Filed under: made me think, people I like, service design | Tags: conference, fergus bisset, forum, joel bailey, service design network
At this very moment Service Designers from all over the world are voting, debating and discussing. Joel Bailey has set up a forum to capture the online conversation about next years Service Design Network Conference.
The location of the event, accessibility and content are the main thread of chatter. The way our online community lives and breathes is something that has been on my mind alot lately. Particularly, as it was one of the main influences of MakingServiceSense and the reality that things are changing, the landscape is shifting at such a dramatic pace.
Here is a snapshot of a very insightful chat Fergus Bisset and I had about this very topic…
“What of that value our networks provide? Beyond the obvious pleasure that sharing links, drinks and thoughts provide, or the joys of discoursing with like minded individuals? How are we formalising the value that each of us takes away from these interactions? How is it guiding our autonomous activities, how is it intertwining itself with our ‘personal’ thoughts, dreams and ambitions? As Shirky, Leadbetter and many others have highlighted, social connectivity can be such a powerful driver and influencer how can we be sure we’re heading in the right direction?”
I think this is brilliant and a definite leap in the right direction. Hopefully, the network is listening to this conversation – the overriding message to you is ‘practice what you preach’…
Filed under: design thinking, made me think, people I like, service design
“Journalists, politicians, academics, police and parents all have a point of view on what the ‘kids of today’ are like.
But has anyone ever asked the young people themselves, and not just in a focus group in Edmonton, but in an open and transparent way and on a national scale? And has anyone done anything smart, cool or fun with that data, that might, just might, make the truth about young people be heard?
These questions were the starting point for Voicebox; a project which aims to curate the views of 16-25s, visualise the results in creative ways, and then set that data free. Over the coming months, we’re going to try to find out how young people spend their time, what they care about, how many carry knives, what they really think about the area they live in and much more.
The more people take part, the more detailed picture we get. Each month, we’ll have new themes, and you’ll be able to play with the results by age, gender, location and ethnicity. And remember, this isn’t our data, this is your data. So we are inviting people to use our data and do fancy things like cross-tabbing, create their own visualisations, pick out random statistics for the community or get campaigning.
The project is being run by V, the national youth volunteers service who want to increase the number of 16-25s in the UK who volunteer. Our aim with Voicebox is to better understand young people, so we can deliver programmes better suited to their needs. For that reason, we are only ever going to use data for this age range and in the UK, but the project is open to everyone to take part, however old and wherever they live.”
These visuals are superb. They have 1000’s more on their Flickr! Follow these guys on twitter.
Filed under: made me think, people I like | Tags: design, experience, graduation, internships
Interns Anonymous has been set up by two graduates currently working as unpaid interns. Their website is a forum for interns to share their experiences and discuss the ethics of unpaid employment. Most importantly, this site is a place where YOU can tell your story.
This video is focused on internships within politics: “Youth unemployment is at record levels: young people across the UK are increasingly turning to internships to improve their chances of winning that lucrative first job. There are currently no rules governing internships in the UK, leading to accusations of exploitation and elitism. See what a few young people think about internships and employment in the UK.”
The topic of free internships is a conversation I often have. Every time a designer does works for free they are devaluing themselves and their discipline. It is a topical issue and unfortunately remains so in the field of Service Design. For example, Live|Work recently advertised for an intern to work unpaid on a social farming networking project.
However, Adrian Shaughnessy argued in Design Week this month that we shouldn’t forget to give something back:
We designers are quick to grumble about sharp practices – free-pitching and a cavalier approach towards intellectual property spring to mind. But we can only claim moral superiority if our attitude to interns is beyond reproach. If we refuse to pay for their services, or if we pay them a fee, but neglect to devote time or effort to advancing their knowledge, we are no better than Hammond or all those unscrupulous clients.
When I had a studio, I always paid interns. I didn’t pay much, but I paid something, and I always made sure that I spent time with each one. Sometimes they had to do the sandwich run or make the tea, but I never asked anyone to pick up my dry cleaning. I’m sure there are a few designers who didn’t get my full attention and left without much discernable increase in their knowledge. But I’ve met quite a few of them since and I haven’t been punched yet. There’s still time, I suppose.
Graduates, students, educators and employers please support these guys - follow them on twitter
Filed under: made me think, people I like | Tags: anab jain, community, conversation, public, public engagement, the power of 8, this happened, vox popping
It was great to see Anab present The Power of 8 at This Happened.
