What is service design?
Service design involves working collaboratively with citizens from the outset of a challenge, issue or opportunity to really understand what is going on and then continually working collaboratively to achieve innovative solutions.
The Improvement Service (IS) define service design in local government as:
An inclusive, person-centered approach to creating innovative, accessible services that meets everyone's real needs. It shifts the traditional local authority approach to solving problems from designing for people to designing with people across diverse communities.
As a result, local authorities can identify new ideas that address what is really needed in the community to measurably improve people's lives while delivering efficient services.
Service design is not unique to local government and is an approach used across both the public and private sector. There are fundamental principles to service design that make it successful, however, it is important to highlight that different organisations and even Council services will adapt the approach to meet their own needs. The Double Diamond model, designed by the British Design Council in 2005 provides a framework for service design that underpins many approaches. The Scottish Approach to Service Design is a good example of how the Double Diamond model can be adapted to meet individual needs. Here at the IS we have been building our knowledge and skills for our own areas of work and thought we would share our approach in case others find it helpful.
Why service design?
Service design stops local authorities from speculating about what people need by placing emphasis on collaboration to design services through a citizen lens, leading to more innovative and effective solutions that better meet the needs of citizens.
The IS acknowledge that the operating context of Scottish local authorities is facing challenging and complex times. Therefore, councils must make efficient use of resources and work with citizens to ensure services are inclusive, accessible and tackle inequalities to improve people’s lives.
Some notable benefits of embedding service design processes in local authorities include:
- Reduced risk by spending less time and money generating ideas and only investing resource in ideas that will create meaningful change
- Tackles inequality through inclusive and accessible services
- Builds a more positive and trusting relationship between local authorities and citizens
- Creates efficient and streamlined end to end service journeys
- Uncovers deep insights and data about challenges local authorities are facing to discover the root causes in complex systems
- Improves short and long term planning for local authorities
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The Scottish Approach to Service Design
The vision for the Scottish Approach to Service Design is that the people of Scotland are supported and empowered to actively participate in the definition, design and delivery of their public services (from policy making to live service improvement).
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The Double Diamond (Design Council)
The Double Diamond is a visual representation of the design and innovation process. It’s a simple way to describe the steps taken in any design and innovation project, irrespective of methods and tools used.