The winning team
DBA Inclusive Design Challenge 2006
Royal College of Art, 22 February 2006
The sixth DBA Inclusive Design Challenge saw two new developments. The first was sponsorship of the event by the disability organisation Scope and the second, the record number of entries from across a range of design disciplines. Six projects were shortlisted, split evenly between visual communication and product design - a welcome development that underscores the relevance of inclusive design to every sector, and a growing understanding of this fact in the design community.
The capacity audience for the Awards event at the Royal College of Art on 22 February 2006 listened first to a keynote speech from Clive Grinyer, Head of Design and Usability at Orange, before the six teams presented their prototypes, accompanied by an exhibit that detailed the design process and outputs.
Clive Grinyer
Grinyer reminded the audience that: “We get the world we want, it’s all been designed, just not always with much thought.” He went on to detail the importance of inclusive design for technology providers such as Orange: “Inclusive design isn’t a nice to have luxury” he said “it’s a baseline for the future, and a tool for competitive advantage and innovation. To get the world we want, then making it usable and designing for all are at the core of future success or failure. It’s not what you can make, it’s what we want to make and how we want it to work that is important.”
The presentations were followed by a speech from Peter Burgess who represented the many disabled users who had worked with the teams to develop their projects. Burgess outlined with great humour the daily misadventures he experiences as a disabled person in the designed world, such as his ugly pink electric armchair which reclines and helps him get up and down but has no safety system for power cuts. He became stuck in a reclining position when one happened. “When I look at my pink armchair it makes me yearn for a Corbusier Chair for the disabled.” He thanked the design teams for “designing products that are practical, easy to use and good to look at. It is with your help that our independence is maintained in an inclusive way.”
Peter Burgess
David Alcock of Scope read the judges’ verdicts on each individual project and then passed the baton to Sean Lewis, Director of the DBA to announce the winner - Wire Design, and a highly commended prize for Wood&Wood Design. He praised all the teams for their commitment, their dedication to the inclusive ideal and the sheer quality of their work, and announced that the 2007 challenge would have a new slant, with a patient safety brief put forward by the National Patient Safety Agency, who will be sponsoring the event.