Making it better
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 06/12/2010 - 17:49
The aim of this blog is to gather ideas from members of the Service Design
Network, (and students who are not yet members).
The Service Design Network website will be undergoing a transformation;
making it more user-friendly and adding features and opportunities that will
enrich the network for everyone.
We want to know what you think about the sdn website as it is, and how you
think we can integrate students into the Service Design community.
Make yourself heard! Please share your oppinions here:
Comments
#1 SDN and student members
Hi,
I'm a graphic designer but am doing my PhD at The Glasgow School of Art researching into encouraging older adults to take up exercising and more physical activities. After reading through my research proposal several times, I have come to notice that it is a service design project and since I don't have much or no knowledge in this field of design, i wanted to link up with graduates and the service design network to learn more. I know The Glasgow School of Art teach that as part of the Product Design programme but, I feel contacting you and also learning from the professionals will help me a lot in executing my research.
On the website design, as a graphic design I find it okay for now. Easy to navigate, colours a bit okay (the lime green is not working against the white and the grey backgrounds). Not much graphics thus loading (opening) webpage doesn't consume time and you don't have to downlaod add-ons in order to view the page. The name is almost swallowed up by the logotype. It needs to stand out. The logotype is simply and works for now.
On the question of what you can offer, my little surfing on the website has been very useful as I have had some knowledge about what Service Design is all about especially the case studies. They have being useful for me. In future you could post mini research/projects which will involve students, academicians and professionals on projects so students could laern on some sort of live projects.
Occasionally, you could run live webinars (live Web seminars/workshops) as being done by Design Management, then we register to participate in the webinars. You can also post on demand video clips of key speakers of major conferences/workshops online but only accessible by members.
Personally, I what to learn more about this field as it is new to me. And network of professionals that we can fall on each other for research/project collaborations.
For me as student member of SDN, I'll want SDN to offer me more knowledge by way of discounted short courses (probably online), work experience through the mini project scheme I propose above and published papers for knowledge on trends and as a reference.
As I said I'm not a Service Designer thus, should my suggestions be shallow guys pardon me but for a start I think you are doing a good job!
#2 Students / Graduates needs
Hi,
I am just finished studying product design at Glasgow School of Art (with a service design focus) and I also had my exchange term at KISD during which I was involved in helping out at the first SDN Conference in Amsterdam so I'm really pleased that there's a group of students looking at bridging the gap between the SDN and students and this was seriously lacking!
My first point would be, now having finished my studies, that graduates are looked at as new users as well as students as we too still need guidance, opportunities and perhaps a discounted rate?!?
Answering your questions:
- What are your experiences of the sdn website?
I think the website is pretty good and has some great sections like:jobs as finding service design jobs can be hard. What I do find though is that I never check it until I receive the newsletter or there is a link posted via twitter, so keeping up-to-date with the website can be tricky but perhaps more use of social networking could combat this and gain more traffic?
- What could we offer you to make a difference to your studies?
For me, your idea of having a portal for students to pose questions to a service design community for thesis work is great, I ended up using Wenovski for this purpose.
I think also being able to gain feedback on projects could be useful too.
I feel that linking students and SDN would also give students a glimpse of how things work in the real world and allow them to become involved at an early stage and progress through to perhaps fully emerged members. This was done very well by the Creative Entrepreneurs Club at The Lighthouse in Glasgow but sadly this is not running anymore but you can have a look at it here: http://www.creativeentrepreneurs.com/index.php
- Which tools and features would be most useful to you?
More social media use - twitter, facebook to keep up to date
Forum - perhaps separate for students and non-students
Member directory - place to upload cv etc or perhaps the linkedin group is better for this but maybe this could be embedded into the site?
- What do you want to get out of the Service Design Network?
I want to meet like minded people, be inspired by those with more experience than myself and those running their own establishments, gain a better understanding of the service design sector and have the opportunity to be an intern for members of the SDN.
- What do you think membership should offer you?
Again coming back to the Creative Entrepreneurs Club I mentioned earlier, their deal was excellent as it only cost students £20 and for that students were allowed into 3 events for free (there were a series of short events), access to the member directory and space on there too to display work / cv / contacts details and were given free entry to the lighthouse exhibition centre.
The main reason I felt this worked well and the attributes I feel the SDN could incorporate were:
-a separate students membership which progresses onto graduate membership
-each level of membership should give you more therefore people will want to progress up the ladder
-access to SDN members to gain knowledge, start conversations and also put yourself out there as the next generation of service designers
-discounted events - I know the SDN currently only holds one conference a year and though they feel the discounted price is adequate it really is not within students budgets so could this be reduced further if a membership was taken? (though this could not be too expensive either)
-as I was a part of the SDN conference in Amsterdam assisting, I found this very rewarding and gained a lot of knowledge and insight - could this be an internship available?
-finally, I would expect a free copy of touchpoint as I feel the price that it is set at, at the moment is pretty ridiculous especially as the content is supplied mainly by the SDN members, they should not have to pay for their own work. If this price is due to printing, perhaps have only pdf copies?
I think this is a great project you are doing and am happy to get the opportunity to input. Good luck with it and I can't wait to see the results!
#3 What do you think?
Hello all,
I am a student from the Köln International School of Design, and one of the team members working on the transformation of the sdn website.
We really want to hear what you think about the website, so the new website can provide you with the features and tools that you want!
We are currently brainstorming potential new features, such as the 'Thesis support' for students writing a thesis with a Service Design focus. This feature would enable you to open discussions on your thesis topic, and receive advice and critique from members and professors around the world.
We also want to give students the opportunity to get their name out into the Service Design world, by offering opportunities to be published on the website! For example, we could provide a forum where you can upload your projects for critique or possible collaboration with other members.
The important thing is making the network a useful tool for students, so we want your advice!
- What are your experiences of the sdn website?
- What could we offer you to make a difference to your studies?
- Which tools and features would be most useful to you?
- What do you want to get out of the Service Design Network?
- What do you think membership should offer you?
We really want to know what you think so the new website can provide you with what you need! Please share your thoughts here!
Thank you in advance, and please remember, no suggestion is a bad one!
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