationships
Research associate Tobie Kerridge is collaborating with
consumer electronics company Philips on the study. He
explains: Much research around the home focuses on
how people communicate with each other. In this case
Im interested in how individuals make and use tools to
pursue and expand their own interests, creating intense
relationships with objects.
To explore these relationships, the project identied
domestic meteorology as a focus for the research. The
process of putting together a user group revealed a
national community of weather watchers who record
data using a range of equipment. Between the observer
and the weather are the tools, says Kerridge. These
instruments, their construction, the rituals around their
use, and their functions and measurements enable a

20 research partner: Philips

Above: domestic meteorologist with self-built humidity

sensor. The dish (top) receives data from passing polar
orbiting weather satellites

open-house

Climatic shifts become translated into movement and data by sensing equipment. This data is passed to a suite of wireless
prototypes which move responsively

compelling experience for the weather watcher.

Research material emerged from eldwork with
three domestic meteorologists. Within their homes,
the research associate found sensors and logging
instruments, screens, printers and satellite-receiving
equipment. Together with hourly data pushed onto the
internet, all were accessing and adding to a growing,
distributed archive of meteorological data. At the core
of these processes was a visceral set of movements,
translations of the weathers shifting energies.

Suite of prototypes
Insights from the user research have driven the
development and prototyping of a suite of connected,

weather-responsive objects for the home input

sensors, software and moving output devices to
demonstrate this more intense relationship between a
user, their objects, and the world outside. The study will
now go into a second year of experimental development
in partnership with Philips.
This project has opened a persuasive dialogue on
the language of movement of networked objects, says
Steven Kyfn, Senior Global Director of Design Research
at Philips. What forms, sounds, luminescence and
gestures should these digital media carriers adopt in
the home so that the relationships with people are
enriched? Thats what we intend to pursue to understand
better a language of mechanical mediation.

research partner: Philips 21

Katherine Gough RCA Industrial Design Engineering

>on a plate: making food packaging

easier to use
Everyday food packaging is an accepted part of our
lives and an indispensable part of our economic system.
But despite major advances in convenience and cost
reduction, such packaging is not easy to use.
According to the Faraday Packaging Partnership,
a consortium which aims to encourage innovation in
the eld, there is growing frustration among consumers
that packs are difcult to open and belated recognition
among pack producers that new designs should be more
intuitively usable in form.

Visual communication
The visual communication of the pack is central to the
users relationship with the product, explains Faraday
Packaging managing director Dr Walter Lewis. Companies need to understand two things rst, how the form,
aesthetics and semiotics of the pack can support ease

of access and use, and, second, how to make practical

improvements as a result.
This study, led by RCA Industrial Design Engineering
graduate Katherine Gough, set out to investigate the
issue of packaging usability with video ethnographic
techniques and to develop a practical design tool that
could be adopted by Faraday Packaging members to
evaluate how inclusive their packs are in use.
In partnering with the RCA, we were especially interested in the idea of designer as ethnographer, creating
a seamless creative process based on interpreting real
customer needs, says Dr Lewis.
The project began with a review of how packs
communicate, what physical, visual and cognitive
problems customers currently face and how inclusive
design can address them. Faraday member Marks &
Spencer provided the main food packaging case study.

22 research partner: Faraday Packaging Partnership with Marks & Spencer

open-house

Below left: video ethnography tracked customer interaction with M&S food packaging. Below right: vegetable pack
redesign with protruding edge demonstrates ease of access. Above: design tool to test for pack inclusiveness

The way M&S segments its food customers into

groups informed the research associates choice of
four households in the UK to study: young professionals
without ties; a family with teenage children; empty
nesters; and a retired woman living alone.
Using video ethnography techniques, users were
shadowed in their local M&S store making their food
selections and at home as they unpacked and prepared
meals. By following the lifecycle of packaging at key
interaction points with the consumer, the project
identied inclusive ways in which a packs visual
communication can enhance access and use.
Based on the research, a design tool was developed
for use by designers and marketers. It poses a series
of questions related to ve different packaging roles
from in-store selection to disposal and a scoring
system enables a spidergram to be generated for each

pack being assessed. Analysis of the shape provides a

measure of inclusivity the fatter the shape, the more
the visual communication of the pack is working right
through its lifecycle to aid ease of use.

Catalyst for user focus

Design teams can do their own scoring or conduct user
research to generate the results. The tool therefore acts
as a catalyst for a more user-centred design process.
A set of exemplar packaging designs, based on
adaptations of existing M&S food packs and realised
as 2D computer renderings, were generated to support
the design tool.
This study has created a platform for packaging
companies to conduct their own inclusive design
research, says Dr Lewis. Now the aim is to trial the tool
with organisations in our network. There is real potential.

research partner: Faraday Packaging Partnership with Marks & Spencer 23

Peter Fullagar and Daniel Jones

RCA Industrial Design Engineering

>home work: rethinking home

ofce furniture
More and more of us are doing ofce-based work at
home. Numbers have doubled in the UK in the past ve
years to an estimated 2.2 million people. Thats 7.4 per
cent of the working population and gures are set to
increase further due to new family-friendly legislation,
enabling technologies, commuting problems and
corporate property cost pressures.
According to BT, a quarter of us will work at least in
part from home within ten years. But while working at
home as part of a more exible work pattern looks great
in theory, the demands of balancing work and home life
can often make the practice difcult.

Inadequate for the task

Part of the problem is that furniture for home working
is often inadequate for the task. Too many solutions
are simply a scaled-down version of conventional ofce
furniture which doesnt really suit a domestic setting or
an improvised corner of the kitchen table which doesnt
work either, says David Gorman, marketing manager of
ofce furniture company Dams International.
Dams International teamed up with the Helen Hamlyn
Research Centre to rethink home ofce furniture from
the users perspective, using an existing contract to
supply furniture to BT homeworkers as a case study
for the research.
The project began with a review of homeworking
trends and furniture products currently on the market.

