Craft has been on my mind lately and I was particularly inspired by the physical ‘Tapestry of Ambition’ … I think it’s so important to have something physical to represent ideas and thoughts. The way we all huddled round itching to make our mark on the tapestry was simply brilliant and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product!

I like my patch :) It was clear from the delegate list that all the women attending have a voice in their own spehere and this day intended to make that voice bigger. I didn’t necessarily leave feeling my voice was bigger but I did leave with a sense of new listeners and new directions for my voice to travel in!

The hashtag for the event was #52percent because that’s the number of females in the Scottish population. It was shame there were so few tweeters but hats off to all the women who signed up and gave it a shot!

I’d like to say a warm thank you to Tari Lang for inviting me and for all her support and enthusiasm. Looking forward to seeing you all next year!

This conference was originally a computer conference for designers and illustrators, it has gradually changed over the years. Today, the conference aims to increase the understanding of visual communications and the role it plays in society. I am excited these guys are keen to explore Service Design at such an event.

Keetra Dean Dixon was first up, she calls herself an Experiential Choreographer and is the brains behind the fabulous hugging wall which I have experienced as a hugger and a huggee. Keetra challenges herself with ‘one-a-day’ projects which is something I attempted many times at University but never seemed to have the discipline for. I like the idea of pushing yourself to make something in 24hours and then share it. Listening to Keetra reminds me very much of my ambitions when I was at high school – I wanted to design products that would bring surprise and delight to people’s everyday. I must be honest and say that now I find this kind of work fairly self-indulgent. But it works and it’s beautiful and there will always be a place for it.

Marius Arnesen then talked about his journey of making a documentary about the Norwegian Army in Afghanistan. His talk was mainly made up of film footage and I will be honest and say it was very scary and shook me up a little. I am grateful for his bravery to show such footage to an audience mainly made up of traditional designers.

He talked about the reality of war. The fact is it’s not all action – it’s 99% eating, sleeping and waiting. I sensed from the audience that the link between this talk and design wasn’t clear. For me, the way Marius talked about going into this situation and having to become friends with the soldiers first echoed the way we design. It’s about real human to human trust and Maurice’s job is to get close to people.

Robert L. Peters shared many quotes that inspire him. One that stuck with me was the fact that 85% of what we know today comes through our eyes. For me, this reinforces the reality that designers see the world differently and can make thoughts, ideas and visions visible. I would have liked to see examples of what Robert has achieved by following quotes such as ‘think sideways’ and ‘aim high’ and I must be honest and say that I don’t think design is responsible for ‘creating the future world our children will live in’ . I think design is part of the solution, but many other fields and disciplines have a role to play.

It was then my turn to take to the stage and I have never before received such a spectacular introduction. Check out the video below starring Bård Brænde.

I talked about Snook and our vision for transforming the way public services are designed and delivered in Scotland. From conversations I’ve had with the organisers I know that socially motivated Service Design is very new in Norway . Thank you to everyone who talked to me afterwards and shared their inspirations and ideas with me following my talk.

What is it like to attend a school without teachers? Instead of being told what to do and how to do it, at Hyper Island students experience, experiment and find their own answers. Emphasis is on learning by doing and trial and error. The facts speak for themselves:

98% of Hyper Island graduates find a job within the industry after graduation!

60% of Hyper Island students get a job in the industry before they graduate!

Most of these guys come from background of advertising, business and graphic design.  We kicked off with an introduction to Service Design from Snook’s point of view and then quickly launched into collecting all the bad service experiences the students have had. This is an exercise I do often and I’ve never experienced students finding it so hard before – they are all content and satisfied with the services they receive! After a little probing, they began to explore experiences very close to home like the virtual learning environment they use at Hyper Island and the Systembolaget ; a service that aims to minimize alcohol-related problems by selling alcohol in a responsible way, without profit motive.

The teams then tackled journey mapping one of these bad service experiences.

