The idea
Adaptation + Modern Design = Enabled by Design
A one stop portal website, that provides a comprehensive service for customers looking to buy design solutions (living aids) to make their daily tasks more manageable. This website would provide a useful resource for anyone looking to make adjustments to their lives, be it as a result of disability, injury or impairment.
The concept is that through clever modern design, solutions can be found to overcome most challenges. The website will focus on practical yet stylish design solutions for everyday life, with added features including professional advice, reviews, discussion forum and ebay-style auction area for members to sell second-hand equipment.
What social need does it address?
The potential client base for this service is huge. Not only will it provide a much needed service for the UK’s disabled population (18.2% or around 10 million people for England and Wales alone – according to the 2001 census), but also for a constantly varying range of people with injuries/impairments.
Now that the government has announced a move towards user-driven social care, there is an even greater demand for a website like Enabled by Design. People with personalised budgets will be looking for an accessible website service that provides information on a comprehensive range of design solutions (living aids and adaptations), with the offer of professional OT advice, customer reviews and the opportunity to buy, all in the same place. The website will benefit customers from this specific group, as well as anyone who has identified a need for additional support.
The website will be developed with a view to being fully accessible from its launch, hence meeting all customer needs from the outset.
What’s new about it?
Having carried out some research on the web, I am yet to find a centralised shopping portal website that provides support for people seeking to spend their personalised social care budgets. This website will have the primary function to help these people, as well as anyone else interested in making their lives easier through the use of gadgets and useful design. A secondary, although still very important, feature of this website will be its focus on design solutions that are practical yet aesthetically pleasing. I feel that the public, especially young people, would be much less resistant to using adaptations in their day to day lives, if these were stylish and modern in design.
Idea submitted by Denise Stephens
March 17th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
[...] Enabled by Design [...]
March 19th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Although it no longer appears to be update, Future Proof Home has some similar objectives. It was created by Alison Pearce.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:50 am
[...] met up with Denise Stephens last week to talk some more about her Enabled by Design idea. There’s so much potential with this one to go in all sorts of different directions; one of [...]
April 6th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
[...] proyectos Enabled by design y Prison visits resultaron ganadores de la competencia Social Innovation Camp, cuya fase final se [...]
April 6th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
[...] to that stage in the short space of time available. The two ideas that did ‘win’ were Enabled by Design and Prison Visits (now renamed to Rate My Prison). Both ideas were technically simple and had [...]
April 7th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
[...] some deliberation, they awarded £2,000 to Enabled by Design as the winners and £1,000 to the runners up, Prison Visits. (We’ll post a bit more on the [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Congraulations. Innovation Exchange aims to bring innovators together with social investors and those who commission public services. On 30th April, we are staging Festival of Ideas: Innovation for independent living.
For a chance to take part – and I think it might be really helpful judging by where you’ve got to – go to http://www.innovation-exchange.org/festivals-of-ideas
April 11th, 2008 at 9:40 am
[...] Enabled by Design – product advice and support for disabilities [...]
April 14th, 2008 at 11:06 am
[...] a short deliberation, Rate Your Prison was selected as the runner-up and Enabled by Design as the [...]
April 16th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
[...] to that stage in the short space of time available. The two ideas that did ‘win’ were Enabled by Design and Prison Visits (now renamed to Rate My Prison). Both ideas were technically simple and had [...]
August 1st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
[...] It was, by all accounts, a sweat-filled, crazed race to the finish line. In the end, the winner walked away with a small pot of prize money but, of course, that wasn’t really the [...]
September 4th, 2008 at 10:48 am
[...] Enabled by Design – product advice and support for disabilities [...]
November 16th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
[...] clever modern design. They started life just seven months ago when their co-founder Denise Stephens submitted an idea to Social Innovation Camp. We helped her prove just how much potential Enabled by Design had and [...]
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
[...] being a good few hours of chat. Are we dedicated or are we dedicated? Denise’s idea won the Social Innovation Camp award at the beginning of the year, and ever since her website has been going from strength to [...]
January 20th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
[...] Last month saw the second outing of the high octane, jam packed weekend that is Social Innovation Camp. Having caught the bug back in April 2008, I couldn’t resist going along to see it all kick off on the Friday night. It was great to see so many familiar faces, as well as eager first timers, all chomping at the bit to get going. It definitely took me back to the first time I ever stepped foot in the Young Foundation, feeling excited and nervous, wondering what would people think of my idea… [...]
June 16th, 2010 at 11:10 am
[...] believe that it’s been two years since Enabled by Design’s founder Denise Stephens, entered her back-of-the-envelope idea into our first ever Social Innovation Camp in April [...]