24 research partner: Dams International

A model for analysis was developed that enabled

existing solutions to be accurately mapped in relation to
overlapping physical, social and psychological boundaries
in the home. What emerged was an opportunity for a
furniture design that combines all three needs in one
integrated solution.
Fullagar explains: Our research found that people
work longer hours at home to maintain trust with their
employer and retain the privilege of exible working.
Also, without their working day structured by going to
and from work, working time expands into their personal
and relaxation time.
Visits to a group of homeworkers from the Live/Work
Network and BT Workabout identied that the physical
boundaries of the ofce are often set by the furniture,

open-house

Below left: the user reality of working from home. Above: the Envelope concept in wall and corner congurations

rather than the interior space itself.

Ready for production

The research ndings inspired the development of a

number of product concepts and, through collaboration
with the design team at Dams International, a number
of prototypes were produced and tested.
The resulting Envelope concept incorporates a
number of innovative features which enhance the
personal and professional boundaries of the homeworker.
The continuous owing form of the desk was
designed to promote the idea of a contained work
zone. The use of illumination, activated by picking
up your pen from a groove, symbolises the ritual of
starting work. Other innovations include split-height
surfaces that encourage improved ergonomic use
of laptops and improved access for power and
connection cables.

The outcome of the project is a range of home ofce

furniture which has been developed to the stage where
it is ready for manufacture. The Envelope range is now
in the nal stages of costing and packaging and will
form part of a portfolio of products currently sold to
BT homeworkers. It will also form part of a larger
collection that will be promoted to the retail market
sector in the UK, Europe and North America over the
next six months.
David Gorman concludes: We always hoped that
the research programme would not only develop the
companys own skills, in terms of the process of design,
but actually produce a marketable product. In both
respects the project has been highly successful.

research partner: Dams International 25

Jac Fennell Helen Hamlyn Research Student, RCA Interaction Design

>biographical objects: new electronic

objects and the retelling of memories

Memories are created, kept and recalled in different ways.

A common practice is to use objects as placeholders for
our memories of other people and places. The objects
we own and surround ourselves with reect our present
life, but also prompt memories of past experiences.

Props for narration

To revive memories, objects serve as props that enable
people to tell stories around them. It is through the
owners narration that the memory comes alive.
Currently there are very few products or services to
support this activity. This project looks at how new
electronic objects can inuence the retelling of memories.
To understand the practice of retelling memories with
the aid of objects, camera kits were given to 25 people
at different life stages. Participants took photographs
of objects in their home that hold personal memories

26

and wrote stories about them on postcards. The ndings

of the study revealed the type of memorabilia objects
people choose to keep, and the memories they share
about the object with other people.
The results of the camera kits inspired a collection
of conceptual designs that inuence the retelling of
memories, including a series of interactive plinths that
display objects and curate the narration of memories
associated with them. This MPhil study in the Department of Interaction Design builds on Jac Fennells
work in multi-sensory memorabilia as a Helen Hamlyn
Research Associate in 2003.
The Biographical Objects project continues in 2005
with the support of HP Laboratories, the central
research organisation of Hewlett-Packard.

Yanki Lee Visiting Doctoral Fellow, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

>home: developing a co-design

process with tenants

Yanki Lee worked as a Helen Hamlyn Research

Associate studying the future of live-work buildings
in collaboration with the Peabody Trust in 2000-2001.
From this design research project, she developed an
interest in creating new user-centred design methods in
the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
where she was awarded a research studentship for her
Doctoral research.

Participative methods
She returned to the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre
at the RCA for the academic year 2003-4 as a Visiting
Doctoral Fellow from Hong Kong. Her research focuses
on different tactics to involve users in the environmental
design process, studying participative and inclusive
design methods across a range of different cultures
and design communities.

As part of her proposition-setting research, Yanki Lee

conducted a design exploration into the desirability
aspects of home as part of the Home Project, initiated
by the Architecture Foundation. A special corridor was
constructed at the London exhibition 100% Design
in September 2004, detailing plans and other design
information for six recent London housing projects
and tenant responses to them. The setting acted as
a research tool to gauge public opinion and gather
ideas on new housing design in London.
The Home corridor was curated and designed in
collaboration with Hilary French, Head of the School of
Architecture and Design at the RCA, Gerrard OCarroll,
Harriet Harriss and Jam Design. Yanki Lees Doctoral
study, which has included working with tenant groups
on housing design in Hong Kong, continues with Helen
Hamlyn Research Centre supervision.

27

Visualisation of hybrid-electric urban vehicle

system by Merih Kunur, RCA Vehicle Design:
part of the Mobilicity project with automotive
design consultancy Capoco

28

city-light
projects that support urban quality of life
Blighted landscapes
Glowing places
Mobilicity
Out of place

Matthew Dearlove
Megumi Fujikawa
Merih Kunur
Ruth Dillon

29

Matthew Dearlove RCA Architecture & Interiors

>blighted landscapes: the narrative role

of street lighting in urban regeneration
The City of London, rich and important, is ringed by
neglected and devalued community spaces in Tower
Hamlets that reect the inequality of investment
between the two urban conditions.
Within this context, which is common to many cities,
how can street lighting play a role in reanimating
neglected public spaces for the local communities to
which they belong?
The opportunities for public lighting to improve the
urban streetscape and support social regeneration were
investigated in this project, using the London Borough of
Tower Hamlets as a platform for research. The study was
led by research associate Matthew Dearlove: I decided
to take a narrative approach to the research, because
street lighting has the potential to create new narratives
in relation to urban regeneration.

