Make Life Better. By Design

If you were blindfolded and not allowed to touch anything, would you be able to tell what building you were in?  Adding earplugs might be straying into uncomfortable territory, but you would still be left with your sense of smell. And smell, in relation to design and the part it can play in making life better, is the subject of this podcast.

Local authorities would appear to be well placed to make life better for citizens. However, their opportunities and constraints are often misunderstood by the public. In this episode I've invited someone with first-hand knowledge of local politics to talk to me about their aspirations and frustrations as a councillor trying to make life better for residents of the authority.

My guest for this episode believes that people are the important ingredient in successful enterprises. He also happens to be a chemistry graduate and vociferous advocate for making things i.e. manufacturing. Dean Morgan talks us through his road to believing that people and how you treat them is the key to making life better. His life in chemistry, manufacturing and rugby (yes, rugby!) is the stor...

Maps and diagrams: representations of reality that can make life better. Strangely, the greatest accuracy or truth to life does not necessarily make life better. In this episode we look at how our perception affects our interpretation of maps and diagrams using the iconic London Underground Map as an example. And you don't have to hold an Oyster card to get in.

The aim of many designers is to create timeless work.  Whilst aiming for a long design life is admirable, we shouldn't get hooked up on trying to avoid the time in which we live and work. This episode explains that good design can be timeless yet still reflect the times in which it is designed.   Indeed understanding and learning from the past is just as important as familiarity with new deve...

To talk of sustainability without a timeframe is meaningless. But nowadays things are labelled sustainable without any reference to duration. Sustainable forever applies to a very select catalogue. The best we can do is aim for as long a lifespan as possible. This must of corse vary depending on the subject. The key to long life is maintenance. Not sexy but capable of giving great satisfaction.

Knowledge, Learning and Better Choices was the title for this issue suggested by the AI elves.  Perhaps I should listen to then next time. Making life better by design is about making choices and taking decisions. The more you know about a subject, the better your choices should be. This episode looks in more depth at that premise and emphasises the benefits of involving both head and heart in the...

Avoiding being overwhelmed by the accumulation of stuff is the subject of this episode. From early suggestions to limit our possessions based on utility and beauty, to the beginnings of minimalism and ideas of doing more with less, the episode charts the swing from rampant consumerism to better understanding of our limited resources with concern for longevity and techniques to repair, reuse and re...

It's often the case that when we do something with the aim of making our life better, that the decision, the choice has unanticipated effects on others. How concerned should we be about this? Few people act from entirely selfish motives, but trying to tread the path to self-fulfillment without inadvertently straying onto someone else's patch can be tricky. However much we'd like to...

Humans are blessed with a range of senses plus the most powerful brain of any species. We make life better when our choices and decision making use both our brains (Head) and senses (Heart).   The smallest choices can make a big difference to the quality of life if both head and heart are employed together to best effect. 

Everything is designed. Better design makes life better for everyone. Everyone is a designer. But what does all that mean? This episode goes back to the basics of what the podcast is about, including a practical illustration of how we are all designers.

Having recently looked at how natural light can be considered as a design element, this episode moves on to investigate the almost endless possibilities of artificial light to make our lives better.

Doctors have been known to undertake drug trials on themselves before releasing them on the public. Many architects try out new ideas when building their own homes. In this podcast Kevin Drayton considers three such schemes, each with a very different character.

The late Sir Terence Conran could claim to have done more to bring good design to post-war Britain than any other individual. He was a genuine believer in the power of good design to make life better and never lost his zeal despite going on to father a vast business empire. He believed everyone had the right to good design and the pleasure and enjoyment it could bring. No design ascetic, he enjoye...

Light, natural and artificial, are essential tools in a designer's armoury. This podcast looks at natural light: how it illuminates buildings and the spaces within, and why orientation and the time of year can radically change it. A later episode will deal with natural light.

An interview with Rhona Warnock, veterinary surgeon specialising in rehabilitation and sports medicine who is also an accomplished mountaineer and martial arts instructor. We discuss her take on designing better lives for animals, but also those that look after them

There are lots of really useful sources of information that will tell you how to do something. In this episode I suggest that with the end goal firmly in mind, there may be different ways to achieve that goal. The resources you need may appear quite unexpectedly. Don't be dogmatic; stay flexible and you may still Make Life Better. By Design.

Most people acknowledge that there is a housing crisis in this country. There is less agreement on why and how it should be tackled. Kevin Drayton sets out some thoughts on a number of possible causes for this long standing problem.

How can we all be the same but different at once? Every coin has two sides and there are no guarantees in life - except death and taxes.  This episode looks at the paradoxes involved in trying to make life better and why there's no point worrying about getting things wrong.

What you have is up to you. But do you know where all of it is, and can you put your hand on it quickly when you need to? Everything needs a home, but what and where that home is can greatly help or hinder your day to day life. A quick reminder of the basics of storage.

Hearing loss continues to carry a whiff of stigma. People happy to wear glasses, get their teeth fixed and exercise regularly may still be reluctant to adopt hearing aids. But design came to the rescue some time ago. The dramatic take up of earbuds means that having something shoved in your lugs no longer shouts 'disabled'.  Design development has also moved hearing aids into the chic ac...

Before we can apply ourselves to making our lives better, we need to understand exactly what that means for us. It is likely that we'll need to look behind the simple response of 'more money' or something similar. Until we can be specific about what a better life will look, sound and taste like, it is unlikely we'll get far in reaching it.

Keen to get a graphic designer's take on if and how design can make life better, I set up an interview with Nathan Clegg, only to find that I must have made a schoolboy error setting up my mike. Unwilling to throw away Nathan's comments, I tried to salvage my part of the interview, with little success. Mea culpa.

Following on from Episode 11, this time taking a quick look at the development of writing, printing and electronic communication: how they relate to signage and how they all affect our quality of life.

Good signage is the perfect combination of form and function. Tracing the Roman origins of classic letterforms and why they continue to be relevant today.  First of a short series.