The aim of the course is to train students in the overall design of a product-service system, with a particular focus on the design aspects of services and on their manifestation in physical and digital touchpoints. The Product Service-System Design Studio is divided into theoretical lessons and laboratory activities: it guides students in identifying and formulating a problem, in developing a "concept" and its technical feasibility, with activities carried out in teams. It focuses on current issues and it dialogues with actual realities and actors, through structured forms of context analysis and the co-design of ideas. It integrates different disciplinary contributions and provides the opportunity to apply design methods and tools in practice

Students:
- know and understand the theory and tools of service design and of the design of physical and digital touch points, the techniques and tools of field research and co-design
- know how to make design synthesis and render it effectively;
- know how to develop, independently and in groups, product/service system projects, by sharing and communicating the design choices , developing aptitudes to negotiation, leadership and conflict management;
- know how to manage problems that are not strictly inherent to the addressed issues in the teaching transferring what has been learned.

How to design meaningful experiences? How to manage those tangible and intangible elements that make memorable and flawless a service? How to map all the actors and the boundaries of the ecosystem in which a product-service system is placed? How to make user’s and provider’s interactions better or even involve them in a co-design process? How to handle real innovation through product-service system?

These are the main questions the course wants to give an answer.

The students will be asked to give reply to a brief by managing the complexity of the reality in which we live, relying on an iterative, user-centered, co-creative, holistic and very prototype-based process.

In a methodological path, supported by specific design tools, the students will be guided in the understanding of the real needs and expectations of the users and of the advantages for the service providers; they will be helped in the creation and delivery of real value for users and in the definition of efficient and efficace interactions; finally and most importantly they will be led through a trial-and-error process aiming to define the minimum viable service of their proposal and in to prove their ideas in the real world.

In the activities the students will face the following tasks:

• to read and reframe a brief
• to detect opportunities or to define and formulate a problem
• to make on field and on desk research
• to develop scenarios and concepts
• to prototype and test solutions
• to deliver final proposal

Contributes by different disciplines will be integrated to support the students in delivering meaningful work at each stage: research, idea generation, PSS development, prototyping and delivering. These stages will correspond to assignments and deliveries which will be evaluated step by step and contribute to the final evaluation.

Moreover this studio has been conceived to challenge young designers to take position respect to the topic assigned, to the meaning and importance of innovation, to its effect on society and to the need of including the user and stakeholders in the design process.

More specific details about the year’s topic, the calendar and the precise evaluation methods will be delivered to the students as soon as they will be available.  

Course's rules

Attendance is mandatory: only a maximum of 3 absences will be allowed. Participation to the collective presentations and the moments of delivery of the assignments are mandatory.

Assignments cannot be delivered or presented in dates different than those scheduled in the course’s calendar that will be provided at the start of the course. 

There are no pre-requisites for attendance.

Students will work in small teams, each one developing an original project: the final evaluation will be the average of the marks obtained in the assignments, with a possible positive-negative variation of 2 points related to the group and individual attitude and improvement in class all along the course (see final point in this section).

Each assigment will generate a specific output that students will have to explain and illustrate in presence, using a variable mix of visual materials (digital presentations, mock-ups, posters and printed documents, written reports).

The assessment criteria for this course will be based upon the student's capability to get into the topic, and to generate and develop innovative ideas following and interpreting the process suggested by the instructors.

A good capability of team working and a pro-active participation to the course will be also considered very positively.