Daniela Sangiorgi | Politecnico di Milano (original) (raw)

Books by Daniela Sangiorgi

In Design for Services, Anna Meroni and Daniela Sangiorgi articulate what Design is doing and can... more In Design for Services, Anna Meroni and Daniela Sangiorgi articulate what Design is doing and can do for services, and how this connects to existing fields of knowledge and practice. Designers previously saw their task as the conceptualisation, development and production of tangible objects. In the twenty-first century, a designer rarely 'designs something' but rather 'designs for something': in the case of this publication, for change, better experiences and better services.

The authors reflect on this recent transformation in the practice, role and skills of designers, by organising their book into three main sections. The first section links Design for Services to existing models and studies on services and service innovation. Section two presents multiple service design projects to illustrate and clarify the issues, practices and theories that characterise the discipline today; using these case studies the authors propose a conceptual framework that maps and describes the role of designers in the service economy. The final section projects the discipline into the emerging paradigms of a new economy to initiate a reflection on its future development.

Papers by Daniela Sangiorgi

This paper aims to bridge recent work on Service Logic with practice and research in the Design f... more This paper aims to bridge recent work on Service Logic with practice and research in the Design for Service to explore whether and how human-centered collaborative design approaches could provide a source for interpreting existing service systems and proposing new ones and thus realize a Service Logic in organizations. A comparison is made of existing theoretical backgrounds and frameworks from Service Logic and Design for Service studies that conceptualize core concepts for value co-creation: actors, resources, resource integration, service systems, participation, context, and experience.
We find that Service Logic provides a framework for understanding service systems in action by focusing on how actors integrate resources to co-create value for themselves and others, whereas Design for Service provides an approach and tools to explore current service systems as a context to imagine future service systems and how innovation may develop as a result of reconfigurations of resources and actors. Design for Service also provides approaches, competences, and tools that enable involved actors to participate in and be a part of the service system redesign. Design for value co-creation is presented using this model.
The paper builds on and extends the Service Logic research first by repositioning service design from a phase of development to Design for Service as an approach to service innovation, centered on understanding and engaging with customers’ own value-creating practices. Second, it builds on and extends through discussing the meaning of value co-creation and identifying and distinguishing collaborative approaches for the generation of new resource constellations. In doing so, the collaborative approaches allow for achieving value co-creation in designing.

Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) preceded (and provided the inspiration for) the implementation of E... more Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) preceded (and provided the inspiration for) the implementation of Evidence Based Design (EBD) in healthcare facilities. A key feature of the debate surrounding application of EBM principles in practice has been the importance of interpretation of the guidance by experienced clinicians, using their knowledge of the specific social determinants of health in the local context, to achieve maximum efficacy for individual patients. This issue of interpretation and translation of guidelines, avoiding a formulaic approach, allowing for divergent cultural and geographical exigencies, creating innovative, context-specific solutions, is the subject of this discussion which examines the integration of Evidence-Based and Experience Based Medicine and Design in the development of creative solutions to healthcare services in England. This paper examines the implementation of Practice Based Commissioning (PBC), a new model introduced by the Department of Health in England which devolves responsibility for the conceptualising and commissioning of new services (and facilities) for patients to frontline clinicians who, they suggest, have the greatest understanding of patient needs at a local level.

This article reports on the recent evolution of service design toward becoming transformational. ... more This article reports on the recent evolution of service design toward becoming transformational. Services are less discussed as design objects and more as means for supporting the emergence of a more collaborative, sustainable and creative society and economy. The transformative role of design is combined with the potential transformative role of services. The term “transformation design” as set forth by Burns, Cottam, Vanstone, and Winhall (2006), has been associated with work within communities for socially progressive ends, but also with work within organisations to introduce a human-centred design culture. The intrinsic element of co-production of services in transformation design necessitates the concomitant development of staff, the public and the organisation. In this way, service design is entering the fields of organisational studies and social change with little background knowledge of their respective theories and principles. This article proposes the adoption and adaptation of principles and practices from organisational development and community action research into service design. Additionally, given the huge responsibilities associated with transformative practices, designers are urged to introduce reflexivity into their work to address power and control issues in each design encounter.