Discovering literary London

Dearlove began the project with a series of walks
through Tower Hamlets based on literary readings of
London such as Iain Sinclairs Liquid City and Lud Heat.
Two key narratives were identied. One links three
churches designed by Hawksmoor (St Annes Limehouse,
St George-in-the-East and Christchurch Spitalelds); the
other links three circuses (Arnold Circus, Finsbury Circus
and Broadgate Circus).
The routes uniting these landmarks were visually
documented using sketches and photographs, and

30 research partner: Targetti

referenced against local planning guidelines, other

architectural initiatives and international exemplars
of best practice in urban lighting.
Having established the methodology, the project then
set about identifying community partners to trial a new
lighting narrative on a specic site in Tower Hamlets.
Dearlove worked on the St Peters Estate in Bethnal
Green with a lm-making community group called
Neighbourhood Watching to demonstrate how street
lighting and landscaping can improve under-utilised
communal spaces.
The estate was undergoing a consultation process
with the local council on improving security. In response,
Dearlove undertook his own programme of consultation
and workshops with local residents and the council to
generate a design brief and a series of design solutions
for the estate.

city-light

Below left: young tenants have their say. Above: plans and sketches to regenerate the estate in Tower Hamlets

The project, supported by lighting company Targetti,

addresses the need for improved safety and illumination
on the estate. A combination of lighting and landscaping
creates an environment that allows residents to play out
their own narratives on the site and create their own
spaces rather like a set of outdoor rooms. The aim
was not to be overly prescriptive in how the communal
spaces are used, but to make people feel comfortable
about coming down to colonise and share them.

Animating the spaces

While the landscaping provides a set of new surfaces on
the estate, the lighting provides structure and animates
the spaces, enabling safe 24-hour use. Dearloves
participative research allowed local narratives, as well as

the view of residents and the council, to surface without

relying purely on anonymous questionnaires. A more
personal and informal approach to canvassing information
allowed for a story, a favourite activity or a dream to
inuence the designs, which will be advanced towards
realisation as part of an Architecture Foundation
programme.
The design solutions enable the St Peters Estate
to develop its own special identity and environment
while also responding to much-needed regeneration.
In the current landscape of the city-fringes where the
maintenance and redevelopment of housing estates
is switching from local councils to housing trusts and
residents associations, this project harnesses the
individual qualities of site and residents.

research partner: Targetti 31

Megumi Fujikawa RCA Interaction Design

>glowing places: interactive lighting

for large public interiors
Lighting creates ambience that affects our experience
of large public interiors such as shopping malls, airport
terminals or railway stations. But current lighting schemes
for such spaces tend to be applied indiscriminately and
exclude the possibility for individual interaction with
the light.
How can we design a more responsive environment
in which social patterns of activity inuence the ambient
quality of the lighting at a larger scale?

Responding to behaviour
This research study set out to explore innovate ways
for people to interact with light in public space, building
on design research by Philips into the theme of the

32 research partner: Philips Design

emotional building a building that responds to the

behaviour and feelings of its users by visually expressing
the activity inside. Within this construct, the project
sought to demonstrate the important role of lighting
as a signier of changing emotional states.
The project began with an analysis of the functional,
decorative and behavioural properties of architectural
lighting, using Olafur Eliassons Weather Project at Tate
Modern and Herzog & De Meurons Laban contemporary
dance centre among the case studies.
A user study at Brent Cross Shopping Centre then
sought the views of visitors of different ages on how
they feel about that environment and how they spend
their time there. An ambiguous light ball, which
randomly brightens and dims, was designed to elicit
emotional responses in relation to the space.
Results of the user study subsequently informed
a series of design ideas which express a new form
of interactive lighting. Research associate Megumi
Fujikawa designed a series of illuminated seating units

city-light

Below left: user research in a shopping centre inuenced the concept and prototyping of interactive lighting units (above)

which glow, dim, ash and change colour in reaction to

the patterns of people sitting on them at different times
of the day. The intention, she explains, is not to create
visuals effects for the people sitting on the furniture but
to use their patterns of use of the units as a catalyst for
changing the ambience of the building. Within the
specic area of the seating, people share the altered
state. Thus the ambience is self-generated by and for
the users of the space.
The concept is extended by having the lighting
patterns created by human interactions abstracted,
memorised and played back on the faade of the
building to broadcast the activity within to those

illumination. Sophisticated electronics programming

was undertaken to deliver the light behaviours to the
furniture and to project patterns on the building faade.
A working prototype was tested with users to explore
the potential to create different atmospheres and solicit
feedback.

outside and to brighten the surrounding area.

Having established the concept, the development
phase of the project focused on its creative and technical
realisation. Rotation-moulded plastic seats were prototyped, based on an existing Philips design, and LED
(light-emitting diode) strips were sourced for internal

ambience through light that is in itself architectural and

it adds to our knowledge about the emotional building.
The project will now go into a second year to develop
architectural applications.

An architectural ambience
We looked to this study to generate lighting concepts
that can sustain vibrancy, adapt to changes over time
and create a sense of participation and belonging,says
Job Rutgers, Senior Design Consultant at Philips. The
result achieves a difcult challenge: it constructs an

research partner: Philips Design 33

Merih Kunur RCA Vehicle Design

>mobilicity: scenarios for sustainable

public transport 2025
How will we travel on public transport around large
cities in the future? This project set out to explore new
directions in sustainable mass transit for commuters
and residents in the crowded urban environment of
2025 and beyond.
Independent consultancy Capoco, which designs
passenger vehicles for world markets and contributed
to the design philosophy of many of Britains current
generation of city buses, commissioned the study to
mark the 25th anniversary of its founding by Director
Alan Ponsford.
Weve considered the key drivers of change for the
next 25 years sustainable development, energy and
emissions, access, information technology, integrated
systems, safety, social factors and the cityscape itself,
says Ponsford. I was keen to see if we can make an
original statement about the future of mass public
transport in the large city environment.