It was interesting to see how the different teams tackled ‘mapping the emotions’ with some groups choosing to wait until the very end to go back and add emotions. The last action of taking a red pen and joining up the emotions through the whole journey sparked solutions and ideas off instantly!

Thinking about design and public services is a new thing for these guys so the journey maps helped make that connection! I then introduced “Our Future Public Services – being a Service Designer”

The teams spent time designing their own bespoke generative tools to take out into communities to talk to people about the service they had journey mapped. They were really excited to get the chance to outside the walls of Hyper Island and really engage with the public.

For me, the interesting part of this was how the teams decided what questions to ask. Pushing the students to be very open was important so people would give feedback honestly. Some started with a very specific list of questions but then realised the open ended statements were less complex and intimidating.

After lunch and time in the communities the teams came back together and shared what they discovered. This team had journey mapped a poor experience at the job centre. They found it hard to get people to talk and felt uneasy about talking to staff in the job centre. The team found this process invaluable because it really challenged the assumptions they had made about how the public feel about AMS.

This team is exploring relationships and trust within student from lots of different departments in Universities. They began thinking this was something more security guards could solve but in talking to students and staff around the campus they realised it was an issue around culture, behaviour and attitude. They created tools for students to quantify trust levels.

This team is re-designing the Swedish recycling system. They discovered that the Swedish public were very reluctant to say anything negative about the services as recycling is globally a ‘good thing’. They realised that implications around recycling for land lords and business men were important and this was an audience they hadn’t considered before venturing out into the streets.

This team is tackling the problems of renting an apartment in Sweden. They were overwhelmed by the number of people who had negative experiences to share and realised this is definitely a big issue for Swedes. They sensed a feeling of hopelessness in everyone they talked to and it really enthused them to think of solutions!

This team ventured out very dissatisfied with the SJ rail service in Sweden to discover that the public were actually quite happy with it!

This team was tackling the problems the snow causes for the citizens of Sweden. Talking to the public showed them that the problems are much worse for older people and that young people are keen to help make the situation better.

This team  are re-designing SCAS; their virtual student learning environment. They realised that the community behind the platform is much more important than the functions of the platform itself.

This team are also tackling SCAS and created an experience prototype by filming someone using it and talking out loud. They found out that the number of clicks is the one thing that people would change.

This group were re-designing the experience of flying RyanAir and they focused on people’s emotions. They quickly realised that people are quite satisfied with the RyanAir service because ‘ you get what you pay for’ this was a big surprise for the team and they now realise how important it is to challenge assumptions during the design process.

Applying for visas is something many of these students have had to do and they are not happy with the service! In talking to the public this team were energised by the reality that actually a visa plays a massive role in your life can influence what direction your life takes so it should work well!

This team want to improve the experience of voting. Talking to the public was a challenge for them as they quickly understood that many people just ‘don’t care’. They now know that no matter what they design, making it relevant is the most important thing.

The team re-designing Systembolaget sparked an interesting debate because there is stark contract in opinion between local students and international students.

Last but not least, one team is focusing on the problems around all of the transportations systems being in swedish. These guys interviewed some travellers by filming and it was really effective.

What a day! It was tough to keep such a big group on track but I managed :) and the teams produced brilliant insights in such a short time! The idea of applying design to public services is something that is new for them and it has been amazing to watch their mindset shift towards this way of doing things. I can’t help but notice the stark difference in how Swedes feel about their public services compared to the Scots. I was talking about this to the students and heard the word ‘Jantelagen’ for the first time, it is something very Scandinavian.