I came across this when I was exploring the project’s site:
“Small part of this project is to try and engage in different ways with the ‘general public’ – with people down in the local pub, by the tube station, in the corner shop and so on. Its not always easy to go up to strangers and ask them about their personal dreams and about what the word “future” means to them, but hey, I love talking to people and am up for this challenge!
Doing interviews voxpops style is only one of the many ways that I want to explore, and I decided to give it a go yesterday. But how do you go up and talk to people, given the exposure to online video channels and a general understandable discomfort about being filmed? Not to mention the omnipresent ‘chuggers’ (charity muggers), who have created a complete distrust amongst people to talk to anyone who looks like he or she wants something out of you.”
Anab considered the following ideas for the sign: “Hi, I am NOT A CHUGGER and I don’t want your money. I AM A DESIGNER and I just want to ask you one question.”
Then, by asking twitter, Rory Hamilton suggested: “Hi, I AM A DESIGNER. I dont want your money, JUST YOUR MIND.”
Big thank you to Anab for sharing this – it is something I keep coming up against time and time again when I am trying to talk to the public.
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, made me think, people I like | Tags: career, design education, design employment, experience, future, glasgow school of art, graduation, kate andrews, Lauren Currie, networking, relationship, sarah drummond, social media, studio unbound, tools, university of dundee
There has been chatter on twitter about Studio Unbound II, which is happening at Glasgow School of Art tonight.
For those of you who are new to this initiative you can watch the first Studio Unbound that happened in February at The University of Dundee.
Founded in 2009 by University of Dundee Master of Design graduate Lauren Currie (@Redjotter), and design writer and consultant Kate Andrews (@kateandrews), the Studio Unbound is an initiative aiming to introduce students, graduates and educators to the creative power of social media.
Together as Studio Unbound, Kate and Lauren explore the power of digital networking, demonstrating tools that students can use to move ideas forward, form networks with practitioners around the world, and build a reputation before and after graduation.
In highlighting creative people all over the world using social networking to their advantage, Studio Unbound discuss the dynamic, conversational value of new communication technologies and illustrate how ideas of teaching and learning need to move away from the confines of the classroom or studio towards other, often ad-hoc and virtual venues.
Focusing on the ever growing possibilities and opportunities that the digital world presents, Studio Unbound demonstrate that during a time of mass communication change, design courses must change with it if they are to stay relevant.
Studio Unbound is not all about Twitter or Facebook, but about breaking down preconceptions of social media technologies, into an incredible value system that can enable us all to find both an individual voice, and collaborative practice.
———————————————————
“A great designer understands that search and discovery is an on-going process that is at the heart of what makes us human. We spend our lives searching for people we share a strong sense of connection with. Designers must join that search.” - Desiree Collier, 2009. Design Week. The Joy of Search.
———————————————————
Joining Studio Unbound since October 2009, is Social Innovation Camp winner Sarah Drummond (@rufflemuffin). On October 8th 2009, Lauren and Sarah will run a Studio Unbound lecture at Glasgow School of Art, with Kate joining from London via Skype.
Join the conversation on twitter #studiounbound
Join our facebook group and keep an eye on our blog which is still in the making but looking promising… :)
Kate Pickering, a forward thinking jeweller will be tweeting from the audience tonight – join in on twitter with the tag #studiounbound and follow us live!
See you tonight at 6pm, Bourdon Lecture Theatre…
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, design thinking, made me think, people I like, service design | Tags: design thinking, Karelia, president obama, service design, theory143, USA
I would like to introduce Karelia:
“I’ve had a pretty clear idea of “it” ie. my big picture for a few years now. I knew that I simply wanted to help people via design. I just didn’t a) think an actual position/title of “it” existed, or b) knew exactly what “it” would be called, since it’s an amalgamation of so many things. but i’m pretty sure, as of yesterday, that i’ve found “it.”
*cue heavenly chorus*
And “it” is called SERVICE DESIGN.”
She is on a google frenzy, buying post-its and drinking coffee – becoming a service design sponge! With a background in Graphic Design, Karelia has connections with Design Ignites Change and Project M.
Karelia is a prime example of why there is a growing need for Making Service Sense. We had an exciting conversation over the weekend, she said ‘I don’t have a filter’.
Based in Chicago right now, Karelia is happy to move anywhere her service design journey may take her. So who’s doing what in America -
- Continuum
- Peer Insight
- Adaptive Path
- Ideo
- Frontier Service Design
- Pink Service Design
- Idea Couture
- U.S National Design Policy Initiative
And of course, not forgetting the fact President Obama needs service design!!
I would like to ask you all to post any links/ advice/ books/places/ people / opportunities you can think of to share with Karelia.
