In my research, I examine design and the role of the designer in creating conditions for desirable change within and between organisations.
After two decades of working as a practicing consultant in the field of service design, I have seen the profession emerge, evolve, specialise, and transform. For a long time, the concept of service design was effective, as it clearly articulated the focus of the work: using design methodologies to develop attractive, user‑friendly, and efficient (profitable) services. However, as knowledge of and interest in service design grew among organisations and clients, the arenas, materials, and orientations of service designers also changed to some extent.
There has been an expansion from designing concrete artefacts, such as touchpoints and services, to more abstract design domains, including processes, policies, and organisational capabilities. In parallel, the focus extended from designing solutions to using design as a way of navigating change in complex systems. Based on my experience, the service designer role and its areas of responsibility have therefore diversified.
On the one hand, the role of the service designer has become more specialised around design of/for service, often in digital contexts where service design, UX, UX research, and UI increasingly overlap (operational design – design of solutions).
Another branch of service design focuses on creating conditions that enable designers to operate within organisations (structural design – design of conditions).
A third branch applies service design methodologies at a macro level. These designers work less frequently on shaping the actual solution and more often on creating conditions that allow the system and its actors to identify and implement desirable changes themselves (catalytic design – design for collective capability and agency).
My hypothesis is that when designers leave the tangible, material arena and enter the immaterial one (structural and catalytic design), the traditional service design toolbox is no longer sufficient. There is thus a gap between professional practice and its theoretical foundations.
As a researcher, I ask whether this is still service design, or whether we have entered an era that calls for a new form of design and a new designer role.
In my research, I explore how designers work in this era: What materials do they use? What tools and processes do they employ? Whom do they collaborate with? What are the outcomes and consequences of their design work? How do they know they are on the right path, and how do
they recognise feedback? How are their roles and identities shaped? What is their purpose? What is design in this context?
I also examine how other design fields, as well as existing theories and intellectual traditions, relate to this (possibly new) design discipline, such as participatory design, transition design, systemic design, living systems theory, change management, and complex adaptive systems.
