<update 3 Febr 2011>
About 12 SPD Master students have written an essay, as part of the Context&Conceptualisation (C&C) course, about the relation Service Design and their Master Strategic Product Design (SPD) at the TU Delft. Here are a few observations of what our students think. In general they think that they learn useful philosophy and methodologies for all kinds of design, including service design. They seem very interested in service design; none of them is critical towards this emerging discipline. One student even suggests that SPD, without the 'P' is SD; service design. Especially the methods in C&C are highly valued to deploy in service design projects. Other courses mentioned within SPD which address service design methods and tools are: Market/Consumer Research, Brand&Product Strategy, Brand Driven Innovation, and within the DfI course Exploring Interactions, Interactive Technology Design, Visual Communication Design and Rich Visualisations.
Overall they would like to gain more EXPERIENCE with the methods and tools. For example one student explained that in the course Design Strategy Project they apply contextmapping tools, but without involving actual users and stakeholders, which makes it a rather abstract exercise or to be able to combine several methods. Suggestions for new Masters, electives and other courses are mainly;
<update 15 Nov 2011>
In February-April 2012 a new elective course, service design process (ID5665) will be given for Master students. In this course students will learn the current developments in the design disciplines relating to designing for services and what tools and methods are used in the designing for services. The course will consist of many guest lecturers from practice followed by in-depth discussions about topics in the lectures. E.g., the missing expertise such as service business modelling, and prototyping back-end will be included by inviting guest lecturers. for more info contact:
f.sleeswijkvisser@tudelft.nl or p.j.stappers@tudelft.nl
As an appendix of the SD memo, here is a list of related links:
overview of service design studios in NL
overview of service design studios in UK
overview of related service design academic groups
related literature & networks
recent visited conferences
forums & blogs