Bharat Lad

RCA Service Design and EY Seren have joined forces to examine how design works to create value in large organisations within regulated industries. We have been discussing with 20+ design leaders how design works today – and the direction they're setting for design to work in their organisations' future. https://lnkd.in/e-exwwQ5

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I'm looking for some advice please. We are looking at auto generating PDFs from HTML, can anyone advise on the best PDF libraries that can proceed fully tagged PDFs. Our research so far has lead us to this as a possible solution, which is irony inaccessible to me https://lnkd.in/er62aXkb #DigitalAccessibility #a11y #Accessibility #PDF #WebDev #AccessibilityMatters

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Case Study: Stagecoach East's EV Roll-Out in Cambridge 🌱 I'm happy to share the significant strides our client, Stagecoach East, has made in transforming Cambridge’s public transportation into a sustainable, electric network. 🔌 Project Overview: In support of Cambridge’s Net Zero Transportation Plan, Stagecoach East recently introduced 30 electric buses to Cambridge’s Park and Ride network with the help of Optibus' software. This initiative, part of our collaboration with Stagecoach since July 2022, addresses electrification challenges in historic cities with growing populations and ambitious environmental targets. 🌿 Results & Impact: 🔹Significant CO2 Reductions: Stagecoach East’s shift to an electric fleet is eliminating about 4,565 kg of CO2 emissions each work week, aligning with Cambridge's vision of a zero-emission future by 2050. 🔹Resource optimization: Vehicle capacity at Stagecoach’s depot dropped with the installation of EV chargers. Through optimization, Stagecoach East produced schedules that maintained service quality despite the availability of fewer buses. 🔹Aligning charging with service schedules: To ensure that the EVs are properly charged, Stagecoach East used Optibus to determine how to build blocks into the schedules to match charging times with the limited availability of on-site charging engineers. 💬 Client Testimonial: “Optibus certainly makes it easier, because you just set it up right and you get an answer,” said John Wicks, business support manager at Stagecoach East. Dive deeper into how Stagecoach East is helping Cambridge go electric in the full case study: https://hubs.ly/Q02vS1k30... #ElectricBuses #Electrification #PublicTransportation

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The ongoing discussion on the OBU is of great interest to me. As a design practitioner who has brought many products to market, this product is an excellent case study in #Design #Management, specifically on managing priorities. That said, I truly sympathise with the people in charge of this project. It cannot be easy working on such a high-profile project. Multiple decisions need to be made, likely through many levels of approvals. It is clear (from the media coverage) that the project managers and developers have considered many things. Some include (in no particular order): - The product has to work reliably - I put in the card and the correct amount of money is deducted at the right time. - The product has to work reliably in any environment - in a hot or cold car. - It has to communicate with legacy ERP and car park systems. - 3rd-party installers have to be trained to install such a product reliably. Many years ago my good friend Alain Dupuis and I worked on the first generation MRT gantries with LTA. Suffice to say the design specifications required by LTA are at the highest level. However, with this product rollout, I wonder where the designers and/or engineers were placed on this project, if any? Were they only working on specific areas or scopes such as UI, electrical and/or mechanical design? Was there a design manager looking at the product solution holistically? Most importantly was user experience a priority in the many decisions made on this project? It is likely that the design strategy around the OBU was purely from a product-dominant logic rather than service-dominant logic (S-D). In typical #service #design methodology, service-dominant logic considers design solutions as an exchange of value created through a more holistic, dynamic and systemic perspective. Kotler (1977) argues that a product's importance is not in its function but in obtaining the services they render. In Christensen's (2008) Jobs to be Done theory, people "hire" products and services to get their problems solved or their "jobs" done. Most people would argue that the OBU does not give value to users but it takes value through road usage taxes or by payment of car park fees. Indeed the OBU has this uphill challenge, so it is all the more important for a rethink of how this device can add value, and not dampen the already negative experience by not considering the usability of where the cardholder is placed. This is no different to when we ran a workshop with IRAS (Tax Office) to use #DesignThinking to lessen the pain of paying taxes. It is good to see that efforts are being made to resolve the issues and complaints people have about this system. However, a rethink in approach is required to avoid the expensive pain of future retrospective repairs.