Depiction in popular lms

Research associate Merih Kunur, an experienced
researcher in transport design who holds degrees from
Turkeys Mimar Sinan University and the RCA, began the
project by exploring depictions of future multi-layered
city transport in popular lms. He then developed a
research matrix based on three primary elds of investigation (spatial organisation of cities, social change and
sustainability).

34 research partner: Capoco Design

city-light

Left: passenger journeys in London, Hong Kong and Instanbul. Above: sketches explore accessible vehicle system

This matrix was tested and expanded in an expert

forum at the RCA at which architects and urban planners,
social researchers and sustainable technology and
vehicle experts came together to debate a future in
which world cities are becoming more polycentric.
Insights from the expert forum informed the
development of user scenarios on specic sites in three
world cities. London hosted a noon-time business
journey from Covent Garden to City Airport by a male
executive; Hong Kong, a trip by a grandparent through
a densely populated shopping district to a main train
terminal to meet her grandchildren; and Istanbul, a long
evening commute home across the Bosphorus Bridge by
a female ofce worker. Each journey was lmed and time
inefciencies and user discomforts analysed.
A single vehicle design programme emerged from the
analysis. In each scenario, the travel challenge of making
a difcult journey across a city is addressed by a new
zero-emission, hybrid-electric vehicle system that is
driverless and runs on global satellite guidance sensors

interior that responds to different usage (airport-bound

vehicle modules have increased luggage space, for
example). The design concept has the ability to form
a single train of up to six vehicle units for express
journeys and then split apart into smaller modules
to enable local access.

to xed destinations.
The low-oor, easy-access vehicle module comes in
three sizes 12, 18 and 24 seats and has a exible

A greater sense of privacy is given to passengers

so this approach is socially sustainable as well as
environmentally sustainable.

Express and local

In London, for example, the smaller vehicle units
collect people from around the West End before
forming a single train at a given point to head out to
City Airport. In Istanbul, the opposite occurs: an express
train heading out of the city divides into smaller local
services, thus combining express and local services in
a single vehicle journey. In Hong Kong, special emphasis
is given to understanding the needs of older travellers.
By combining video footage of specic urban journeys
with computer modelling of a new vehicle typology, it
is possible to glimpse a future of city travel that is less
frustrating and time-consuming, suggests Merih Kunur:

research partner: Capoco Design 35

Ruth Dillon Helen Hamlyn Research Student, RCA Architecture & Interiors

>out of place: exploring psychological

dysfunction in urban space

Much research has been undertaken into making the city

more accessible for those with physical disabilities. But
what about those people who are excluded from the
urban environment due to psychological dysfunction?
In such cases, subjects suffer from a reduced ability
to negotiate space; the city can become a territory of
fear, anxiety or obsession. This Doctoral study, funded
by an award to the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre
by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Research

anxiety and how this affects our relationships with the

city around us. Through design, the project work seeks
to allow the individual to enter the disruptive psychological space between the self and the city.

Council), explores the possibilities for a personally

tailored response to negotiating psychological space:
integrating physical built interventions into the urban

collaboration with the Royal College of Art. This case

study has enabled key theoretical ideas to be applied
to a live scheme. In particular, the design interventions

fabric, and producing an digital interactive layer.

The research investigates what happens when our
sense of self and identity are disrupted through

explore how an imaginative level of interactivity can

allow the individual to cope with the cityscape.

36

Lighting in London
As part of the study Ruth Dillon has consulted on a
lighting design project on the Kentish Town Road in
London, led by Harry Dobbs for Camden Council in

>capturing the research associates on lm

To show the process of collaborative work and capture the development of the projects, the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre
commissioned RCA lmmakers Steve Connolly and Adam Clitheroe of Rewind Films to make a documentary on a year
in the life of the Research Associates Programme. The lm, entitled Designing for People, is screened in the Show.
screened in the exhibition.

37

Knowledge blossom user interaction tool

developed by Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley,
RCA Architecture & Interiors, as part of their
project with DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase on
the design needs of exible older workers

38

ofce-age
projects that explore demographic change in the workplace
Capture it
Workplace 2015

Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley

Faculty of Design, Kyushu University

39

Harriet Harriss and Suzi Winstanley

RCA Architecture & Interiors

>capture it: knowledge

interactions and the exible
older worker
By 2020, half of the working population in the European
Union will be over 50. What will this profound shift in
age balance mean for our workplaces in the future?
The trend towards greater numbers of older people
remaining in the workforce for longer is being driven by
rapid demographic change, shortfalls in pension funds
and a stronger management focus on retaining and
utilising knowledge and experience built up over time
within organisations.
But the challenge of an ageing workforce seeking
to contribute in more exible ways has signicant design
implications. Will our workplaces and work practices
be agile enough to respond to the growing numbers
of people with valuable expertise to pass on?

Intellectual capital
An international research project was set up in the
Helen Hamlyn Research Centre to look at this issue,
led by RCA architecture graduates Harriet Harriss and
Suzi Winstanley. The studys title Capture It is in
recognition of the status of knowledge as a new
intellectual capital that requires a shared emotional
experience to be exchanged.
The project has drawn on the experience of Japan,
where ageing workforce trends are especially pronounced,
through a collaboration with a research team from
the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University under the
direction of RCA graduate Yasuyuki Hirai.

