Our Indian Reach partner, Quicksand, had some exciting news this week: the launch of their 2012 UnBox Fellowships.

UnBox is a festival celebrating interdisciplinary processes and experiences that shape contemporary thought and action. UnBox invites participants from all walks of life— practitioners, students, educators and institutions, who are redefining professional, social and cultural engagement in their contexts. Together, new forms and experiences emerge to challenge traditional notions of work, play and discourse. In 2012, the UnBox Festival will be held from Feb 2-5 in New Delhi.

UnBox Fellowships provide an opportunity for chosen fellows to travel and work across a diverse selection of projects hosted in different parts of India. Anchored and led by domain experts, selected projects for 2012 include understanding sustainable lifestyles in Auroville, collaborating with craft groups in Rajasthan, sourcing fashion inspirations in the local textile traditions of Kutcch and several other projects, each of which are at various intersections of design, development, technology and entrepreneurship.

It really is a fantastic opportunity. You can find out more by visiting the fellowship site – and don’t forget to let us know if you decide to take the plunge!

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With a month to go before our first conference ‘The Great Outdoors of Design’ gets underway, the full list of topics we’ll be looking at has now been finalised. Our intention with this event has always been to aim for a more intimate and collaborative atmosphere than is found at many conferences; we really want to explore these issues in conjunction with our attendees – not just stand there on the stage talking about them.

All of the topics are collected around two main themes, both of which we think are right at the heart of Design Research:

How can Research and Design be brought closer together?

and

How can global and local insights and opportunities be combined?

These are two questions which we’re constantly addressing with our work here at STBY, and our Reach partners will all be presenting their own perspectives on what these questions actually mean in reality. We wanted to organise a conference that looked at these questions from the point of real-world practice, not just abstract theory – and we’re excited about finally getting the chance to do so!

You can download a copy of the programme by clicking here. Tickets for GOOD’11 are on sale now at our Eventbrite Site.

1. The Great Outdoors of Design: An Interactive Conference Hosted by Reach These are exciting times here at STBY, as today we...
2. GOOD’11 – Thanks for taking part! Massive thanks to all of you who in some way...

These are exciting times here at STBY, as today we can announce that come Friday September 23rd we’ll be hosting our first conference with Reach, the global network of design research companies of which STBY are a co-founder.

Held in conjunction with the London Design Festival,”The Great Outdoors of Design” (or ‘GOOD’, as we increasingly like to call it) will be a behind-the-scenes look at a range of cross-cultural research projects that embody design principles.

What happens when innovative design is combined with groundbreaking research?

The event will be an interactive experience where those attending will be able to collaboratively explore the benefits design research can deliver to product and service operation. The Reach partners will be jetting in from across the world meanwhile to share their experiences on two key themes:

Firstly, we’ll be looking at how design and research can be brought closer together. This will cover issues like organisational management, data visualisations, and how the two disciplines can each be used to facilitate the other.

The second theme builds on this in order to explore what actually happens “when global meets local”. Reach partners from as far afield as Brazil, China, and Japan will be sharing their insights into issues such as how specific local circumstances can affect global strategic shifts.

The emphasis throughout however will be placed upon interaction, with all those attending given a chance to share their own thoughts and participate in collaborative explorations of the issues addressed.

Tickets for the event are strictly limited, but can be ordered now via our Eventbrite Site. There’ll be lots more GOOD news coming over the next few weeks, and the best way to keep updated with this is to follow us on Twitter at @stby.

Looking forward to seeing you all in September!

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On 16 June at the Q Festival, organised by the Association of Qualitative Research (AQR), Geke van Dijk will present a talk, together with Marianne Guldbrandsen from the Design Council, and Kat Gough from Nokia. The tilte of the talk is ‘Design Research: The most creative in the industry?’

The Q Festival is advertised as the ‘Glastonbury of Qual…’, a festival of thought, surprise, provocation and illumination, so that is very promising.

See this link for more information on the Q Festival and on AQR

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2. FD picking up on Service Design One of the major Dutch newspapers, Het Financieele Dagblad (translated...

One of the parties we really enjoy working with in The Netherlands is LBi Lost Boys. Following up on the successful and pleasant collaboration for the development of the national innovation programme ‘Creatie van Waarde’, and the support for the new Amsterdam School for Creative Leadership THNK, we are currently teaming up more proactively for various clients.

The synergy between our Design Research expertise and Lost Boys’ creative and strategy teams is high. This really shows the added value we can create together for our clients.

At the Creative Company Conference in Haarlem on 7 June, Ruurd Priester, Strategy Director of LBi Lost Boys, announced our collaboration as one of their strategic partnerships.  In this day and age of networked collaboration we feel that we are learly not just doing the talk, but also walking the walk.

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It’s an exciting time for one of our Reach partners, Apogee, who are shortly going to be hosting the first ever User Experience conference in Hong Kong. This is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to learn more about how the field is growing and expanding in East Asia. The list of speakers for the event includes several international experts (including another Reach partner, Steve Portigal), whilst the accompanying seminars will provide practical advice as to how UX principles can be incorporated into research. The response to the event has already exceeded expectations, but there’s still time to book your ticket at http://www.uxhongkong.com.

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3. GOOD’11 – Thanks for taking part! Massive thanks to all of you who in some way...

1. Customer Talk article on Service Design One of the editors of the online community for customer-focused...
2. FD picking up on Service Design One of the major Dutch newspapers, Het Financieele Dagblad (translated...
3. Design Research for Service Innovation Our creative research projects connect service providers with the lives...

1. The Great Outdoors of Design: An Interactive Conference Hosted by Reach These are exciting times here at STBY, as today we...

The workshop demonstrated how visualisation of design research – from the earliest possible stages – is essential in ensuring it plays a strategic role in a company. Bas and Froukje outlined eight rules that need to be followed for this to implemented effectively.

One of these rules was “exhibit visualisations in a workshop”; this allows all people involved in the innovation of services from within a company to be part of the conversation about customers. Those participating at the Haarlem workshop got to experience this first-hand, learning how visual tools (which can be as simple as post-its and stickers) can be used to record interviews about personal routines and motives. The participants all in fact interviewed each other, using a set of stickers to document their findings.

STBY’s recent study on attitudes towards water use conducted with Southern Water was then used to demonstrate the service design outcomes visualisation facilitates. If you’d like to know more about this project, or indeed about how to use visualisation more generally, then drop Bas a line at bas@stby.eu.

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2. Visionary and curious: Exploring Creative Leadership for THNK To support the development of THNK, the Amsterdam School of...

1. Design Research for Service Innovation Our creative research projects connect service providers with the lives...