Stby

Earlier this month, some of our team attended the "AI in the Street" event organised by Nesta. It was inspiring to learn more about how AI impacts urban environments and interacts with public spaces. Through observatories in cities like Cambridge, Coventry, and London, the project gathers insights on how AI, such as facial recognition and autonomous vehicles, often unnoticed, deeply affects urban life. This initiative fosters inclusive conversations around AI’s societal roles, highlighting the importance of responsible innovation in cities. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eevYZWCT #AI #UrbanEnvironments #PublicSpace #FacialRecognition #AutonomousVehicles #UrbanLiving

Stby has been involved in numerous projects aimed at exploring ways to uphold the principles of social, economic, and ecological sustainability, considering it a top priority in today’s societies and for many organizations. As part of our commitment to sustainability, we support the goals of The Green Web Foundation, an independent non-profit that monitors the amount of internet energy sourced from renewable sources. We have also ensured that our website runs on green energy. Check your website here: https://lnkd.in/d8zdCCJ

Have you ever wondered: is it “Steebee” or S-T-B-Y? Our name is Standby—but what’s the story behind it? 👉 https://lnkd.in/eiNn5fEe

As part of London Design Festival, and specifically Digital Design Weekend, our director Geke van Dijk will be part of a panel of speakers at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The session is titled ‘Recrafting the Internet’, and takes up the challenge to investigate how ecological and craft thinking provide an alternative vision for a healthier Internet. The session is organised by Justin Marshall and Jon Rogers from Northumbria University. Other speakers in the panel are Ame Elliott, Vladan Joler, Neha Singh and Andrew Prescott. So the discussion is sure to be lively, critical and engaging! Date and time: Saturday 21 September, 13.00-15.30. Tickets to attend the session in the V&A are free, and no registration is needed. The session will also be live-streamed, but please note: in order to get a link you have to register. See the link below. If you are coming to the V&A, make sure to also visit the other activities at the Learning Centre for Arts Education of the museum this weekend. Every year Digital Design Weekend celebrates contemporary digital art and design cultures by offering a unique opportunity for hands-on interaction with exciting creative practices. This edition of the festival again offers a host of creative workshops, interactive installations, talks, and demonstrations exploring themes at the intersection of art, design, and technology. And all events are free. https://lnkd.in/g9vaxicW

London Walking & Cycling conference Looking forward to presenting at this conference tomorrow. The day will be focused on discussing innovative ways in which cities can make walking, cycling and wheeling the default choice for active travel. The session that I will be part of is titled ‘Widening the conversation - Hearing what people really think about streets’. I’ll share some of the work we’ve been doing with residents and businesses in various areas of Amsterdam to discuss how their local space can be more enjoyable, safe and healthy. The conference takes place at a walking distance from my home. Making it super easy to ‘put my foot where my mouth is’. https://lnkd.in/e4VgaV65

🔎 We’ve been doing foundational research for over 20 years, to inform and inspire meaningful change, across 6 key themes. One of these is Sustainable Development. 🌏 With sustainability becoming a top priority for society and organisations alike, Stby has taken on many projects aimed at upholding social, economic, and ecological principles. Partnering with public institutions, non-profits, and universities, we've tackled challenges across areas like food sustainability, the circular economy, water management, and climate adaptation. Take, for example, the project we did with What Design Can Do and Circular Economy to develop the ‘Make it Circular’ Challenge. In it, designers, creators, entrepreneurs, innovators, artists and others are invited to respond with creative ideas that turn our world from linear to circular. The challenge encourages people to rethink what we eat, what we wear, what we buy, how we package and how we build. 💡 Interested in seeing more about what we do within Sustainable Development? Discover more about this project and explore additional examples of this theme by following the links below. 🔗 Sustainable Development https://lnkd.in/e7Mtc7fZ 🔗 Initiating a circular design movement https://lnkd.in/eXNRpwHP #DesignResearch #FoundationalResearch #DiscoveryResearch #ServiceDesign #Design #Innovation #SustainableDevelopment #Circularity #ClimateAdaption #FoodSustainability #CircularEconomy #WaterManagement

