The aim of the course is to train students in the advanced and executive design of a product-service system: from the identification of design opportunities to the generation of ideas, from development to prototyping in the field. The Final Synthesis Design Studio provides useful tools to interpret in a critical and personal manner the themes of the project in the wider context of the ongoing cultural, social and technological transformations. Students are asked to elaborate an original project working in teams, with particular attention to semantic, functional, typological and technical aspects, as well as to define the elements of economic feasibility.

Students:
- know and understand the theory and tools of the product-service system project interepreting the dynamics of multicultural and multidisciplinary interaction;
- know how to grasp the implications of one's own design choices in relation to business, market, society and environment; make design synthesis; visualize product-service systems through elaborate narratives; organize a prototyping;
- are able to develop and interpret, independently and in groups, project issues, sharing and communicating the design choices, developing aptitudes to negotiation, teambuilding, leadership and conflict management;
- know how to manage problems that are not strictly inherent to the issues addressed in the teaching by transferring what has been learnt.

SERVICE DESIGN FOR BETTER FUTURES
Imagining services for the cities and the citizens of tomorrow

How can service design contribute to creating a better society?
What are the main drivers that can guide future service solutions?

What are the challenges that service designers can face to shape the services of tomorrow?

Our daily life is conditioned by social, environmental, and cultural changes that have a significant impact on our choices, on our consumption behaviors, on the context in which we live.

Accepting the definition of Herbert Simon that design is the transformation of existing conditions into favorite ones, how do we imagine the future for cities, companies, organizations, professions, as well as for governments?

What does it mean to live in a better society? It can be referred to open paradigms, technological improvements, a stronger social cohesion as well as new forms of democracy, just to mention a few examples.

We believe that designers can have an active role in creating a better future, considering both positive expectations and critical aspects. In other words, we need to define a scenario in which to imagine the possible changes. For example, what services would we need if we had reduced access to resources? What services should the city provide in facing a growing aging population? How are services transformed with rapid technological changes?

The Final Studio 'Service Design for Better Futures' develops around these reflections.

Students will be able to respond to new needs, new technological paradigms, new management methods, new skills useful for the development of services ready to face the current and future social, economic, political, and environmental challenges.

The field of experimentation is the city considered as an experimental laboratory of ideas, a place where changes happen with great rapidity. Thus, cities are key places where cultural, social, and entrepreneurial changes take place.
Students will work in three main areas:
1- Sustainability / circularity
2- Wellbeing / Care
3- Cultural experiences

The challenge is to develop city-based solutions that are related to the emerging needs and behavior of citizens. The idea is to share a common scenario in which service design can support public and private organizations to promote innovation at the urban level reflecting on how services can help our journey.

Objectives

To design services that are sustainable (in a wider perspective), reliable, innovative, and related to a vision of a possible city of tomorrow. The idea is to create a wider scenario in which all the ideas can be included, to discuss how service design can contribute to creating a better society.

Structure and organization

The design process will be structured as follows:

1. Framing the context: exploring design scenarios and existing experiences
2. Understanding the user contexts (Design ethnography/field research)
3. Generating service ideas
   
4. Prototyping and validating ideas
5. Identifying business models
6. Defining and developing service ideas
7. Finalizing service ideas

The different phases will involve different learning modules such as lectures, hands-on workshops, and project reviews.

In particular, the activities will be focused on:

1. Framing the context: exploring scenarios and existing experiences

The initial part of the Studio will be dedicated to building a common framework about possible futures through scenarios creation and case studies research. This preliminary research will help students in defining an innovation area in which to develop new service ideas.

2. Understanding the users (Design ethnography/field research)

The Scenario will be validated through field research. It is aimed at generating insights that will support the idea generation.

2. Generating service ideas

Students will work on a generative phase in order to find promising ideas and service areas to be developed in the future steps.

4. Prototyping and evaluating ideas

Concepts will be validated and developed at their early stage through different prototyping stages. In particular, a dedicated workshop will be structured to support these activities.
Ideas will also be refined through user tests and other loops of applied ethnography.

5. Defining and developing service ideas

Service ideas will be described and developed in all their components. Front stage and backstage activities will be considered as well as digital and physical touchpoints.

6. Identifying business models

The service ideas will be also described and designed around a business model that will be explored, identified, and detailed throughout the Final Studio journey. The economic feasibility of the project will be evaluated.

