Sigma's Farewell to the Wellcome Genome Campus, January 2020
1. So long, and thanks for all the
fish flapjacks and field trips,
fika and feats
Sigma’s highlights as a BIC tenant
February 2017 - January 2020
2. That time we did
role play
We worked with Cognitive Behavioural
Therapy provider, Ieso Digital Health, to help
them improve patient registration and on-
boarding.
3. Why are you doing role play?
It helped us to write more effective,
human copy for the patient registration
process. It’s much easier to write like a
human when you have to talk to a
human*
*a human who is role playing an online
interface
4. Those (many) times
we walked and
talked…
It’s been amazing to have the great
outdoors at our toe-tips
5. That time* we went
to the pub
Sometimes those walks took us to the
Red Lion
* OK, it was more than once
6.
7. That time we went
on a field* trip
We worked with Juddmonte Farms and spent
time at their stud farm near Newmarket,
understanding what grooms actually do.
We spent time shadowing lab staff, to
understand their work and their environment,
and help design better data recording tools.
* to an actual field
8. Why are field trips important?
Field trips help us to understand the
context that people are working in, so
that we can design with that in mind.
9. That time we
designed and
printed a fireplace
Because it’s not Christmas if you can’t
warm your feet by the fire
And we were very proud of our Elizabeth’s
debut in the Christmas choir performance
10. That time we got
the fundamentals
right
We’ve been working with mental health
charity Mind for a while.
We helped them to make campaigns and
donations as good as they can be – so that
people who want to contribute to Mind’s
work see through their donation to the end.
No timeouts, strange error messages, or
unnecessary steps.
11.
12. That time we got new
whiteboards
And tested them with the team to make sure
we could all reach the top
13. That time we
hacked the hack…
We had a lot of fun working with Jo Mills and
the team to clarify the challenges ahead of the
Biodata Hack in 2019, and helped challenge
partners prep their pitches.
On the day, Francis gave hackers some top tips
before they got stuck into their chosen
challenge.
14. … and turned ourselves
into a deck of cards
We took design methods that we use in
our work and turned them into a deck of
cards so that hackers could apply to the
challenges in their teams.
It made it easier for us to help the teams,
on the day, in our role as mentors.
It was great to see people finding them so
useful!
15. That time we
followed the
instructions
Lego proved a useful team building
exercise
Though our interns got younger and
younger…
16.
17. That time we* had
our fifteen minutes
From our work with the BIC team on the
hack, one of us even made it onto the
screens on campus
*Lou got a bit of a shock, seeing herself
larger than life on screen at BIC reception
19. We still design services and digital products that help people live and work
better.
We have the same (Swedish) email addresses.
We’ll just be in Cambridge city, instead of on campus.
20. We’d love to stay in touch
Visit us in our new office on
East Road, or invite us back
for a fika
If you’re interested in talking about
how design thinking could help you,
just get in touch and arrange a
conversation.
francis.rowland@sigma.se
clare.reucroft@sigma.se