Design a product or service that gets better or more useful the more people use it so that sharing becomes more attractive and viable.
Challenge and scope
With the still looming ‘age of austerity’ and discussions about ‘doing more with less’ pervading our daily consciousness and conversations, sharing presents new opportunities for everyone. Technological advances and changing consumer behaviours mean that sharing and leasing products as
an alternative to owning or buying is easier than ever. Airbnb, Netflix, ZipCar, and many others have made sharing more common than ever before.
We can now share and collaborate not only with our neighbours, but also with people on the other side of the world in new and resourceful ways.
an alternative to owning or buying is easier than ever. Airbnb, Netflix, ZipCar, and many others have made sharing more common than ever before.
We can now share and collaborate not only with our neighbours, but also with people on the other side of the world in new and resourceful ways.
However, collaborative consumption also raises new questions for designers, for example, if many people are sharing a product, how do you design it differently?2 It might be designing products that have a longer lifespan so that they can better withstand chronic use or the design of a service that meets the needs of many people. Sharing by many people of the production and therefore less waste. In addition, sharing is more cost effective than buying something for one use or occasion. Many people in urban areas find sharing increasingly attractive where neighbours are plentiful and storage space is scarce.
This brief asks you to think about what is best when it is shared by many and improved through use.
In your research, you might consider the following questions:
— what can easily be shared by many people and what are the benefits?
— why don’t people share as much as they could?
— are there physical and mental barriers to sharing?
— how could the experience of sharing be enhanced?
— what forms of security, acknowledgement and reward could be designed to further promote sharing?
For the purposes of illustration only, the following would all be viable responses:
— a product that can be used for many purposes, and therefore, can be used by many people in different ways
— a product that actually improves through multiple users or increased overall use and doesn’t easily fall into disrepair
— a communications campaign that effectively highlights the benefits of sharing the particular service or product that you have identified
— a communications campaign that encourages sharing at a general level
— a new or redesigned mode of public transport — a product that improves a particular mode of commuting: driving, etc — a better designed carpooling system
Submission
All entries must be submitted through our online entry system (link). If you are unable to submit online, please contact us (link).
4 x A3 PDFs (portrait or landscape)
Describe your proposal, your insights and research, the benefits you believe it will create, and possibilities of implementation and scalability.
1 x A4 PDF or Word document
No more 250 words describing your ‘Big Idea’
5 x scanned pages of your sketchbook or computer modelling/sketches (if applicable)
Illustrating your development process Optional: films or animations or other moving image media to further support your proposal
Please note: your submission must not have your name, university or other identifying marks to ensure that work is judged fairly. If any entries do contain entrant, college or tutor names, we will contact you and ask you to re-submit your work without these, or remove them ourselves.
Judging
1. Environmental and social benefit - 20%
How does your design benefit society?
2. Research - 10%
Where did you go to research this issue? With whom did you speak or interview? What questions did you ask? What did you learn?
3. Design Thinking - 25%
We want to know about your thought processes and insights. Your insights might be research-based or intuitive, or a combination of both, but the judges want to see you relate the final concept clearly to these insights. What journey did you go through to get to the final result?
4. Commercial Awareness - 20%
Does your design make sense from a financial point of view?
5. Execution - 10%
We are looking for a design that is pleasing and looks and feels well-resolved.
6. Magic - 15%
We are looking for a bit of ‘magic’ – a surprising or lateral design solution that delights.
Re-written brief
Above is the original brief from the RSA website. I have summarised it and produced the following which I will print off to refer too regularly.
I am going to pick the brief apart as there is too much information to process initially. I will select the most important points that need answering/solving. This will help me fully define the brief.
Judging Criteria
I have printed the judging criteria off and stuck it onto every design sheet I will work on. This will be constant reminder of the criteria. I think this part of the brief is really clear and visually understandable.
Submission
I will answer this part of the brief once I have thought of a format to present my concept.
Challenge and Scope (Summary)
Sharing, more for less, new opportunities, technology, changing consumer behaviour, leasing, making sharing more common and sharing globally with the internet etc.
Collaborative consumption = coined from sharing onlineConstraints of sharing , wear and tear, production with less waste, cost effective, urban sharing, storage space
I am going to print and use the questions below to generate problems. This will allow me to think about a possible solution.
In your research, you might consider the following questions:
— what can easily be shared by many people and what are the benefits?
— why don’t people share as much as they could?
— are there physical and mental barriers to sharing?
— how could the experience of sharing be enhanced?
— what forms of security, acknowledgement and reward could be designed to further promote sharing?
For the purposes of illustration only, the following would all be viable responses:
— Can be used for many purposes, and therefore, can be used by many people in different ways
— Actually improves through multiple users or increased overall use and doesn’t fall into disrepair
— A communications campaign highlights benefits of sharing particular service/product
— A communications campaign that encourages sharing at a general level
— A new or redesigned mode of public transport — a product that improves a particular mode of commuting: driving, etc — a better designed carpooling system
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