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: 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, 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: reading and writing, service design | Tags: community, people, poetry, service design
This is a translation of a poem that was written by Lao Tse three thousand years ago. There are 27 known different translations of this, because the meanings from that long ago are very fluid. This version has been used as inspiration for community workers since the nineteen fifties.
Go to the People;
Live among them;
Love them; Learn from them;
Start from where they are;
Work with them; Build on what they have.
But of the best leaders, When the task is accomplished,
The work completed, The people all remark: “We have done it ourselves”Lao Tsu
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, service design | Tags: future, scotland, service design
So, now I have graduated, what are the next steps for Redjotter?
MyPolice
I am pleased to announce I have been appointed the role of Director at MyPolice; a web-based service that fosters constructive, collaborative communication between communities and the police forces which serve them. This role is pending funding at the moment… results should be in at the beginning of October! I am going to be working closely with Sarah Drummond, the founder of MyPolice, to give service design a voice in Scotland.
Conferences / Speaking
Next month, alongside the rest of the MyPolice team I will be presenting the venture at The Citizen and Social Media Conference. In November, we are also presenting it at the mypublicservice conference in London; a national conference about citizen engagement with public services online.
Collaboration
Last week, I met the Director of Scotland’s Future Forum, a non party political organisation owned by the Scottish Parliament’s Corporate Body. Yesterday, I had a very exciting meeting with a lecturer of social work and community education from the University of Dundee to talk about service design and social work coming together to make things happen.
I am very excited.
Filed under: service design | Tags: arne van oosterom, birgit mager, experience design, marc stickdorn, service design, service thinking, tourism
As promised here are my notes and thoughts from The Experience Service Design Conference in Finland.
The conference opened with Mikko from the Ministry of Employment and Economy who described service thinking as a topical development. The government are aware of the importance of public services because they influences the well being of citizens. Studies show that citizens are discontent:
75% feel public services do not meet their needs.
85% think it is irrelevant who produces it as long as it works.
Mikko suggested that services need to be re-thought from a customer perspective and he intends to put the needs and hopes of citizens in the limelight.
A lady who never fails to inspire me, Professor Birgit Mager, then presented the basics of service design. She began with a personal account of being met by a sign in her local hospital that said ‘Knock and wait’. Birgit highlighted that in the past services were neglected – they were not attractive for research but now design thinking makes the difference.
- Design from the outside in.
- Designers create things that make sense.
- We facilitate processes
- There is no hierarchy.
- We are in the middle of a paradigm change
- Third world countries are moving into service design
- We need to move from selling stuff to building relationships.
- Service Design applies design thinking to immaterial products,
- Make people say ‘wow’ / ‘that was easy’ / give people something to talk about.
Birgit told us about her first ever service design project that focused on homelessness in 1996. The solution was ‘Gulliver’ a survival station for the homeless. A fantastic example of service design where everyone is a winner – the homeless work for the homeless .
Birgit’s Top Ten Tips
1.Look at your service as a product
2. Focus on customer benefits
3.Dive into customers world
4.Set the big picture
5.Designing the customer experience
6.Create visible service evidence
7.Go for standing ovation
8.Flexible standards
9. Create a living product
10. Enthusiasm. create a service culture.
Arne and Marc presented Tourism and Service Design Thinking. This keynote was very interactive and audience participation was key.
I was astonished when they uncovered that more than half the room did not know what twitter was!! The pair had generated a hand out covered in words and phrases that threatened ‘business as usual’ ( most of the results had been generated by their twitter community )
The audience then spoke about the one they felt strongly about – Fergus mentioned the empowerment of self organisation. I spoke about the potentail of social networking and Gerald, a design student from Uganda spoke about how the internet had changed his life. Gerald sharing this with such a big audience was definitely the best moment of my findland experience.
Dr. Retha De La Harpe from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology talked about ICT in home-based healthcare in South Africa. For me this was the best presentation of the event.
“I’m not a service designer I am an I.T person…there is no such thing as service design in South Africa”
Retha talked about community empowerment and how her team is working towards creating wellbeing in a community of tension. South Africa is very effected by drugs, aids and gangs and most of the people they deal with are illiterate so their visual communication is very important.
She asked one participant “What do you know about computers?” he replied “I know how to steal them.”Now as a result of Retha’s project these gangsters now blog! Their mothers are often victims and have been trained on how to used facebook where they share recipes and stories.
“Humans and artifact are both social products as well as social makers in shaping and remaking each other”
Throughout her talk Retha was determined to align her language with ours as ‘we don’t describe things the same’. I find this fascinating.
You can see all my photos from the trip here. Fergus has posted a write up of his workshop experience – one to read!
I’d like to thank Satu for giving me the opportunity to be part of this excellent event.