The result of it is that the idea of the public sharing ideas and feedback is something that may not go down so well with Scandinavian people because of ‘Jantelagen’. I was very curious and their english translation was ‘don’t stand out of the crowd’ so I looked it up:

Jantelagen comes from the Danish Janteloven – in the imaginary small town of Jante there is an informal, oppressive law that forbids anyone from standing out from the crowd:

The ten rules state:

1. Don’t think you’re anything special.
2. Don’t think you’re as good as us.
3. Don’t think you’re smarter than us.
4. Don’t convince yourself that you’re better than us.
5. Don’t think you know more than us.
6. Don’t think you are more important than us.
7. Don’t think you are good at anything.
8. Don’t laugh at us.
9. Don’t think anyone cares about you.
10. Don’t think you can teach us anything.

WOW! That would not go down well in the UK and it has challenged me around some of the Service Design approaches of discovering what the public really think. Lot’s to think about! Onwards and upwards to developing ideas during Day 2. Massive thank you to all the students for their energy and ideas! You’ve made me feel very welcome!

I have never been to Norway before so I’m really looking forward. If you are near Røros on those dates and want to say hello give me a tweet!

You can follow the tweets of the event here! Big thank you to Tom and Torgeir for inviting me and organising my travels to Norway.

I am going to spend two days with sixty design students from international backgrounds and a wide range of disciplines,  who are embarking up a six week course on “User Experience and Interaction Design”

My two days with the students will be focused on guiding them through the design process, focusing on the research phase in relation to designing public services for the future of Sweden. I will be introducing them to different tools and techniques from service design.  Check out the videos below to get a flavour of what I will be working with…

From what I have seen many of the students tweet so we will be using the hashtag #PSDhyperisland ( public service design hyperisland )

I arrive on the 17th and then fly to Norway on the 20th so if you are in Stockholm and want to say hello give me a tweet! 

Tonight you are going on an adventure, an adventure so full of opportunity and unknowns I’ll bet it feels scary. You are leaving on a jet plane to go to Germany, arriving to a new life and a new job as a medical physicist. Wow.

I’m so proud of you for making this moment the opportunity that it is. I *think* you might be a grown up now so please remember to set your alarm clock, pack your frisbee and always carry a plectrum.

Up and at ‘em bud. Love your big sister x

To put it simply, Service Designers make stuff – we make ideas real. But we do this in a way that is extremely focused on experience – this is the main reason I think Service Design and Craft have a lot to learn from one another.

We make stuff with people rather then for them. And because users / buyers / customers are at the very heart of everything we do, 90% of the time we are making other peoples ideas real rather than our own. We’re really good at putting ourselves in other peoples shoes – we making a living out of empathy! When you combine that with the design process and the making behind our craft you can help big, messy complex services like the NHS improve the service they deliver.

Service Designers don’t design whole services – that would be impossible – our role is to facilitate, inspire, make things real and inspire creativity in other people. That’s why I truly believe the role of a designer is completely changing and moving away from being in the studio to being out there in the world – in your communities helping people imagine solutions.

When YOU as makers look in the mirror do you see someone that offers a service? A service that has been beautifully and brilliantly designed? A service that considers all the touchpoints? The experience of buying the output of your craft?

I don’t think many people in the craft industry do. We don’t usually think about craft as a service. I 100% believe there is a hidden service in every craft. I want us to think about how we can make that work – how we can identify that and bring it to the surface.

Basically, I believe if you are maker you are providing a service.

And it would seem I’m not the only one, Emma from the Collins Gallery reminded us that many of the craft she sells is handed over to a paying customer with no boxes and no label.  Just like Mary Portas says in her letter to the UK Handmade Industry - you need to think about the customer experience. You need to think about how you sell what you do, your website, your business card, your business model and YOU because you are the maker and it is ultimately YOU that you are selling. These are tough times and as Mary rightly says you are competing against the luxury goods industry. This is about YOU and the service you offer as a maker!

Always remember, only you have a personal connection to your craft and thats really powerful! Where did you learn your skills? Where did you study? How did you develop your own style? Tell these stories!

You have a distinct technique, skills, a way of thinking and seeing the world that is completely unique to you. This means only you can change the way the rest of the world perceives craft.

