designswarm

The why of the internet of things

(Writeup of a talk given at the IOT Summit in Dublin on June 22nd 2017 instead of slides) Good morning, Thank you for inviting me to share my perspectives on the internet of things. I wanted to talk about the why of the internet of things. As an industrial designer, I’ve always been fascinated with… Continue reading The why of the internet of things

Designers of what, when and why?

Net contributors from Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino I’m taking part in this one day event hosted by Domus Academy and they asked me to think about these questions for a video they are filming. I thought I’d document my (longer) responses here. 1. Concerning the what of design. Sixty-five years ago, Ernesto Rogers said that the role… Continue reading Designers of what, when and why?

What a 15 year old girl taught me about tech.

Last year I decided to work with so called ‘young people’. At 36, I realised most of my peers and collaborators were in their late twenties or my age and although many friends were much much older, not many of them were much much younger. So I went to work, taking on 20 something year… Continue reading What a 15 year old girl taught me about tech.

A guide to surviving Brexit for Europeans

A guide to surviving Brexit for Europeans So there it is, tonight the government refused to give any protection to the 3M European citizens that have lived here and contributed to this country. That includes me and after ten years in this country, what should I do? Apply for citizenship (naturalisation) of course! I used… Continue reading A guide to surviving Brexit for Europeans

All things, connected and considered.

(Talk given at a Telenor event in Oslo on January 10th 2017.) I’ve just come back from CES in Las Vegas and I can tell you, what can be connected is definitely on its way to being connected. Cities, homes, cars and much more. But the devil is in the details so I’ll be the devil’s… Continue reading All things, connected and considered.

The end of design

I just came back from CES (thanks to Here for flying me over to see their work, I’ll write about that soon too) and wanted to write down some thoughts I’ve been having over the past few months which crystallised during this trip. I’ll be giving a talk tomorrow in Oslo at an event organised… Continue reading The end of design

So you want an internet of things strategy?

I’ve been giving talks and having lots of meetings with executives across a number of different industries who are interested in the internet of things and aren’t quite sure what to do. Based on the past ten years of my work around this topic, here are some high-level recommendations. Assumptions: chances are you have a… Continue reading So you want an internet of things strategy?

Five minutes on smart cities

Introduction given at ESOF16 on July 25th in Manchester. I’ve been working with Nominet R&D for the past year looking at the progress of over 140 global smart city projects and I wanted to take advantage of my five minutes here to talk talk about what I see are the future challenges of smart cities… Continue reading Five minutes on smart cities

Open letter to AIGA

Hello! Sorry for reaching out unexpectedly, but I’d like to bring something to your attention. I am not a member of AIGA but a professional product and interaction designer and I have been working for over 10 years under designswarm.com as both my company’s URL, digital presence on social media of all sorts, talks internationally, works displayed… Continue reading Open letter to AIGA

Made Near You: making local food businesses shareable & transparent

So to conclude (rather dramatically) last week, here are some notes on what I ended up showcasing at the end of the Mozilla Open IOT Design Sprint in Anstruther, Scotland. Made Near You (MaNY) is a service which allows food producers who want to encourage local communities and tourists to eat and buy local. A form… Continue reading Made Near You: making local food businesses shareable & transparent