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, master of design, people I like, service design | Tags: Crossingtheborder, David Hicks, master of design, service design
I would like to introduce Redjotter’s first ever guest blogger: David Hicks founder of Glasgow based consultancy CrossingTheBorder that specialises in developing services, visual communication and customer engagement.David shares his opinion on the T-Labs project I worked on during my MDes program…
Recessions stink, they really do and ours isn’t over yet by a long shot. We may be having a bit of respite at the moment but the experts predict that this initial growth of the UK economy will only be temporary. In all likelihood, there will be a further contraction followed by a further ‘false dawn’ before sustained growth finally kicks in.
This ‘W’-curve recovery pattern means we are in a strange period of economic stagnation. But ‘Never waste a good crisis’ are words being uttered by many in business. An initial opportunity, not least a critical one is that your business audience is in a receptive state, whether they are in the public or private sector, with regard to learning how things can be done differently, at minimal costs of course.
Another mantra we are starting to hear is ‘Do more, with less’. Not ‘Do the same as you were doing, with a bit less’ but do a lot more with a lot less’. This is increasingly true for public sector organisations as the reality of looming budget cuts starts to be realised.
It was with these thoughts rattling about my consulting brain that I visited the Dundee University Masters Degree Show last week. In particular, I was interested in a project, which was a collaborative undertaking between a number of the Mdes (Master of Design) students and with a real client. It was clear on arriving at the show, and glancing at the large format visuals this was no ordinary academic undertaking.
The students, through the ‘design school’ had been commissioned by a well-known global mobile company to look at how their services could be developed for an aging and increasingly elderly population. The client provided a framework, which could generically be described as a design thinking process, however the remaining architecture of the client solution was developed by the students themselves, no mean feat given the client had to buy the structure before any further work could be completed.
The client engagement methodology was titled Rip + Mix by the students, one that alluded to the deconstruct/reconstruct nature of the approach they intended to take through the design process. Within this process, the students developed their own creative tools and workshop formats that would allow them to answer the service design brief both thoroughly and commercially. It was clear from the presentation that they had done this with the highest standards of thinking, creativity and professionalism.
Not least, they had taken the opportunity to first reformulate the clients’ questions, prioritise them and double-check them with the client, (how many agencies, consultants and economic support organisations could do with a refresher in that part of the process alone?) and they also eschewed, I was glad to see the default ‘customer-centred design’ process most designers seem to think is the be all/end all first
Within the project, each student had identified their own strengths and interests and identified where they fitted with each stage whilst contributing in a truly collaborative way – designers egos seemed to be conspicuous by their absence, meaning the client needs were always coming first.
Although I can’t go into the detail of the project for IP protection reasons, the students, or former students as they now are, showed a remarkable capacity to understand the client. By taking sufficient risks in coming up with both innovative yet practical solutions and importantly grasping the opportunity that there was space to both educate and up-skill the client in the process, an additional set of value creating deliverables had been included in the project.
Now, these are the people I want to work with, no matter where we are on the W-curve.
Filed under: people I like, service design | Tags: co-opportunity, economy, greengaged, john grant, systems thinking
Co-opportunity: A Day for World Builders takes place on the September 22, 2009, 9:00am to 6:00pm at The Design Council.
“With a focus on the emerging structures of service design, John Grant has curated a day looking at systems; why they fail and how we can redesign them to work more effectively. Team up with John and brainstorm new sustainable business models for the banking system, presenting them to the dragon’s den!
It is now impossible to ignore the continual rise and impact of new service networks; from Freecycle, Wikipedia and city car clubs through to transition towns. So, how can the design industry apply an approach of ‘holistic system design’ to benefit topical commercial issues, such as the bank crisis, for example?
Co-opportunity is about how co-operative, community systems have the potential to build a more sustainable, resilient, prosperous society at all levels – working for the common good.
The day contains a rich set of case studies from the pioneers of new systems and experts in collaboration who will feed you with amazing new insight, ideas, and system-based models. In John’s engaging approach to workshops you will learn about co-operative systems by actually creating solution – starting with the world’s financial banking system – as an example of the power of systems redesign.
Co-opportunity is the title of John Grant’s next book, to be released later this year by Wiley.”
Looks awesome and it’s free to attend! Will you be going?
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, master of design, service design | Tags: "Making Service Sense" "Service Design", graduation, Lauren Currie, makingservicesense, redjotter
Last Friday, 11th September I had a remarkable day! Firstly, I discovered I had been awarded a distinction for my MDes degree! …and secondly the exhibition of my work opened at Dundee University.
Making Service Sense is a service I have created hypothetically created during my MDes programme and with these foundations intend to turn into a reality. Making Service Sense offers young graduates a new way of accessing the world of service design, through a variety of methods and mediums.