I have ideas around how to unlock the hidden service that is inside your craft…the tools that service designers use can help you design a first class service around your craft.  For example, use journey mapping to visualise how people buy your product, use personas to understand how different people will perceive your work. But before you do anything else - buy this book.

Snook designed these little post cards for the audience and we have had some interesting results:

And last but not least, be proud to be a maker! Be proud to be a maker in Scotland – make your own future and find the secret service in your craft.

I had a brilliant day at the conference and designing my presentation really made me think. It reminded me that I am a maker and I should never forget that I was trained for four years in making models, sketching and building prototypes of everything from coat hangers and lamp shades. Thank you to everyone who tweeted and asked questions, and special thanks to those of you who sent me personal feedback – you really made me smile…

“I found your presentation so very interesting and it has given me so much to think about. I’m in the midst of re-working my website, new logo, new packaging, looking at new markets etc , but what you said has also made me look at myself more as an ambassador and a persona for the business – thank-you.”

“I would like to thank you for delivering such a thought provoking talk – and just as importantly making us laugh – at last weekend’s Craft Connected Conference.  You have now converted me to reading your blog.  I was so impressed with your enthusiasm and practicality – combined in such a unique way.  We also use lots of Lego at work;  in fact that is what we brought back as the staff present instead of the usual sweets and biscuits from a recent trip to Denmark.Keep wearing the tartan tights – great idea!” Mary, Co-chair of Craft Scotland

You can read more about the day from the folks at Craft Scotland here:

“Emma Walker, craftscotland CEO, kicked off proceedings with a clear message that well worn craft debates were off the table for the day.

Professor Mike Press ably took the helm as Chair, steering delegates into exploring how craft is connected: connected internationally, connected culturally, connected with industry and new audience, with public services, community initiatives and the wider society.

Garth Johnson travelled from California to speak to the assembled. His blog Extreme Craft is ‘a compendium of craft masquerading as art, art masquerading as craft’. It was along these themes that Garth broadened the audience’s minds to the full spectrum of craft. Garth passionately called everyone to action ‘I want everyone to become a craft activist’ – are you ready to join him?

Tom Hopkins Gibson spoke about his professional journey as a maker. He highlighted the importance of connecting and reinvesting in the local community, as well as the difficulties of balancing success, citing the old adage ‘be careful what you wish for’.

Practical presentations followed from Rebecca Davis, Audience Development Officer at craftscotland and Laura Hamilton, Curator at the Collins Gallery and the conference partner. Rebecca spoke about how to connect with craftscotland. Laura Hamilton gave some sage advice on how to connect with curators, highlighting issues such installation and packaging. Her key points were to ensure effective communication and clarity from the outset.

The afternoon’s provocations explored craft’s role in community engagement. Josiah Lockhart, General Manager of the Grassmarket Community Project engaged all with how his project utilises craft to empower individuals. Muriel Murray, from Castletown Heritage Society, spoke about how they use craft to engage the community in preserving their heritage and the transference of skills.

After the selection of inspiring presentations and a rousing call to action from Mike on the impetus behind the Craft Manifesto and The Change Makers, the room locked into discussion and debate on the areas that should be included within the Manifesto. If you would like to contribute ideas or vote on proposal’s for the Craft Manifesto please visit the Making Manifesto site or request to join the Change Makers facebook group.

You can read Mike’s reflection’s from Craft Connected on his blog and see a selection of Snook and craftscotland’s photos from the day on Flickr.“

I was at the recent launch of Scottish based project - the first ever dedicated crowdfunding website for the Third Sector – and its founders want it to revolutionise how projects are funded in the UK.

“We believe SoLoCo can help revolutionise the future of funding in the UK. We want to make it easier to raise funds, and in time make it easier for organisations to be become less reliant on the ‘traditional’ funding bodies. We also want to help improve the visibility of our communities and all the amazing work happening on the ground every day. Crowdfunding has already made a huge difference to the arts, music and even, Obama’s political campaign – now we want it to change communities.”

