Why design?
Design Council research among public sector organisations found that service providers are often unfamiliar with design-led approaches to service innovation.
Some individual design techniques were regularly used (59 per cent used creative techniques for problem solving; the same proportion involved users in service design). But others were less common: only 43 per cent regularly used piloting and less than a quarter (23 per cent) used the more design-led technique of prototyping when they sought to create new ideas.
Find out more facts on the use of design in the public sector from our Research Briefing on The role of design in public services
Since the public sector isn't yet widely using design techniques to make service improvements, there is an opportunity for service providers to set themselves apart by using design to address key issues including value for money and efficiency, personalisation, risk management and sustainability.
First, it is helpful to understand what service design can do for you.
Design isn't just an aesthetic process. Good design looks at the complex problems of service delivery from the perspective of service users and providers, balancing the needs of both. It is a collaborative and highly visual process for generating insights, developing solutions and testing them.
- It’s personalised – by working collaboratively with users, frontline staff, managers and policy makers, the design process creates desirable solutions that meet people’s needs.
- It’s inclusive – the visual emphasis of the design process allows ideas to be shared rapidly and regularly with everyone involved, from managers to frontline staff and customers, resulting in an inclusive problem solving process.
- It limits risk – designers’ low-cost prototypes mean concepts can be tested and refined cheaply before major investment is committed.
Design offers unique insights into user needs and a set of methods to meet them. Methods include:
- Workshops: Buckinghamshire local authority asked Engine Service to help it improve council services through community engagment and develop a best practice methodology for engaging service users, providers and local experts. On a project to improve access to health and social care for people aged 50+. It's SHAPE methodology means 'Services having all people engaged' and workshop sare a great way to start getting lots of different people engaged in a design project
- Customer journey mapping: Greater Manchester Police (GMP) used customer journey mapping to highlight the key points of its processes that impact upon its service users. GMP wanted to identify areas for improvement and ensure that the customer journey is as positive and effective as possible
- User interviews: For Brent Council, Uscreates, a creative consultancy that supports local organisations in delivering social change, used its Rant Box, a diary room style video capture tool, to talk to young people at graffiti hotspots across Brent to find out why they thought graffiti was a problem.
- Find out more techniques used by service designers and how they have helped public sector organisations and service businesses
Public Services by Design
In the 2008 Innovation Nation white paper, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) recognised the role of design in public sector innovation and acknowledged that it increasingly results from collaboration with the private and third sectors. Acting on recommendations made in the white paper, the Design Council is developing a design-led innovation programme for practitioners in the public sector called Public Services by Design.
Through a mixture of expert mentoring and peer learning this new Design Council programme helps managers and frontline staff to develop their own design capability and deploy it to improve services. During live projects, they learn to identify design opportunities and they develop the confidence, skills and processes to use design successfully.
For up to date information please visit: www.designcouncil.org.uk/psbd
Our track record
The Design Council has a strong track-record in helping the public sector use design. Over the last four years we have piloted a range of live public sector projects, with the aim of developing practical design solutions to some of the most complex problems.
For example, a design team worked with Gateshead Primary Care Trust on design-led approaches to improving sexual health screening and treatment services.
The Move Me project in Northumberland improved transport systems in a small rural community by creating a toolkit for service providers.
And an in-school design technology laboratory at Walker Technology College involved the entire school community in the process of redesigning the school before an architect was commissioned.