So you want to be a service designer?
Adele Gilpin, Service Design and UX Manager at West Northamptonshire Council, shares her career path, how she defines service design and the skills needed to be a great service designer.
When I studied computer science at university, terms like service design, UI and UX didn’t exist and neither did my current job. This is way before iPhones. But I completed a course on human computer interaction, which was all about making things easier for users, understanding what their needs are and how to consider accessibility.
I did a stint in technical support after I graduated, which gave me a great foundation in how to build a rapport with people and get to grips with their frustrations, to understand when things weren't clearly explained or where their needs weren't met.
I then worked in London as a software developer for ten years and I thought that was my career path. Eventually though, the commute every day became too much.
I joined Cambridgeshire County Council as a digital business analyst, gathering requirements and writing them up, and then I started to realise there was a design element too. I really enjoyed that side, creating things and solving problems - and that's the kind of work I do now.
I took the IDEO Human-Centred Design course, which laid the foundations for everything for me. That made it all make sense. It went through the method of the idea and things you can do to find out information. I can truly say that course changed my life.
The Government Digital Service also started to get really hot on user needs, and they ran some really good free courses around the country on topics like business analysis and content design. Being in that sphere, you start to pick up the lingo and discover who to follow on Twitter.
So what is good service design?
Good service design is, for example, what makes you pick one coffee shop over another in a high street.
Those coffee shops understand their users and what they need.
Big chains are good for people who like familiarity. Wherever they go in the country they'll get the same coffee.
Then in artisan coffee shops you might get to try new things and they understand that people might spend a little bit more money but they understand what they want, when they want it and where, and they'll target them perfectly.
I'm always really mindful that in local government you usually don't get a choice of the services you use - your local council will collect your bin. The people using council services are often the ones most in need and they don't have access to the latest smartphones and apps, so in the forefront of my mind all the time is how we can make things easy and accessible for people who don't have the latest technology.
There are seven of us in the service design team - the others are Kate, Megan, Terence, Beyza, Eri and Rebecca. As service designers we're jacks of all trades. The work we do spans from initial project kickoff defining the vision and scope, interviewing people and building a rapport with them, through to graphic design, building high-fidelity mock-ups of screens.
Finding a service designer who can do all of that is like finding a unicorn. We've got specialists in the interviewing side and people who are really good at making things. I'm pairing up people with different skills so they shadow each other and improve in areas other than their natural strengths.
There are a few key skills that anyone should have as a service designer. You've got to have empathy for the people you're designing for, you have to understand people's needs and you have to be collaborative.
Design is a team sport. You can't go off, design something beautiful and then say you've done it all on your own. You need to co-design it with people and involve them throughout the journey.
Be open to failing, learning and iterating. You will build prototypes that people will pull faces at. You want that. You want feedback, you don't want people to just say it's fine. You need to accept feedback and iterate.
One of our main projects at the moment is The Local Offer.
We've been heavy on co-design, researching with people to understand their needs.
This is an interesting project as it could be scaleable to other services. We're looking at directory functionality which could be used in the future for schools, libraries or GP surgeries.
We always think about how our projects could be scaled so we're not having to start from scratch every time. We want to create building blocks that we can reuse elsewhere so we can focus on more relevant and specific improvements for the project we're working on. That also helps to create a consistent experience for people across the website.
At Merged Futures, we'll be giving people the opportunity to experience being a designer for the day. Our treasure hunt will involve small tasks that can be done throughout the day. There will be some activities at our stand, but it'll also cover five main areas of design: empathy, investigation, collaboration, creativity and evaluation. They're the five steps you need to undertake with any research project. You'll be able to check in with us throughout the day to tick off each item and if you manage all five, you'll get a prize.
I'd love to do more collaboration with local businesses. There are so many innovative organisations out there which we're discovering through Digital Northants and we'd really like to expand our work, to network with people involved in these areas and to appeal to anyone to join our user research group to give feedback on our digital products. Come and chat to us at Merged Futures, find out what we do and if you're interested in becoming a research participant, please let us know! We don't know if we're designing the right things unless we get feedback from people, so we need you!
Want to know more?
Get involved with the service design treasure hunt at Merged Futures 5 on Friday 30 June.
Explore the full Merged Futures 5 timetable and get your free ticket.