40 research partners: DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase

Industry partners in the study are global furniture

company Steelcase, innovation rm IDEO and architects
DEGW. Steelcase Director of Workplace Futures Europe,
Terry West, explains: Its not simply about accommodating older people in the workplace. Its about being
inclusive, about recognising that older generations
may have different ways of processing, thinking
and perceiving.

Phase one: cinematic mapping

The research began with a literature and media review.
The impact of the ageing demographic on the architecture of the workplace was mapped cinematically and
a short lm was produced. This innovative approach

ofce-age

Left and above: interactive user probes tea-time hijack and knowledge city map invited personal responses

directed the study to focus on the exchange of

knowledge as a key driver of change.

Phase two: user probes

In the second phase of the project, the research
associates worked with a user group of six individual
exible older workers and with four cross-generational
groups based in work organisations in the UK and Japan.
A series of playful, interactive user probes were created
to elicit personal responses and generate qualitative ndings about the knowledge interactions of older workers.
Tea-time hijack, for example, encouraged

participants to answer questions on their tea cups;

a knowledge city map invited individuals to indicate
their favourite places to work in the city; and knowledge
blossom, based on observance of Japanese rituals,
gathered input from ofce workers in a delicate,
poetic way. A video diary-making kit was also issued
to key individuals.

Phase three: key ndings

Phase three of the project distilled the results of the user
probes and referenced them against the assumptions
made in the cinematic mapping of phase one. Eight key

research partners: DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase 41

ndings emerged which describe the desires and needs

of older people in relation to the workplace of the future.
First, exible older workers will demand more choice
and control in terms of how, when and where they work.
Second, they will be increasingly curious and committed
to learning, often mixing work and personal projects.
Third, they will require more space and time for reection,
in recognition that exibility can be inherently stressful
because of the lack of live/work separation.
Fourth, they will look to multi-sensory work environments, especially green spaces, to support their learning
and reection; and fth, they will increasingly recognise
a fundamental relationship between tactile materials and
the cognitive ability to access knowledge.
Older workers will want access to and separation from
ubiquitous new technology as their lives demand. They
will also require triggers in the environment to facilitate
narrative and memory, in recognition of the inevitable
degenerative effects of ageing on the senses. Finally,
older workers will crave connection to people of all ages
they will not want to be cocooned with their peers.

Phase four: design interventions

In the fourth phase of the project, the ndings of the
user research were interpreted in a series of design
interventions on a real site in Bermondsey, based on
a derive of the district. These proposals encompass a
building to focus on individual work, an interior for
sharing knowledge between people of diverse ages,
a series of street furniture for reection, a shopping

Older workers in the UK and Japan were engaged in a creative process to discover personal aspirations

42 research partners: DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase

ofce-age

Above: Grow design intervention transforms a local Bermondsey primary school into a 24-hour learning centre, with
smart acoustic owers transmitting knowledge to workers outside moving between sites. Above left: Reect intervention
creates a network of ceramic pods along the street edge

bag to trade knowledge across different disciplines

and a digitally-enhanced acoustic ower for the ever
curious to learn more, all linked together by a physical route and data system to manifest a distributed and
multi-layered narrative network.

Innovative applications
The body of design work includes four site-specic
interventions to illustrate a scenario in which an organisation is sharing knowledge across two local sites, linked
by spaces to connect and reect. Innovative spatial
applications of new technologies and materials both
inform and express the ndings of the research.
Thus the project responds in a practical way to the
future needs of the older exible worker seeking to

work across a series of networked spaces as the

boundaries of the ofce and city are increasingly
blurred. Using real stories, lm, illustration and user
interaction, it demonstrates and posits new design
thinking to support the older worker in building and
sharing knowledge.
The study will now go into a second year to prototype and test some of the key spatial concepts, having
established, in the words of DEGW director of research
Andrew Harrison, a platform to be a real voice on the
subject of the design needs of an ageing workforce.
Special thanks to the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, which
is supporting an Ofce-Age knowledge seminar at the Royal College
of Art on Tuesday 12 October 2004.

research partners: DEGW, IDEO and Steelcase 43

Yasuyuki Hirai Faculty of Design, Kyushu University, Japan

>ofce-age: distributed workplace

in 2015 for knowledge transfer
In Japan, the ageing society is growing faster than
anywhere in the world. In order to explore inclusive
solutions for this change, a research team from Kyushu
University in Fukuoka, which is one of the leading
national universities in Japan, set out to describe images
of the workplace in 2015, when a quarter of the
Japanese population will be over 65 years old.
This project marked the rst collaboration between
the Faculty of Design at Kyushu University and the Helen
Hamlyn Research Centre at the RCA. The Japanese
team comprised associate professors Yas Hirai
and Minako Ikeda and four graduate students.

Transfer across generations

Based on a number of interviews, observations and
workshops, the research team identied three key
zones on which to base a new concept in workplaces:
Distributed Ofce; Public Space; and Job Market.
These workplaces would enable experienced workers
of different ages to work creatively by using their
knowledge and transferring it to the next generation.
Four scenarios were created to describe how people
work in these three zones in Fukuoka city, one of the key
knowledge business cities in Japan. The zones are based
on a uidity of social structure: the blurred boundary of
work/life activities, the end of lifetime employment, and
a hybrid (virtual and physical) workscape.

44

Social Post
This project aims to realise knowledge transfer from older
to younger people in order to maintain corporate memory
and experience in the organisation. The design enables
workers to pin up les and items for display to fellow workers, stimulating knowledge transfer in the workplace.

ofce-age

Distributed ofce
Community Picture
Older people working in distributed ofces need a sense
of belonging. This community picture system brings them
closer to colleagues. When a worker arrives at one of the
satellite ofces, the system takes a picture of him and
composes it with those of his colleagues to make
a community picture automatically. Looking at this
community picture, he always knows who is in what
ofce at any given time and how they look. The system
supports communication between colleagues working
in distributed workplaces.

