How is design changing? What is the role of the designer in 2014 and what are her responsibilities? Above all, where does design start and where does it end in these days? Kindly invited by the strategic design consultancy IXDS, we kicked-off 2014’s first service design meet-up by discussing fundamentals, exploring how we work and making plans of what to do different in the new year. January seemed to be the appropriate month to have such an attempt.

1. IXDS / JANUARY 22, 2014
Service
Design
Drinks
On Design,
Design Roles &
Responsibilities

2. Who are we?
Katrin
PhD Candidate,
University of
Potsdam
Olga
Business
Consultant
Manuel
Freelance
Service
Designer
Martin
User Experience,
Nokia / HERE

3. What is design?
Who is a designer?

4. “Design is not for philosophy, it’s for life.”
— I S S E Y M I YA K E
Fashion Designer

5. “To design is to devise courses of action
aimed at changing existing situations
into preferred ones.”
— HERBERT A. SIMON
Nobel Laureate in Economics

6. “To design is to plan, to order, to relate
and to control.”
— EMIL RUDER
Swiss typographer

7. MODEL
Design ladder for evaluating design maturity
Stage 3: Design as strategy
Design forms a part of
the organisation’s
strategy
Stage 2: Design as process
Design is a part of
product development and
other processes
Stage 1: Design as styling
Design is used for
improving the appearance
of products or services
Stage 0: No design
Design plays no role in
product or service
development
— B. De Mozota (2003): The Economic Effects of Design, 2003; Design Creates Value, 2007); Icons: Olivier Guin

8. MODEL
Relationships between a design function and
the larger supported organisation
Separate
Design as
external
resource
— S. Junginger (2012)
Peripheral
Design as part
of the
organisation
Central
Design at the
core of the
organisation
Integrated
Design
integral to all
aspects of the
organisation

9. MODEL
Level of Complexity
Stratification of
Design (Thinking)
Artefact
Product
Interior
Fashion
Jewellery
— S. Di Russo (2013): http://ithinkidesign.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/design-wars/
Graphic
Web & New Media

10. Artefact
Example: car2go’s Smarts
Fashion
Graphic
Interior
Jewellery
Product
Web & New Media
— Photo: Daimler AG (2012)

11. MODEL
Level of Complexity
Stratification of
Design (Thinking)
Artefact &
Experience
Engineering
Interaction Design
Human Computer Interaction
User Experience
Anthropological Design
Human Centred Design
Artefact
Product
Interior
Fashion
Jewellery
— S. Di Russo (2013): http://ithinkidesign.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/design-wars/
Graphic
Web & New Media

12. Artefact &
Experience
Example: car2go’s mobile app
Anthropological Design
Engineering
Interaction Design
Human Centred Design
Human Computer Interaction
User Experience

13. MODEL
Stratification of
Design (Thinking)
Level of Complexity
Systems &
Behaviour
Urban Planning
SMEs
Service Design
Strategic Design
Architecture
Culture
Artefact &
Experience
Engineering
Interaction Design
Human Computer Interaction
User Experience
Anthropological Design
Human Centred Design
Artefact
Product
Interior
Fashion
Jewellery
— S. Di Russo (2013): http://ithinkidesign.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/design-wars/
Graphic
Web & New Media

14. Systems &
Behaviour
Example: car2go’s car access system
Architecture
Culture
Service Design
SMEs
Strategic Design
Urban Planning
— Photo: Daimler AG (2012)

15. MODEL
Stratification of
Design (Thinking)
Large
Scale
Systems
Policy Design
Systems Design
Environment
Public Service Infrastructure
Level of Complexity
Systems &
Behaviour
Urban Planning
SMEs
Service Design
Strategic Design
Architecture
Culture
Artefact &
Experience
Engineering
Interaction Design
Human Computer Interaction
User Experience
Anthropological Design
Human Centred Design
Artefact
Product
Interior
Fashion
Jewellery
— S. Di Russo (2013): http://ithinkidesign.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/design-wars/
Graphic
Web & New Media

16. Large Scale
Systems
Example: Dedicated parking spaces
for car sharing in Berlin
Environment
Policy Design
Public Service Infrastructure
Systems Design

