STBY’s Bas Raijmakers and Froukje Sleeswijk Visser both attended the Creativity Company Conference in Haarlem, The Netherlands, this month. They were there to hold a workshop on the use of visualisation techniques during design research projects aimed at service innovation.
The workshop demonstrated how visualisation of design research – from the earliest possible stages – is essential in ensuring it plays a strategic role in a company. Bas and Froukje outlined eight rules that need to be followed for this to implemented effectively.
One of these rules was “exhibit visualisations in a workshop”; this allows all people involved in the innovation of services from within a company to be part of the conversation about customers. Those participating at the Haarlem workshop got to experience this first-hand, learning how visual tools (which can be as simple as post-its and stickers) can be used to record interviews about personal routines and motives. The participants all in fact interviewed each other, using a set of stickers to document their findings.
STBY’s recent study on attitudes towards water use conducted with Southern Water was then used to demonstrate the service design outcomes visualisation facilitates. If you’d like to know more about this project, or indeed about how to use visualisation more generally, then drop Bas a line at bas@stby.eu.