First peer-learning workshop of the project ‘Design Impact Observatory’ (DesImO)

The 1st peer-learning workshop of the project ‘Design Impact Observatory’ (DesImO) was held online on May 11th and 12th  2021


The project team members of 4 organisations (KEPA – Greece, Design Society Fond – Denmark, Cardiff Metropolitan University – United Kingdom, Estonian Design Centre – Estonia) work together to assess good practices related to methods, indicators and data collection procedures of monitoring Design’s effects on business and to draft a framework of guidelines and tools for measuring Design and its impact on SMEs.


Photo: 1st peer-learning workshop of the project ‘Design Impact Observatory’ 


Following the desk research conducted by all the organisations participating in the project, during the workshop, selected good practices on how to monitor Design were presented (purpose and basic facts, time, applied techniques, good outcomes and attention points) and peer-reviewed in relation to methods used and relevant content.

Then, having identified the specific learnings to bring forward, the participants moved on to drafting a methodological framework of monitoring Design both for surveying the current situation in industry as well as for assessing the impact of a certain scheme or grant. The proposed process will be described in a useful Guide, which will also include Design impact indicators, tools for gathering the necessary data with categorized questions, criteria for selecting the sample of each survey, and some advice / things to consider when running such kind of a process.

The next stage of the project’s implementation will be the pilot testing of the basic research tool (questionnaire) that will be developed, to SMEs in the partner countries.