The SoLoCo launch comes as the Third Sector faces an increasingly tough financial climate, battling reduced income from statutory funding against increased demand for services in some areas.

Six projects across Scotland have already signed up on the SoLoCo website to crowdfund for donations, worth a total value of £124,976. These include:

// The launch of a new Scottish online newspaper, the scottishtimes.com
// Scotland’s first Digital FABlab based at Scotland’s Centre for Design and Architecture,The Lighthouse, Glasgow
// Renovation of Glencanisp Walled Garden by The Assynt Foundation to create a local enterprise
// Crowdfunding for audio-visual equipment for the hugely successful Youth Football Scotland project
// A multimedia project at Duns Youth Centre in the Borders, to help young people develop skills in film-making & radio production
// A community café Punjab’n De Rasoi in Leith, Edinburgh is crowdfunding to employ its long time volunteer chefs and waitresses.

“The ‘virtual doors’ are now open for projects across the UK to start their own crowdfunding campaign through the SoLoCo site, giving them access directly to the public, a wider network than they have already, and without having to organise any sponsorship activities.

Our project base is across Scotland at present but our doors are very much open to projects across the UK.”

The idea is that a project uploads its crowdfunding campaigns to the SoLoCo website in a few easy steps. They then have 60 days in which to fundraise, with a heavy focus on social media. Projects reaching their target keep all the money, while those who don’t, keep the money raised and can use it to apply for match funding.

Successful crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter in America have seen hundreds of thousands raised for arts projects. Obama used crowdfunding to contribute to his election campaign. And a most recently in the UK, Brewdog, successfully launched its second Equity for Punks crowdfunding campaign, after the first one proved such a success…I am watching this space!

Massive congratulations to Kirsty and her team and three cheers for ThirdSectorLab and Crancomms who have been working their magic behind the scenes!

Following the fantastic response to the collaborative book Hand Made (40,000 online readers), which was published in Autumn 2010, the idea evolved that they might be able to start producing local versions of Hand Made.

Since announcing the project in June 2011 the team have 20 confirmed voluntary editors and another 10 or so in discussion. Their ambition is to publish about 50 editions in the next 12 months!

Tessy explains:

A few weeks ago Maurice Specht turned to me on the way to Schiphol airport and said ‘So when are we going to bring out a Hand Made for Rotterdam?’.

What a brilliant suggestion!

Since then the idea has really taken off with 12 community enthusiasts already volunteering to edit special local editions – collectively now called the Community Lover’s Guide To The Universe. Since we brought out Hand Made last August the number of people-led projects has continued to grow and we wanted to explore both the common themes, but also the unique cultural ideas and interpretations from all parts of the world.

We also wanted to start to show how places that are buzzing with community activity and projects are amazing places to live, increasingly more amazing than places with cool architecture or luxury shops. Community brings places alive, gives us new and interesting ways to contribute and connect … and there are signs already that people are finding places that have this creativity and excitement going on highly desirable.

Community can’t be mass produced and it can’t be ‘delivered’. But in rising numbers there are a lot of very excitable people just getting on and making and shaping their local communities for themselves. This series of books will create the opportunity for them to tell their stories, which in turn we hope will encourage other people to put aside any hesitations they might have and get more involved in their neighbourhoods.

So I have a brilliant excuse to get oot and aboot in Glasgae and meet all you community evangelists and capture your stories. Who should I talk to? Where should I go? Who do you think should be in the Community Lover’s Guide to Glasgow?

“It was also interesting to note at a recent Craftscotland conference, titled Craft Connected that contemporary makers were not ashamed to rely on Scottish tropes to generate interest. James Donald, a weaver and one the makers who will be represented at the Craftscotland launch in America, said that he always wears his kilt when promoting his work abroad, and Lauren Currie, Director of the Scottish service design consultancy Snook , said that she is happy to wear her tartan tights when promoting Scottish design.”