7. Finalizing service ideas

As the last step, the ideas will be prototyped and visualized in order to describe the solutions as a complex system that includes back-office activities (related to the organizational level), and the front-office area (system of interactions and touchpoints).

Solutions can be physical or digital or combine both of these aspects.

Suggested books and articles

Bradwell, P. & Marry, S. (2008). Making the most of collaboration: An international survey of public service co-design. DEMOS and PriceWaterhouse Coopers Public Sector Research Centre 2008. London. Report.

Brown, T., (2009). Change by design: how design thinking transforms organizations and inspires innovation. New York: HarperCollins.

Burns C., Cottam H., Vanstone C., Winhall J. (2006). “Transformation Design”, RED paper 02, Design Council, London.

IDEO (2009). Human Centered Design, Toolkit. Available at: http://www.ideo.com/work/featured/human-centered-design-toolkit  [last accessed: 31 January 2010]

Foglieni F., Villari B, Maffei, S., (2017). Designing better services. A strategic approach from design to evaluation. Springerbriefs In Applied Sciences And Technology, Switzerland: Springer

Fry, T. (2011). Design as Politics, Berg Publishers. Oxford & New York

Fry, T. (2009). Design Futuring, Sustainability, Ethics and New Practice University of New South Wales Press Ltd, Sydney Australia

Jones, M. & Samalionis, F. (2008). “From Small Ideas to Radical Service Innovation”, Design Management Review, Vol. 19, N.1.

Ladner, S. (2016). Practical Ethnography: A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector, Routledge

Lockwood, T. (2010). Design thinking: Integrating innovation, customer experience, and brand value. New York: Allworth

Manzini, E. (2015). Design when everybody designs, MIT Press

Moritz, S. (2005). Service Design – Practical Access to an Evolving Field. Cologne: Köln International School of Design.

Murray, R., Caulier, G. & Mulgan, G. (2010). The Open Book of Social Innovation. The Young Foundation and NESTA.

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., In Clark, T., & Smith, A. (2010). Business model generation: A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers.

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., Smith, A. and Papadakos, T. (2014) Value Proposition Canvas. Wiley, Hoboken.

Polaine, A., Løevli, L., & Reason, B. (2013). Service Design – From insight to implementation. New York: Rosenfeld Media.

Reason, B., Lovlie, L. and Brand Flu, M. (2015) Service Design for Business: A Practical Guide to Optimizing the Customer Experience.

Sanders, E. (2009). “Co-creation through generative design thinking”. Keynote speech video at IASDR Conference 2009 – Available at: http://www.iasdr2009.com/m42.asp

Stickdorn, M. & Schneider, J. (2011). This is Service Design Thinking: Basics - Tools – Cases. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers

Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M.E., Lawrence, A., Schneider, J. (2018). This is Service Design Doing, O’Reilly Media

Thackara, J. (2006). In the bubble: Designing in a complex world. Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Villari B., (2013), A community centred approach for neighbourhood-based services. Connecting design education and research practices for social innovation. 5th IASDR, Tokyo

Links

Service Design Books http://www.servicedesignbooks.org/

Service Design Toolkit http://www.servicedesigntoolkit.org/downloads.html

Service Design Tools http://www.servicedesigntools.org/

Service Design Doing Methods https://www.thisisservicedesigndoing.com/methods

To attend the Final Synthesis Laboratory, students must pass the 1st year laboratories.

Evaluation criteria

The final assessment and grade will be assigned to students individually and will be based on:

- results of the mid-term review

- the quality of the final project developed in the group

- the active participation of singles to every activity of the studio

- the capacity to communicate and tell the story of the project and its development

- the grade of innovation embedded in the solution proposed and the coherence with the Studio topic

During the new conditions of blended activities, the capacity to manage the teamwork will also be considered as an element to be evaluated.

Final exam

The final exam will require students to hand in:

- a synthetic presentation of the work done (ppt, pdf, video, and so on) + (if relevant) mock-ups of physical service touchpoints

- an experience prototyping of the service in the form of a video.

- a booklet describing the synthesis of the service developed.

More specific indications on each of these deliverables will be given during class.

Online tools will be available for the students in order to work collaboratively also in distributed teams.