One issue of Touchpoint each year is dedicated to the annual Service Design Global Conference, and this time we’re proud to take a look back on the successful days we spent together in Cardiff in late 2013.

The field of customer experience made headlines when Bloomberg Businessweek published its recent article, “Proof That It Pays to Be America’s Most-Hated Companies”.

In societies saturated by hyper-consumption, the joy of acquisition — of holding a new object in your hands and knowing with satisfaction that it’s yours — is familiar.

Is service design another specialisation within the design discipline, or is it somehow reshaping design itself, transforming both what we mean by design and the role and responsibilities of designers?

It’s a wonderful time for design. Its appreciation by and relevance to consumers, organisations and society has been transformed over the last few years.

How changes in organisations mean changes for service design. Service design captures imaginations beyond the design sector because it packages a set of ideas that are well suited for change-oriented organisations.

‘We are what we eat’ is an old saying. Our current food consumption has become adapted to fit our busy lives and is promoted by a food industry that tries to maximise profit.

In a world of crowd-funding websites like Kickstarter, pop-up shops and startups that live permanently in beta, how might service designers develop their own live prototypes?

Computers and technology have become ubiquitous and are not exclusive to industry anymore. Everyday, we use digital products to manage our daily lives: from social media to the Internet of Things.

In early 2013, two new innovative services for train travellers were introduced in The Netherlands and tested in a live setting for 4 months.

Service design has matured over the past few years, to the point where it has reached the top table of organisations.

As service design becomes more mainstream, it faces questions about its promise and impact.

First, there were the bricks and mortar, then came online and, for a number of years, we’ve been surrounded by mobile service offerings. Currently, most successful businesses serve their customers across all of these channels.

Mental health issues are the most common cause of long-term sick leave in Sweden today, a fact that costs Swedish organisations more than 1,7 billion euros every year.

Exploring a new ideation method appropriate for both designers and non-designers.

MoDAL is an ongoing enquiry at the meeting point of service design thinking, Agile and Lean. It aims to promote discussion across the disciplines and share new ideas and approaches.

Looking back on the 6th Service Design Global Conference in Cardiff, we hope that the inspiration and aspiration on display continues to resonate as much with you as it has with us.

In this issue’s profile, Touchpoint editor Jesse Grimes speaks with Érico Fileno, a service design pioneer in Brazil, and learns about his work at Curitiba-based agency Welab, and his efforts to educate the next generation of design thinkers in his home country.