48 Hour Inclusive Design Challenge in Seoul

Part of the Seoul Design Olympiad 2009 Goal:

• Raise of the importance of inclusive design as a tool for business advantage and innovation to participants and visitors to the Seoul Design Olympiad and the general public
• Show how disabled people can be an integral and vital part of the design process
• Equip designers and design educators with the necessary tools for inclusive design through the medium of a mentored design competition
• Develop their social responsibility.
• Form a international network of collaborating organizations

Theme: Innovation through Inclusive Design Schedule:

• Welcoming Reception : Oct. 11, 2009
• Workshop : Oct. 12 am 11:00 ~ Oct. 14 am11:00 (48 hours)
• Presentation : Oct. 14 14:00 (expected)
• Farewell Party : Oct. 14

Venue: Seminar Room for Workshop and Special Air-Dome Stage for Presentation (in the Jamsil Sports Complex, Seoul) Organization:

• Organized by : Seoul Metropolitan Government, The British Council
• Managed by : Seoul Design Foundation, The Royal College of Art

Detail of Challenge:

• It is a mentored design competition that suggests the feasible design solution for the design-neglected social class, such as the elderly and disabled. It aims to create a field that can successfully realize the social and comprehensive value of design.
• The Challenge has proved to be an effective knowledge transfer mechanism about inclusive design for the design community at all levels.
• It also proved a powerful network-building tool for collaboration between designers, engineers, marketing, and PR specialists and disabled people. Typically, the new networks built by the Challenge continue after the event has ended giving it a long-term impact and transforming it from a single event to one that brings long-term benefits.
• It has also resulted in a range of innovative mainstream inclusive design solutions, which span all design disciplines from product, graphic, fashion, web, interaction, space, environment design, etc.
• It is a competition of a team composed of a mentor designer from RCA and 6~7 young designers and students to come up with a design solution for a given assignment by conducting research and discussion for a certain period of time.
• Each team will work with a single disabled user and respond to their needs and aspirations.
• The teams will present their inclusive design proposals to Seoul Design Olympiad attendees and the design community at part of an afternoon on Day 3. (Judging style : Audience voting & panel of expert judges)

What is the 'Inclusive Design'? Design of mainstream products and/or services that are accessible to, and usable by, people with the widest range of abilities within the widest range of situations without the need for special adaptation or design. Seoul Design Olympiad 2009