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Every project supported by Gebert Rüf Stiftung is made accessible with a web presentation that informs about the core data of the project. With this public presentation, the foundation publishes the funding results achieved and contributes to the communication of science to society.
Enabled by Design
Editorial
The project management is responsible for the content of the information provided.
Cooperation
This project, funded by Gebert Rüf Stiftung, is supported by the following project partners: Enable program, an acceleration program of the Technology Transfer Office of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL); Ecole Cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL)
Project data
- Project no: GRS-011/18
- Amount of funding: CHF 247'000
- Approved: 29.10.2018
- Duration: 03.2019 - 04.2021
- Area of activity: DesignPlus, 2013 - 2018
Project management
- PhD André Catana
- Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
- EPFL-Startup Unit
- EPFL Innovation Park J
- 1015 Lausanne (Schweiz)
- andre.catana@epfl.ch
Project description
Design, with its contextual and user considerations, adds value to early stage technologies that wish to transition from labs to the lives of people. It helps the new and possibly complex become understandable and adoptable. It acts as a unique differentiator for accelerating the move of promising technologies towards the market.
While past projects demonstrated the need for a deeper collaboration between design and technology, they also underlined the challenges in creating the best connections, setting expectations and understanding working methods between engineers and designers.
'Enabled by design' responds to that gap by building a platform to increase awareness and defining tools that will drive collaboration.
While past projects demonstrated the need for a deeper collaboration between design and technology, they also underlined the challenges in creating the best connections, setting expectations and understanding working methods between engineers and designers.
'Enabled by design' responds to that gap by building a platform to increase awareness and defining tools that will drive collaboration.
What is special about the project?
Enabled by Design is to develop and sustain the integration of design expertise within the core of a startup acceleration program, of which no parallels exist today. The Enabled by Design platform is a new tool to bridge designers and technologists upstream in the startup journey, providing valuable means to accelerate customer discovery and validation.
Status/Results
The project raised a great traction at EPFL, ECAL, the start-up and designer communities of the ecosystem. The platform Enabled-by-Design has been launched in May 2020 and shows open design jobs, a selection of designers from various fields of expertise and a toolkit to facilitate collaboration between designers and technologists. The result of the various collaborations is highlighted on the showcase page. It illustrates the real value that design brings to start-ups, from helping entrepreneurs explore their market and understand their customer needs, to transforming the lab-made prototype into a minimum viable product, all the way to preparing for commercialization.
Media
Supporting entrepreneurs from lab to market, startupticker.ch, 6.9.2019
Start-ups: how to build a good prototype, Technologist, 2.1.2019
Projects enabled by Design on Medium
Start-ups: how to build a good prototype, Technologist, 2.1.2019
Projects enabled by Design on Medium
Links
Platform Enabled by Design
enable at a glance
Enabled by Design on Medium
Impact Clip: Ebable by Design
enable at a glance
Enabled by Design on Medium
Impact Clip: Ebable by Design
Persons involved in the project
André Catana, project manager
Prof. Luc Bergeron and Daphna Glaubert, ECAL
Isabel Casado and Sumegha Mantri, EPFL
Nathalie Nyffeler, HES-SO
Prof. Luc Bergeron and Daphna Glaubert, ECAL
Isabel Casado and Sumegha Mantri, EPFL
Nathalie Nyffeler, HES-SO
Last update to this project presentation 18.05.2021