The City of Saint-Etienne has a very dense fabric of associations in different fields: culture, sport, popular education, health, the environment..... these associations are the expression of a founding empathy of social ties, and provide solutions for crucial problems. It is therefore very important to analyse this commitment towards others, more often than not expressed by volunteers. This is what the « Printemps des Associations » (Springtime of associations) proposes in the form of a round-table with the participation of the psychologist, Jacques Lecomte.

(free entry, with registration)

What if our political and administrative elites thought like designers ?
For design in public policy not to be just a passing mode, we need to decide what professionals we require for tomorrow. The aim of this workshop is to initiate a multi-disciplinary reflection (design, sociology, ethnology, and social innovation) on initial and professional training for the public designers of tomorrow, and for their sponsors, in order to produce a form of roadmap for the years to come.

(by invitation)
Contacts, invitations : infos@la27eregion.fr

What are the solutions to be proposed for the new issues concerning housing ?
This is the central theme of the workshop organized by the PUCA (Urban construction and architecture plan). At the heart of the debate will be six experimental projects launched with the view of testing innovative solutions for a renewed conception of housing. Associating programmers, architects and designers these on-going operations are already providing important lessons to be taken into account. New methods of co-programming with original tools are being put into place.

Workshop open to professionals, free entry with registration
Programme and registration : www.design-puca.fr

"Human-centered experiences: new solutions for innovation", new opportunities for corporate innovation in human-centered service experiences. Xavier Blanc Baudriller and Shelley Evenson (Fjord France)


The objective of this workshop is to help you a fresh look on innovation through experiencing human-centered design rather than technology-centered design. Through the concrete example of a service experience that is familiar to you, we will be showing you how to take a critical view of such experience. We will also be showing you how to develop empathy toward the actors of such experience, make a transition from this preliminary research work to the more concrete step of design per se, assess your ideas in the very first stages of the process, and efficiently communicate such ideas with an iterative, incremental, efficient and fast approach. The workshop is for anyone interested in innovating, designing or improving service or product user experience.

(Open to the professionals - paying - on registration)

Bring developments to your jobs! Design helps reconcile the traditional disciplines of the corporate world in order to create a new form of marketing, empathy marketing. Christophe Rebours, Pascal Pompéi of Warrens and Samuel Grange (In Process)

The workshop will show you how to reconcile varied disciplines: marketing, anthropology, research, engineering, etc. Three InProcess designers, ergonomists and anthropologists will be conducting the workshop. Each participant will adopt various standpoints in order to have transversal and productive views upon their users. Several teams from mock departments including marketing, study, R&D and engineering will refocus their future around the user's needs. The workshop will take into consideration the practical case of home-related issues. The participants will study the five steps of successful innovation, from refining the relevant issue to shaping the innovation.

(Open to the professionals - paying - on registration)

"Co creation canvas", a method based on the use of narrative modalities, Alok Nandi

The workshop is an opportunity to incorporate design into the development of services, products, and organizations, taking into account multiple and sometimes contradictory interests. Divided into several groups, the participants will have the opportunity to explore co-creation methods, focusing on narrative modalities. Prototypes and scenarios will be created in an iterative, interactive way.
The workshop is for any manager and/or entrepreneur who wishes to develop new methods to design innovative {services / products / systems}.

(Open to the professionals - paying - on registration)

"The transition from economy of ownership to economy of usage", A cartography of user experience

In this workshop, all participants (companies, agencies, people interested in economy of usage and collaborative consumption) will be invited to study the potential of products-services-systems-experiences through a series of concrete cases. Based on a cartography of issues, the teams of participants will be developing scenarios of economy of usage by identifying user transactions through the various contact points of a given service. They will also be visualizing the processes of services and related stakes and opportunities. This workshop, both playful and useful, will be an opportunity to illustrate what design methodologies bring when creating services.

(Open to the professionals - paying - on registration)

14 MARCH Conference workshop
15 MARCH Creative workshop

Usage and non-usage of communicating objects in the context of homecare services

Deploying techniques is a widespread and relevant answer to homecare services for the elderly. In this context, how can the place and status of the user be considered? How can the human/machine confrontation be addressed, for what kind of usage, and with what degree of freedom for the user?

The Cité du design (Research Department) the Saint-Étienne École nationale supérieure des mines, the Saint-Étienne École Télécom and Jean Monnet University are conducting a research project on the usage and non-usage of communicating objects in the context of homecare services (called UNUOC). The double workshop, offered in the context of the Design & Innovation Forum (the conference workshop held on 14 March followed by the creative workshop held on 15 March) is the opportunity to look behind the scenes of research, to get a real insight of what is essentially at stake in research by attending a conference workshop featuring gerontology specialists, and to experiment an original co-creation methodology: the methodology of translation.

(Open to the professionals - paying - on registration)

"Service design as the short cycle of innovation", a co-creation and empathy experience through discovering and implementing the key principles of service design, Matthew Marino and Thierry Curiale (User Studio)

Any organization has to deal with the strategic issue of brightening the everyday life of its audience by offering services that are more desirable. Service design offers an approach of conception adapted to the twenty-first century.

The workshop is an opportunity to discover service design and experience collaborative conception in a practical way. The participants study an authentic case to become familiar with the tools of service design, such as user transactions, an ideal opportunity to perceive things from the standpoint of users to whom the project is addressed.

This proven vocational training was designed specifically for the directors, managers and representatives of companies and communities with no experience in the field of design. It is the fruit of several years of discussions with industrial brands including Renault, Orange, and EDF.

(Open to the professionals - paying - on registration)