Info Conveyor
When experienced older workers retire, their know-how
is often lost. This has been described as corporate
Alzheimers. This system scans handwritten information from
individuals with a micro camera and displays it, owing ideas
through a workplace on a sushi bar-style conveyor belt.
Just by looking at the information as it circulates, younger
workers can tap into the valuable knowledge of older
people. The information can be also printed out from the
nearest printer by touching it as it passes by on the display.

45

Public space

Job market

Learning Seat
A concept to enable ofce workers, especially older people,
to acquire new information and skills while travelling on the
train. It adopts the priority seats reserved for elderly and
disabled people to the needs of learning. For example,
the seat narrates the contents of the daily newspaper to
save commuters from having to fold out their papers on a
crowded train. An electronic train card is passed over
a sensor to charge each user for the service.

Asking Board
This concept provides older people with opportunities to
continue to use their knowledge and experience in society.
Railway platform billboards are used to help different
kinds of professional communities to communicate with
each other and appeal for a particular skill or expertise.
Rail stations are used as a place where information and
people meet.
Ofce-Age Team, Faculty of Design, Kyushu University: Yas Hirai,
associate professor (Social Post); Minako Ikeda, associate professor
(Communication Design) Masters students: Naoshige Akita
(Community Picture); Yasuhito Kitoko (Info Conveyor); Sawako
Kodo (Learning Seat); Koichiro Fumoto (Asking Board)

46

>research associates 2005

Architecture & Interiors

Harriet Harriss
Juri Nishi
Sheila Qureshi
Suzi Winstanley

Industrial Design Engineering

Matthew Harrison
Chris McGinley
Duncan Turner
Jonathan West

Research partners: IDEO, MFI,

Steelcase

Research partners: B&Q, GlaxoSmithKline,

Osaka Gas, Thorn Lighting

Communication Art & Design

Thea Swayne

Interaction Design
Megumi Fujikawa
Jeremy Gay
Tobie Kerridge

Research partner: National Patient

Safety Agency

Design Products
Jamie Cobb
Michael Cross
Julie Mathias

Research partners: Kinnarps, Philips

Vehicle Design
TBA
Research partner: Visteon

Research partners: Audi Design

Foundation, Ideal Standard

A work in progress seminar of the Helen Hamlyn Research Associates

2005 will take place at the RCA on 15 March 2005, and a Show and
Symposium of their completed projects will be held on 11 October 2005.

47

>research associate proles

Matthew Dearlove: British. MA Cantab

Katherine Gough: British. MA(RCA)

2004, MA(RCA) Architecture & Interiors

Industrial Design Engineering 2001; BEng

2003; BA (Hons) Architecture, University

(Hons) University of Birmingham 1999.

of Cambridge 2000. Work: Project

Work experience: Project Manager, The

Co-ordinator, The Architecture Foundation,

Sorrell Foundation; visiting tutor, IDE,

London; Robert AM Stern Architects, New

RCA and University of Leeds; rapporteur,

York; De Matos Storey Ryan Architects,

Design Intermedia. Awards: Lattice,

London; Michael Hopkins Architects, London; Leigh and

sustainability, runner-up 2001; Dyson scholarship 2000.

Orange Architects, Hong Kong.

Contact: +44 (0)7971 788713 / katherine.gough@btinternet.com

Contact: +44 (0)7946 513 443 / mattdearlove@hotmail.com

48

Peter Fullagar: British. MA(RCA) Industrial

Gero Grundmann: German. MA(RCA)

Design Engineering 2003; BEng(Hons)

Communication Art & Design 2003;

1st Class Aeronautics and Astronautics,

BA(Hons) Graphic Design, Surrey Institute

University of Southampton 2000. Work:

of Art & Design 2000. Work: freelance

Miyama Co & Masters Craft, Gifu, Japan.

designer/illustrator and printmaker;

Awards: Oxo Peugeot Design Awards

visiting tutor, Norwich School of Art

2003; Design for our Future Selves 2003;

& Design and Surrey Institute of Art

BCA Concrete Design Awards 2002; Royal Commission for

& Design; Quadraphic Design; Julius Schroeder Printing.

the Exhibition of 1851 Scholarship; Royal Aeronautical

Exhibitions: London Design Festival 2003. Awards: Design

Society Prize 2000.

for our Future Selves 2003.

Contact +44 (0)7881 788102 / pfullagar@yahoo.co.uk

Contact: +44 (0)771 935 28 15 / gerogrundmann@web.de

Megumi Fujikawa: Japanese. MA(RCA)

Harriet Harriss: British. MA(RCA) Architec-

Interaction Design 2003; BFA Digital Art,

ture & Interiors 2003; BA(Hons) 1st Class

Atlanta College of Art 2000. Work: intern,

Architecture, University of Manchester

Orange 2002, web/graphic designer, Art

2001. Work: Director, Design Heroine

Space New York 2000-2001. Awards:

Ltd; Co-editor, Pollen magazine; The

Design for our Future Selves 2003; runner-

Architecture Foundation; EPR Architects;

up, National Grid Transco Awards 2003;

architecture tutor Luton University. Awards:

Big Wave Awards; Wearable technology, Dazed & Confused

Design for our Future Selves 2003; BCA Concrete Design Award

+ Orange 2002; Nannie Boyd Award, Atlanta College of Art

2003; Thames & Hudson/RCA Society Art Book Prize; Alsop

2000. Exhibitions: London Design Festival 2003.

Prize, best Urban Strategy 2003; Nesta Creative Pioneer Award.