In the last decades the economy saw two significant changes in the way value has been conceived a... more In the last decades the economy saw two significant changes in the way value has been conceived and created: the introduction of the value-constellation model and the advent of the open innovation movement. This paper will report on how these paradigmatic changes are mirrored in public services reform, with a focus on healthcare services, and on how Design practice and research are contributing to this shift. The authors will use four case studies of healthcare design-driven service innovation as a way to reflect on which models and approaches designers have been using and to evaluate the actual results and impacts that have been achieved so far.

This paper claims how the parallel evolution of the conception of services and of Design for Serv... more This paper claims how the parallel evolution of the conception of services and of Design for Services toward more transformational aims, would require a collective reflection on and elaboration of guiding methodological and deontological principles. By illustrating connections with similar evolutions in Participatory Design (from ‘Design for use before use’ to ‘Design for Design after Design’), Public Health Research (patient engagement and ‘empowerment’) and Consumer Research (Transformative Consumer Research), the author identifies key characteristics of transformative practices that ask for more ‘reflexivity’ on the designers’ side. Developing Design profession as contributing to society transformative aims is extremely valuable, but it carries with it also a huge responsibility. Designers, the author argues, need to reflect not only on how to conduct transformative processes, but also on which transformations they are aiming to, why, and in particular for the benefit of whom.

This paper outlines the evolution of Service Design from its origin within Interaction Design to ... more This paper outlines the evolution of Service Design from its origin within Interaction Design to its current state of development, which is strongly affected by the growing complexity and collaborative nature of service projects and social demands. The paper aims to provide a platform to ground the current state of the discipline, to offer a critique of what has been achieved to date, and to outline the main research questions that could drive Service Design Research in the near future.

More and more design professionals enter the field of service design and conduct projects that ha... more More and more design professionals enter the field of service design and conduct projects that have the potential to introduce changes to organizational systems. This working paper reflects on the potential of service design to generate and implement internal changes within an organization. The authors report on two pilot case studies from the educational sector. They represent two inquiries into the design of services where the respective design team reflected on their ongoing activities from an organizational change perspective. While the two pilot studies serve as further examples of how “reflection-in-action” can be rigorous in its own right (Schön, 1983), the purpose of this paper is to build a bridge between the theories and practices of organizational change and Service Design. The authors suggest that successful and sustainable new services, which aim for lasting transformations (Burns et al, 2006), require reflective inquiries into organizational systems. Moreover, the key for service design inquiries to develop into change projects, the authors argue, rests in the ability of the design team to invite and engage people within an organization to participate in a design project. The successful phases of inviting and engaging can then be followed by a phase of enabling, in which people inside the organization are learning to make use of design thinking and design methods themselves.

The British National Health Service (NHS) has been involved in profound transformation to keep pa... more The British National Health Service (NHS) has been involved in profound transformation to keep pace with, and shape, changes in our society. Innovation has been driven by the necessity to transform old hierarchical and paternalistic models into a modern health system, moving care closer to home, mobilizing and tailoring services to individual patients’ and their carers’ needs through the introduction of radically new services. This paper explores a particular element of ongoing NHS reform: Practice Based Commissioning (PBC). Based on first findings of a research project called “Design in Practice. Change and Flexibility within Health Providers” funded by the EPSRC research centre HACIRIC, the authors argue that PBC formally recognizes important forms of grassroots service design, but also introduces additional challenges. The project is based on case studies within the North West Strategic Health Area (UK), and the study of PBC frameworks and everyday PBC practices in this specific context is explored and contrasted with concurrent efforts to bring service design into the public sector, which are focusing on co-design and experience-based design methodologies. It is suggested that these have the potential to help NHS providers address NHS policy demands to use patient feedback in transforming services (DH, 2009), and the authors reflect on possibilities for potentiation through the application of Service Design methods in this context.

