pre:design
Collaborations between Service Design and businesses require introduction and understanding of Service Design for projects to flow effectively. pre:design does exactly that. We have created a platform for discussion, providing introductory insights into the Service Design process, project structure and the role designers play. The results is more informed clients and more effective services.
Collaborations between Service Design and businesses require introduction and understanding of Service Design for projects to flow effectively. pre:design does exactly that. We have created a platform for discussion, providing introductory insights into the Service Design process, project structure and the role designers play. The results is more informed clients and more effective services.
pre:design explores the crossroads that Service Design continually finds itself at. There has been substantial work into providing foundations, a base for all of the collaborating disciplines to build from. Now we are seeing a shift towards the future, to shaping the discipline into a working model of what service design will become, what it will be involved in and what it will work to achieve.
As a debutante preparing to make her entrance into the Service Design community, Kirsty wanted to scope the directions and planned routes that the discipline is taking. There is a lot of talk about movement, and one of the biggest shifts she discovered was the planned introduction of Service Design and design thinking into large organisations across the public and private sectors. From government-run educational bodies to international chartered accountants, plans are being made to incorporate in-house teams of designers and design-thinkers into previously non-design related roles.
Design, and especially the intangible aspects of Service Design, cannot simply be placed into an organisation or business. The process and methods used need to be understood, if not completely then at least to some extent, by those who the work will affect. pre:design offers the change for designers to transfer their methods, and for the organisations to explore the routes that Service Designers take, and begin to incorporate their thinking into current plans and projects across all levels of the organisation.
pre:design works as a workshop, exploring how Service Design can be harnessed, what it achieves, what the role of designers is and how the discipline can work for organisations who see themselves as ‘non-designers’
It does this through five stages; a two minute introductory video, a group activity of scoping a future for their organisation unrestricted by finances using a large wall chart entitled ‘in an ideal world’, another to gather current on-goings and planned projects and do begin to categorise these by the type of work which they involve using postcards and coloured, graphical stickers. The fourth activity is intended to be more personal and reflective, encouraging the individual participants to discuss what they can bring to projects, what they are already good at, and what they would like to develop.
This is done through a series of flashcards, each holding a particular inclination, skill or way of working. Each participant picks five, and describes to the group why they would like to be associated with these skills in the future. pre:design ends with a take-away postcard for participants, featuring the main learnings of the session; points to remember and areas to think over.
We are very interested in what pre:design can become, who it will involve and what we will all learn from it. If you’d like to be involved, please get in touch!