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So many large consulting owned design agencies today are design in name only. Recognise these traits? - Less than 5% of a large programme budget assigned to design by sales folk - Primarily tech led sales conversations - Bodyshopping individual designers without any regard - Spend for R&D and collaboration cut whilst internal targets increased - Inconsistent rewarding and recognition between design and consulting skill sets - Reliance on historic project case studies and overhyped subpar current work - A revolving door of senior execs and design leaders who aren’t empowered to make impact It’s not conducive to great work for clients, or a great culture for designers. What did I miss? #design #designforimpact #agencies

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Design Transformation is a programme of change aiming to embed more user-centric thinking into the software design process. Yet, a culture of design thinking isn't easy to achieve. Read more... https://bit.ly/3SpkHpv #designtransformation #ux #b2b #enterprisesoftware #ux #ui

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3 Mistakes developers are making by not promoting their schemes, so that everyone is aware of what is ‘coming soon’ and generating a buzz about the development, enabling you to sell off-plan. The hoarding goes up, activity starts on-site, but the general public have no idea what it is going to look like! Developers are missing a trick regarding promoting their developments and selling the dream. Here are the 3 mistakes developers are making:- 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝟭 - 𝗡𝗼 𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. The site hoarding is the perfect blank canvas to showcase what is coming soon. Commuters, passers by and local residents are all eager to know how the development will look. Sure, they could find out on-line, but people are busy, make it easy for them. You never know, they may be your ideal customer. 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝟮 - 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝟮𝗗 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘀 & 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. This is an improvement on the first mistake, but only marginally. These 2D images look dull, uninspiring and have no personality. In addition, the general public struggle to read and fully understand plans and elevations. These images will not inspire potential customers to take the next step. 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝟯 - 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝟯𝗗 𝗜𝗺𝗮𝗴𝗲. We are moving in the right direction. These images will illustrate shape and space, maybe even a few materials. Giving the viewer a better understanding on the layout and form of a building. But this type of image, will not sell the dream! 𝗔 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝟯𝗗 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 will help showcase your development to the local community and chosen demographic. They will widen the marketing window for your development and form the jewel in your marketing crown. Enabling you to promote your development much sooner and ultimately sell off-plan.

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Are you looking for investors? At foundercentre we have a FREE interactive directory of over 240 UK INVESTORS! https://lnkd.in/ekYQBPZF Filter through which investor best suits your startup needs, and simply start sending applications out. Create a startup profile, and showcase it now! We use specific, targeted questions during the signup stage to ensure that all profiles contain the relevant information in a standardised format for Investors. No more sending back-and-forth emails. Simply copy and paste your unique URL- and Investors can see everything they need about your startup. At foundercentre we are the only FREE startup site to contain centralised directories for everything a UK startup needs. From Investors to Co-Working spaces, founders can now find everything they need, with the click of a button. Grow your startup now for free... #foundercentre #investors #startups #founder #startupspace #ideas

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I’ve heard AI described as ‘Corporate Ozempic’ a lot recently. One of the biggest talking AI points is how it’ll enable businesses ‘cut the fat’ and slim down their organisation. But I think those companies have the wrong idea. Because over the next few years, AI is going to... 👉 Dramatically reduce the barrier of entry to create great new products & services. 👉 Disrupt many established businesses who are too slow to find new ways to meet their customer’s needs using AI. 👉 Remove the limited throughput that many organisations struggle with today, allowing them to achieve much more, in much less time. AI has already started to tear down the moats that keep incumbent businesses safe from competition today. The only advantage that large orgs are going to have in this landscape is their scale. And yet many businesses are throwing that advantage away.

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↘︎ Decision leads to outputs that lead to outcomes. ↘︎ Mid-size agency from Birmingham asked us to evaluate the design delivery system across their existing accounts. You might think we have pulled up some magic matrix and spells to make their agency join the 21st century of fully automated small to mid-size agencies. ↘︎ We turn off Slack – yes, that would cut about 27% of their waste, but it will expose their business and strategy team to no or slowed coms. ↘︎ The biggest and only factor contributing to low productivity was meetings and a lack of a clear agenda for the objective or milestone. We change the "https://monday.com/" to "https://asana.com/" and bring the development team closer to strategy and design to integration. ↘︎ In 2 weeks, we have cut 47 hours of meetings, resulting in clear and direct (KPI-driven) communication over a Slack chatter. We standardised the backlog and help resourcing for another two projects. Reduces Excel planning into interactive dashboards (still capable of producing Excel – when needed). Making the team responsible for redistributed design delivery with full integration of the remote development team. ↘︎ Saving cca £250k of operation budget in the first month. #givetm #dailypost #ExO #Agile #scale #ExponentialOrganisations #offering #automation #service #product #design #development #integration Ready to elevate your design impact? Partner with GIVE™ – https://givetm.co/

