Abstract
This paper discusses the craft of service design in relation to the outcomes of a workshop held at theInternational ServDes conference at Laurea University, Finland in early 2012. The workshop brought together educators, practitioners and students to explore what skills students shouldbring to a masters level study of service design, and the skills they should acquire through study. The paper discusses the workshop in relation to the literature and suggests that whilst there may be skills, attributes and tools that are shared between design and service design, the ‘craft of service design’ is not exclusively ‘designerly skills’.
The landscape of design is constantly changing. Design, which we have traditionally thought of as focusing on the form and function of artefacts has developed to respond to changes in society, technology and economics, developing new interdisciplinary areas like interaction design and service design to respond to new opportunities and needs.
Service design covers a wide range of different activities, from developing customer experiences to improving healthcare outcomes by including doctors, patients and all those involved in providing ‘a service’ in co- designing the service. The challenges of today’s world mean that designers need to see the big picture, communicate clearly and work with others to innovate – but what skills do they need in order to contribute effectively?
The paper discusses this initial exploration into the skills and attributes which are considered valuable in service design education and argue that a clearer articulation of these is valuable to both the development of service design and design in the broader sense. The paper will discuss the findings of the workshop in relation to literature in the field.
KEYWORDS:service design, education, co-creation,craft, design, skill
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