Last week, Stby attended yet another successful edition of the Designer x Civil servant event hosted by Social Design Showdown! This included a great programme of interesting presentations and the space to connect with fellow attendees and discuss how time pressure, power and language affects the space for collaboration. It is great to discuss and see how many opportunities there are for designers, civil servants and everyone in between to collaborate and create sustainable and impactful futures 🌱

Stby joined a group of professionals on a rooftop terrace in Amsterdam early in the morning for a breakfast network meeting organised by Amsterdam Weerproof (formally known as Rainproof), who are becoming more and more grounded in the organisation of the municipality of Amsterdam, as a part of the #ClimateAdaptationProgram. While discussing heat stress in our country, we were surprised by a rainbow after heavy rain and cold wind. The urgency of the topic was all around us in this way. The location of this meeting was very inspiring. This roof is not just a place for meetings. The initiators (ROEF Amsterdam) created a RooftopPARK. In this way, they want to show people what role roofs can play in greening cities. And above all, this can be done a lot faster. Next to great food and location, there was also food for thought... It is key in transformations to understanding peoples behaviour. It's more than urgency and intention, Reint Jan Renes 🌱 explained. What is the role of Design Research in all of this? We wrote this reflection https://lnkd.in/enz-Mfj7

Contestable AI In a workshop organised by ThingsCon in Amsterdam last week, Kars Alfrink introduced an interesting angle on developing and maintaining AI: making them ‘contestable’. This means building in contestability loops for people (both direct users/subjects or general audience) to scrutinise and contest AI systems. At various stages of the design and deployment of AI systems, it should be possible to review, debate and amend the policies they are based on, the monitoring they do, and the decisions they are making. This is specifically important for public use of AI systems. Kars has recently completed a PhD research around this at TU Delft, and was able to share the key principles of his work with us through a beautiful and very effective visual diagram. In the workshop at ThingsCon we then used this diagram to reflect on the options for contestability loops in a case study project that is currently in development by the City of Amsterdam, in partnership with the University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. This project revolves around a public and mobile AI system that supports the enforcement of permits through object recognition on street level. After the workshop, we continued with a ThingsCon Salon where Evelien Zengerink from the City of Amsterdam Computer Vision team told us a bit more about the background on this project. It was impressive to hear how they have involved a mixed panel of citizens throughout the design and development of the ‘scan bike’ to ensure that all perspectives, question marks and objections have been heard and seriously considered. Following up on Evelien, I was also invited as a speaker in the Salon and shared some of the learnings from the project for the Digital Alliance Netherlands on embedding AI-enabled support for people with low digital skills into websites from public service providers. For this group, who would find it very difficult to scrutinise and contest public AI systems, it is even more important that we carefully allow space in the development and maintenance process of these systems for their perspectives and considerations. Many thanks to Iskander Smit for organising the event!

🌍 Stby co-founded the Reach Network 15 years ago, to form a community of design and research agencies across the globe, with the mission of working on international design research projects for our clients. All local studies are firmly grounded while maintaining a global vision. We also co-produce publications and organise international events. 🇮🇳 One of our Reach partners is Quicksand Design Studio, a leading design research and innovation consultancy in India, recognised globally for our expertise in user-centred innovations for emerging markets. 🔮 Stby and Quicksand collaborated together on a project where we used Design Fiction to explored what the future of humanitarian work in India could look like in 2035, and how aid communities would come together to tackle these challenges. 💡 Interested in finding out more? Discover more about this project, Quicksand, and our Reach Network by following the links below. 🔗 Quicksand https://quicksand.co.in/ 🔗 Exploring future humanitarian work Design Fiction https://lnkd.in/eDA77G67 🔗 Reach https://lnkd.in/eYAPPJSm #DesignResearch #FoundationalResearch #DiscoveryResearch #ServiceDesign #Design #Innovation #InternationalDesignResearch #DesignFiction #SpeculativeDesign #Exhibition