Talking Points: Gender-biased design, secrets to a successful city and design rights in the light of Brexit

Each fortnight we round up some of the latest news, research, and policies that are shaping our thinking right now. These are things that have led to an interesting conversation at Design Council HQ. Feel free to add to the conversation in the comments below.   

"Pink it and shrink it"

We already know that gender imbalance is a significant problem in some design sectors (particularly in areas like product design). This interesting blog from America suggests that we’re also designing things badly for women. Perhaps the two are linked?

And speaking of designing things badly, Citizen’s Advice have published research which aims to measure the cost of ‘consumer problems’. £22.9bn, apparently. That’s £446 per adult that could be saved by better design…

Who’s stealing designers’ IP?

How much intellectual property crime is there in the UK? The IPO have published their yearly report which aims to find out. They lean on Design Council’s Design Economy stats (unfortunately uncited) but still the final answer is... no one really knows. Meanwhile, two new campaigns to safeguard design rights in light of Brexit have been launched. Sign up here and here.

Investing in cities

In the built environment, a new report suggests that in an age of austerity, local councils are becoming sophisticated financial investors in property, and they’re doing it for public good.

The same think tank has a great piece this week by local government CEO (and design wizard) Barry Quirk on ‘the four things that make a city successful’.   

Other interesting things we’ve read this week:

• The long-awaiting REACT report was published, which looks at the collaboration between universities and the creative sector
• The Government Digital Service (the guys behind Gov.uk) got a bigger and broader remit as a cross-government transformation service. “Take your headphones off and listen”, is the lesson from the American version.
• The RSA published their interim report of their Inclusive Growth Commission
• The International Property Measurement Standards for residential buildings were published
• This Innovate UK blog about innovation in business models
• This new report on an old idea: better integrating local public services
• The NHS Innovation Expo took place, and the Kings Fund published a report on digitising the NHS