Service Design Lab

During the Picnic cross-media conference in Amsterdam (24-26 september 2008) we have hosted a Service Design Lab. In a 4-hour workshop program 30 the participants worked in sub-groups on new ideas for service innovation for one of Amsterdam's local governments.

Leiden University

To prepare a successful open day event for future students, the University of Leiden wanted to explore the expectations and information needs of high school students. Together with three young researchers from Spunk//STBY we interviewed 15 students in depth about the way they orientate themselves on their future studies and careers.

Heartlands User Forums

Early July we organised five User Forums for Heartlands, the regeneration project in Cornwall we work for as Inclusive Design facilitators all year in 2008.

Elsevier Open Innovation

For the international academic publisher Elsevier we conducted a lead user research and organised a series of innovation workshops. The lead user research in both the UK and The Netherlands generated insights into unmet needs and potential areas for service innovation.

Heartlands Idea Generation Workshops

As part of our long-time involvement in the Heartlands project in Cornwall as inclusive design facilitators, we organised a series of workshops to generate ideas and conversations about the futures use of some of the new buildings.

CBBC cross-media consumption

Together with London-based innovation consultancy Radarstation, we worked on an ethnographic research for CBBC, exploring the cross-platform media consumption of 7 and 8 year old children. We used highly visual and engaging probes to facilitate lively conversations with the children about their routines and preferences in media consumption.

IB-Groep: Multi-channel services

The Dutch national body for studentships and other financial services for students, IB-groep, commissioned STBY to investigate how their youngest clients (students in their first year at college) manage their finances. With a team of young interviewers from Spunk//STBY, we visited 20 young students at their homes throughout The Netherlands for an interview.

Heartlands Inclusive Design review

For the Kerrier District Council in Pool, Cornwall we conducted an inclusive design review. They had recently completed the masterplan stage of a large-scale and complex urban regeneration project, and wished to evaluate this process from the perspective of inclusive design principles before they embarked on the detailed design stages.

FORUM

For the Dutch Institute for Multicultural Development FORUM, a highly acclaimed knowledge base on diversity, we have completed a two-step research project informing the evaluation and innovation of their service delivery. We interviewed a wide sample of their targetmarket across The Netherlands

Spunk//STBY

We have initiated a research joint venture with Spunk. This group of Dutch young, dynamic and highly opinionated people (16-19 years old) is never afraid to tackle any subject head on from their own perspective, even if it counters the public opinion. This is what makes their online magazine and video journals so excellent (www.spunk.nl).

Designing Across Boundaries

With 11 Sao Paulo-based and 9 London-based designers we were involved in a Design Challenge at Villiers Highschool in Southall, London. The goal was to design a product or service for the school, in close collaboration with a group of their students, using video as a material to do research and cardboard as a material to explore the concepts.

(Un)common Ground

(Un)common Ground is an international research network exploring the practice of creative, cross-sector collaborations. Case studies of state-of-the-art projects on the crossroads of design, technology, business, science, arts and education are scrutinised in expert meetings and publications to uncover what characterises creative innovation.