This paper presents current trends in service design research concerning large scale projects aimed at generating changes at a local scale. The strategy adopted to achieve this, is to co-design solutions including future users in the development process, prototyping and testing system of products and services before their actual implementation. On the basis of experience achieved in the European Project Life 2.0, this paper discusses which methods and competencies are applied in the development of these projects, eliciting the lessons learnt especially from the piloting phase in which the participatory design (PD) approach plays a major role. In the first part, the topic is introduced jointly with the theoretical background where the user center design and participatory design methods are presented; then the Life 2.0 project development is described; finally the experience is discussed from a service design perspective, eliciting guidelines for piloting and prototyping services in a real context of use. The paper concludes reflecting on the designers’ role and competencies needed in this process.
References
[1]
Star, S.L.; Ruhleder, K. Steps toward and an ecology of infrastructure. Design and access for large information spaces. Inf. Sys. Res. 1996, 7, 111–134, doi:10.1287/isre.7.1.111.
[2]
Ehn, P. Participation in design things. In Proceedings of the Tenth Anniversary Conference on Participatory Design 2008, Bloomington, IN, USA, 1–4 October 2008.
[3]
User Centred Systems Design; Norman, D.A., Draper, S.W., Eds.; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.: Hillsdale, NJ, USA, 1986.
[4]
Binder, T.; Brandt, E.; Halse, J.; Foverskov, M.; Olander, S.; Yndigegn, S. Living the (codesign) Lab. In Proceedings of the Nordic Design Research Conference, Helsinki, Finland, 10–12 May 2010.
[5]
Bjorgvinsson, E.; Hillgren, P.-A. On the spot experiments within healthcare. In Proceedings of the 8th Participatory Design Conference (PDC 2004), Toronto, Canada, July 27–31 2004.
[6]
Hillgren, P.A.; Seravalli, A.; Emilson, A. Prototyping and infrastructuring in design for social innovation. CoDesign 2011, 7, 169–183.
[7]
Light, A. Democratising technology: Making transformation using designing, performance and props. In Proceedings of CHI 2011, Vancouver, Canada, 7–12 May 2011.
[8]
Ehn, P. Work-Oriented Design of Computer Artefacts; Arbetslivscentrum: Stockholm, Sweden, 2008.
[9]
Ehn, P.; Sjogren, D. From system description to scripts for actions. In Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computers Systems; Greenbau, J., Kyng, M., Eds.; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.: Hillsdsale, NJ, USA, 1999.
[10]
Bjorgvinsson, E.; Ehn, P.; Hillgren, P.-A. Participatory design and “democratizing innovation”. In Proceedings of the 11th Participatory Design Conference (PDC 2010), Sydney, Australia, December 2010; pp. 41–50.
[11]
Rizzo, F. Co-design versus User centred design: Framing the differences. In Notes on Design Doctoral Research; Guerrini, L., Ed.; Franco Angeli: Milano, Italy, 2010.
[12]
Manzini, E.; Rizzo, F. Small projects/large changes: Participatory design as an open participated process. CoDesign 2011, 7, 199–215.
[13]
Cantù, D.; Rizzo, F. Managing innovation through participatory processes. In Leading Innovation Through Design. In Proceedings of the DMI 2012 International Research Conference, Boston, MA, USA, 8–9 August 2012.
[14]
Cantù, D. “Ideas Sharing LAB”. Co-designing multifunctional services with local food communities. In Presented at the Cumulus Northern World Mandate Conference, 24–26 May 2012; Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture: Helsinki, Finland.
[15]
Rae, J. Seek the magic with service prototypes. Bloomberg Busienssweek, 12 September 2007. Available online: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2007/id20070912_418827.htm (accessed on 25 May 2013).
