Our partnership with K Sharp has come a long way since a chance meeting in Llanelli. We’ve collaborated on several high-profile projects, we’ve joined forces to carry out top secret work for the MoD, and now we’ve taken our (business) relationship to the next level by moving in together.
But who exactly are K Sharp? And why are we so proud of our partnership?
Here’s why they’re kind of a big deal.
K Sharp is a Human Science Research and Human Factors consultancy founded by husband and wife team, Barry and Amanda Kirby.
They’re all about understanding and optimising the relationship and interaction between people and technology.
“We believe in bringing interesting people to work on fun projects,” says Barry.
They’ve got experience in everything from Blue Sky Research (which explores what soldiers will look like in the future) through to the design of next-generation systems (including how can we control an armoured vehicle or a submarine), and also lend a cultural and behavioural understanding of cyber and social media, smart cities and wearable technologies.
K Sharp works mostly in the defence industry, and their clients include Dstl, the MoD, BAE Systems, GD UK, and QinetiQ.
Sound cool? It really is.
Our first collaboration was the MoD’s UKDEf500 project. For Vindico, it’s been our first experience in the military domain, and for K Sharp it’s meant working with a similar mindset, but from dramatically different background.
Our collaborations don’t end there.
K Sharp continue to bring their expertise to a number of our projects.
They’ve most recently lent their expertise to our SWAPP app – our very own safe workplace application that’s proven so successful that we recently rolled out a bespoke version on behalf of the WRU.
So how exactly does Human Factors lend itself to design?
Well, we’re all about our #ThinkPurple mantra here at Vindico. It means asking better questions to deliver the best outcomes, and Human Factors (HF) provides a vital human focus that helps us do just that.
“It’s surprisingly easy to forget just who you’re designing your product or service for,” says Barry.
“But HF methods allow you to step back, gain a common understanding of the problem space, and develop measurable requirements that keep the project focused on providing the best output for the end user.”
And the benefits of HF don’t stop there.
Focusing on what’s really needed leads to cheaper product development, less rework and, and most importantly, greater customer satisfaction.
We continue to develop our partnership from our new joint home at Parc Y Scarlets , so expect to see even more collaborations led by HF methods over the coming months.
But for now, we’ll be adopting those same tools to optimise our office space.
You can find out more about K Sharp here.