Contact: +44 0)7952 068164 / megumi_fujikawa_rca@hotmail.com

Contact +44 (0)7989 748193 / harriet_harriss@yahoo.com

Daniel Jones: British. MA(RCA) Industrial

Richard Mawle: British. MA(RCA)

Design Engineering 2003; MEng(Hons)

Industrial Design Engineering 2002;

Cambridge University 2001. Work:

BEng Mechanical Engineering, Imperial

freelance consultant, (I-dealdesign Ltd);

College London 2000. Work: Dyson Ltd;

CCD; Nokia; Caterpillar, Barlows Group.

Action Graphic International; BICC

Awards: Design for our Future Selves

Supertension Cables. Awards: Helen

2003; RCA Selected Works 2002; Bombay

Hamlyn Award for Creativity and

Sapphire Martini Glass Competition; Royal Commission for the

Innovation 2002; The Kenny Yip Award 2002; Dyson

Exhibition of 1851 Scholarship; Cambridge University Major

Scholarship 2000-2001.

Project Award 2000.

Contact: +44 (0)7989 572936 / richard@mawle.com

Contact +44 (0)7812 334668 / dan.jones@cantab.net

Tobie Kerridge: British. MA(RCA)

Chris McGinley: British. MA(RCA) Industrial

Interaction Design 2003; BA(Hons) Fine

Design Engineering 2002; MEng Product

Art & English Literature, Oxford Brookes

Design Engineering, University of Strath-

University 1996. Work: Interaction Design

clyde 1999. Work: freelance designer; DooD

consultant; lead tutor, Nesta funded

Design; Joseph Duggan Photography;

youth arts project; interaction designer,

Central Research Laboratories (CRL);

IDEO; Orange UK; senior interactive

Strathclyde University. Exhibitions: MiArt,

designer, Winkreative, Mook, ID Media. Exhibitions:

Milan; Design Engineering, Glasgow. Awards: Anthea & Thomas

Transmediale04, Berlin; Exhibit3, Dublin; Detour, London;

Gibson Award 2000-2001 and 2001-2002. Most outstanding

European Graduates, Amsterdam.

team design, Royal Commission of Design Engineers 1999.

Contact +44 (0)7971 966009 / tobie@mac.com

Contact: +44 (0)7799 388087 / chris.mcginley@rca.ac.uk

Merih Kunur: Turkish. MPhil (RCA)

Indri Tulusan: German. MA(RCA) Design

Vehicle Design, RCA 2003; Mimar Sinan

Products 2001; BA(Hons) Product and

University 1987. Designer: KO. Research

Furniture Design, Kingston University 1998.

and Development Centre, Breda; Ford

Undergraduate degree medicine, Gemany

Otosan; Otokar. Work: Art Director, Jupi-

1994. Work: Nokia research; Philips Design;

ter Zoo; Cartoon for TV, London; retail

Vogt+Weizenegger Berlin; Director, Teko-

and ofce design, Rank Hour, London.

london Ltd; Interactive Institute Stockholm;

Exhibitions: Mitsubishi Competition, Japan, 1998; Design for

ICA London. Awards: Sciart & Experiment Award 2004; Nesta

the Elderly, Nagaoka, Japan, 1994. Awards: Selected Work

Creative Pioneer Award 2004; Lattice Sustainability 2001; RIBA

Award, International Design Fair, Nagaoka, 1994.

Graphic Architecture 2001; Kenny Yip Medical Award 2000.

Contact: +44 (0)7785 715070 / merih.kunur@rca.ac.uk

Contact: +44 (0)7956 1972 88 indri@tekolondon.com

49

>proles
Research students
Suzi Winstanley: British. MA(RCA) Archi-

Ruth Dillon: British. MA(RCA) Architecture

tecture & Interiors 2003; BA(Hons) 1st Class

and Interiors 2002; BA(Hons) 1st Class

Architecture, Shefeld University 1999.

Architecture, University of Central

Work: Director, Design Herione Ltd; Oriel

England. Work: Kralform, London;

Prizeman Architect; Urban Salon Architects;

TP Bennett Architects, London;

London College of Printing; Data Nature

independent residential and

Architecture; Gensler, Boston; Chapman &

Chapman Architects, New York; Ronnette Riley Architect. Awards:

consultancy projects.
Contact +44 (0)7952 603226 / ruthvdillon@aol.com

Nesta Creative Pioneer Award 2004; National Grid Transco Award

2003; Design for our Future Selves 2003, BSI Award 2003.
Contact +44 07815 056321 / suziwinstanley@hotmail.com

Jac Fennell: British. MA(RCA) Interaction

Design 2002; BA(Hons) Design Futures,
University of Wales College, Newport
1999. Work: product designer, Craftspace
Touring, Birmingham; Interaction Design
consultant, Hewlett-Packard Labs,
Bristol; Helen Hamlyn Research Associate;
Art Director Redbridge Muzik, Jamaica; Interaction Designer,
MediaLab Europe, Dublin; intern, Philips Design; intern, IDEO
Europe, London. Awards: RCA Society Award 2002.
Contact: +44 (0)781 3071022 / jac@hijacdesign.com
Yanki Lee: Chinese. PhD Candidate, School
of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
2003; MA(RCA) Architecture & Interiors 2000.
Work: Helen Hamlyn Research Associate
2001; architectural designer, KaraKarakusevic
Carson architects; HAPYdesignhouse, own
studio; tutor, Central Saint Martins: architectural designer, Edge (HK) Ltd. Awards: Design for our Future
Selves 2000; The Matthews Wrightson Trust Award.
Contact +44 (0)797 7160888 / +852 97176413
ask@hapydesignhouse.com

