Research and design
12 October 2015

If you haven’t seen them yet, please take a look at the finalists for this year’s MRS Awards. We had a record year in terms of quality and quantity – and I was so encouraged to see how many submissions were driven by clients wanting to celebrate the work they’d done to get closer to consumers.

With that in mind, I decided to set a challenge to the design community, who have invited me to speak at Interact London later this month. Why does the consumer so often seem to be left out of the design process?

Designers, and in this I include everyone from engineers and architects, to digital and technical experts, sometimes seem to be dedicated to processes, outputs and ‘stuff’. Their language is inaccessible to consumers, and their user manuals often seem like gobbledygook.

We can all list examples of unworkable workspace, unreadable typefaces, un-navigable websites (and yes, mobile surveys that can’t be filled in). Why does this happen and what can research contribute to bridge the gap?

The winners of the MRS Awards will be announced at a gala dinner on 7 December.

Jane is speaking at the Interact Conference at The British Museum on 21 October.