The RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre was invited to run a 24 Hour Design Challenge to launch the European Business Design Conference organised by the Norwegian Design Council and the first such event in the Scandinavian region. The conference theme was Innovation through Inclusive Design with a focus on Living, Moving, Connecting. Professor Maria Benktzon of Ergonomidesign in Stockholm was the Challenge Patron.
Five teams of professional designers from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland competed for the prize. After an icebreaking workshop on the 5 May, they were given the brief the following morning. They had just 24 hours to come up with a solution, which they were required present in six minutes to conference delegates, many hard-nosed inclusive design professionals.
Teams were invited to address the conference theme of Living, Moving and Connecting and design an inclusive and aspirational product, service, environment or communication. Their solution had to combine aesthetics with the inbuilt functionality required by their user and be desirable to and marketable in the mainstream consumer market.
The results were decided by popular vote of the conference delegates. The award for Best Idea went to Team Norway 1 led by Leif Isachsen from Kode Design for ‘Chalk’- an electronic screen and docking system for mobile phones inspired by the traditional blackboard and their 86 year old lead user Margit. The Best presentation Award went to Team Finland for their service concept 'Hands on Demand' – a flexible system for shopping assistance.
“It has been a great empowering experience for me because in most cases when people are designing products for me they are not interested in my knowledge they only want information based on my weak bones not based on what interests me.”
Jenni-Juulia Wallinheimo, Textile designer, Lead user Finnish Team
All presentations can be viewed on the conference website.
