Service Design
Service Design is an emerging discipline that is seeing increasing prominence in the design curriculum today. Many management schools across the world have started embracing design and innovation as a core offering to serve societal needs. In India, this trend has also been evolving gradually.
The idea behind this initiative is to promote “Social Innovation”.
What is the Victoria India Service Design Jam?
The inaugural Victoria India Service Design Jam was conceptualized to promote the concept of “Service Design” in India. The Jam was conceived and co-organized by Design Providence – a multidisciplinary design practice based in Victoria, and Eureka Moment Design Company—a multidisciplinary design company in Mumbai, with support from the Victorian Government through the Trade Engagement Program, Spice Mobility, and Assocham National Design Committee.
The primary charter of the Jam is to enable participants to design a service to solve a social problem that can then be created by manufacturers.
The Victoria India Design Jam was a three day online workshop between July 20 – 22rd 2011, inviting design professionals and students to utilize service design strategies in social innovation to design a service to solve a social problem. The Jam brought together the Melbourne Service Design Network, Mumbai designers organized by Eureka Moment Design Company, and design students at the Indian National Institute of Design (NID), and was jointly hosted by State of Design Festival and Design Providence.
Format of the workshop
The event was held at the Royal Exhibition Buildings, Carlton, Victoria, Fariyas Hotel, Mumbai, and NID, Ahmedabad. 60 designers from India, (the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad and professional designers from Mumbai) were connected to 20 workshop participants in Melbourne through Skype.
A common brief was provided to both Victorian and Indian participants. The subject of the brief was only announced at the launch of the Jam at the State of Design Festival opening night. All designers had 48 hours to work with their local and overseas counterparts to design a solution. The most promising solution will be announced as the winner.
What subject area did the Jam address?
On Wednesday July 20, 2011, the Victorian Minister of Innovation opened the conference and announced to all the teams over live video conference, the topic of the Victoria India Service Design Jam—Design for Growth, with a subtext of social innovation.
The teams from Melbourne, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad then spent the first day with Exploration and Discovery of the subject of Growth and brainstorming initial concepts to create a service experience around. The next day was spent Defining the concept into a more clarified idea. Groups researched their ideas in more detail, outlining personas, user touchpoints, and then entering the Development phase of refining the service model and storyboard. On the final day, business models were put into place and preparations went on full swing for the Deliver stage-final submissions.
What was the outcome of the Jam?
The teams approached the topic of Growth from several different angles, from facilitating opportunities for growth, to rural growth, to education and personal growth. Some of the concepts included creating an online portal linking young entrepreneurs to resources in starting their own businesses, a mobile application for finding friends to share a car pool with, and creating a food hub as a centre for community building.