50

Why do external industry partners join the

Helen Hamlyn Research Associates Programme?
A fantastic job of pursuing the design brief with enthusiasm, creativity
and insight
HP Laboratories
The initial ndings heavily challenged our preconceptions and
assumptions... the resulting concepts and draft designs were some
of the best solution-based design the company has seen
Dams International
The discussion of ideas is challenging, the presentations are provocative
Peabody Trust
Theres a degree of excellence in analysis, interpretation, idea creation
and development
Omron Corporation
An enjoyable experience with fruitful outcomes for everyone involved
and a valuable learning tool for the company
Hansgrohe
Our business depends on a socially inclusive design approach. We couldnt
afford not to work with the Research Associates
BAA
The intense focus on understanding user needs unlocks the door to new
business opportunities
Unilever

51

>thanks
The Research Associates 2004 would like to thank all the individuals and organisations
who provided expert support and advice in the development of their projects:

Individuals
Pablo Abellan
Richard Appleby
Roy Ascott
David Banister
Richard Barker
Ingrid Baron
Simon Baron-Cohen
George & Rosemary Bate
David Bell
Susan Benn
Marion Bieber
Durrell Bishop
Robert Blake
Hans Blom
George Booth
Tiago Borges Da Silva
Andy Boucher
John Bound
Trevor Boyd
Prue Bramwell-Davies
Sara Brasington
Roger Brugge
Bernard Butler
Felicity Callard
Sarah Cartwright
Julia Cassim
Celeste Channer
Alan Chiaradia
Miranda Chow
Alison Clarke
Nigel Coates
Diana Cocherane
Roger Coleman
Grant Courtney
Gary Cranson
Jo Crellin

52

Emma Critchley
James Cummins
Inge Daniels
Richard Daw
Paul Day
Tom Delaey
Alan Denbigh
Marc Dettmann
Peter Dixon
Tom Djajadiningrat
Harry Dobbs
Tony Dunne
Margaret Durkan
Tim Dwelly
Philips Eindhoven
Helen Evenden
Cassie Everett
Paul Ewing
Jac Fennel
Brenda Fennell
Mark Fenwick
Dan Fern
David Frohlich
Megumi Fujikawa
Mark Garcia
Bill Gaver
Charlotte Gerlings
Luc Gerts
Rama Gheerawo
John Goodger
Dave Gorman
Neil Gridely
Frank Groszmann
Marianne Grundmann
Brian Guthrie
Rory Hamilton
Andrew Harris

Andrew Harrison
Matt Harrison
Mike Harrison
Trevor Harley
Dale Harrow
Martin Hayes
Ann Hilton
Katrina Hilton
Anna Hiltunen
Yasuki Hirai
Ben Hooker
Elizabeth Howard
Tom Hulbert
Theo Humphries
Robin Hutchinson
Roger Ibars
Minako Ikeda
Noel Isherwood
Ellen Jacoby
David King
Colette Kilmister
Andrzej Klimowski
Dido van Klinken
Steven Kyfn
Jane Kyte
Andy Law
Yanki Lee
Elizabeth LeMoine
Julia Lohmann
Graeme Loudon
G Loynes
Andrew MacGregor
Hugo Manessei
Fred Manson
Irene McAra-McWilliam
Mary McGinley
Neil McGinley

Pentti Mikkonen
John Morris
Jeremy Myerson
Michael Needham
Paul Nieuwenhuis
Aoife Ni Mhorain
Gerrard OCarroll
Carla O Driscoll-Silva
John Pawley
Fiona Peachey
Dorothy Peel
Sarah Pennington
David Pethick
Kevin Philips
Paul Philips
Terry Phillips
Wanda Polanski
Geoff Power
Sian Prime
Fiona Raby
Louisa Radic
Bas Raijmakers
Paul Rand
Philips Redhill
Steffen Reymann
Tina Rimmer
Michelle Rivers
Sylvia Roberts
Huw Robson
Linda Rollings
Mike Rush
Job Rutgers
Paul Seminara
Dan Siden
Richard Simpson
Eddie Smith
John Smith

Barry Stoll
Marcia Tapper
Garry Thomas
Hellen Thompson
Lisa Thompson
Indri Tulusan
Eva Tuunanen
Peter Van Biene
Alison Wade
Brendan Walker
David Walker
Terry West
Jeff Willis
David Wilson
David Whittle
Chris Wood
Organisations
BT Workabout
Blindenstudienanstalt
Marburg
Crosseld Excalibur Ltd
Excelsior Limited
Institute for Information
Design, Japan
Kita Kyushu, Japan
Klein Dytham
Live/Work Network
Moorelds Eye Hospital
RNIB
Teleworker Association
Tooting Leisure Centre
Wandsworth Council
Social
Wandsworth Leisure
Facilities

If you would like to be part of the Helen

Hamlyn Research Associates Programme
please contact:
Jeremy Myerson, Co-director
Helen Hamlyn Research Centre
email: jeremy.myerson@rca.ac.uk

Designed by Margaret Durkan

Special photography: Tim Strange
Printed by Futura Printing Ltd
Exhibition design: HAPYdesignhouse
Special thanks to: Encapsulite and
Darren Sims of Travis Perkins (London City branch)

ISBN 1-905000-05-7
2004 Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, Royal College of Art
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: a catalogue record
for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
consent of the publisher. All ideas or concepts described or depicted
in this document are the intellectual property of the research partners/designers/college. Further copies can be obtained from the Helen
Hamlyn Research Centre

The Helen Hamlyn

Research Centre
Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore
London SW7 2EU
T +44 (0)20 7590 4242
F +44 (0)20 7590 4244
hhrc@rca.ac.uk
www.hhrc.rca.ac.uk