Design for change — Highlights from the Service Design Global Conference 2023
Authors
Andrea Goebel, Lisa Gumprich, Chu-Yi Vuong
The Service Design Global Conference is one of the most renowned conferences in the field of service design. For the 2023 conference in Berlin, IBM iX partnered with the Service Design Network (SDN) as a main supporter of the event. We were delighted to host a pre-event, workshops and to have Billy Seabrook represent IBM iX on stage with a keynote speech.
This year’s theme was “Catalyst for Change” and the conference explored the role of service design in times of change and disruption. Innovation, digitization, and environmental shifts are changing the way we live and work and service transformation is at the forefront of this change by creating new service experiences that benefit people, the planet and organizations.
For us, the following topics stood out throughout the conference and we would like to share some of our personal highlights, insights and key takeaways in this article:
- AI & GenAI
- Sustainability
- Healthcare
AI as a driver for change
The role of AI is rapidly expanding in our design practice. AI and generative AI were the hot topics throughout the conference. The various talks & discussions circled around two perspectives:
1- Impact of AI on our work as designers augmentation, e.g. the design process
2- To design AI-driven experiences, e.g. responsibly, trustworthy design
On pre-conference day, we shared our experience in design for AI with conference attendees in our workshop “Designing Services in the Age of AI”. We drew from different methods from EDT and Design for AI and explored with the participants how to design trustworthy AI experiences. We structured the activities along Purpose — Value — Trust — sharing ideas on how to create value for businesses and users alike and how to consider and address critical and ethical questions, like bias, early on in the process. We were amazed to have such a great group of participants from all over the world — Iceland, Ukraine, Canada, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Germany — bringing in their diverse perspectives. It was a truly successful day with great results and great feedback from the participants.
At the conference, several speakers brought their unique perspectives on AI to the forefront. We were proud to have Billy Seabrook, our Global Chief Design Officer at IBM iX, share the IBM point of view on the topic of AI. In his session “AI At Your Service”, Billy took a deep dive into the transformative power of generative AI in the realm of service design. It emphasized how AI has raised the bar for customer experiences, by demanding hyper-personalization, intuitive interactions and empathetic service delivery. He illustrated how generative AI can help design and deliver enhanced services, drawing on practical insights from IBM’s work at the US Open. He also shared his view on how generative AI will augment and accelerate our design process.
That was also Cameron Hanson’s, Strategy Director at Smart Design, take on the topic. She shared her experience in using AI to validate takeaways and provoke ideas during research and concepting. In her talk “Augmented Intelligence: Using Generative AI in Participatory Design,” Cameron shed light on how generative AI can serve as a participatory design tool. Her presentation delved into its potential to foster rich and meaningful interactions with research participants, expedite solution iterations and catalyze innovation. It also addressed the critical aspects of safety, ethics, and bias that need to be balanced when employing AI in this context.
Mauro Rego, Design Lead at Google AI, encouraged us to critically assess AI’s application and prioritize back-of-stage processes, rather than front-line solutions. In his keynote talk, “Designing Services with Generative AI,” he addressed the evolving landscape of generative AI and its applications in service design. He delved into the growing possibilities and implications of this technology, providing designers with a roadmap for effectively integrating generative AI into their service design processes.
It was great to see these three talks come together and collectively provide a comprehensive view of how AI is reshaping the field of service design, offering both practical guidance and critical insights into its potential, ethical considerations and real-world applications.
Putting our planet at the core
The urgency of the climate crisis compels each of us to consider our impact on the planet and for us, how the field of service design can bring a responsibility for the planet into its practices. Many inspiring talks proposed ideas on how we can integrate that into our daily work but something important that we have learned is that we, as service designers, already have the tools to design in a planet-centered way as Miranda de Groot, Service Design Leader for Circularity at IKEA, said.
However, in order to act sustainably, first we need to understand what it entails. As Samuel Huber, Co-Founder of Planet Strategy Lab, said in his talk on “Recalibrating Service Design for a Regenerative Future”, sustainability contains everything that we have at the moment and it is about not making it worse. It is a starting point and a foundation but not enough to call something planet-centered. We need to go a step further and think about regeneration and circularity.
