Papers by James P Woudhuysen
Body, Space & Technology, 2000
The Liminality and Performance conference incorporated delightful performances and the vitality o... more The Liminality and Performance conference incorporated delightful performances and the vitality of the participants was an island of experiences in a rather mundane world of suburban London. Why cannot real life be as rich in cultural dynamics? This paper puts forward the ...
In the 1940s FHK Henrion did some of the world's most passionate posters; in the 1960s, he he... more In the 1940s FHK Henrion did some of the world's most passionate posters; in the 1960s, he helped create the face of post-war Britain. This interview, done four years before his death, surveys his brilliant caree
Bergin & Garvey eBooks, 2002
Interview with the founder of the industrial design profession – when he was 8
Design Management Journal, Jun 10, 2010
Being with users as they work, shop, relax, and learn with products, especially in collective sit... more Being with users as they work, shop, relax, and learn with products, especially in collective situations. In general, the task here is to listen, note down, tape (audio, video), and discuss the purposes and meanings that underlie the formal processes of use. Asking users to tell ...
Springer eBooks, 2012
Indictments of waste, and distaste for the packaging of consumer goods, are widespread in modern ... more Indictments of waste, and distaste for the packaging of consumer goods, are widespread in modern life. Yet in England, at least, households account for less than a third of overall waste, and household waste—like the industrial and commercial kinds—is actually in decline. In addition, the potentialities of packaging as a force for progress are too often ignored. Electronic packaging could improve the way users of prescription drugs take their medicines. With an ageing population taking more and more varied kinds of drugs, patient adherence to medication regimens is a growing social and economic issue. Linked to mobile IT, electronic packaging can, in principle, do much to ensure that medical patients wind up taking the right drugs at the right times. The paper reviews four examples of electronic packaging, and goes on to situate them in the context of mobile health (mHealth)—mobile telephony applications that prompt patients, each time they take medicine, to report their symptoms very simply and, if necessary, receive advice back from doctors. Together, reporting adherence and symptoms can enable prescribers to build up a rich picture of the effectiveness of each prescription issued. Doses or medication can be changed, or medication withdrawn, using real intelligence about patients. The dual approach outlined here can also reduce the problems that arise with the use of multiple medications by a patient. Innovation in the way in which prescription drugs are packaged could do a lot for society. This paper explores the potential of linking the electronic packaging of medicines to mobile IT, as well as the attitudinal and likely regulatory barriers that could impede progress in this domain.
Design management journal, Oct 1, 2011
I n April 2011, Bruce Nussbaum, one of the foremost advocates of design thinking (DT), pronounced... more I n April 2011, Bruce Nussbaum, one of the foremost advocates of design thinking (DT), pronounced it a ''failed experiment'' (Nussbaum, 2011). After this summary verdict, Nussbaum asked, naturally enough, ''What's next?'' This article replies to that question. Nussbaum's own reply was interesting. He upheld what he called ''humanistic design,'' and described it as ''a huge advance in the field.'' However, he did not define, still less give examples of, humanistic design. Instead, he went on to outline a third concept-''creative intelligence.'' Around that concept, he plans to publish a book in late 2012. For designers and design managers, having an opinion about trends in design has always been important. In prewar America alone, industrial designers such as Henry Dreyfuss, Walter Dorwin Teague, Raymond Loewy, and Norman Bel Geddes positioned themselves as knowing a thing or two about the future. Fashion design, too, has long been oriented to color forecasting, and trend forecasting in general. Design managers have often pronounced one trend dead and upheld another one. Still, it is a bit new to do both of these things, and then say that a third designerly world view deserves a book. A cursory inspection of trends in the handling of design trends, then, reveals a certain relativism of outlook. Anything goes, pretty much: One projection may be as good as another, and much depends on this or that design manager's point of view. In other words, design managers both adopt and abandon intellectual trends rather quickly nowadays. Before we suggest what the next trend in design should be, therefore, we should first ask: Just why are trends so trendy these days? Of course, when designers such as Loewy or Bel Geddes pushed through ideas about the future to clients, there was always an element of arbitrariness about their views. In their time, style was of unrivaled importance. The subjective approach of great designers had yet to give way to more organized conceptions of design management, or of the future. However, for all the realities of today's global production, both design managers and celebrity designers still lack a sensible compass to steer them toward The Next Big Thing in Design. Perhaps, really, two trends in the handling of design trends are at issue here. On the one hand, and certainly over the past 15 years or so, the growing
Long Range Planning, Jun 1, 1994
INCE THE COLLAPSE OF THE Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War in 1989, and during the subseque... more INCE THE COLLAPSE OF THE Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War in 1989, and during the subsequent recession, many of the pillars of Western society have run into a crisis of public legitimacy. Advertising and branding, banks and governments, the United Nations and the welfare state: all have suffered a loss of respect. Even Information Technology (IT), it seems, may be subject to the same fate. Certainly the decline in the mainframe computer, the troubles of IBM and a tough buyers' market in hardware and software point in this direction. But, in fact, the legitimacy crisis of IT goes wider than the computer industry. Across a number of industrial sectors, there is evidence that the application of IT to products and services no longer enjoys all the popular support that it once had. IT has yet to be tailored to meet the real needs of customerswhatever demographic group they hail from.