This article summarises a small-scale intervention within a large secondary school in East Lancas... more This article summarises a small-scale intervention within a large secondary school in East Lancashire. Our pilot project was inspired by the UK government’s goal to ‘put the learner at the centre’ and by the constant call for more personalised learning, which focuses on ‘pupil voice’ and ‘participation’. We used this study to explore different modes to involve students in the design of their education. In addition, we observed those factors in the school that supported and/or inhibited this level of participation, while reflecting on the possible synergies between personal development, design and participation.

This paper provides an overview of the research on Service Design carried out in Italy (mainly in... more This paper provides an overview of the research on Service Design carried out in Italy (mainly in Milan) since the ‘90s. The authors show how the initial steps in this emerging field have definitely influenced the following evolution of studies in Italy; three areas of research in particular are described: investigations into the nature of services and of Service Design as a field; investigations into Product Service Systems; and investigations into social innovation and sustainability.
As final considerations, a map of Service Design research is
developed to suggest connections with the existing international research into Service Design and to imagine future developments.

Joining Forces, Jan 1, 2005

This paper wants to deepen the peculiarity of the service economy and of its innovation modes in ... more This paper wants to deepen the peculiarity of the service economy and of its innovation modes in order to investigate and propose a strategic role for design research and education. The basic question is if we can create innovation through services development and how Service Design can contribute to the definition of a renewed and integrated innovation model and approach.

To validate this statement in particular the authors refers to an emerging discipline, Service Design, that was born in the early 90’s (Manzini, 1993; Erlhoff et. al., 1997) starting from the awareness of the lack of an organic and autonomous design culture in contrast with the dominant economic vision of service sector and the consequent demand for more conscious design shapes. This intuition opened a new experimental and research area that have been framed by PhD researches (Pacenti, 1998; Sangiorgi, 2004) and further developed within research and educational projects, developing dedicated design tools and methodologies.

The authors describes the evolution of the Service Design research and theory till the recent start up of an international Service Design Network and illustrate the potentials of a complete multidisciplinary and integrated Service Design approach for the innovation and competitiveness of service industries and institutions.

… and Applications in …, Jan 1, 2009

Book Chapters by Daniela Sangiorgi

CHAPTER NINE From Communication Design to Activity Design Stefano Maffei and Daniela Sangiorgi Po... more CHAPTER NINE From Communication Design to Activity Design Stefano Maffei and Daniela Sangiorgi Politecnico di Milano, Italy he worldwide shift of product-oriented firms toward a more complex pro-ductive framework is characterized by the progressive introduction and inte- ...

In Design for Services, Anna Meroni and Daniela Sangiorgi articulate what Design is doing and can... more In Design for Services, Anna Meroni and Daniela Sangiorgi articulate what Design is doing and can do for services, and how this connects to existing fields of knowledge and practice. Designers previously saw their task as the conceptualisation, development and production of tangible objects. In the twenty-first century, a designer rarely 'designs something' but rather 'designs for something': in the case of this publication, for change, better experiences and better services.

The authors reflect on this recent transformation in the practice, role and skills of designers, by organising their book into three main sections. The first section links Design for Services to existing models and studies on services and service innovation. Section two presents multiple service design projects to illustrate and clarify the issues, practices and theories that characterise the discipline today; using these case studies the authors propose a conceptual framework that maps and describes the role of designers in the service economy. The final section projects the discipline into the emerging paradigms of a new economy to initiate a reflection on its future development.

This paper aims to bridge recent work on Service Logic with practice and research in the Design f... more This paper aims to bridge recent work on Service Logic with practice and research in the Design for Service to explore whether and how human-centered collaborative design approaches could provide a source for interpreting existing service systems and proposing new ones and thus realize a Service Logic in organizations. A comparison is made of existing theoretical backgrounds and frameworks from Service Logic and Design for Service studies that conceptualize core concepts for value co-creation: actors, resources, resource integration, service systems, participation, context, and experience.
We find that Service Logic provides a framework for understanding service systems in action by focusing on how actors integrate resources to co-create value for themselves and others, whereas Design for Service provides an approach and tools to explore current service systems as a context to imagine future service systems and how innovation may develop as a result of reconfigurations of resources and actors. Design for Service also provides approaches, competences, and tools that enable involved actors to participate in and be a part of the service system redesign. Design for value co-creation is presented using this model.
The paper builds on and extends the Service Logic research first by repositioning service design from a phase of development to Design for Service as an approach to service innovation, centered on understanding and engaging with customers’ own value-creating practices. Second, it builds on and extends through discussing the meaning of value co-creation and identifying and distinguishing collaborative approaches for the generation of new resource constellations. In doing so, the collaborative approaches allow for achieving value co-creation in designing.

Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) preceded (and provided the inspiration for) the implementation of E... more Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) preceded (and provided the inspiration for) the implementation of Evidence Based Design (EBD) in healthcare facilities. A key feature of the debate surrounding application of EBM principles in practice has been the importance of interpretation of the guidance by experienced clinicians, using their knowledge of the specific social determinants of health in the local context, to achieve maximum efficacy for individual patients. This issue of interpretation and translation of guidelines, avoiding a formulaic approach, allowing for divergent cultural and geographical exigencies, creating innovative, context-specific solutions, is the subject of this discussion which examines the integration of Evidence-Based and Experience Based Medicine and Design in the development of creative solutions to healthcare services in England. This paper examines the implementation of Practice Based Commissioning (PBC), a new model introduced by the Department of Health in England which devolves responsibility for the conceptualising and commissioning of new services (and facilities) for patients to frontline clinicians who, they suggest, have the greatest understanding of patient needs at a local level.

This article reports on the recent evolution of service design toward becoming transformational. ... more This article reports on the recent evolution of service design toward becoming transformational. Services are less discussed as design objects and more as means for supporting the emergence of a more collaborative, sustainable and creative society and economy. The transformative role of design is combined with the potential transformative role of services. The term “transformation design” as set forth by Burns, Cottam, Vanstone, and Winhall (2006), has been associated with work within communities for socially progressive ends, but also with work within organisations to introduce a human-centred design culture. The intrinsic element of co-production of services in transformation design necessitates the concomitant development of staff, the public and the organisation. In this way, service design is entering the fields of organisational studies and social change with little background knowledge of their respective theories and principles. This article proposes the adoption and adaptation of principles and practices from organisational development and community action research into service design. Additionally, given the huge responsibilities associated with transformative practices, designers are urged to introduce reflexivity into their work to address power and control issues in each design encounter.

In the last decades the economy saw two significant changes in the way value has been conceived a... more In the last decades the economy saw two significant changes in the way value has been conceived and created: the introduction of the value-constellation model and the advent of the open innovation movement. This paper will report on how these paradigmatic changes are mirrored in public services reform, with a focus on healthcare services, and on how Design practice and research are contributing to this shift. The authors will use four case studies of healthcare design-driven service innovation as a way to reflect on which models and approaches designers have been using and to evaluate the actual results and impacts that have been achieved so far.

This paper claims how the parallel evolution of the conception of services and of Design for Serv... more This paper claims how the parallel evolution of the conception of services and of Design for Services toward more transformational aims, would require a collective reflection on and elaboration of guiding methodological and deontological principles. By illustrating connections with similar evolutions in Participatory Design (from ‘Design for use before use’ to ‘Design for Design after Design’), Public Health Research (patient engagement and ‘empowerment’) and Consumer Research (Transformative Consumer Research), the author identifies key characteristics of transformative practices that ask for more ‘reflexivity’ on the designers’ side. Developing Design profession as contributing to society transformative aims is extremely valuable, but it carries with it also a huge responsibility. Designers, the author argues, need to reflect not only on how to conduct transformative processes, but also on which transformations they are aiming to, why, and in particular for the benefit of whom.

This paper outlines the evolution of Service Design from its origin within Interaction Design to ... more This paper outlines the evolution of Service Design from its origin within Interaction Design to its current state of development, which is strongly affected by the growing complexity and collaborative nature of service projects and social demands. The paper aims to provide a platform to ground the current state of the discipline, to offer a critique of what has been achieved to date, and to outline the main research questions that could drive Service Design Research in the near future.

