STBY » education

RCA launch new MA in Service Design

Luke — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:53:17 +0000

The RCA have recently announced that starting next year they’ll be offering a new MA in Service Design. Bas obtained his PhD from the RCA back in 2007, so we know first-hand what a great school it is – and the new program looks like a great introduction to both the theory and practice of the Service Design field.

The proposed program looks to be an interesting mix of theory and ‘real-world’ practice, and we’re really curious as to how popular the course wil prove to be. The deadline for applications isn’t until February 2012 if you’re interested in signing up, and you can find more details on the RCA website by clicking here.

Don’t forget to let us know how you get on if you decide to take the plunge!

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Video installations on socio-techno styles

Geke — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:34:44 +0000

Chelsea College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London, is hosting an exhibition of video installations on Belonging & Belongings. In December Bas and Geke coached an intensive programme with 25 students MA Graphic Design Communications exploring how people express their identities through their physical and virtual possessions. The exhibition opens on 8 February 2011 and runs until the end of this week.

The student project was part of the ongoing Belonging & Belongings collaboration between STBY and the Critical Design Lab in Kyoto, Japan. Belonging & Belongings is an international and interdisciplinary design research programme, exploring the interrelationship between technology, society and sartorial appearances.

For the exhibition 25 MA Graphic Design Communication students of Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, worked on a two week project in December 2010. Five groups of students made a video installation to express the insights they created from their own fieldwork on the Belonging & Belongings topic. In particular they were interested to find out how people enjoy and struggle with the differences they can create between their online and offline identities.

The results are exciting, not only because great insights were created, but also because the stories of these insights are told in new and inspiring ways. This was possible because the students realised they were not mere data-collectors. In stead, they took up the challenge to tell stories. This is important, because even if design research results in great insights, its value will still be low unless these insights are communicated in a compelling way.

Doing design research includes collecting data, and analysing and reflecting on what you have collected. It then results in insights and ultimately knowledge. This however does not mean that the data and the analysis and reflections should remain separate. What the most projects presented here have succeeded in, is using the data to tell engaging stories about the insights and knowledge they have created.

This is the second Belonging and Belongings project of STBY with Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London. The first project in 2009 focused on the magazine as a medium to communicate design research, resulting in 250 printed magazines. The current project explores video installations as a way to communicate design research. With special thanks to Tracey Waller, Course Director MA Graphic Design Communication.

The design research programme of Belonging & Belongings was conceived by three scholars from different backgrounds:

Dr. Geke van Dijk – Strategy Director at STBY London/Amsterdam – specialised in cultural studies and multi-channel social research.

Dr. Daijiro Mizuno – Lecturer and Researcher at Critical Design Lab in Kyoto – specialised in fashion design as a social object and investigates how designers/wearers dress, behave and create their own multiple identities.

Dr. Bas Raijmakers – Creative Director at STBY London/Amsterdam and research fellow at Design Academy Eindhoven – specialised in using documentary film as an analytical and practical means to conduct ethnographic research.

The inclusion of such mixed disciplines in a design research project provokes new approaches to the ways we can understand the complexity of people’s identity in contemporary culture.

For more information on Belonging & Belongings see the project blog.

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Service Experience Lab

Geke — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:01:48 +0000

Immerse yourself in the service experiences of your customers, identify new opportunities for innovation or discuss your service concept ideas with a sample of lead users.

In a bespoke one- or two-day programme we facilitate a lively encounter between your team and a selection of people from your target group. Through a series of well-prepared interactive assignments the participants explore the current and future service experiences of your customers. Your team will be able to closely observe these experiences and build up a deeper understanding of motivations, barriers and unmet needs by engaging in empathic conversations with your customers.

Our studios in central London and central Amsterdam are perfectly situated to host these Service Experience Labs. In London we are close to Liverpool Street station, so very easy to reach, and in the immediate surrounding of both an upmarket business environment and a buzzing creative area. In Amsterdam we are based at Herengracht, within easy reach from Amsterdam Central Station. Both locations have many buzzing streets and venues around, ideal for service safaris and service prototype testing. Of course we can also facilitate service experience labs with your customers at other locations.

