During the international Cumulus conference 2012 in Helsinki, Bas Raijmakers (DAE) and Evelien van de Garde - Perik (TUe) presented a paper titled 'New Roles For Design, New Roles for Designers?'. The paper was writen with Mike Thompson, Research Associate on the GRIP project.
The abstract of the paper is below, and the full text is attached:
Designers are creating new roles for themselves, in response to new questions society and industry are facing. The development of innovative services is at the core of these questions, and design thinking is often the method used to co-create answers. This explorative paper reflects on experiences of design researchers with such work and discusses implications for both design education and creative industries, in particular regarding facilitation and empathy as key skills in the design of innovative services.