Cockton reaps NESTA Award to explain Interaction Design to Business

Gilbert Cockton, professor of Interactive Digital Media at the University of Sunderland, has been awarded a NESTA Fellowship of £75,000 over 27 months to take the message about interaction design into the wider world.

'Professor Cockton believes designers currently ignore factors which could create truly positive experiences for users. Instead they focus efforts on ensuring the software is usable and pleasant. The result – many products fall well short of what might have been possible. “The holy grail is to get users to feel it’s a gift, rather than a purchase,” he says. “To give them something which not only meets their needs but also offers something extra, something they weren’t expecting."' says the NESTA website.

NESTA money is given for individuals to develop and Cockton says that to develop the value-centred design he advocates '"into something credible, useful, well-grounded and widely disseminated and understood, I need to develop personally in a way that existing funding and employment wouldn’t have allowed. It had to be NESTA. Now I can plan what I want to do rather than salami slice my ambitions and bend them to the needs of several funders.”'

Cockton has been arguing to put 'user value' at the heart of the design process. 'Current design principles are mostly based on physical form, such as balance, contrast, economy, emphasis, proportion and unity. “This excludes the invisible and intangible products and services that drive success today,” he says. “Design must subordinate crafting of form to creation of value.”'

Cockton intends to develop an online community which can focus on this new value-centered approach to design. He will also create an interactive toolbox, sharing design briefs and approaches, and sharing design evaluations that demonstrate this achieved value as part of the award. He says the Fellowship gives him the ‘cachet’ to move beyond his specialist circle, to make new contacts and to understand how project sponsors and stakeholders express value and evaluate its achievement.

* Interestingly, this editor, Ann Light, has also just secured a NESTA award - under the rather more minor Crucible early career researcher scheme. So, user-centred design has arrived at NESTA. I hope these will be the first of many such awards in the area - get applying. NESTA details are below.

Associated Link: NESTA - Gilbert Cockton profile

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