The Service Experience Labs are also suitable for teams that wish to familiarise themselves with the service design approach of engaging with customers in an early stage of innovation projects. In a full-day programme we facilitate an exploration of the essential stages of immersion, insight creation and idea generation. The programme will be customised to fit the objectives and prior knowledge of your team members.

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World class pioneers and creative thinkers

Geke — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:15:52 +0000

As one of the first companies to begin creating projects around the principles of design research and service design, STBY have been intimately involved with the ongoing development of these fields of work. We’ve written papers, magazine and book chapters, founded collaborative and information-sharing networks, and given talks at national and international conferences all across the world. This involvement with design research and service design’s continued evolution keeps us at the forefront of the field, as through our work we’re helping to define it.

Pioneers in the service design community

Founded in 2003, STBY was one of the first agencies to conduct design research projects based on the service design philosophy. Our involvement with the user-centered design community dates back even earlier, as our founders have been active in this field since its gradual emergence at the end of the last century.   Service design isn’t ‘owned’ by any one individual or company; it’s an approach that’s founded on the notion of sharing information and developing approaches collaboratively. The projects that STBY conduct are based around this multi-disciplinary field that we’re helping to co-define. We’re constantly adapting new theories and techniques into our fieldwork, and providing feedback as to what works and what doesn’t via publications and conference presentations.

World class connectors

Collaboration and knowledge sharing is the principle underpinning the Service Design Network Netherlands, which STBY initiated and co-founded in 2008. The network allows companies, students, and individuals interested in service design to connect with each other, share ideas, and help define and refine the processes and tools which the approach employs. We’re also long-standing members of the international Service Design Network. We’re regular contributors to their quarterly magazine, Touchpoint, and we’ve given keynote presentations at conferences in various countries. Through our global design research network REACH we have been engaged in presentations on for service providers as far abroad as Japan and Brazil.

To be at the forefront of service design, we feel that it’s essential to be active members of the community that surrounds it. This means we don’t just apply service design principles – we also help develop and refine them, and thus have an intimate understanding of this rapidly developing field.

Looking to the future: helping companies adopt the service design philosophy

As we work towards our first decade of experience in designing and conducting service design projects, we’re beginning to build up long-term relationships with several companies attempting to re-orientate their research programs around service design principles. With several years of experience in running collaborative workshops with companies eager to learn more about how to use the evocative and engaging research materials we produce, we’re ideally placed to assist those organisations looking to implement their own service design programs.

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User-Centered Design across development stages

Geke — Sat, 01 May 2010 18:11:43 +0000

For the University of Amsterdam STBY facilitated a series of workshops with students, lecturers and system operators to inform the iterative development of its new Electronic Learning System (ELO).

The Information Centre of the university, who are developing the ELO based on Blackboard software, wanted to have in-depth conversations with their wide range user groups throughout the development process of the new ELO. STBY prepared a series of 3 workshops were the participants explored and discussed the various options and iterative prototypes for the new ELO.

To keep everyone active and focused, the programmes for the sessions were based on a fast paced cycle of group assignments, plenary discussions and individual feedback. The participants had access to the ELO in progress, so they could follow the development in various stages.

Over the course of 6 months 3 workshops took place. The timing of the workshops also helped the development team to stay on their toes and make sure they had something new to show the participants for every session. Both sides were eager to reflect on the progress and discuss further improvements.

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Guest lectures at Business Schools

Geke — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:15:12 +0000

Geke van Dijk has been invited to give guest lectures at executive seminars in two different Business Schools. On 8 February she spoke at the Tias Nimbas Business School (University of Tilburg, NL) in the executive master course on Marketing Management. On 3 March she will speak at Cranfield University (UK) as part of the Industry Day on Product Services Systems Research. On both occassions the topic is to show and discuss how customer insights can inform service innovation strategy and multichannel management.

