SCIENCE TALK: DESIGNING OUR TOMORROW

Designing our tomorrow 

Must-have modern gadgets are designed by young people with young people in mind - that is the view of Ian Hosking, who works at Cambridge University's Design Centre. This means that elderly people, who have much to gain from modern technology, feel excluded.

Mr Hosking's mission is to improve the accessibility of modern, mass-produced devices like smartphones and tablets. The talk will be exploring ways Ian Hosking and his colleague, Bill Nicholl are designing technology for a more inclusive world

Programme

Time	Programme
13.30–14.00	Registration
14.00–14.45	Designing a more inclusive World  With around 1 billion people world-wide having a disability and an ageing population that struggles to use everyday products and services it is vital that we design things to be more inclusive. This talk will explain the background to the diversity in the population and how we can design for it.
14.45–15.30	How to teach people to design inclusively  Knowing how to solve problems requires imagination and creativity.  This talk will focus on how engineers and designers think strategically and creatively in order to generate ideas that lead to products and services that are inclusively designed.
15.00–16.00	Interactive session to experience elements of both talks • Fixation • Population statistics cards • Gloves and glasses (experience experiments)

Seminar will be conducted in English.

About the speakers

Ian Hosking, Senior Research Associate, Engineering Department, University of Cambridge

Ian has over 20 years experience of working in industry with a focus on the effective application of technology through understanding people’s needs. He has been involved in the initiation and development of the Inclusive Design Toolkit (www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com), which provides a process and tools for designing inclusively.

 

Bill Nicholl (FRSA) , Lecturer, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge

Bill taught Design & Technology (D&T) for 10 years in London high schools.  In 2000 he set-up the course for training teachers of D&T at the University of Cambridge. He teaches across a number of courses including PGCE, MEd, MPhil level, as well as supervising PhD students. His research interests are focused around socio-cultural approaches to creativity and in particular the role of the teacher in teaching for [design] creativity.