One recurring call to action during the conference was to make our planet one of our stakeholders and most importantly, we were asked to think of the planet as a living user. We are already good at making the needs, pains, emotions and jobs to be dones from users visible to stakeholders and we do that by taking different people who are affected by a service into account. This is at least what we do when designing a service experience but why don’t we do the same for our planet? To make it easier for us, Samuel Huber suggested writing a letter from the planet’s perspective in which wishes and concerns are being addressed to the project team, whereas Miranda de Groot gave the idea of using a toy that represents the planet and physically sits in the room to help us not forget their needs.
But making it tangible is not enough. Designing with the planet at the center means ensuring circularity and therefore regeneration as well. What regeneration means is that we enrich what we have in a meaningful manner (Huber, 2023). To accomplish that, it can be helpful to integrate the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals into the process as well. Thinking about the service design blueprint, it might be worth adding a lane in which we add the Sustainable Development Goals that we would like to tackle within our service. Furthermore, adding another lane to the service blueprint to map out the needs and pains of our planet, as well as thinking about the phase after a service has been used, can assist us in designing in a regenerative manner.
Collaboration in design drives the healthcare sector
The healthcare system faces numerous challenges. Three innovative ideas demonstrated how to design for change in the health sector.
“Change making invites complexity” leads to “opportunities to make waves together.” (Moshovelis, Shebubakar, 2023)
Today agency’s Strategic Design Director, Dewani Shebubakar, and Service Design Lead, Alex Moshovelis, shared insights on how they helped people let down by mental health systems. In their talk “Lived and living experience leading the transformation of an entire mental health and wellbeing service system” we learned about their unique approach to transforming the system. They created a trauma-informed framework with a focus on Safety — Trust — Choice — Collaboration and Empowerment. Therefore they collaborated with a peer group to develop better guidelines based on their own experiences. Of course, changing their habits and learned patterns implied complexity to handle but this gives us the chance to involve all their perspectives for the best help at the end.
”24% of bystanders who experience a life-threatening emergency develop some psychological symptoms, with 7% symptomatic for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).“ (Hellmer, Wehlast, 2023)
Anna Hellmer, Senior Design Lead, and Michelle Wehlast, Psychologist from Falck A/S, collaborated on a project to create a service at the intersection of medical emergencies and mental health. They focused on providing long-term support for families and bystanders and explored ways to equip paramedics to handle this sensitive task. They came up with a pretty effective support kit including a navigation card, on-scene support for first aid and crisis defusing and a follow-up call to assist bystanders in lowering casualties and providing advice.
”An estimated 15–20% of GP consultations relate specifically to skin, yet it is recognized internationally that GPs generally lack adequate training in dermatology.” (Manning, 2023)
Siobhan Manning, Service Innovation & Design Lead at Mater Hospital, highlighted the benefits of collaborative design on the frontline. She asked the question: “How can dermatology education be transformed to provide GPs with alternatives to outpatient appointments?” The outcome was as simple and smart. She presented 3D skin model books to enhance dermatology teaching. A better education about skin conditions can reduce waiting times for patients and improve the healthcare understanding for practitioners.
Following the intriguing talks, the speakers convened in a panel, moderated by David Russo, to deliberate on the future of healthcare and the role of service design in addressing the challenges. They agreed that service design can bridge healthcare gaps and make inclusive care accessible to all.
In summary, the conference proved to be a powerful catalyst in terms of change and expertise, infusing us with a surge of energy and inspiration. Reflecting on the talks, we feel like, it all comes back to what service design is, especially what Lou Downe has mentioned in a keynote at the end of the conference. Designing a service means that we understand how something that we can influence might fit into a service experience that we are not in full control of and to see how we can contribute to help and reduce unpleasant experiences. And as we have learned, the one who is experiencing the service is not only a human being.
It was a lot of fun exchanging ideas with so many passionate people and being part of this amazing group. We are eagerly looking forward to attending the conference again next year in Helsinki.
This article has been co-written by Andrea Goebel, Lisa Gumprich and Chu-Yi Vuong from IBM iX who are based in Germany. The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.
