22nd - 23rd Oct, 2024
‘Invisibilities’ — Design Dash
I was invited back by Falmouth University, for the 3rd year running, to host this ‘Invisibilities’ Design Dash with their MA Communication Design students. We reflected on the experience of three disability experts in order to identify areas for intervention, invention, or innovation.
The Brief
Design a product, service or brand to improve the workspace / working experience for your invisible disability experts.
The students were put into 3 groups and assigned a case study & disability expert each to focus on. The first stage was to interview their experts in order to identify & better understand their invisible disabilities.
Interviewing ‘Invisibility’ Experts
Group 1
Reflected on the lived experience of Creative Designer, Mike Rojc, who lives with Hyperhidrosis & Scoliosis.
Group 2
Reflected on the lived experience of Anglepoise Chairman, John Purnell, who lives with a form of Autism.
Group 3
Reflected on the lived experience of Designer, Ceramicist & Videographer, Els Kenney, who lives with Diabetes.
Using human-centred design techniques, we took a deep-dive into various design processes (e.g. Double Diamond & ‘How Might We’ Questions) before putting the techniques into practice to rapidly design & test solutions.
GROUP WORKSHEETS & IDEATION
GROUP WORKSHEETS & IDEATION
After an intense couple of days of investigation & rapid prototyping, the students were ready to present their final ideas to their experts for feedback. Watch the videos below to see what they came up with.
Presenting Final Concepts
LECTURE SLIDES
LECTURE SLIDES
Mike Rojc Mini-Talk
Mike lives with multiple invisible disabilities, and specialises in neurodiverse design with gamified approaches. He joined our workshop to share how he uses UX Mapping approaches to help people (like healthcare professionals and friends) better understand his conditions, with time for Q&A and interactive discussion.
“Thanks so much for this workshop! It was truly so helpful to understand the design process for human-centred design and it felt really rewarding too. I learned so much!”
— Amelia Temple, Fashion & Textile Designer, and MA Communication Design student at Falmouth University
“Thanks so much! It was such an enjoyable session… You did a fabulous job. Bryan, I & the students really appreciated it.”
— Lizzie Ridout (Senior Lecturer) & Bryan Clark (Head of Graphic Design) at Falmouth University
Meet the team
A huge thanks to Lizzie Ridout & Bryan Clark (for inviting me along), Katherine Harris (for organising the workshop materials), Falmouth University (for their incredible support & all-round creative genius), Mike Rojc, John Purnell, & Els Kenney (for being such open & enthusiastic participants), and of course, the incredible MA Communication Design students (Amelia Temple, Charaka Kahandawa, Megan Fry, Aditya Rane, Flora Hamilton-Jones, Theo Gaimster, Izzy Hillier, Siddhant Vernekar & Fin Brown). I was so impressed by how attentive & respectful they were with their experts. The outcomes were thoughtful, flexible & very much human-centred! 🙏