More and more design professionals enter the field of service design and conduct projects that ha... more More and more design professionals enter the field of service design and conduct projects that have the potential to introduce changes to organizational systems. This working paper reflects on the potential of service design to generate and implement internal changes within an organization. The authors report on two pilot case studies from the educational sector. They represent two inquiries into the design of services where the respective design team reflected on their ongoing activities from an organizational change perspective. While the two pilot studies serve as further examples of how “reflection-in-action” can be rigorous in its own right (Schön, 1983), the purpose of this paper is to build a bridge between the theories and practices of organizational change and Service Design. The authors suggest that successful and sustainable new services, which aim for lasting transformations (Burns et al, 2006), require reflective inquiries into organizational systems. Moreover, the key for service design inquiries to develop into change projects, the authors argue, rests in the ability of the design team to invite and engage people within an organization to participate in a design project. The successful phases of inviting and engaging can then be followed by a phase of enabling, in which people inside the organization are learning to make use of design thinking and design methods themselves.

The British National Health Service (NHS) has been involved in profound transformation to keep pa... more The British National Health Service (NHS) has been involved in profound transformation to keep pace with, and shape, changes in our society. Innovation has been driven by the necessity to transform old hierarchical and paternalistic models into a modern health system, moving care closer to home, mobilizing and tailoring services to individual patients’ and their carers’ needs through the introduction of radically new services. This paper explores a particular element of ongoing NHS reform: Practice Based Commissioning (PBC). Based on first findings of a research project called “Design in Practice. Change and Flexibility within Health Providers” funded by the EPSRC research centre HACIRIC, the authors argue that PBC formally recognizes important forms of grassroots service design, but also introduces additional challenges. The project is based on case studies within the North West Strategic Health Area (UK), and the study of PBC frameworks and everyday PBC practices in this specific context is explored and contrasted with concurrent efforts to bring service design into the public sector, which are focusing on co-design and experience-based design methodologies. It is suggested that these have the potential to help NHS providers address NHS policy demands to use patient feedback in transforming services (DH, 2009), and the authors reflect on possibilities for potentiation through the application of Service Design methods in this context.

This article summarises a small-scale intervention within a large secondary school in East Lancas... more This article summarises a small-scale intervention within a large secondary school in East Lancashire. Our pilot project was inspired by the UK government’s goal to ‘put the learner at the centre’ and by the constant call for more personalised learning, which focuses on ‘pupil voice’ and ‘participation’. We used this study to explore different modes to involve students in the design of their education. In addition, we observed those factors in the school that supported and/or inhibited this level of participation, while reflecting on the possible synergies between personal development, design and participation.

This paper provides an overview of the research on Service Design carried out in Italy (mainly in... more This paper provides an overview of the research on Service Design carried out in Italy (mainly in Milan) since the ‘90s. The authors show how the initial steps in this emerging field have definitely influenced the following evolution of studies in Italy; three areas of research in particular are described: investigations into the nature of services and of Service Design as a field; investigations into Product Service Systems; and investigations into social innovation and sustainability.
As final considerations, a map of Service Design research is
developed to suggest connections with the existing international research into Service Design and to imagine future developments.

Joining Forces, Jan 1, 2005

This paper wants to deepen the peculiarity of the service economy and of its innovation modes in ... more This paper wants to deepen the peculiarity of the service economy and of its innovation modes in order to investigate and propose a strategic role for design research and education. The basic question is if we can create innovation through services development and how Service Design can contribute to the definition of a renewed and integrated innovation model and approach.

To validate this statement in particular the authors refers to an emerging discipline, Service Design, that was born in the early 90’s (Manzini, 1993; Erlhoff et. al., 1997) starting from the awareness of the lack of an organic and autonomous design culture in contrast with the dominant economic vision of service sector and the consequent demand for more conscious design shapes. This intuition opened a new experimental and research area that have been framed by PhD researches (Pacenti, 1998; Sangiorgi, 2004) and further developed within research and educational projects, developing dedicated design tools and methodologies.

The authors describes the evolution of the Service Design research and theory till the recent start up of an international Service Design Network and illustrate the potentials of a complete multidisciplinary and integrated Service Design approach for the innovation and competitiveness of service industries and institutions.

… and Applications in …, Jan 1, 2009