Filed under: Red Jotter Work, service design | Tags: co design, creativity, design method, idea production, inclusive design, rip and mix, students
Rip and Mix is a creative process. It is a tool that enables you to come up with lots of ideas very quickly. It is a very visual way of working and highlights that starting with user needs is not the only approach to innovation. The tricky bit is sketching ideas very quickly and intuitively.
This month I spent an afternoon running a workshop on Rip and Mix with design students at Glasgow Caledonian University. In the past I have used this method to design communication products and services for the elderly – ripping and mixing communication products used by a wide range of stakeholders with communication products specifically designed for the elderly. I have used this tool addressing the question “How can we reduce waiting times in NHS surgeries?” – ripping and mixing products and services focused on time and the passing of time with various health services and other services that require ‘waiting’ such as the theatre…
The students have been working on semiotics and affordance so for this workshop I decided to work around cash machines for the visually impaired – ripping and mixing all products designed for visually impaired people and all products and services around retrieving finance (ranging from physical money to intangible information )
This worked really well as it had a good balance of product / interactive / 3D elements – hence catering for all the disciplines who were there:
“For example, a drawing of a three-dimensional button on a computer screen leverages our knowledge of the physical characteristics of the buttons and, therefore, appears to afford pressing. The popular ‘desktop’ metaphor used by computer operating systems is based on this idea – images of common items like trash cans and folders leverage our knowledge of how those items function in the real world and thus, suggest their function in a software environment. Mimic familiar objects and environments in abstract contexts to imply the way in which new systems can be used.”
You can see photos of the workshops here.
One workshop was held in an bright, open plan room whereas in the other we were confined to room filled with computers. This had a huge impact on the energy of the group. I got asked questions about ‘stakeholders’ and what that really means. I also got asked to explain the meaning of ‘sensual and emotional form’ … this is something that I always use real life examples to explain.
This workshop was about quantity rather than quality and teaching the students how to ‘let go’ and not be so precious about their ideas. I will be uploading the main ideas generated soon so you will be able to see what elements the students ripped and mixed to come up with new solutions.
Here is some feedback from Dave Wood, a lecturer in Digital Design at Glasgow Caledonia University.
“Lauren’s (SNOOK’s) Rip and Mix workshop was just what my year 1 and 2 undergraduate design students needed. It enabled them to move out of their design comfort zones and propose, through sketching, twenty ideas each on a design problem. The technique utilises semiotics which really helped the students understand the importance of visual analysis. It was fun, energetic, engaging and above all useful. At a post-workshop de-brief the vast majority of students said they would use the technique in the future on a variety of design problems – product, interactive and 3D. Not one student reacted negatively to the technique – and those who were initially unsure began to see the relevance after the workshop. Overall it was a fantastic opportunity that I’d like to build into next year’s curriculum again.”
If you would like Snook to come and talk to your students or class mates about Rip and Mix then please do get in touch!
Filed under: design studies, design thinking, made me think, master of design, Red Jotter Work, service design | Tags: career, experience, networking, service design, share, social media, students, studiounbound
This week Studio Unbound traveled to Dundee to kick of our sixth session.
The show got off to a late start, but we were genuinely excited to be presenting to such a multitude of design disciplines. Sarah talked about networking, mindset and Mypolice...to name a few. I joined in via skype and focused on the difference between under grad and masters level and what my dissertation taught me.
We got a great reception, I was talking to the students on twitter and have captured their feedback and insights here. Sarah naturally focused on Service Design and Systems Thinking, we got a strong sense from the audience that these messages were suitable for all disciplines.
Sarah, being the lovely lass she is, went for coffee with some of the students afterwards and had great conversations about Service Design as a discipline and a process. It has become an attractive and adaptable process at The University of Dundee , the students recognise it helps their own disciplines move into Social Design and designing co-creatively with people. We left Dundee more determined than ever to make Making Service Sense a reality…the students want it and need it!
We have been totally humbled by the response from the students and it makes us happy to hear them describe Sarah’s blog and Redjotter as very accessible and their main source of learning about Service Design.
Many of the audience didn’t know where to start to start with twitter, but we think we convinced them showing real examples of how twitter has changed our life! There was a good proportion of students already part of twitter although they admitted they don’t use it or know what to say. The ones who did use it said it had made them feel more confident !
We have had some amazing feedback from designer Lorri Smyth about the effect Studio Unbound has had in the Textiles studio .
- There have been lots of people joining Twitter who hadn’t used it before. Those who are a bit scared are receiving encouragement from others who have joined or have their own blogs already.
- The other day some girls in my class set up a studio blog to discuss fundraising…we are working on other ways to use the blog ; to promote and network our year.
- Inspired by the idea of Mypolice I began to wonder how as class rep I could use social media to facilitate better communications between staff and students. I am thinking of lots of ways to engage the class through the blog by writing articles and voting on polls etc to produce some positive action out of all the moans I hear!
- Meanwhile we are working on our self motivated brief while the tutors are busy busy with the degree show. I proposed a series of peer led skills swap shops to extract and share the skills we have gathered as a class. People seem really up for it. I see the blog playing a part in this too.
You can follow their adventures here.
You can also read some brill feedback from Laura about her perspective as a jeweller on the session.
If you would like us to come and talk to your class or your students do get in touch !