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Urban Creatives: young and switched on

Geke — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:18:08 +0000

For Bigga Fish and BANG Radio we set up and managed a youth study in London with an experimental approach. We first trained and coached a panel of 5 young researchers in conducting interviews with inner city urban creatives, and then facilitated them in drawing out the main insights and conclusions. Both the researchers and the interviewees were aged between 17 to 25. They talked in-depth about their creative activities, the ways they share their creations with others, the ways they promote their work, and the ways they stay on top of what other people are doing. The energy and drive of these amazing young creatives is fantastic. They are very switched on and use various online social networking tools in combination with their face to face networking at events to create a buzz around their work and get ahead in the field. The aim of the study was to identify the most important needs for online support services to be offered by Bigga Fish and BANG.

Bigga Fish is a non-profit youth organisation dedicated at educating inner city youth through music and other creative activities. They aim to focus the energy of urban youth, by offering them knowledge and opportunities to achieve their goals. “‘Our mission is to provide opportunities to young people to fulfill their potential through the medium of their creativity and the creative industries.’”

BANG is also a non-profit organisation, dedicated to providing creative and media training for young people in London. Its aim is to provide an outlet for young people to enjoy themselves, increase their skills and improve their employment prospects. The radio station BANG Radio is one of the leading black and urban music radio stations in the UK.

Bigga Fish and BANG are working together closely on various projects. When they approached STBY for user research to inform the development of a new online platform to support young urban creatives, we suggested to set up an approach that would result in some useful work experience for a selection of young people in their target group. We trained a panel of 5 young researchers in conducting interviews, we coached them while they were out and about speaking to young urban creatives, we showed them how to effectively document the research materials through a blog and a series of templates, and we moderated a joint analysis workshop that drew out the main insights from the study. Throughout this process people from Bigga Fish and BANG were involved as well, in order to experience how user research contributes to the development of strategic thinking and creative concept development for future online services.

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Design Research at the Design Academy

Geke — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:30:29 +0000

Design Academy

STBY was asked by the Design Academy in Eindhoven to prepare and facilitate a workshop on Design Research. There are several excellent examples of work in this area within the Design Academy, but there seems to be no coherent overview of these activities nor a framework of facilities to support and nurture them. The aim of this workshop was to enable the management team of the Design Academy to develop a strategic vision on what Design Research is and what the position and ambition of the Design Academy is in this area is or should be.

To clarify the definiton, historic background and the current international environment of Design Research, we brought a pile of example publications and summarised some of the key references on Design Research (e.g. Christopher Frayling 1993 and 2007, and Peter Lunenfeld 2003). We then facilitated a discussion among the management team about the current and future ambitions of the Design Academy in this field.

An interesting aspect about Design Research is that it occupies an area between the traditional silos of Science on the one hand and Art & Design on the other. Peter Lunenfeld describes Design Research as “the demilitarised zone” between science and art. Working in this zone offers exciting opportunities to make new connections and develop new discourses. This cross-over also seems to confuse people however, and this regularly forces design researchers to justify their work against more traditional clichés of scientific research and/or autonomous art & design.

The international discussion on Design Research so far has ascertained three main strands of Design Research:
1. Research into design (e.g. historical and aesthetic
studies of art and design).
2. Research through design (e.g. project-based design research, including materials research and development).
3. Research for design / Design as research (e.g. creation of object and systems that display the results of the research and prove its worth).

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Training in Design Documentaries

Geke — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 07:15:14 +0000

As part of the Executive Master Course in Information Management at the University of Amsterdam, Bas Raijmakers coordinated a series of lectures and workshops on Design Documentaries. After an inital introduction and a briefing session, 12 students from both industry and government organisations worked in groups on developing their own Design Documentary.

Each documentary focused on ways to improve the existing service offering by their organisation. Using video as a their research tool, the students addressed the issue by representing the existing situation and reflecting on potential opportunities for improvement. They used both interviews and performance for this.

The editing of the design documentaries was completed and coached during a 2-day workshop. At the end of this workshop the final results were evaluated by a panel of external examinors, as part of the final course assessment.

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Smart Street paper

STBY — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:59:43 +0000

Paper on experimental design research methods in a street in London, published by the Design Research Society and presented at their annual conference in 2008: Undisciplined!. The project was done with students from the Royal College of Art Design Interactions department. Co-authored by Wendy March (Intel) and Bas Raijmakers.¬†(PDF, 732 kb)

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