Gulay Ozkan received the award from DMI Chairman Kevin Bethune and DMI President Carole Bilson, September 18, 2019, Boston
Global design consultancy GEDS wins at the Design Management Institute’s 2019 Design Value Awards for its work with MATUROLIFE.
Boston, Sep. 18 – GEDS has won second place at the Design Management Institute’s 2019 Design Value Awards with its innovative design management perspective in MATUROLIFE, a user-driven innovation project designed to help make independent urban living easier for older people.
Led by Coventry University and commissioned to 20 organizations including GEDS from 9 EU countries by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research program, MATUROLIFE has developed assistive technology ‘smart’ textiles designed to support independence and improved quality of life for older people. GEDS is the lead design company of MATUROLIFE.
The suite of connected products use advanced material innovations, such as electrochemistry and nanotechnology, and include smart footwear that improves supports balance and reduces the risk of fallings, clothing that helps regulate body temperature and encourages hydration, and smart furniture that enables supports sit-stand movement.
Led by founder Gulay Ozkan, GEDS were awarded for their design management of the large scale, highly-complex technology project, using design management methodology as a strategic tool to scale design and align 20 diverse patners across nine countries around user needs, desires and expectations with a common design language.
GEDS prioritized creating an organizational culture connected to older people’s stories, deemphasizing the role of individual designers and instead of using collaboration and consensus decision-making by multidisciplinary partners including 131 older people who were engaged as co-designers.
MATUROLIFE’s principal investigator, Professor Andrew Cobley of Coventry University, summarized the impact of GEDS’s work. “The project’s success is built on multi-disciplinary expertise in chemistry, creative design, materials science, electronic engineering, and textile manufacturing. Leading such a talented team is exciting but barriers can arise when trying to get people from such diverse backgrounds talking, interacting and collaborating with one another. GEDS’ design management has helped us tear down those barriers and align around older people’s stories. Their leadership and approach in design management can be a successful case study for both European Union research projects as well as the greater technology community.”
“We would like to thank our 19 business partners, the consortium lead Coventry University and European Commission for their support, trust, and vision. Our next step is applying our design management experience acquired over the past 12 years to any context where human stories need to be prioritized. It is a powerful and efficient approach to prioritize human needs over technology, specifically for global brands with multiple stakeholders in multiple countries,” added Ozkan.
About GEDS:
GEDS, an Istanbul-based design consultancy with a strong focus on design research, is the lead design company in MATUROLIFE.
GEDS twitter handle is @GEDStweet. Project twitter handle is @maturolife.
The event pictures are here.
Contact: ceooffice@geds.com.tr
About DMI:
The Design Management Institute is an international organization that connects, promotes, and elevates design and innovation to business, society, and the changing world. For 45 years, DMI has been an active advocate for the strategic value of design. The Design Value Awards honor teams that have worked across boundaries to deliver significant value through design or design management practices.
DMI Design Value Awards have previously received by Volvo, Philips, BCG Digital Ventures, Adobe, American Express, Deutsche Telecom, British Telecom, Autodesk and the US Government.
This year’s winner list is here.
DMI DVA 2019 press kit is here.
Contact: polshan@dmi.org
