Design Wales Service Innovation Initative short listed for a Design Week 2012 award

We’re really pleased to announce that our Service Essentials workshop for business has been short listed for the 2012 Design Week Awards in the category of service design. The prestigious awards are judged this year by senior design managers from companies such as; Virgin Atlantic, British Heart Foundation and Fitch.

To find out more about how we are supporting service design in Wales take a look at the programme website: www.theservicedesignprogramme.org

This is the first time that service design has been recognised in the 2012 Design Week Awards, so it’s great to see the practice covered at this level within the more traditional design disciplines such as product design, branding and graphic design.

When we started the pushing service design in Wales we applied the same thinking to our programme about understanding our users, designing it with them and then prototyping many of the touchpoints we created. In doing so we believe we have added real value and provide a well designed service for those businesses engaging with us, it’s great to see that others think so too.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 13th June 2012, you can view the full list of short listed projects here.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 13th June 2012, you can view the full list of short listed projects here.

Service Design Workshop for Design Silesia

 

For most of this week we have a group from Silesia (Poland) here in Cardiff attending a workshop on how to run design-led innovation projects in public services.
The group includes Polish designers and representatives from Design Silesia, who, as part of the Silesian Marshall's Office, are supporting the project. In delivering the programme of training for the Polish designers Design Wales invited Age Cymru into the workshops to provide a real project case study that the delegation will work on to develop their understanding and use of service design tools. At the end of the week the group will return to Silesia to work with three target public services but continue to have support from the Design Wales service design programme as their live projects develop.
With a similar industrial heritage and economic objectives for the future the Welsh Government and the Region of Silesia have a long-standing Memorandum of Understanding to work together and on their first day the group were formally welcomed to Wales by the office of the First Minister from the Welsh Government.


Design Silesia identified this opportunity to work together after hearing about the service design programme that was launched by Design Wales in July 2010. With support from the Welsh Government the service design programme provides both an advisory service to manufactures as well as building capacity for service design in the Welsh design sector.

Design Wales Launches Service Design Website

The Service Design Programme is an initiative developed by Design Wales to help the manufacturing and creative industries apply the latest service innovation techniques to their businesses.

There is a dedicated website for this programme with case studies, project news, service design resources. You can reach this website here: www.testyourservice.co.uk

Service Test App

The site also includes an on-line tool that companies can use to check the quality and cost of their service. It is often the starting point for companies that want to improve their service but simply don't know where to start. Try it for yourself here: www.testyourservice.co.uk/app

Case studies

One company that we have seen service design make a big impact in Aggrelek, an advanced manufacturer from Swansea, you can read all about how they have benefited from the programme here: www.testyourservice.co.uk/blog/news/aggrelek-case-study

Moving From Products To Services with Philips, Nuaire and Aggrelek

Design Wales Service Programme will bring leading industry voices to Wales, the first of our keynote events is due to take place in May and focuses on companies that have shifted from being product focused to service focused.

Book your tickets now: www.fromproductstoservices.eventbrite.com

The event will also showcase examples of great service design within Welsh industry through two manufacturers that have already joined The 90 companies that care about good quality service.

The Service Design Programme...for designers

The Service Design Programme is a new package of support for the creative industries in Wales.

So, what is service design and why does it matter to you?
Well, it matters because we live in a service economy. 66% GVA comes from this sector in Wales compared with 32% from manufacturing. Services are all around us, they play key roles in our lives and generally they aren't designed very well.

But it matters to you because whether you're a freelancer, artist, designer, or run your own design company then you're a service provider. Start by asking yourself these questions; What is the quality of your service like? What do clients say about your service (not your work)? Do clients buy from you more than once?

Service design is a process and set of methods, tools and approaches that can help you answer all of these questions and help you design a better service for your business and your clients.

Design Wales have been funded by the Welsh Assembly Government to provide support and training to businesses that want to innovate their existing services or develop completely new services. Paul Thurston, who leads the programme says "It's come about due to combination of two factors, firstly the growth in the practice of service design across Europe and secondly, the need for companies to think beyond the products they produce and start thinking about the service they provide".

Get involved with the programme
The 'Service Design / For Designers' training programme will launch later this Spring and we are currently looking for 6 Welsh companies from the creative industries to apply for the 6-month course. More information will be available by the end of March but if you would like to register your interest now we will let you know as soon as the application process is open. To do this please email: pthurston@designwales.org

Find out more
These upcoming events will introduce you to the core principles of service design.

Breakfast Seminar
Swansea on 23rd March
Book your place now

Breakfast Seminar
Conwy on 8th April
Book your place now

Design Wales recruiting a Service Designer

Design Wales are looking for an experienced Service Designer to play a role in the development and delivery of a three-year Service Design programme for industry.
The project has the joint focus of developing capability in Wales whilst raising awareness and uptake of Service Design in wider industry (so increasing regional capacity whilst raising demand).
Design Wales have a strong track record in design support, primarily because of our ability to recruit designers who are interested in using their experience to help industry firstly understand design and then manage its use within the unique context of that particular business - these skills build on what's required of a good designer but have a different emphasis.



The advert above will be in DesignWeek for the next two weeks. The deadline is 5pm on 6th July and an application form can be obtained from www.uwic.ac.uk/jobs

Design Wales attend Service Design Conference

The first international Service Design conference in Europe took place in Amsterdam on 24-26 November 2008. Design Wales attended the 2nd day ‘Share’ of the three-day conference organised by the Service Design Network. During the day academic experts and practising service designers shared their knowledge and experiences of service design projects. As Service Design is a relatively new discipline it was especially useful to gain insight into real life projects through the case studies from live|work and Engine.

http://www.service-design-network.org/
http://www.livework.co.uk/
http://www.enginegroup.co.uk/