Applied Ergonomics, Feb 1, 1993
Especially in stressful urban environments, a 'transgenerational' approach to design for older pe... more Especially in stressful urban environments, a 'transgenerational' approach to design for older people can yield general benefits to society. Portable maps to aid orientation, type that is more easily scanned, and a more inviting, as well as aurally sensitive, attitude to IT would also represent useful steps forward. In both the modification of old products and in design for compressed morbidity, there is a need for methods which encourage activity instead of just moderating the effects of infirmity. Last but not least, old people themselves need to become a design resource.
Design Management Review, Jun 10, 2010
Search Amazon.com for books on lead-ership and you will find no fewer than 17,296 results. Could ... more Search Amazon.com for books on lead-ership and you will find no fewer than 17,296 results. Could the West have a problem with leadership, by any chance? Apparently, one can lead like a servant, or like Attila the Hun. And like every-thing nowadays, leaders can ...
Design principles & practices, 2011
Favouring orientation to and the participation of design users in the design process, Design Thin... more Favouring orientation to and the participation of design users in the design process, Design Thinking (DT) has a long lineage. With the Cold War's end, the Internet's rise and Stanford University's turn to teaching DT (2005), this 'bottom up', demand-driven conception of design gained new adherents, going on to win mainstream status when advocated in the 'Harvard Business Review' in 2008. While some managers, especially in government, have since adopted DT rather uncritically, it has prompted a schism in design circles-one as grand, perhaps, as that between post-Modernism and Modernism back in the 1970s/1980s. Though DT has reached Latin America and Asia, critics such as Norman (US) and Verganti (Italy) are unanimous that DT has wrongly made consumer contexts, behaviours and needs seem preferable to what McCullagh (UK) describes as 'other drivers of innovation, including technical progress'. In DT, 'sustainability' tends to be taken for granted, and expensive prices are rarely considered. An alternative to DT is briefly outlined, which, it is hoped, can begin to address these defects.
Energy & Environment, Oct 1, 2012
Using academic, journalistic and statistical sources, this paper situates energy innovation in hi... more Using academic, journalistic and statistical sources, this paper situates energy innovation in historical context before describing the current sclerosis of Western energy R&D. It explores how rising energy prices denote weak innovation, and how society's emphasis on green technologies, green subsidies and green jobs has effectively supplanted a rounded programme of innovation. The paper refuses to prefer one source of energy to another, suggesting that this is to ignore the potential for technological change. It treats the rebound effect as positive, delves into the limitations of energy efficiency, and gives even shorter shrift to energy conservation. The paper shows how energy innovation has become synonymous with risk, reviews failure in energy innovation, and attacks innovations around smart meters and the behaviour of energy users. We conclude by briefly inspecting the relationship between finance and energy innovation, and, throughout, suggest elements of a new political approach to the latter. *Acknowledgement is due to members of the Energy workgroup of Big Potatoes, and in particular my longtime collaborator Joe Kaplinsky. See www.BigPotatoes.org
Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 OBW, England Pergamon Press Inc., Maxwell H... more Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3 OBW, England Pergamon Press Inc., Maxwell House, Fairview Park, Elmsford, New York 10523, USA Pergamon of Canada, Suite 104, 150 Consumers Road, Willowdale, Ontario M2J 1P9, Canada Pergamon Press ...
When once he art-edited the Sunday Times colour supplement, David King brought picture after pict... more When once he art-edited the Sunday Times colour supplement, David King brought picture after picture of Leon Trotsky to the breakfast-tables of Britain. This was his first ever major intervie
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Papers by James P Woudhuysen