As part of our Relationships Project, we’re collating a series of case studies from a range of sectors and contexts …
Case Study: Timpson
As part of our Relationships Project, we’re collating a series of case studies from a range of sectors and contexts …
Case Study: Appliances Online
As part of our Relationships Project, we’re collating a series of case studies from a range of sectors and contexts …
Feedback on Relationship-Centred Design Considerations: Round 1
Last month, we (the Relationships Project team) shared a first attempt at a set of relationship-centred design considerations with our …
Extending the Circle
Amongst the responses to the previous blog from the Relationships Project (Talking a little, learning a lot), which discussed ‘circles of …
Building the Ecosystem: an alternative to building the next new thing
Roles, collective assets and putting people at the heart of ecosystems. Blog from CEO Nick Stanhope.
Talking a little, learning a lot
As we have been shaping our ideas about relationship centred design we have been talking a little and learning a …
Immersive gaming to tackle anxiety
Commercial Director Duncan and Innovation Lead Manjul address Mindtech 2018 conference.
#61 THE MINDFUL DESIGNER
Our Innovation Director is showcased in Redjotter’s blog profiling leading designers.
Fusing game design with service design thinking
Get your new, free downloadable Game Service Journey map – perfect for anyone working in health tech, gaming, service design, UX, …
8 tips for someone new to innovation design
Bethan is a Project Coordinator who joined Shift this year. She has a background in the youth sector (previously working …
3 challenges to embedding a user-centred design approach
Last week I went along to #Design4Charities2018, an event hosted by Uscreates to explore the different ways charities and …
Changing Places Pilot Summary
Building a social enterprise to tackle childhood obesity Part 2: Validating the concept
Kids are becoming obese at earlier ages and staying obese for longer. We’re taking a design thinking approach to building …
Using design to solve the problems of rural isolation and loneliness amongst the elderly
Lead Researcher Immy Robinson features in radio series The Fix, in which “12 of the country’s brightest young minds gather to solve difficult social problems” – this episode: rural isolation and loneliness amongst the elderly.
Building a social enterprise to tackle childhood obesity: part 1 – The process to get to a valid concept
Kids are getting fatter. Generations are becoming obese at earlier ages and staying obese for longer. This is a …
(Re)Introducing the Shift US Team
Since 2011, Shift has had a presence in the United States and has been growing since then. Originally located in …
Shift’s first ever Annual Awards
Here at Shift we have developed a clear idea of how we want to act as an organisation, which we …
Designing for social isolation with BBC Radio Four’s ‘The Fix’
At the end of last week I headed west to the picturesque town of Tetbury, Gloucestershire, to record the first …
5 Principles of Continuously Improving Social Impact
Confidence, great data, living breathing plans, design skills and consensus. Blog from CEO Nick Stanhope.
Architecting Sustainable Futures: Exploring Funding Models in Community-Based Archives
Gaming to treat anxiety co-creation workshop: A debrief
On Tuesday 8th May, we hosted the second co-creation session of this Innovate UK funded project. The challenge was to: …
Scale with Care: 6 Ways Early Stage Social Innovation Gets Killed Off
Assumptions, failure, targets and flexibility in scaling social innovation projects. Blog from CEO Nick Stanhope.
Shift’s healthier fast food adventure
The story so far… Shift has been working to increase healthier food habits over the last six years. Here we …
Designing toolkits to help leaders run effective, engaging and consistent Guided Reflection with NCS
Over the course of 2017, we worked closely with the National Citizen Service to improve the consistency and effectiveness of …
Gamification to make story sharing impactful and fun
Our Senior Service designer explains how the Historypin team are injecting elements of gamification into their design process for their …
Design principles for Historypin’s Storybox
Bringing people together to share stories and experiences with one another has always been intended to be at the core …
Driving continuous improvement: lessons from funding social tech
There is one question that dominates our work at Shift and has done for the last 8 years: how do …
Guest blog from Hidden Women of Design
The Hidden Women of Design initiative showcases and supports women working in the field of Design. In July, they hosted …
How Museums and Institutions Can Use Remembering WWI, featuring the Columbus Museum
New designs on digital support for parents
NCT is nine months into a partnership with design charity Shift, to create a brand new digital service to help …
Not broccoli, not even chocolate covered broccoli, just chocolate.
Duncan Brown, co-founder of BfB Labs, explains the thinking behind developing our video game to improve young people’s mental health, …
Applying Shift’s design approach to The National Citizen Service
The National Citizen Service (NCS) runs a 2-4 week programme for 15 – 17 year olds during their school holidays, …
Stealthy Healthy Changes: Designing tweaks to fast food outlets to improve health and maintain profits
It’s a bit of a special week this week for the food team as our first intervention tests have gone …
How to co-create the future of storytelling
In an age of Brexit and Trump, bridging divided communities might seem like a far fetched dream. But at Historypin, …
The Wartime Films Project: Narrowing the Focus of our User-Centered Design Pilot
5 Lessons in Developing Social Tech Ventures
Digital technology plays a powerful role in the response to social problems. Its doesn’t provide the answers to everything and, by …
The Question That Tech-for-Good Funding Should Care Most About
Grant funding has a vital role to play in social technology innovation. It can support the higher costs and …
The Next Frontier for Social Impact Investment
Featured in the Huffington Post
Can Consumer Product Design Really Drive Systemic Social Change?
A recent Forbes piece by Ashoka’s Michael Zakaras takes product design to task as a source of transformational social change. To provide an antidote to the fashionable fascination with “things” as the answer to all our social ills, the article uses examples like Toms Shoes‘ one-for-one model and the distribution of mosquito nets as evidence that products normally fail to engage with the roots of complex social problems.
A brand new version of our digital inclusion product, Buttons
We’re really excited to be relaunching our digital inclusion product, Buttons, this week, which represents a big step in the …
Designing for behaviour change: Tip 6
The sixth in a series of seven guest blogs for the RSA aimed at student designers. This one’s about User Value, Social Value and Financial Value. Creative Director Tori Flower shares her insights into how to approach designing for behaviour change.
Designing for behaviour change: Tip 5
The sixth in a series of seven guest blogs for the RSA aimed at student designers. This one’s about testing, improving and iterating your solution. Creative Director Tori Flower shares her insights into how to approach designing for behaviour change.
Designing for behaviour change: Tip 4
The fifth in a series of seven guest blogs for the RSA aimed at student designers. This one’s about designing around behavioural insights. Creative Director Tori Flower shares her insights into how to approach designing for behaviour change.
Designing for behaviour change: Tip 3
The fourth in a series of seven guest blogs for the RSA aimed at student designers. This one’s about identifying the designing interventions that facilitate, not communicate. Creative Director Tori Flower shares her insights into how to approach designing for behaviour change.
Designing for behaviour change: Tip 2
The third in a series of seven guest blogs for the RSA aimed at student designers. This one’s about identifying the motivations and barriers to action. Creative Director Tori Flower shares her insights into how to approach designing for behaviour change.
Designing for behaviour change: Tip 1
The second in a series of seven guest blogs for the RSA aimed at student designers. This one’s about identifying the Outcome, Actor and Action. Creative Director Tori Flower shares her insights into how to approach designing for behaviour change.
Designing for behaviour change: 6 tips for students
The first in a series of seven guest blogs for the RSA aimed at student designers. Creative Director Tori Flower shares her insights into how to approach designing for behaviour change.