SDN AMSTERDAM BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL A SUMMARY MIKE PRESS + HAZEL WHITE

Transcription

1 SDN AMSTERDAM BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL A SUMMARY MIKE PRESS + HAZEL WHITE

2 Erik Roscam Abbing opened the conference with the claim that this is the service design age and with 650 people in attendance there is certainly evidence that service design has come of age. Attracting the corporate sector, design agencies, public services and design activists from around the world, this year s SDN Global Conference displayed and celebrated the diverse nature and approaches of service design. our own, necessarily selective, view of the conference highlighted some themes that reveal a maturing of the field and a suggestion of some priorities for the

3 Exploring the craft of service design Many presentations went well beyond a description of techniques, tools and methods into highly reflective and deep notions of the craft of service design. Louisa Szücs Johansson and Olga Sabirova Höjerström provided their insights on the reflective practice of embedded designers as guerrilla negotiators. They highlighted the value of writing critically as a project develops, almost as an auto-ethnography, and posed some vital questions about skill. Geke van Dijk of STBY described the craft of integrating two speeds of innovation as agile methods were interwoven with a service design approach in their work with Google. Some of the best presentations were those that plunged into the mess and contradictions of the service design process with openness and honesty, seeking to make sense of it and define something of the craft of service design. As one person said designers are finally falling in love with the problem and not the

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5 From thing people to people people Twenty years ago Mike s colleague and collaborator Rachel Cooper made the point that too many people in the design world were thing people not people people. They focussed on things - on process, materials, tools, methods - and were far less interested in the people who use those things. Today s world of service design is very much a dominated by people people. A constant theme of the conference was how we understand, co-create and collaborate with people. Erin Muntzert from Google provided a powerful example on the value of getting senior people out doing fieldwork to as a means of building empathy with

6 The Kudoz project described by Jonas Piet and Sarah Schulman of InWithForward was a vivid and at times moving account of working with those with cognitive disabilities. There were many commentaries on projects underpinned by flexible and varied forms of collaboration. As Geke van Dijk explained it's not about textbook roles - clearly it is about appreciating and exploring the nuanced craft of collaboration. Award winner Gayle Rice summarised it - service design: "it's all about the

7 Diverse cultures of service design Service design may have its academic roots in Europe, but we are seeing evidence of varied cultures of service design blooming around the world, drawing on other cultures for methods and approaches, adapting to the specific needs and affordances of various cultures, and in so doing providing insights that we can all benefit from. Cathy Huang and Xue Yin of Shanghai based agency China Bridge provided an early and radical example of how the pain of using western service design led them to develop a whole new service design culture. FutureGov s collaboration with the Office of the Prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, brilliantly presented by Simone Carrier and Muna Al Dabbah focused on the need to understand local cultures and develop outcomes that reflect their specific nature. This was also a lesson detailed by Stefano Bianchini and Felipe Cabezas in their account of designing approaches to micro financing in

8 From cowboys to farmers In her talk, Romy van den Broek said that service designers are farmers. This got Mike thinking about the case made recently by Brian Eno that creative people can be divided between farmers and cowboys. The former has a patient and intimate relationship with the tools and materials of their practice, and has a wealth of learned knowledge and experience to draw upon. The latter works largely in new territories with far less knowledge and experience, and improvises with what is available to

9 Service design requires both farmers and cowboys. A constant search for new territories could pull destructively at the bonds of community and sense of common purpose that have been established, while the focused cultivation of one creative territory would seem to negate any sense of progress. While we will always need those riding the range of new ideas and experimental approaches, service design has clearly evolved into a more settled, nurturing, reflective and knowledgeable set of practices. There is a body of knowledge (evidenced in Touchpoint), emphasis on reflection and evaluation (demonstrated in the Public Sector Impact Report launched at the conference) and locally based practices (from London to Los Angeles, Cairo to Caracas) demonstrating our role as productive farmers of service

10 We are designing the experience of living and working From the Service Design Network Global Conference 2016 one key issue became very clear - embedded within the nature of our practice is a moral imperative. Engineers put technology first. Accountants put the bottom line first. Managers put organisational needs first. Marketers put selling first. Politicians put the party first. We are amongst those few agents of change that put people first. Much of what we do is working with others to design the experience of living and working, and as such ours is a political and moral practice. We design work. We design play. We design getting things done. We should be encouraged by keynote speaker Arash Aazami who called on us to turn impossibilities into possibilities and to democratise our economy. In a troubled world service design should raise its aspirations and make clearer its ethical principles to be a movement for inclusive progressive change in human

11 Service design: making a big difference in a small city Mike s presentation from the SDN Members day is available here:

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13 Hazel sketch noted many of the presentations to share with the Open Change team - feel free to use as you

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29 And a standing ovation for

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