Andrea has asked to interview me about the relationship between my work and the notions of ‘Scottishness’ and frankly I can’t wait!

Oh, and here is a translation of the title: “Here’s tae us ; wha’s like us? dam few – and they’re a’ deid! ” = “Here’s to us! Who is as good as us? Damn few and they are all dead”

What are the connections between your roots and your work? and thank you to the beautiful blog that is Scouts Honor for the photograph.

Fiona would like to know about he best example of empathy tools you have used or seen? Fiona is keen to talk to non-designers too so all of you reading who work in governments, schools and charities – tell Fi what you think!

Here’s what you guys came up with…

What would your advice be?

“We are group of friends who decided to start a graphic design blog to keep in touch when we all go our separate ways after education. Some of us are attending further education across Scotland and some of us have taken the next step and got a job. Someone has got to pay for the hosting!We all have our own individual skills within graphic design and separately we aspire to achieve excellence, but together we are a force to be reckoned with. This blog is our way of showing the industry what we can do and why they should be aware of us; amongst other things.

So we welcome you all to follow us, subscribe to us, watch us….Evolve!”

“It gives us a way of showing our work and telling everyone a bit about ourselves. This is what students often don’t get the chance to do”

The real reason people don’t go online is they don’t know how to search. My idea is called Step On. It is the interface between the blank canvas of a search engine and your everyday life.

This service is aimed at people who know about the internet and are fairly competent on computers but say ‘What would I use it for?’ and ‘I don’t know what to search’. I meet so many people ( of all ages ) who think the internet is only for booking holidays and playing games.

I envision this service would be PRE GOOGLE – it would answer questions to determine a range of internet media – videos / audio / visual  / sites / forums related to your ‘interests’ so if you told it you were interested in knitting it would show you all the sites / videos / patterns.

The problem is that when you search google ( until recently ) all the blue links look the same – it’s difficult to tell these are all made up of podcasts, tv programs, articles, films and pictures etc.

Step On shows you how and why the internet is relevant to you. I believe the reason alot of people aren’t online is not because they don’t know how – they just don’t see how it fits into their lives – they don’t know you can watch tv  / listen to music / make new friends / trace family tree/ watch music videos from their childhood etc…. You can’t choose to engage with something if you don’t even know it exists!

“While the battle for digital access is being won, we now face a struggle to convince everyone the net is worth using,” said Professor Richard Rose, of the Oxford Internet Institute.

People give up quickly on search engines – because they don’t know what’s available they don’t know what to look for and so they never understand what the web can do for them. We need a filter because Google is too blank and it’s overwhelming. I think that Google hasn’t yet fully succeeded because of the vast size of their database. Who needs 2 billion matches for Britains Got Talent? Google works brilliantly because the design is so simple and because the sophisticated users discover stuff they like and then people who search for “Web” believe that they’ve got the best answers.

I think we need help. We need Step On – it will ask clarifying questions after you’ve done a bad search. It is an interface for accessible computing that gives the impressions this is not about computers it’s about people and their lives. It makes the web  more accessible by tailoring the results and options to fit in with your life and your interests.

“64 percent of people say they don’t go online because the web’s just “not for them”, says Martha Lane-Fox 

I’m looking forward to connecting with Jemima and sharing my vision for Step On and hopefully playing a small part in creating something extraordinary!

What do you think ? Talk to me…

I first met Siobhan on twitter and since then I have found a friend and a mind that compliments my thinking in a new way. I am excited by the possibilities of our short and sweet conversations already and can’t wait to work with her and explore our ideas.

Siobhan’s blog posts are very real and insightful – particularly her ideas around how policy links to localism and her Dad’s NHS treatment she is bravely sharing with her readers.

Follow her, be inspired and introduce her to people that can add value to the journey she is on!