Filed under: design thinking, made me think, people I like | Tags: creative, crisis, design, festival of interdependence, inhabitat, NEF
Responding to current economic, social and environmental crises, London’s NEF (the new economics foundation) have recently launched plans for “The Bigger Picture: A Festival of Interdependence,” a series of creative activities and events, including lectures, film screenings and art exhibitions, beginning in autumn 2009. The festival will culminate in a large-scale, public event in central London on 24 October 2009 (11:00AM-18:00PM) when an interactive, living exhibition will be staged in the dramatic post-industrial setting of the Bargehouse on London’s South Bank.
Economic turmoil and social upheaval coupled with the threat of runaway climate change have revealed major failings in the current system. In response, nef has brought together a range of organisations and individuals to share a vision of the world as it could be. We believe that the great transition to a new economy begins with a potent mix of hope, creativity, practicality and fun. Collectively we already have many of the ideas, policies and resources that can deliver greater human well-being and social justice within environmental limits. But a huge shift is still needed to make change happen. We think 2009 will mark the start of that shift
With over twenty-five speakers from a range of backgrounds, The Bigger Picture offers visitors and audience a chance to actually join the conversations, learn, share and exchange skills and tell stories. Topics are big and far reaching, including the future of food and farming, the hidden costs of economic growth, civil liberties and climate change, local economics and how inequality leaves us all worse off.
“The Bigger Picture is about people coming together to produce a shared, coherent vision of a sustainable economy.”
Will you be going?
Filed under: made me think, people I like | Tags: company, good service
Verygoodservice.com is a new service that finds companies with great products and good customer service.
This service is in it’s early stages but it’s simple – it works.
Follow them on twitter where they are looking around for very good companies, blogs, online boutiques from London and the whole of the UK.
Thanks to Kate for discovery
Filed under: made me think, reading and writing | Tags: journalism, the times
My breakfast reading was a little unusual this morning - it was a newspaper from 128 years ago: The Times, Saturday the 19th of March 1881.
So what kind of services were on offer 105 years before I was born?
I wonder how different ‘the middle class and jobless’ would feel if they could sell themselves for work like this gentleman:
So we know the weather from yesterday … surely you want to know the weather for the current day?
Sadly, some things never change…
I was fascinated by how people used to sell themselves, their products, services and organizations, particularly the language and tone they used. It seems that back then people offered their own skills and talents as individual services…
Filed under: design thinking, made me think, people I like, reading and writing, service design | Tags: people or policy, peter bates, sketch book, social change, susan deacon, university of dundee, visualisation
Last week I attended The Peter Bates Lecture People or policy? How to bring about social change:
“Good leadership at every level is the key to bringing about real social change within communities.
Susan Deacon, Professor of Social Change at Queen Margaret University, will discuss this, and other factors effecting social change at the Peter Bates Lecture.The Lecture, jointly hosted by the University of Dundee and NHS Tayside, will take place at the University of Dundee’s Dalhousie Building at 6pm on Wednesday, September 23rd.Professor Deacon, former MSP and Minister for Health and Community Care, will examine the influences effecting progressive social change in Scotland. She will examine whether government policy or community-level initiatives are more powerful drivers of social change.
In particular, she will discuss a failure to take account of the importance of leadership at every level in our communities, and suggest that we need to give more recognition to the power of individuals to bring about social change.”
Here are my notes from the talk…
It worries me that myself and my old design studies tutor, who I spotted across the room, were the only people in the entire lecture hall taking notes…
I was very excited about the way Susan spoke about the human condition and truly listening to people, claiming the NHS had ‘lost the plot and lost sight of what it means to be a person’. But there was no real conclusion as to how to achieve this – her ending phrase was ‘ we can make the world a better place by encouraging each other’. I’m not convinced. That’s not enough is it?
Filed under: made me think, people I like, service design | Tags: collaboration, community, public sector, terry irwin, world view
John Benington on the changes needed for a system overhaul.
For me, this phrase speaks volumes “NHS staff working with the police and with local authorities on problem-solving projects…”
“New concepts of “adaptive leadership” to tackle tough problems in the community through collaborative action at the frontline, rather than relying on previous models based on heroic leaders trying to drive change from the top down….
We would also like to see cross-service education, training and work experience built into the programme for fast-stream graduate entrants to public service. That could include NHS staff working with the police and with local authorities on problem-solving projects…
Let’s have high-level opportunities for top teams to learn and lead together, with chief constables, NHS and local authority chief executives and senior civil servants able to develop their knowledge of each other’s services and skills. We also want a new leadership programme for middle managers, linked to a master’s degree, to develop this crucial group of senior managers as a leadership cadre for the whole of the UK’s public service…
…and we’d like to see “deep diving” for senior civil servants – so that all members of the civil service will have spent at least three months working at the frontline of a public service before being accepted into the senior civil service.”
