PUBLIC MARKS from sbrothier with tags software & design

How does Lego develop new products? John-Henry Harris, product designer at Lego, recently gave a talk for software developers at YOW! Australia about the design and innovation process at Lego. Interestingly, the innovation process of Lego seems to be built around constraints.

Wire is committed to the inclusive design agenda – helping designers understand how their work can be made accessible to everybody. Consider™ is Wire’s award-winning concept that helps graphic designers and their clients understand the effect of common visual impairments. Consider™ is a desktop tool that can be launched from any design software package or PDF reader. The first part of the software allows designers to identify common visual impairments (such as such as dyslexia, colour blindness, refractive error and partial sight) in their target audience. Consider™ then replicates common eye conditions to enhance the designer’s understanding of different impairments. It also recommends how designs can be improved to make them more inclusive. The software does not deliver prescriptive solutions. Instead it helps the designer to understand the principles underlying inclusive design and shows how they might make their work more inclusive. Consider™ won the Design Business Association’s Inclusive Design Challenge 2006. Judges called Consider™: ‘a brilliant, intuitive tool with wide-ranging scope that will change perceptions among designers and their clients regarding inclusive design.’ You can find out more about the DBA Inclusive Design challenge at the DBA site and The Helen Hamlyn Research Centre