How I got into service design
I love designing services. I enjoy doing it for my job and helping others to learn the skills and to think more holistically. I believe it can help make the world a better place. More and more people have started asking me about how I got into service design and I thought I’d share my story.
During my undergraduate degree at Simon Fraser University, I took a design course where I learned about Experience Design. It inspired me to design whole experiences with joined up channels and not just the touch points we interact with. Just like I wasn’t so interested in making another lamp or chair as we’ve already designed so many in this world, I wasn’t satisfied with the idea of only building more digital apps and websites. I wanted to help fix broken systems and to think about the spaces in-between products.
Pursuing a degree in Interactive Arts & Technology helped me learn to work well under pressure, for tight deadlines and in multidisciplinary teams. I am thankful to have acquired a wide range of tools and skills. I also completed a joint major in Communications which honed my ability and interest in research, writing and documenting experiences. After digging further into Experience Design, I came across Service Design and knew it was the right career for me. I felt the skills I learned from university and being part of student organizations helped set me up well to become a service designer.
Around that time in 2012, I went to Malmö, Sweden to study abroad for 6 months. Living outside of Canada for the first time opened my eyes to the different systems and cultures of these countries abroad. I was fascinated by the Swedish recycling system and transport systems that took me to different places. In fact, I travelled to 15 countries during those 6 months.
When I returned, I bought the This is Service Design Thinking book and devoured as much service design content as I could find online. I was inspired by the work done at Adaptive Path, Livework and Cooper. I participated in my first Global Service Jam in Vancouver in 2013 and absolutely loved it. After I graduated in 2014, I applied to internships across Europe and landed one at Snook in Glasgow, Scotland. In fact, I found their case study in the Service Design Thinking book. I always wanted to return to Europe and Canada was still very new to service design, so this was my opportunity to kickstart my career as a service designer.
Going abroad and interning at Snook was one of the best experiences I ever had. I learned so much and I felt I was in the right place. I started to feel like I belonged to a worldwide service design community and it was so vibrant, optimistic and supportive.
Since then, I’ve worked as a Service Designer at the Department for Work & Pensions in the UK government. I ran internal service design training with the Government Digital Service (GDS) to civil servants across the North of England. I organized many Global Service Jams and GovJams in Glasgow, Leeds and Ghent. I ran CycleHack in Glasgow and Leeds, an event that applies service design techniques to help reduce barriers to cycling.
Now I am the lead UX and Service Designer at Ingenico in Belgium, helping to transform a technology-focused company into a user-centred organization. It’s a new challenge to help the company adopt a mindset focused on people’s needs, to use research to test assumptions and to co-design new products and service together with employees, merchants and end users.
What led you to service design?
