Week 9: Service Design and Saving the World – Principles, histories, manifestos, for good and change
Weekly learning objectives
By the end of this week you should be able to:
- Discover and analyse the creative field of service design.
- Research the current tools and user-centred design processes available, to reveal a social or political challenge and bring about change.
- Analyse the importance of how design thinking can reveal social problems.
- Contextualise the role artists and graphic designers have played to bring about social and political change.
- Collaborate through group discussion on the Ideas Wall.
Week 9: Lecture – Service Design and Saving the World
Lecture introduction
This is the first lecture in the Society and Purpose module brief, where we will introduce the field of service design and analyse the rich history of how artists and designers have become motivated to bring about change for the good.
The lecture video will:
- Explore the field of service design;
- Examine the role artists and designers have played in disrupting political movements, through historical and contemporary case studies;
- Analyse the impact design thinking can have to reveal in-depth and often highly sensitive social problems.
After the lecture, take some time to explore the given resources. Make notes and reflect upon these ideas, and use them as a springboard for your own investigations. Use the Ideas Wall freely to discuss, ask questions and share ideas.
Lecture notes by hand are much faster than tying as you go…
Was expecting to be bowled-over after Arren Robert’s Design Council talk on Telehealth – must have been referring to how it works rather than looks…
Artist as Activist
‘Punch’ Cartoons
#jesuischarlie – response to the terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris in 2015
Peter Kennard
Peter Kennard (born 17 February 1949)[1] is a London-born and based photomontage artist and Senior Research Reader in Photography, Art and the Public Domain[2] at the Royal College of Art.[3] Seeking to reflect his involvement in the anti-Vietnam War movement, he turned from painting to photomontage to better address his political views. He is best known for the images he created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the 1970s–80s including a détournement of John Constable‘s The Hay Wain called “Haywain with Cruise Missiles”.[4]
“The Gallery is possibly the only place people will stop and look at things”
Red Wedge – not just visual artists
Red Wedge was a collective of musicians formed in the UK in 1985, who attempted to engage young people with politics in general, and the policies of the Labour Party in particular, during the period leading up to the 1987 general election, in the hope of ousting the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.
Visual references to El Lissitzky, logo by Neville Brody.
Week 9: Resources
Read | Watch | Listen
Below is this week’s list of materials. For the full module resource list, please refer to the Course Hub. We also encourage you to conduct your own independent research to further explore the themes delivered. Do not forget to use the Ideas Wall to share new ideas and thoughts.
1. Stickdorn, M., Schneider, J., Andrews, K. and Lawrence, A., (2011) This is Service Design Thinking: Basics, Tools, Cases [ebook], Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Available from: https://www.dawsonera.com/abstract/9789063693169 (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 6 March 2019], pp. 68–79, 88–93, 108–115, 124–135.
2. Manzini, E., (2015) Part 1: Social Innovation and Design, in Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation [ebook], Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Available from: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/falmouth-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3339947 (Links to an external site.). [Accessed 6 March 2019], pp. 7–74
3. TEDx, Carol A. Wells, (2015) Can Art Stop a War and Save the Planet? [Online video]. Available at: Can Art Stop a War and Save the Planet? | Carol A. Wells | TEDxLoyolaMarymountU (Links to an external site.) [Accessed 11 March 2019].
4. Service Design Tools: Communicating Methods Supporting Design Processes (2009), [Accessed 6 March 2019]. Available from: http://www.servicedesigntools.org/repository
Week 9: Workshop Challenge
The Challenge
This week’s workshop challenge is split into two tasks. See the titles below for the task details.
Task 1: Research User-Centred Design Processes or Tools
- Research three user-centred design processes or tools that can be used to discover a core need or problem e.g. customer journey maps, service safaris, a day in the life, cultural probe, double diamond.
- Select one process and write a short 100-word description to illustrate how it can be used to discover an insight or challenge.