Read more about Terry Irwin’s insights on world views from the first day of studying Masters of Design: “Our world view is a sketch and a blueprint for reality.”
Filed under: made me think, people I like, service design | Tags: experience, gender, joel bailey, role, service design, tamsin smith
Joel Bailey recently wrote Service Design: A feminist manifesto
“Got me thinking about the worst kept secret in service design, that 90% of clients are women. I’ve been pondering this and reckon it’s down to the method – an approach to change that is about collaboration and listening. Not wishing to stereotype, but those are not characteristics of the male board room. Certainly my years in management consultancy were about command and control, with top down change imposed and directed. The greatest appeal of service design as an approach is that it looks to peoples inherent resourcefulness for the answers. It says to people – you have it in you to transform the service you deliver. For me there’s something quite maternalistic in there”
Engine’s Tamsin Smith posted an interesting reply:
“…the attraction of females to service design is something we’ve discussed as an emerging trend. It is certainly not reflected in current practice in which females service designers are definitely the minority.
The softer skills of a service designer such as empathy and capacity-building, for example, are more inherent female traits. The ‘People’ part of service design i.e. designing for people, with people, to make better people roles- again appeals to the feminine side in us”
I find this debate fascinating. I had an insightful conversation with Sophia Parker about her research for Social Animals – and in her talking to many students focused / interested in Service Design – the majority of them were female. Certainly, from a product design background I think the Service Design practice appeals to designers who are happiest talking to people and researching - compared to being in the work shop making.
The students / researchers I know who are focusing on Service Design are female, yet the practitioners I know are male…
I’m curious…what do you think? and are you a Mr or a Mrs?
Filed under: made me think, service design | Tags: glasgow, knife crime, scotland, service design, social design
I watched The War Against Street Weapons this week:
“Last year, as chair of Channel 4’s Street Weapons Commission, Cherie Booth QC said that the use of guns and knives among young people had become so widespread that she feared for the safety of her own children. Since then, the police and government have taken steps to deal with the problem. But are they doing enough?
To answer that question, Cherie joins police patrols on Britain’s toughest streets, talks to young offenders behind bars, and visits a pioneering scheme combating Glasgow’s violent gang culture.
The Street Weapons Commission Report – published in 2008 – set out a series of practical recommendations about what could be done to tackle the problem of street weapons in the UK. But one year on, the problem hasn’t gone away and Cherie feels passionately that more must be done.”
Sometimes I forget that Cherie Booth is not just the former Prime Minister’s wife, but also a hugely successful barrister in her own right! Read these related press articles to find out more about some of the violent crime cases referred to in Dispatches.
It was this service offered by the Violence Reduction Unit that interested me the most – this card is handed to gang members the service targets either following a visit to their home or a ’self referral’ sessions.
The program is based on this article from the New Yorker and you can learn more here: www.actiononviolence.com
From where I am standing this looks like a fantastic initiative. . Of course, design thinking alone will fail to tackle crime but I believe design has a crucial role to play in this. How would the dynamics of this service change if a service designer were to spend a day with the young people it has rescued from gang life?
Thank you to Caroline Foulkes, Communications Manager at the Violence Reduction Unit for all her help in finding this information.
Filed under: made me think | Tags: communication, experience, patient, service signage
I walked into my local GP surgery to find this:
I don’t understand … so where am I supposed to go? Call for advice from the front door? Why can’t a person come and speak to me?
This is an example of why people don’t like going to the doctors and why people don’t seek help when they are ill.
A conversation has to be happen between:
- the person who made this sign
- the person who decided to place it at the front door
- the doctors who walk past it every morning approvingly
- the reception who witnesses the reactions
- most importantly – the patients
…fling a service designer into that mix and you are onto a solution!
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, design thinking, made me think, people I like, service design | Tags: Bruce Mau, design manifesto, Social Design Notes
Social Design Notes have published 100 years of Design Manifestos from as far back as 1909 to the present.
These manifestos are public declarations of design principles and intentions. I created a tangible version of Bruce Mau’s manifesto that I can take with me on my travels.
I wonder who is really listening to these profound declarations…are they for the maker or the observer? It is time to create a new form of manifesto for the young designers of tomorrow? What could that look like?
Whose manifesto do you listen to? and when do you seek it out?
