Out of more than 100 entries, 5 awards were given this year.
This was also the 5th year for the service design award. The work, as usual, spanned the breadth of business and public services as well as student work. Unlike creative awards, where the jury changes from year to year, the service design award jury has been semi-stable, with some members having judged work for all five years. This has allowed the jury to maintain a standard that includes raising the bar each and every year.
Reading through a hundred business cases is time consuming. Each one is a minimum of 5 pages long + illustrative materials. However, it does provide a very good overview of the development of service design over the past five years. In general, the work has become more focused and rooted in deliverables over process. There is now less worry over journey maps and personas and more stress given to tangible results.
The winners this year all exhibited depth. Proper research was a hallmark of all 5 submissions, which resulted in robust services that not only deliver on the research insights, but also make sense to the organisation as a whole. After all, staff buy-in is crucial for any new service to actually become part of the organisations DNA.
The jury chairman this year was Margus from Brand Manual. Below are his comments introducing the winners at the award ceremony in Toronto, on October 10th.
The best commercial project award this year went to
UC Design School, Brandbook and SurAndina Consultores
for their work for
Caja de Compensación Caja Los Andes
Compensation Funds are private non-profit organizations of the Chilean Social Security System. Its purpose is to deliver benefits in the form of social benefits, financial products, deals related to health and education, and to manage state legal benefits. Companies join them free of charge, and their collaborators become affiliates who have access to the benefits offered. This project was developed with Chile’s most prominent company in the industry, which serves more than 4 million affiliates.
“This project achieved profound change within several different areas. Affiliate satisfaction increased, customer wait times were reduced drastically, abandonment rates dropped and payments turned from being largely cash based to becoming almost only digital. On top of that, the organisation changed and is able to maintain this level of customer involvement and centricity on its own.”
The award for innovative combination of technology and service design went to
Hellon
for their work for
Mandatum Life
This case is an illustration proving how machine learning models can seamlessly support the work of service designers and successfully forecast the business impact of specific design efforts. This understanding can be used when making decisions on where to invest.
“Original application and integration of machine learning / AI to the human-centred design process. The business impact of this marriage of technology and empathy impacted the business both inside and outside, achieving the necessary staff buy-in to deliver a superior customer experience throughout all the user touch-points.”
The award for lean approach to service design and prototyping went to
Laboratoria Mobiele Alternativen / Twisted Studio
for their work for
Netwerk Duurzame Mobiliteit / Komimo
Laboratoria Mobiele Alternatieven is a co-creative design process developed to find cheap and simple solutions with great impact on local mobility issues.
“Service design doesn’t have to be expensive and extensive. LaMa proves that quick iterations with a hands-on, low profile approach that is quickly integrated and used by actual users can rapidly deliver innovation, buy-in and results in real-life situations.”
The award for application of service design to information transfer went to
Good Innovation
for their work Lift the Lid for the
Alzheimer’s Society
The project was initiated to help the charity achieve its vision is to create a society where those affected by dementia are supported and able to live without prejudice.
“Service design is an effective methodology to tackle complex and sensitive tasks. In developing Lift the Lid, the team tackled a subject that has been considered taboo, helping the staff of care homes talk about and re-evaluate their own behaviour about intimacy and sex of their wards suffering from dementia.”
The award for best student project went to
Ida Christine Opsahl, Julie Nyjordet Rossvoll and Nora Pincus Gjertsen
National Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
for their work to improve women’s maternal healthcare services in Nepal for
Green Tara Nepal
This service design project was conducted as a master thesis project for three design students. The project concerned using service design to improve women’s maternal health in rural Nepal and resulted in a new health service co-developed with users and field experts.
“Tackling a complicated subject in a challenging atmosphere, this student project demonstrates maturity and sensitivity in designing a sustainable and low-fi method to improving post-natal care in a rural environment. Taking into consideration both cultural sensitivities and the needs of the mother and baby, this project’s output can demonstrably improve people’s lives.”
You can read more about the other finalists here.