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This demo from BeMyEyes is a wonderful really practical application of ChatGPT 4o ... whilst I remain concerned about the overall business model of OpenAI and the route to these capabilities is fraught with issues/ concerns we must also remain optimistic about how these tools can make a significant impact in peoples lives when focused on solving problems worth solving :-) #chatgpt #openai #gpt4o #accessibilitythroughai #ai https://lnkd.in/dueT4uGF

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Very interesting and pertinent reflection on the screen age and what's coming next. https://lnkd.in/evuxQgKm #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

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🗒 Into Design Systems Conference Takeaways: The Design System Stakeholder Toolkit By Marianne Ashton-Booth - Head of Design Systems, ITV ➡️ Stakeholder identification and motives: It is crucial for the success of a design system to identify key stakeholders and understand their motives. ➡️ Continuous buy-in effort: Building and maintaining a design system requires continuous effort and re-engagement with stakeholders due to changes in company direction and leadership. ➡️ Value demonstration: Using data and metrics to demonstrate the design system's value is essential for gaining and maintaining support. ➡️ Strategic thinking: Design system teams need to maintain strategic thinking to navigate factors outside their control. ➡️ Supportive environment: A supportive environment and proper frameworks are necessary for the design system to thrive. ➡️ Importance of visuals and data: Using visuals and data effectively can enhance communication and support from stakeholders. ➡️ Proactive risk management: Proactively managing risks and presenting solutions can strengthen executive support and resource allocation. ➡️ Engagement strategies for different stakeholders: Tailored engagement strategies are necessary for different stakeholder groups: ↳ Primary users: Regular engagement, detailed guidance, and encouragement to contribute. ↳ Product stakeholders: Clear communication, alignment with business goals, and active feedback. ↳ Secondary users: Explanation of relevance, practical examples, and encouragement of participation. ↳ Business stakeholders: Highlighting impact, focusing on metrics, and demonstrating strategic alignment. I also want to highlight that her presentation was a remarkable piece of work, featuring beautiful slides, harmonious colors, and expressive illustrations. I am truly happy to have experienced the live conference, and I highly encourage all design system enthusiasts to attend the next one live as well ✨ #uxdesign #designsystems #intodesignsystems #designsystem #uxconference

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🔍 Question: Take a minute to try this question as a refresher of your memory from digital design. The answer might be quite obvious 😄, but it’s always good to revisit the basics! Your comments are welcomed. #digitaldesign #register #digitalcircuits

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Went to a lovely design conference this weekend (First Round). Here's some takeaways: **Can’t find the answers if you can’t agree on the questions. **Moodboards are a helpful tool, but can be limiting. **A comprehensive strategy is important but so is a succinct version. **Copywriting is crucial to communicating the vision of early stage brand concepts. **Perspective is key and so much depends on our attitudes. Large studios often face similar challenges to smaller studios. Great running into old friends and making new ones! UnderConsideration, LLC #firstroundnyc

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Ive been saying this every since I first tried ChatGPT for the first time and saw the potential for how AI could empower teams to do great user experience design. AI for design will help us set good foundations, but the difference between good and great comes down to what humans are able offer that AI can’t - creative problem solving, empathy, intuition and contextual understanding amongst other things. To create experiences that are truly great, designers need to continue to excel at translating user and business needs into exceptional experiences that resonate with people both emotionally and culturally. My advice to designers - don’t be threatened by AI, but instead lean into closing the skills gap on what it takes to build experiences that go from good to great.

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Did you know? According to Beauhurst,1,546 AI companies in the UK have hit one or more of its high-growth signals. The UK AI market is booming, and there’s an opportunity for investors to tap into this goldmine. If you’d like to get involved with these disruptive AI-first companies and lead the future of tech innovation, register your interest in our forthcoming AI fund: https://hubs.li/Q02vQBk10 #EHEVentures #Investors #Entrepreneurs #AIInvesting #TechFunding

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One of the narratives coming out of this weeks UK General Election is a question around the 'first past the post' voting system, and the games of which seats to contest for the party; and if and how to tactical vote for the voter. A quick look at the numbers show that there is a significant variation in how many votes it took to secure each Member of Parliament. From 23,605 for Labour to 485,305 for Green and 820,745 for Reform. A 2011 referendum rejected a change in the voting system, but this came after the 2010 General Election in which the top 3 parties by seats secured 88.1% of the vote. This week the top 3 parties by seats secured just 69.7% of the votes - 7 parties would need to reach 90.1% of the vote share. Rory Stewart discussed the need for innovation in our electoral system on election night. Will these numbers change the narrative on that subject? Worth a look through https://lnkd.in/eeieAfC3 who are campaigning on this. Source: https://lnkd.in/eqNHD4Zi

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