Rachel Burnham writes: On Tuesday 4th June, it was my pleasure and
privilege to be one of the organisers for the first L&D Connect
#LnDFieldTrip. A group of 28 L&Ders,
from a mix of organisations, spent the afternoon exploring The Design Museum in
London and discussing & reflecting on what it said to us about design for
L&D and OD. It was great to work
alongside Niki Hobson, David Hayden and Kevin Avis to make this happen and also
to have the support of the wider L&D Connect community for this venture.
Here are some of my
reflections on the exhibits that caught my attention – they are a bit random
and I think I am still pondering on my observations and the many conversations
over the course of the afternoon with other participants.
1. Purpose
One of the first exhibits that caught my eye told the well-known story
of the creation of the London Tube Map and equivalent maps for metros in other
cities.
This reminded me that the London Underground map that is so familiar to
many of us, is not actually an accurate geographical representation of the tube
system in London – however, simplifying the map in this way made it easy to
find your way around using the tube system.
This made me think again of the importance of clarity of purpose when
designing. What we design for one
purpose, may not work for another purpose. In simplifying, we may gain in some
ways and lose in others.
2. Adding
on
Sticking with signage, I loved this picture of the old style road sign,
that had been added to and adapted with lots of different styles of sign. It illustrated a display about the
introduction of a national standard approach to road signage.
This picture reminded me of how sometimes we design a programme,
project, even an organisational structure and then keep adding to it and
adapting it. ‘Wouldn’t be good to
include…’ ‘We could just slip this in here…’ ‘I am sure people would find this
useful…’ and before you know it, it is rather a hash of confused messages and
contradictory approaches. Sometimes we
need to take stock and simplify.
3. A
nice idea!
As well as display material, there were lots of examples of different
products and items. I admired a rather
stylish chair and loved the story told about it.
It had been designed by an architect, who also designed furniture. It was based on the idea that you could sit
on it in many different ways – this appealed to me – I am always curling up on
chairs and sofas with my feet under me or hanging out over the edge. The chair was designed to be mass
manufactured, but in fact that had not happened in the lifetime of the designer
– it didn’t explain why and originally only handmade ones had been
produced.
I am intrigued by this story and I have been imagining all the many
different ways why the chair was not mass-produced as envisaged – expense, lack
of demand – perhaps it didn’t meet a real need from customers, technical
challenges, a crisis of confidence in the product by the manufacturer,
resistance to a radical design and so on.
I think you can see the parallels that drew me in.
4. Rethinking
the value of standardisation
One of the displays was a mock-up of a fitted kitchen that you could
walk through. Alongside, were some
pictures of kitchens prior to the introduction of the fitted kitchen concept,
which drew attention to how often these had surfaces at different levels, sinks
that didn’t have places to stack or dry crockery and cupboards that made poor
use of space. It sounds just like the
kitchen of my childhood in Chorlton which was tiny and very awkward to cook in.
The display drew attention to the value of standardisation in kitchen
design which enabled fitted kitchens to be created, with their much more
practical design and their capacity to be personalised. This is what caught my attention –
standardisation not as the opposite of personalisation, which is sometimes how
we think of it in L&D, but as the enabler of effectiveness and
personalisation.
We sometimes focus on standardisation as being about sameness, but it is
actually about being based on standards or principles or evidence about what
works – it is about establishing effective ways of working. So my kitchen sink lesson was to make me
rethink the value of standardisation.
5. Designing
& empowering
Another display that caught my eye was about the design and creation of
rough terrain wheelchairs for use in countries where roads and pathways often
do not have paved or tarmac surfaces.
The design focused on meeting these particular needs, but also the need
for the wheelchairs to be maintained locally, so itincluded provision for
training people to be able to do this.
It got me thinking about content generation by users and about L&D’s
role moving away from providing programmes to empowering users to meet their
continuing needs.
6. The
simplest solution that works
Towards the end of our time at the museum, I got to look at a display
right near the start of the exhibit. All
through our time at the museum, members of our party were stood talking about
and pointing to various different objects in the display and so I couldn’t get
near it until the end of our time.
The display was an array of well-designed and very familiar objects
displayed from floor to ceiling – bikes, jeans, paper bags, marmite, trainers,
juicers, phones and many, many more.
Looking at this display brought back so many memories and associations
with the various objects.
One of the things that they had in common was a simplicity. It reminded me that the simplest solution
that meets the need is often the best solution.
The paper bag particularly caught my eye. Paper bags are back in fashion. At one time a plastic bag might have been
considered the latest thing and something that was well-designed to meet the
needs of modern shoppers. But our
criteria, for what makes a good design of bag, have changed and now we rate
environmental-friendliness as important.
What makes for good design may change, if the context changes.
7. Collaboration
The whole exhibition focused on the relationships between three parties:
users, makers and designers. It was
quite clear how important each of these was to the creation of effective
designs. Each of these parties have a
contribution to make. The best design seem to draw on each.
It is making me wonder how well designs I am involved with utilise the
insights and differing expertise of all the parties and what I might do
differently to enable this.
I have taken a lot from this #LnDFieldTrip experience. It was the combination of the stimulation from
the exhibition plus conversations and sharing of varying perspectives and
experiences with fellow professionals that made it so effective for me.
Thank you to everyone who took part and who supported the event. I think we will see more #LnDFieldTrips in
the future.
Rachel Burnham
9 June 2019
I help individuals and
organisations to work and learn more effectively, particularly though using the
tools of Sketchnoting and the curation of resources. I make use of Sketchnoting to help people use
visuals, to think, work and learn. I
help people to manage for themselves the information they need to stay
up-to-date in their professional work.
