Why User Research Should Come Before Ideation in Design Thinking
What happens when we stop designing activities for seniors and start designing meaningful roles with them? Open Village shows how user research helped reframe an underused nursing home garden into an ecosystem of contribution, purpose and community participation.
Sensory Trails in Schools: Designing Movement Breaks for Different Sensory Needs
How can an ordinary school corridor support students with different sensory needs? We look at how sensory trails can provide proprioceptive, vestibular and movement experiences while giving schools a low-maintenance, space-efficient way to support inclusive participation.
Design Thinking in Healthcare: From Patient Insights to a 24/7 Play Solution
What happens when children face long waits or hospital stays with limited access to play? By listening to patients and parents, we reframed the challenge and created a 24/7 vending solution for safe, individual toys and parent-child activity kits.
Design Thinking for Anti-Shop Theft: How College & University Students Designed Impactful Campaigns
How can Design Thinking make an anti-shop theft poster more impactful?In this SPF and NCPC project for college and university students, we started with real experiences and emotions before moving into core messages, visual metaphors and our See, Think, Feel, Do framework. The result was a design process rooted in human insight, not just aesthetics.
Mama Beezy Wrap: A Two-Way Learning Journey in Senior Empowerment
Meet Mdm Henrietta, the senior maker behind Mama Beezy Wrap. Her handmade beeswax wraps reflect skill, sustainability and purposeful ageing, with workshops, gifts and custom sizes available.
Open Village: A Community Model for Purposeful Ageing and Intergenerational Engagement
In many nursing homes, seniors are well cared for, but daily life can still become passive. Open Village was created to change that. It is a community-based model that helps seniors take on meaningful mini jobs with progression, while opening the nursing home to schools, volunteers, families, and partners through purposeful community engagement.
2025 Highlights: Launching Qi Qi Boom, Growing CSR Impact, and Designing What Lasts Next
Launched in Feb 2025, our flagship Qi Qi Boom (QQB) has reached 1,000+ people across communities and was showcased at raiSE’s 10th Anniversary. Here’s our 2025 impact and what’s next.
From Museum Halls to Community Spaces
A behind-the-scenes look at how museum education shaped our empathy-led, research-rooted approach to designing community programmes.
Three Defining Moments That Keep Me Going as a Social Entrepreneur in Singapore
A mentor asked for three moments that would keep me going. From disability advocacy to dementia-friendly design, these experiences shaped The Little Changemakers.
How I Win Grants and When to Grow into a Business
Win grants with a 3-sentence pitch, pilot with mini-grants, then scale wider or deeper. Use grants to test and to grow into a business.