2012 Human Centred Design Research Prize 2012 Selection Jury

Mr. Joseph Ferry – Head of Design, InterContinental Hotels Group Mr. Clive Gee - Head of External Relations, Brunel University Prof. Joseph Giacomin – Director Human Centred Design Institute, Brunel University Prof. Mark Lycett – Deputy Head of School of Information Systems, Brunel University Mrs. Anna White – CEO and Senior Strategist, Unlockedgroup Mr. Jamie Young – Head of Design, Technology, Innovation and Behavioural Change projects, RSA Dr. Mark Young – Reader in Cognitive Ergonomics, Human Centred Design Institute, Brunel University

2012 Jury Statement

The HCD Research Prize selection jury had the great pleasure of judging a varied, creative and highly professional set of entries. The jury would like to extend its congratulations to all the individuals who submitted an entry this year and would like to praise the very high quality and novelty of each of this year’s submissions.

The judging process proceeded along the lines established for this year’s prize, i.e. equal weight was given to the five key criteria of central concept/hypothesis, novelty of approach, novelty of anticipated results, expected impact on the human centred design profession and public engagement strategy adopted.

The winning submission titled “Supporting People-centred Design Through Information and Empathy” of Christopher McGinley was judged by all members of the jury to be the submission of the highest professional quality and to have the greatest potential impact on the human centred design profession. The core framework based on information and empathy, and the novel approaches adopted for enmeshing the framework within the design process, was considered by the jury to be an outstanding example of 21st century design thinking. The jury was particularly impressed by the manner in which communication, empathy and human empowerment permeated the framework. The jury members would like to extend their congratulations to Christopher McGinley and look forward to supporting him in his endeavours to promote the application of his framework within the design community and beyond.

The jury also wishes to praise the second place entry of Arber Shabani titled “Multisensory Interface Design: embedding human hearing and tactile sense for intuitive product experience”. The Jury lauds the practical emphasis on achieving a framework which designers can use when developing product interfaces, and noted that the research addresses the growing interest regarding the effects of the multisensory stimuli on human perception, cognition, emotion and memory.

Finally, the jury wishes to praise the third place entry of Hojung Kim titled “Conceptual Model of Human centred Software Agent for Online Social Networking” for its highly relevant questioning of the concept of intelligent software agent, and of the tasks which such agents perform. The research addresses growing 21st century concern regarding how much of human decision making and moral positioning is delegated to the artificial agents which act on our behalf, and asks the question of what the best design framework for such agents might be.

For further information please contact Prof. J. Giacomin by email at [email protected].