Student Service Design Challenge 2021 - Closing the loop
The 2nd edition of the Student Service Design Challenge is underway as 27 teams have been selected to move on to Round 2. The teams represent schools and universities from all corners of the world, including India, Hong Kong, Mexico, Australia, Canada, USA, and the leading design schools in Europe. The Challenge is a global design award that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of designers.*)
Last month, 75 teams from all around the world worked on their proposals to meet this year's challenge: to design services that can effectively close-the-loop by creating experiences and relationships that actively engage users and add value to a reverse logistics process.
An assessment team of experts from Philips, IBM, Service Design College and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, carefully assessed all of the student proposals taking into consideration criteria such as people-centricity, circularity, empowerment, research and urgency among others.
Optimistic proposals from multidisciplinary teams
The first thing that stood out to the evaluating team was the outstanding quality of all the submissions. In presenting the project proposals and exposing the problem statements, it became clear that the students all care deeply about issues like climate change and sustainability. And despite the seriousness of the problems they each tackled, they all share an optimistic view of the future and confidence in their role as designers to make change happen.
Proposals focused on tackling issues around food, furniture, fashion, construction, toys, beauty, and the impact of packaging and home delivery, the latter having grown exponentially during the COVID pandemic. While searching for gaps and opportunities to close the loop, the teams focused not only on the end-users but on all the stakeholders involved. Most notably, their research was grounded on people, community, and inclusiveness.
Something else that impressed the experts was the variety of student profiles participating in this year's Challenge. There are Undergraduate and Graduate students alike, and while many are studying design, many others are studying engineering, computer science, business, advertising, sociology, etc. They all share a passion for human-centred design. Their multidisciplinarity enriches their capacity to consider a problem from many angles and offers valuable and numerous paths to follow. Some of the teams are formed by students from different universities collaborating to make the world better.
The future of design
The following quote expresses the general impression, impact, and reaction from the experts that assessed all the 75 proposals:
“It has been a true pleasure to view and read all of the project proposals. Our respect and gratitude to all participating teams. The quality of the proposals was very high, and it was a difficult choice. We’re happy to have got a chance to know what the upcoming design professionals are thinking about. We have learned so much from these teams, and we’re hopeful about our future because today's students are thinking about all the issues that engulf our planet and society. Each of the proposals were excellent in its own way, and we wish we could have selected them all. We encourage all of them to keep on designing for circularity, sustainability, and social needs. We need them and their great ideas and motivation to help us in creating a better world. We wish every single one good luck ahead.”
Starting today, the 27 teams will continue with the second phase of the Challenge: to dive into their proposals by immersing themselves in the lives of the people involved taking into consideration and empathising with all stakeholders to better understand their behaviour and their motivations and how these may be influenced by environmental, social, economic, organisational and regulatory factors.
All teams will be coached by experimental designer Frank Kolkman, as well as by design experts from IBM individually assigned to each team. The students will also benefit from regularly scheduled expert lectures and talks in design research, service design, circularity, etc. Round 2 runs from February 15 until March 19 when they will need to submit the reframed problem statements, user journey maps, and experience flows.
Follow the teams' progress on the Challenge LinkedIn page.
*) The Student Service Design Challenge is a design challenge that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of designers. It is a chance for design students to practice a design process based on a real-life case, use their joint creativity, and get rewarded for it.
The Challenge is initiated by Philips, co-organised with Service Design College, in collaboration with IBM and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. It is open to students worldwide and aims to involve the next generation of designers to use their creative power to shape behaviour and promote a more globally conscious set of values. By promoting an inclusive approach to service design, the Challenge encourages students to develop exciting new service experiences that contribute value to people, the planet, and the public.
The Challenge has 4 working rounds: Identify & explore, Empathise & discover, Frame & define, and Ideate & develop. At the end of this process, all teams submit their final service solutions to be evaluated by the jury in Round 5. The jury comprises renowned design experts from various fields related to human-centred (service) design, circular design, and design-led innovation. This year, the members of the jury are:
Lara Penin (Associate Professor of Transdisciplinary Design, Parsons School of Design), Chris Grantham (Executive Director Circular Economy, IDEO), Ruth Mugge (Professor of Design for Sustainable Consumer Behaviour, TUDelft), Robert Metzke (Chief of Staff Innovation & Strategy and Head of Sustainability, Philips), Shani Sandy (Design Executive, IBM), and Alice Bodreau (Global Partners Manager, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation).
The jury will carefully review, discuss and validate each submission based on the challenge criteria. After a first round of judging, six nominees ('Shortlist') will be selected, and from that, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners will be awarded.
The Gold winning team will earn a 10-week design-in-residence at Philips Experience Design, where they will be mentored and supported by a Philips expert team. All winners receive a monetary prize and will be featured in an exhibition at the 2021 Dutch Design Week. They will also appear in various publications, will get press coverage and attendance at other design events, such as the Barcelona Design Week.
The 1st edition of the Challenge was celebrated in 2020 with the participation of over 35 student teams from various leading design schools and universities. They were challenged on "How can we improve the heart health of people in Europe that are ‘invisible’, neglected, underserved, forgotten or overlooked?" The effort and solutions of all the teams made this inaugural edition of the Student Service Design Challenge an absolute success. The best service solutions were featured in the 2020 virtual exhibition as part of the Dutch Design Week 2020.