Mr Cameron, it’s time to get the designers in
An article in The Guardian has issued a call for Government utilisation of design and designers.
Citing Finland and other successful examples in Scandinavia, the article explores the role of designers in providing the solutions to social problems, as well as providing the means of implementation:
“The massive social and economic changes that governments are struggling to cope with. When the welfare system is straining because there’s less tax revenue to go round and an ageing population demanding greater care, how do you make it deliver?”
Referring to David Cameron’s big society, the article cites that “there was no detail about how that would work”, highlighting the wide range of areas that design has a role to play in.
It goes on the astutely comment on the fact that design consultancy is not enough, with consultancies becoming “increasingly discredited for their vague promises to make executives ‘think like designers’. Strategic design, however, is not just about thinking, but about how to bring that thinking to an effective outcome. That doesn’t mean a bit of consulting, it means having a design professional embedded in the process.”
It is this aspect of the approach that Engine Service Design wholeheartedly support and which forms a key part of our process and approach (see Innovation Processes).
Sustainability is one of the main considerations in the design process, allowing methods and tools to be reused going forward, and establishing a firm process to follow when engaging with future problems.
The next of Engine’s seminars in Service Design for Business: Key Methods and Strategies for In-House Teams will take place this November. Please click here for more information and to register for the event.
Some of our key projects demonstrate building capabilities for existing teams as we use real life briefs to introduce tools, methods, approaches and ways of working for a team to respond to. This approach informs, trains, delivers and sustains the role that design has to play in our society - in terms of both solutions and roll-out.
Key Projects:
• Building a Social Innovation Lab in Kent
• Designing more than services in Southwark