Filed under: people I like, service design | Tags: jailbrake, service design, social innovation
“Hello,
We’re looking for service designers to join us for the Jailbrake weekend, 26th-28th March, at the Young Foundation in Bethnal Green, London.
Jailbrake is a competition to find and support great ideas that could break the cycle of youth offending using simple web and mobile tools.
From our call for ideas back in January and February, we’ve chosen six early-stage ideas we’re going to be helping to turn into real projects in just one weekend from 6.30pm, Friday 26th March to 4pm, Sunday 28th March.
So now we’re looking for people who want to join us for the weekend and help build them.
Are you a great software developer or designer? Do you have have service design, business, legal or other expertise that could be needed to get an idea off the ground?
Want to come and help build one of these ideas?
We’re looking for all sorts of talented people to get involved and come for the Jailbrake weekend: right through from people who have first hand experience of working with young people and the youth justice system, to those who can hack together some software and people who can work out how to sustain an idea in the long-run.
You can come along for all or part of the weekend and get involved in one particular idea or help out several different projects – just let us know when you’d like to come and how you can help by signing up here.
Here’s when and where:
6.30pm, Friday 26th March – 4pm, Sunday 28th March 2010
The Young Foundation
17-18 Victoria Park Square
Bethnal Green
London
E2 9PF
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, service design | Tags: aliss, future gov, service design, snook, supporting pipes
The Aliss Project team are inviting people with long term conditions, service designers, product designers, graphic designers, marketers, funding bodies and business advisors to come together for two days and help make these ideas real! You can see an overview of the ideas here. Are you a designer? Are you a ‘geek with heart’? Have you got a business brain?
This Thursday and Friday, Snook and Futuregov are running a two day ‘intense’ camp to build an engine which provides better information and support for people living with LTCs. It runs from 9-5pm on Thursday and 9-4pm on Friday ( If you require travel expenses, please keep your receipts. We will collect them on the day) By bringing together a range of talents, we hope to build an engine which uses the internet to improve information online and offline and new ideas for services.
“We are working with the Scottish Government to create a service that helps people with long term conditions find local support and services. This project is called ALISS ( Access to Local Information to Support Self Management ) and you can catch up on the rest of the team’s activities here. We are documenting our phase of the project at Supporting Pipes.
This project echoes our belief that, by empowering people to make informed decisions about how to manage their life with the necessary support, it can have very real and positive outcomes for all involved”
We’ve been working on the ALISS project for a wee while now, doing an initial phase of research and then three consecutive workshops in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth respectively. We’ve been blown away by the ideas generated in our workshops, and now hope to fully develop them into small prototypes and give them a glossy shine. With your help!
What happens next is where YOU come in!
There have been three workshops so far. The products from these three sessions will form the basis for our two days further development work in March, when we hope to create a blueprint for a ‘Supporting Pipes service’ together with practical things that improve information provision for people with long-term conditions.
Sign up here. It is set to be a brilliant couple of days and it is a great opportunity to put your talent, skills and knowledge to a worthwhile project.
Filed under: design thinking, made me think, people I like, reading and writing, service design | Tags: john seddon, public services, reading, service design, systems thinking
A little bird told me there has been a interesting follow up to John Seddon’s book ‘Systems Thining in the Public Sector’ which is being described as ‘proof of the pudding’
Delivering Public Services that Work is a book of Case Studies showing how Systems Thinking has been applied to a particular public service in six local authorities. Each case study – written by the manager or project leader responsible – describes what was done, how it was done and the results achieved.
‘Someone rang me just to thank me this morning. They didn’t want anything. They just wanted to thank me. I’ve worked here for 8 years and that’s never happened before. I was so surprised I didn’t know what to say.’ Team member, Stroud District Council, quoted in Delivering Public Services that Work
Seddon’s prescription then and now (for the UK and for any other country using the quasi free market model for public services) is this:
- scrap the myth of ‘choice’ (because the public don’t want a choice of hospitals, they want a good hospital)
- scrap targets (because they don’t work and people spend their time trying to massage the statistics)
- scrap specifications (because they’re wrong and they don’t work)
- scrap inspections (because they’re expensive to do and to prepare for and they only serve to ensure that people are doing the wrong thing correctly – meeting bad specifications)
- scrap ‘deliverology’ (because it’s nonsense)
- scrap the obsession with sharing administrative and back-office services in huge call centres and ‘data warehouses’ (because they don’t work half as well as front offices where people talk to the public)
- scrap the Audit Commission (because it’s a white elephant)
- scrap the centralised regime that oversees the disastrous public sector (because it is the problem)
Then use systems thinking to understand and fix problems and deliver joined-up public services that …
- work better
- work faster
- save money
- delight the public and
- delight the people who deliver those services.
This book offers practical examples of how ‘systems thinking’ can both save money and transform services.
“There is currently a lot of talk of ‘designing services around customers’, of ‘better community engagement’, and of ‘innovation in the front line’; all laudable ideas but with little more than hope that they will produce improvements in services. This book showcases exactly how to go about realising those hopes; it lays out clearly the method to be adopted and demonstrates the results that can be achieved. It should be the first thing anyone aspiring to improve our public services should read.”
Andy Nutter, Director of Governance and Transformation, Islington Council
