The Institute of Design is a college within the Faculty of Science and Technology at Umea University in Sweden. It was ranked as one of the top 60 design schools in the world by Business Week Magazine. The school offers a full design programme from Bachelor to Phd. The Institute’s speciality is a focus on ‘research based design’ as opposed to ‘design focussed research’. The Institute’s projects focus on employing new and interactive media to solve problems of accessibility in the public service and infrastructure.
The two projects listed on the Institute include; the ‘Audio Index’ system and the Inclusive Train Information Terminal. The ‘AudioIndex’ is-a system that allows visually impaired library patrons and librarians to navigate the audio book shelves of a library. Touching the spine of a book provides audio feedback – a project supported by the European Union and is run by public libraries in the Umea region. The Inclusive Train Information Terminal is an accesible information kiosk – the completed and tested design will be rolled out to all Swedish railway stations in 2010.
Malin Grummas a student in the MA program for Advanced Product Design at the Institute was awarded gold at the International Design Excellence Awards for her ‘Clean Air System’ – an intelligent light weight intelligent air filter system for use by firefighters or other professionals working in a a compromised environment.