Publications Archives

Empathic Conversations

In this article, we explore our approach to enabling empathic conversations in our design research, between researchers and participants and among the wider client and design teams. Using a case study of a recent project exploring patient support networks, we look at the important roles continual contact, engaging interview materials, and visually capturing and communicating play in enabling empathic conversations, that can generate rich, in-depth insights for design. The full article is available as a PDF here, and as an article on Medium here. …

Article in Form magazine: Tackling the Refugee Crisis

In this article in Form magazine, Marie de Vos describes the process behind ‘What Design Can Do Challenge’ of February 2016, which asked what design can do for refugees. The refugee crisis certainly belongs to the category of so-called wicked problems, that contain so many unpredictable interdependencies and unknowns that they resist solutions using any single model or traditional sequential approach. She outlines the approach used to deploy the creativity and problem-solving approaches of designers to ensure that they genuinely make a difference to people caught…

Viewfinders: Thoughts on Visual Design Research

We’re very excited to have published Viewfinders: Thoughts on Visual Design Research, exploring the rich potential photography, film and beyond hold for design research. Bas Raijmakers and Samantha Miller co-authored and edited a collection of writing that includes learnings from STBY projects, inspiration from fields such as documentary film, and relevant project examples ranging from speculative design to art photography. With a special contribution from Goldsmiths’ Interaction Research Studio on ‘Thinking with Pictures’, Viewfinders …

Publication in Touchpoint: Giving Disruptive Innovations a Chance

Marie de Vos co-authored an article Giving Disruptive Innovations a Chance in the Service Design Journal ‘Touchpoint’. Why do promising innovations initiated inside companies and other organisations fail to make it implementation? There is a difference between the current perception of the road from idea to implementation, and the reality of how new concepts are genuinely created, developed and delivered. What shape does this path take, and how can designers actively support successful innovation? The authors identify and describe three core activities. The full article is available in Touchpoint…

Interview in Dude

The latest edition of Dude (the Dutch designers magazine published by BNO) is curated by Ellen Schindler from Kossman.dejong and includes an interview with STBY. The interview explains the background and profile of STBY, and specifically zooms in on the global design research network REACH we initiated in 2008 to cater for our international clients. The interview, authored by Viveka van de Vliet, describes us as ‘world-class specialists in design research’, who keep pioneering at the forefront and are thereby continually shaping this emerging field of expertise. For our international portfolio of innovative…

Orchestration

Bas Raijmakers co-authored an article about ‘Orchestration’ in the latest issue of CRISP magazine. “So many, you can’t get around it, So complex, you can’t get under it, So diverse, you can’t get over it, This is a chance to orchestrate your way out of your constrictions!” The article explores how ‘orchestration’ functions in Product Service System (PSS) development, helping to align collaborators and achieve harmony in a system where complexity can and should be embraced. A pdf of the full article is available here, and the complete CRISP magazine #5 is available here.

Embracing Complexity

Marie de Vos co-authored an article about ‘Embracing Complexity’ in CRISP magazine #5: “Product Service System development is hard, but pretending complexity disappears when you ignore it solves nothing. PSS design teaches designers to embrace complexity and discover the rich insights that lead to excellent PSSs.” Issues with complexity are not limited to technology, but have to do with social reactions and behaviours brought about by a particular system. The pdf of ‘Embracing Complexity’ is available here, and the complete CRISP magazine #5 is available here.

Routledge Companion to Design Research

STBY was invited to contribute a chapter to the book 'Routledge Companion to Design Research', edited by Professor Paul Rodgers and Dr. Joyce Yee for Routledge, Taylor and Francis.....

Designing Relationships

‘Designing Relationships’ in the latest issue of CRISP was co-authored by Geke van Dijk: “As we move from mass-produced, one-size fits all products to personalised, adaptive and evolving Product Service Systems, the design deliverables take on other forms.” In the article, they look at ‘what comes out of the box when the user unpacks what they paid for’, and reflect on the new results that design should bring.” The pdf of the full article is available here, and the complete CRISP magazine #5 is available here.

Belonging & Belongings Workbook

Belonging & Belongings is a compilation of our artistic design research activities and materials from a research programme we have worked on together with Dr Daijiro Mizuno, from 2007 to 2011. The book is rich in imagery, reflecting our visual research approach, and includes photographs, magazines, and film stills from the various studies we carried out in both Japan and the United Kingdom. The book can be seen as an introduction into what artistic research can bring to design research, with the Belonging & Belongings programme acting as a Research & Development activity for…

Service Design for Local Government

Our project with the City of Amsterdam is featured on the national online knowledge sharing site for civil servants operated by KING. The project helped the local Amsterdam government to improve their service offering to entrepreneurs. The local government has now put a lot of effort into communicating and using the results. Within a few months, we are happy to see the research results already successfully utilised in various departments.