It’s no secret that our healthcare bill is increasing. Worldwide, healthcare spending is at a record high, and an expanding and aging population means this shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.

FMEAs (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) are a common tool used in industry by device manufacturers to help members of R&D think of risk mitigation strategies to embed within their process whilst they are in the product development stages. FMEAs traditionally focus on system/component failures that can affect the operation of a device whilst UFMEAs (User Failures Modes and Effects Analysis) are intended to help members of R&D to focus on use-related errors. The term ‘Use Error’ has recently been introduced to replace the commonly used terms ‘Human Error’ and ‘User Error’, after the need to change the term was prompted by a high number of manufacturers commonly attributing errors to the users as opposed to investing in fixing error-prone device design.

Congratulations go to Tokyo, 2015 winner of most liveable city as rated by Monocle magazine’s annual Quality of Life survey. Home to 38 million people, Tokyo is also the world’s largest urban area and qualifies for megacity status. Defined as a city with more than 10 million people, megacities are on the rise. According to the United Nations, there are currently 34 megacities in total, projected to increase to 41 by 2030.

In Human Factors the art of asking a good question that is non-leading yet to the point, simple yet scenario driven, open yet has boundaries to stop people going off on a tangent, whilst trying to get the user to answer as honestly as possible sounds like a breeze doesn’t it? Think again!

Last month, Walgreens, the largest U.S. pharmacy chain, launched its app for the Apple Watch. Walgreens’ is one of many apps designed to help address the costly and – in some cases – fatal issue of medication non adherence. Principally, the app is geared towards streamlining the process of refilling a prescription and also notifies patients to take their medications as prescribed.

Our expectations of the home as a place of work, rest and play have evolved as family dynamics shift, new needs arise and technology advances. In this series of blog posts, we are taking a deep dive into the home and discover the products at the forefront of innovation. In this second post we look at the garden.

As someone who loves a good mash-up, I was keen to see (feel, hear, smell and taste) how Kitchen Theory’s collaborative gastronomic project fused the fields of gastronomy; food science, food culture, food history, multisensory flavour perception, and neurogastronomy into its first Multi-Sensory Gastronomy Seminar and networking event. The event brought together people interested in synaesthesia (“union of the senses”–a condition in which two or more of the senses are involuntarily and automatically joined together) and crossmodal interactions (how the brain integrates information across the different sensory modalities).

This year the Product Design and Innovation Conference reached its fifth year. It provides a place for designers and manufacturers to meet and discuss innovation and the product design industry. This year there were talks from; Design Partners, TEAMS Design, Chauhan Studio, BAC Mono, McLaren Technology Centre, Lenovo, Bacardi Global Brands, Kinneir Dufort, Speedo Aqualab, Whipsaw Ltd. to name a few of the 33 companies that the speakers were representing.

A few weeks ago I posted a mash-of Larry Keeley’s Ten Types of Innovation and Alexander Osterwalder’s and Yves Pigneur’s Business Model Canvas (BMC).

Welcome to Extract, a series that explores different sectors and asks ‘what will they look like in the future? In this edition, we focus on Transport, where globalisation, urbanisation and demographics steer the way we’re going to be living our lives in the future. As megacities, populations and markets grow and change there has never before been such a strong consumer desire to travel. Holidays are the number one global luxury, with 75 million people taking globally outbound flights across the world in 2011.

Over the past few decades, Chinese consumers’ perception of international brands and products was that they were ‘the best quality and most reliable’. But, with home-grown brands providing more choice and improved reliability, western brands are losing market share as it’s become harder to win trust and revenue, even for well-established brands like Siemens.

After tracking sociocultural and technology trends influencing and shaping the kitchen landscape over the past 10 years, we wanted to share with you some key insights and opportunity areas that will impact food futures.

Not the most dignified choice of topics, admittedly, but this is something that has either fascinated or mentally scarred me. I am going to share with you my experience of the ‘futuristic public toilet’, or to be more technically correct an ‘automated toilet.’ It was situated on the South Island of New Zealand by the Fox Glaciers. I was on a guided tour and we had long bus journeys with regular stops at public toilets and more importantly somewhere to get our morning coffee!

During my internship with PDD, I participated in the LUMA Institute + PDD’s Human-Centred Design (HCD) for Innovation workshop that the PDD HCD team runs several times a year in London.

A few PDDers and I attended the Wearables 2015 conference in London, which was a great chance to see the latest trends in the wearable tech field. A range of exhibitors from startups to industry giants were displaying impressive devices such as Open Bionic’s 3D-printed Prosthetic Limbs and Samsung’s Oculus Rift-based VR headset.

Our friends at Intersection-inc. attended the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago, IL, and provided some insights into the hot topics and products from the show.

Are you happy? Although happiness is something we all strive for, achieving it is actually quite difficult. Could we use design to help make our lives happier?

Vassilios Kanellopoulos, Business Development Director, and Vicky Hong, Business Development Manager, talk to New Design about our growing presence in Asia.

As a resident physician, I know the challenges that hospitals face in providing good quality clinical care. Many of these challenges require more than just a better understanding of clinical knowledge; they require a deep analysis of the complex problems hospitals face, including a better understanding of the physical, cognitive and emotional needs of the different kinds of people who interact with each other in a highly stressful environment.

It turns out that 2015 is the year of the goat (sometimes also called ram or sheep) and in Chinese astrology, goat sign people (those born in: 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003 & 2015) are generally advised to “take special care about what they do.” Besides this ominous prediction, Chinese superstition has it that nine out of ten sheep/goats/rams will be unhappy in life. Consequently, according to some media reports, a few cautious Chinese expectant mothers are booking Caesarean sections to give birth before the 19th of February when the current year of the horse ends.