17. QUOTE
“Always design a thing by considering it in
its next larger context – a chair in a room,
a room in a house, a house in an environment,
an environment in a city plan.”
— EERO SAARINEN
Architect

18. DEFINITION
“Design is a creative activity whose aim is
to establish the multi-faceted qualities of
objects, processes, services, and their systems
in whole life cycles.”
— INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL SOCIETIES OF
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
‘ D e f i n i t i o n o f D e s i g n’

19. DEFINITION
“Design is composing an epic poem, executing a
mural, painting a masterpiece, writing a
concerto. But design is also cleaning and
reorganising a desk drawer, pulling an impacted
tooth, baking an apple pie, choosing sides for a
backlot baseball game, and educating a child.”
— V I C TO R PA PA N E K
D e s i g n e r, A u t h o r

20. MODEL
The expanding role of the designer
over history
Pre-industrial society: design-craftsperson
Industrial revolution: separation of making and styling
1960s:
1970s:
Designers work in multi-disciplinary teams
Designers as “end-user expert”, Papanek’s book
1980s:
Design & business innovation, design management
1990s:
Experience and brand, the internet
— L. Tan (2009): Seven ‘new’ roles designers are playing in public life:
http://imagination.lancaster.ac.uk/downloads/_assets/dpc2009/presentations/Lauren_Tan_DPC2009.pdf

21. MODEL
Seven ‘new’ roles of designers
Designer as co-creator
Designer as researcher
Designer as communicator
Designer entrepreneur
Designer as capability builder
Designer as facilitator
Designer as strategist
— L. Tan (2009): Seven ‘new’ roles designers are playing in public life:
http://imagination.lancaster.ac.uk/downloads/_assets/dpc2009/presentations/Lauren_Tan_DPC2009.pdf

22. “Designers as …
• entrepreneur
• good listener & best friend
• detail observer &
curiosity hero
• motivator
• prototyper
— NANCY BIRKHÖLZER
Managing Partner at IXDS
• team builder
• transformer
• futurist
• idealist &
realist
• facilitator.”

23. “Facilitation, facilitation, facilitation! If service
design is truly co-creative, then THE key skill of
service designers is … facilitation.
Your most important task as a service design
facilitator is to realise that everyone else in the
room is the expert. Not you. All you can do is help
them move forward.”
— A D A M S TJ O H N L A W R E N C E
Co-initiator of Global Service Jam
Founding Partner Work•Play•Experience

24. “The most effective roles designers can play are
about interpretation / translation – observing
human behaviour and interpreting that into
actionable opportunities […] matchmaking
between what a business is trying to achieve and
what the people at the other end need / want /
can handle.”
— LOUISA HEINRICH
Strategist, Speaker, Instigator

25. MODEL
Designer’s roles in a design team
Investigator
Catalyst
Communicator
Manager
Artist
— Northumbria University (2009): Designer’s Roles in a Design Team:
http://www.designcollaboration.org/resources/roles/designer-roles.php

26. Exercise

27. EXERCISE
Designer’s role in a
(design) team
7 min
Understand your fellow
group members
The names of my fellow
group members are …
What do they like
most about group work?
What do they dislike
most about group work?
What personality traits
make a good team player?
What personality traits
make a bad team player?
— Icons: Juan Garces, Prerak Patel / The Noun Project

28. EXERCISE
Designer’s role in a
(design) team
10 min
Discuss team roles,
state preferred team roles
As an individual which roles
do we like?
As an individual which roles
do we dislike?
As an individual which roles
do we want to improve
upon?
Who would have which role
in the team?

29. Take-away

30. Take-away
Bring design to the next level
Find your role, refine your role during
each process
Don’t stick to given definitions of design,
everybody can design

31. Reading recommendations
Victor
Papanek:
‘Design for
the real
world’
V&A Museum:
ThinkTank:
The Future
Designer
Howard
Gardner:
‘Five Minds
for the
Future’
Lauren Tan:
‘The
different
roles of the
designer and
their value’

32. Where are you
good at? Where
do you want to
improve in?
servicedesignberlin.de
@SD_Berlin
fb.com/servicedesignberlin