Surveys
The first of my three research methods to look into is surveys. It’s easier to create a survey online using Survey Monkey or similar, but in comparison to taking down information face-to-face, they can appear anonymous to those targeted which could bring some suspicion and therefore reluctance to take part.
The problem with face-to-face surveys is that we’re quite reluctant to stop and take part, avoiding the clipboard-wielding team mingling on the high street like a game of Pac-Man. Could this be down to busy lifestyles or just a lack of wanting to take part? I know I try and avoid any I see.
Interviews
Next, interviews. As with surveys, the originator needs to be trusted by the participant and some connection between each party can offer better results.
Finding information by interview would bring better, more spontaneous answers as the subject gives their answer in real-time. If the interview is asking for an opinion, rather than knowledge of facts then the information is first-hand, negating the need for research to back up answers.
Starting the interview with straightforward questions that the participant can answer easily; just taking down their name or asking a general question about something they enjoy will lessen and nervousness they might be feeling.
Once the subject is relaxed and sees that they’re not being quizzed or tested, that you’re just after opinions on a subject, they become more responsive. Conducting an interview informally, more as a chat about the subject rather than question after question brings out more information. Making a sound recording, rather than notes during the process, means you as the interviewer can be more involved and less like an administrator of the event.
A day in the life
Next, Ethnographic Research, time spent with a subject from within their own community to gain a perspective on what it’s like to be part of it; a study of peoples’ lives from the same perspective.
Spending time with people can bring in type types of information; a story or experience from the point of view of the subject. For instance, they can tell you first-hand about experiences or memories of an event, and also offer answers to any of your own questions.
Spending time there brings your own observations and your own point of view around the subject, allowing you to create a story or a narrative to fit alongside the other information gained during your stay.
Task 2: Research Existing Campaign or Service Design Project
- Research and select one existing campaign or service design project that tackles a social problem and analyse its effectiveness. Please remember to include information about any user-centred design processes that may have been used and the impact it brought about.
- Write a 300 – 400 word description with screen grabs to illustrate your research findings.
Task 2:
Adolf’s Online Strategy
Ogilvy Germany/Show face!
This eye opening campaign by the advertising agency Ogilvy Germany and a small, non-profit organisation called “Gesicht Zeigen!” (Show Face!), is being used to tackle the rise in followers of right-wing populists and political movements in Germany, and how these movements are abusing the internet and social media with their propaganda as ways to attract new members.
The campaign highlights the danger of social media in the wrong hands by using a reworked version of the Nazi propaganda film “Triumph des Willens” by Leni Riefenstahl from 1934 where Hitler speaks to the Hitler Youth in scenes from Nuremberg.
This new version shows Adolf Hitler himself sharing his online strategy for mobilising new followers in the future through platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
Gesicht Zeigen! say they want to rely on provocation and “consciously exaggerate” the danger brought by the spread of far-right policies and promote more respect and tolerance in Germany.
Visual Impact
The symbol of the campaign is the #hashtag: recognised by everyone as a symbol of the internet. By simply replacing the Swastika for a hashtag in the globally recognised identity of the Third Reich from WWII, it’s meaning was instantly changed but stayed easlily recognised. Imagine the flags and banners in-situ, this is a massively brave and bold solution to highlighting the problem, bringing an immediate shock and reaction from anyone experiencing it.
The huge flags were used to kickstart the campaign right in the heart of the political district of Berlin, along with the screening of the film in front of the press. At the same time, the film was distributed over social media via a network of 300,0001 followers and backed up by engaging influencers and journalists over the next three days.
Reactions and Results
YouTube removed the film from its platform in 30 countries, resulting in even more attention to the campaign and furthering the effect, resulting in more than 850,000 likes. It’s reach was so widespread that even the right-wing extremists were talking about it. The four week campaign increased followers of Show Face! by 550%2, an estimated 76,000,0003 people standing up to racism in the future.
References:
[1] https://www.ogilvy.de/work/gesicht-zeigen-onlinestrategie
[3] https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2019/creativity-for-good/230111/adolfs-online-strategy/
