Service Design Award 2020/21 Winners & Finalists

The SDN is incredibly pleased to announce that Service Design Award 2020/21 winners and finalists have been announced!

Ten projects, which represent the global benchmark for world-class service design, have been shortlisted in the three categories of Professional Commercial, Professional Non-profit / Public Sector, and Student. Because of their exceptional work and project contributions, we are taking our industry to new levels!

On October 21, 2021, during the virtual Service Design Global Conference 2021,  Kerry Bodine - Head of Jury, took the stage to host the Service Design Award Ceremony and announce the finalists and five winners selected by our international jury of service design experts.

Select the project titles to find out more!

Service Design Award Winner - Best Non-profit/Public Sector Project

Service Design Award Winner - Best Non-profit/Public Sector Project

Immigration and Asylum Appeals by Engine

Category: Professional Non-Profit/Public Sector

Company: Engine

Client: Immigration and Asylum Reform Project | Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service

Location: UK

Summary: People migrating to the UK can apply for a ‘right to remain’ based on their socio-economic circumstances or their rights under the Refugee Convention or Human Rights Act. Each year approximately 50,000 people raise an appeal when their applications are rejected. Appellants often live on the edge of society, with poor social capital, low digital literacy and little trust in government - they struggle to promote their argument and understand how their appeal is progressing.

Service Design Award Winner - Best Commercial Project

Service Design Award Winner - Best Commercial Project

CX transformation for hearing care by Smart Design 

Category: Professional Commercial

Company: Smart Design

Client: Amplifon

Location: USA

Summary: The client has led the hearing health market for decades as a holistic provider of devices, diagnostics, and support services. With the threat from new competitors emerging from adjacent categories, and shifts in regulation and technology, the client needed to be at the forefront of innovation to ensure its future position in the category.

Service Design Award Winner - Non-profit/Public Sector Winner: Organisational Impact in the Public Sector

Service Design Award Winner - Non-profit/Public Sector Winner: Organisational Impact in the Public Sector

Transforming workers' compensation service experiences: moving from fax to future proofed services by Workplace Safety and Insurance Board

Category: Professional Non-profit/Public sector

Company: Workplace Safety and Insurance Board

Client: Inhouse project

Location: Canada

Summary: Our organization, governed by legislation and policy, is one of the largest insurance organizations in North America. We cover five million people in over 300,000 workplaces across our province. Coverage with our organization is mandatory for many businesses in our province, who may not be aware of the necessity or plethora of services we provide. Past efforts to improve our financial position, while necessary, came at the expense of good customer service. Over the years, there began to be a problematic decline in customer satisfaction.

Service Design Award Winner - Best Student Project

Service Design Award Winner - Best Student Project

Escuela sin Fronteras by Catalina Hepp

Category: Student

Student: Catalina Hepp

University: Design School of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

Location: Chile

Summary: In recent years migration has rapidly increased in Chile, leading to a great number of migrant students entering the public educational system. This has created several conflicts within schools, such as bullying, stereotyping and segregation. Most of the time, institutions and teachers lack the resources or tools to face these issues, preventing them from creating intercultural and inclusive spaces that promote learning for migrant
students.

Service Design Award Winner - Student Winner: Business Innovation in the Private Sector

Service Design Award Winner - Student Winner: Business Innovation in the Private Sector

Low Touch: The Future of Dining Out by Marie Salova

Category: Student

Student: Marie Salova

University: National College of Art & Design

Location: Ireland

Summary: This project focuses on the future of dining out. COVID19 has pushed us all towards a Low Touch Economy; doing what we used to do but with less physical contact or a low touch version of our day to day interactions.

Service Design Award Finalist

Service Design Award Finalist

Working With Children Check for Indigenous Applicants by Today

Category: Professional Non-Profit/Public Sector

Company: Today

Client: Office of the Children's Guardian

Location: Australia

Summary: We worked with an independent state government authority to deeply understand the experience for Indigenous Australians in applying for a Working with Children Check (WWCC), and how the impact from not having one plays out to great detriment.

Service Design Award Finalist

Service Design Award Finalist

Inclusive Digital Services for the Municipality by Koos Service Design

Category: Professional Non-Profit/Public Sector

Company: Koos Service Design

Client: Gemeente Amsterdam

Location: Netherlands

Summary: Little over 850.000 citizens live in this diverse, beautiful city. From Marc to Mohammed. From baby to granny. From garbage collector to PhD student. Every citizen has their context, needs, wishes and challenges. How to design online services that can be used by everyone?

Service Design Award Finalist

Service Design Award Finalist

Future of facilitation: digital blueprinting on a global scale by Xero

Category: Professional Commercial

Company: Xero

Client: Inhouse project

Location: Australia

Summary: We're a global small business, accounting and bookkeeping software-as-a-service company with 3,000+ employees committed to building beautiful experiences for our 2 .38 million subscribers, located across 20 offices in eight countries.

Service Design Award Finalist

Service Design Award Finalist

Alleviating stress and frustration during medicine switches by Koos Service Design

Category: Professional Commercial

Company: Koos Service Design

Client: BENU (pharmacy chain) and VGZ (health insurance company)

Location: Netherlands

Summary: During the spring of 2019 Dutch newspapers were filled with articles about stress in pharmacies, due to regular medicine switches for patients. These switches are caused by material and medicine shortages, poor deliverability, a change in preferential medicine of various health insurers or pharmacists, or medicine being taken off the market.

Service Design Award Finalist

Service Design Award Finalist

Design in a Crisis: Rescuing the Pay Experience for Federal Government Employees by PwC

Category: Professional Non-Profit/Public Sector

Company: PwC

Client: Shared Service Canada, Government of Canada

Location: Canada

Summary: In 2016 the Canadian federal government introduced a new pay system, called Phoenix. The system was meant to be automated and cost-effective, saving the government millions of dollars a year. Instead, what transpired is described as the most serious pay debacle in Canadian history and an “incomprehensible failure” by the Canadian auditor general. While the federal government exists in its current state of transition – waiting for a new system and unable to go back to the old one – individual departments throughout the federal government are designing their own band-aid solutions to support employees.

Service Design Award Winners and Finalists

Service Design Award Winners and Finalists
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