The five core objectives:
1. To act as a knowledge bank.
2. To offer vibrant and relevant insights into the industry.
3. To provide a comprehensive pathway into service design.
4. To build connections between practitioners and graduates.
5. To grow and develop in a co-design manner – with the help of its users.
For the week of the Master of Design show Making Service Sense was articulated through a brand (logo design by Chris Clarke), a pack of 40 case study postcards, business cards, a process map, a 200 page design synthesis (all designed by Kate Andrews) and an interactive exhibition space!
The exhibition space had four elements:
1. Take a seat
2. Join the conversation
3. Ask the industry
4. Read about the service
The space was conceptually designed to mimic what happens in this web space, in that my catalysts fuel further questions. On Friday evening, I harvested questions in real time – I put a question out to the service design community via twitter, but no one at the exhibition needed to touch a computer. I acted as a filter between the complexity of questioning about service design vs. industry experience vs. internet information. This is more than being a moderator it is about being a facilitator. I am the service design filter. I am Making Service Sense.
So what is next?
I have learnt a lot over the past 12 months and hope to visit universities to talk about Redjotter and the journey I have been on during my MDes. I have also been invited by Tamsin at Engine to share Making Service Sense with the team in London next month!
Filed under: people I like, service design | Tags: customer, mal fletcher, relationship, service provider, the guardian
A recent survey has highlighted not only the dissatisfaction that customers feel against some service providers, but also how it affects their decision making and ultimately their choice.
Research carried out recently by Benenden Healthcare Society looked at the psychological effects of the recession on people’s attitude towards service providers and revealed some thought-provoking trends.
Now more than ever, what matters most is the connection among individuals in terms of trust, mutual understanding and shared values. Public services need to take note of this and decide whether, on the basis of this shift in consumer psychology, they are providing the best service possible.
Brilliant to see this reality backed up with concrete figures and statistics! Follow the author Mal on twitter…
*The image is from a training session ‘Sallyent’ ran for Manchester University, on Public Engagement. I like it.
Thanks to Kate for discovery.
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, service design | Tags: experience design, finland, kuopio, service design, workshop
I want to share my workshop experience with you. A little snapshot…
more about “Twitter / @Redjotter“, posted with vodpod
Ten points if you can guess who my twitter friends are :)
Much more news from Finland coming soon….
Filed under: Red Jotter Work, service design | Tags: Lauren Currie, making service sense, master of design, redjotter, service design
For the past twelve months I have been studying a Masters of Design; an experimental space which as allowed me to explore and direct my future position as a practicing service designer.
I would like to introduce you all to Making Service Sense:
What’s this about?
Making Service Sense attempts to communicate to students what people sometimes think and talk about when it come to Service Design.
“Service Design” – what is it?
Well a service is an intangible product we experience over time in different ways. Service Design is designing and arranging the interaction between service provider and the end user. Make Sense? Didn’t think so…
What’s up with the title?
The title is about making sense of complicated stuff – that simple feeling of suddenly understanding. Right now, between blogs, websites and networks the time students can devote to navigating their way around the hectic Service Design landscape has dwindled.
But what’s the idea ?
A service made up of people, conversations, a website and the book ‘Making Service Sense’. It feels a little like climbing Everest in stilettos: at times exciting, sometimes laborious, always tough —and in the process, you might ruin a good pair of shoes.
What’s the website for?
The website is a way to continue things I started and couldn’t finish, as well as a platform to engage in new questions. It’s also a place to start new Service Design explorations and conversations amongst students and designers.
I would like to invite you all to be part of my exhibition evening through twitter – using the hash tag #makingservicesense.
I am looking forward to seeing Sarah, Dawnne, David, Richie and Kate at the show…@tessybritton @cassierobinson @dominiccampbell @designthinkers @iterations @fergusbisset are joining in via twitter.
When visitors to my show ask me questions about service design and the industry – I am going to ask those who know best! and then physically re-create the answers in my space.
Tweet me if you would like to be part of #makingservicesense this Friday!
much more to follow…. :)
Filed under: service design | Tags: 31 volts, david townson, marcel zwiers, new discipline, service design
Marcel has posted his input from the crowdsourced innovation event Community of Talents. In a room full of professionals in the area of service innovation, Marcel had the privilege of closing the day with a talk on the evolution of design (as a verb).
This concept reminded me of David Townson’s lecture ‘A Bowler Hat with Sleeves’ where he described blueprinting as a tool that structures and categorizes thinking – an iterative tool that can be used at the early stages of the design process. David talked about ‘verbing’ – take an object and service-ize it – make it a doing word.
I like it.
I like it.